Photo by srboisvert.

So, you’ve got a good idea; a creative solution for a brief. Or you’ve just won a pitch. Fabulous. Now you’ve got to build the thing. If you can do that with the effortless lubrication of motivation from start to finish you’re lucky (and a bit unusual). If, like most of us, you find there are parts of the process where drive is a struggle, read on …

Take a look at these five key motivations for the creative process and work out where the force is strong with you. Tailoring your work to suit your strengths and compensate for your weaknesses can mean jobs become rewarding activities rather than laborious headaches.

Most people are strongly motivated by only one or two of the following. It might help to imagine recent projects from your own work. Think of examples where you were involved in the job from start to finish and see if you can spot any patterns.

1) Competition. Being the best or unique. What gets you up in the morning is the idea of producing something better than anyone else is producing. You like standing out from the crowd or coming first in the pack. The best thing in the world for you would be first prize or recognition for being a pioneer. On the downside, you might get into difficulty or lose your motivation if you feel that you’re nowhere near the top of the pile.

2) Process. Building something step by step. You love being there behind the drawing board, notepad or wherever the working surface of your job takes you. Just doing what you do and practicing your skill is your motivation. You are keen to find ways to improve your craft. The best thing for you would be uninterrupted time to give your full attention to perfecting the project. On the downside, it could be that you love the making part so much you loose track of deadlines or get frustrated trying to achieve perfection

3) Product. Seeing the finished article. Even before you’ve started you can imagine the task completed. Pictures on a wall, pots on a shelf, an album being played. The rest, making the thing, comes second. Getting to a clear and defined end for a project is the best thing for you and the minutia of the building process might frustrate you; finish quality might suffer.

4) Effect. The audience’s appreciation of the product. What gets you out of bed and helps overcome those moments of low motivation is the idea that people will love and appreciate what you’ve made and that, somehow, you will get to hear some of that feedback. The best thing in the world for you would be for your fantasies of appreciation to come true. ‘They love it’ means ‘They love me’. However, you may be over-sensitive to negative feedback or no feedback at all.

5) Oversight. Controlling the whole process or team. You can see all of the stages needed to bring an idea to production. Your motivation is to oversee all of the work and ensure that it all joins up. This tends to only apply to groups working together. Ideally, you are clear about your own shortcomings but are good at recognizing specialists in Process and Product and getting them to do what you want, or by spotting those motivated by Competition or Effect and adapting your interaction accordingly.

You’re at your best when your role is clearly defined and recognized but it can be really frustrating to be stuck lower down the pecking order and unable to exercise your gifts.

Build on your strengths

Can you see how you can begin to restructure or craft your job to suit your particular strengths? Pick positions or tasks that naturally suit your motivation. Make the most of the stages of the job that you know you’ll really enjoy.

• If Competition is your motivation, don’t be shy about it. That is the way you are wired up. Enter competitive bids and look for ways to improve your skill level but beware of disappointments if you don’t win.
• If you are a Process person find jobs that give you enough time to use your skills. Don’t keep checking email and consider working the early shift free from distraction. Beware of tight deadlines that leave you thinking you could have done much better.
• If Product is your primary motivation make sure you are involved in structuring the initial brief and finishing the job at the end. Be careful not to get stuck too early with a finished idea when it may need changing or ditching as you progress.
• If you like the Effect of the work then make sure you are involved with the client or audience. Put up a pin-board of favorable comments and reviews. Of course, you must be careful not to take negative criticism too personally.
• And if Oversight is your motivation then you need to find project management positions and to recognize the motivations of those you are leading. If you can’t find this in your working life then look for it in social or volunteering positions.

Work on your weaknesses

Recognize the stages of the process that you’re not strong in and plan around them accordingly. You might be able to avoid that stage altogether. If, for example, you are strong in Product and Effect motivation but weak at Process, you may be in a hurry to finish a job at the expense of quality. Simply knowing that could encourage you to take more care or you could work with someone else to check your work through the process stage.

Another strategy is to save your most focused and energized working time (early mornings or Mondays for example) for the stages of the process you are less motivated by – and to set small, clearly measurable targets for that working time.

If you are applying this model to your commercial work then there will always be the factor of extrinsic motivations to consider. Sometimes it can feel that we do jobs purely for the extrinsic motivations and take no intrinsic benefits at all. If you want to weave in some intrinsic motivations like those above you can always do so by reframing your attitude and spotting opportunities to enhance the aspects of the process that you are personally great at. We all have some opportunity to find moments during the day that suit our motivation – even if it is just making coffee.

Bruce Stanley ran away from the Circus to become a creativity and happiness coach. He specializes in finding ways to make work easier and loves providing “Aha!” moments through his resources.