8 CAREER EXERCISES

Clarify what motivates you in your work. Define your top three motivators and the one next action to boost your motivation MOST.

This is a novel motivation model based on 82 years of motivation science, which has been presented at numerous occasions (i.e. UAntwerpen, VUB, SuperNova…).

Get a sneak peak with the button ‘TRY (FREE)’.

Sources

8 P’s of Work: designed by Otcho, inspired by the work of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs: Maslow, A. H. (1943). A Theory of Human Motivation. Psychological Review, 50(4), 370-396. ; Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory: Herzberg, F., Mausner, B., & Snyderman, B. B. (1959). The Motivation to Work. Wiley. ; McClelland's Theory of Needs: McClelland, D. C. (1961). The Achieving Society. Free Press. ; Deci & Ryan's Self-Determination Theory: Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (1985). Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Determination in Human Behavior. Plenum Press. ; Reiss's 16 Basic Desires Theory: Reiss, S. (2004). Multifaceted Nature of Intrinsic Motivation: The Theory of 16 Basic Desires. Review of General Psychology, 8(3), 179–193. ; Pink's Work on Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose: Pink, D. H. (2009). Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. Riverhead Books. ; Appelo's Moving Motivators (CHAMPFROG): Appelo, J. (2010). Management 3.0: Leading Agile Developers, Developing Agile Leaders. Addison-Wesley Professional.

Dive deeper into the root reason for your top three P's of Work (motivators). Get clarity on why they are your non-negotiable motivation drivers.

Then use these answers to uncover limiting beliefs. They may be holding you back from peak performance.

Sources

5WHY: from the Toyota Production System (TPS), found thanks to Tim Ferris’ newsletter: ‘5-bullet Friday’ and inspired by the work of Viktor Frankl in ‘Man’s search for Meaning’ (idea).

Limiting beliefs: designed by Otcho based on client experience (2021-2023).

Define your definitions of success.

Review your existing definitions and learn how to create definitions that are true to you based on patterns in energy givers and takers.

Sources

Success definitions: designed by Otcho, inspired by the work of Jay Shetty in ‘Think like a Monk’ (structure), Mark Manson in ‘The subtle Art of not giving a F*ck’ (idea), Hector Garcia & Francesc Miralles in ‘Ikigai’ (idea), Morgan Housel in ‘The Psychology of Money’ (idea) and Eric Jorgenson in ‘The Almanack of Naval Ravikant’ (idea)

Energy tracking: designed by Otcho, inspired by the work of James Clear in ‘Atomic Habits’ (scientific basis), Charles Duhigg in ‘The Power of Habit’ (scientific basis), Matthew Walker in ‘Why We Sleep’ (scientific basis), and Jay Shetty in ‘Think like a Monk’ (idea).

Collect data about your MBTI strengths and weaknesses.

Decide which tasks to go all-in on (your strengths) and which tasks you could delegate (your weaknesses).

Sources

Personality testing: designed by Otcho, inspired by the work of 16personalities.com (access to ‘MBTI: Myers-Briggs Type Indicator’), Eben Harrell in his Harvard Business Review article ‘A Brief History of Personality Tests’ (scientific basis), James Clear in ‘Atomic Habits’ (scientific basis), Daniel Kahneman in ‘Noise’ (scientific basis), and Eric Jorgenson in ‘The Almanack of Naval Ravikant’ (compounding).

Other personality tests that may be of interest: Insights Discovery, DISC, Clifton strengthsfinder, Big Five.

(Re-)vive (old) interests by strolling around a bookstore. Identify new (or recall old) interests and see how you could (re-)integrate them in your work or daily life.

Sources

Bookstore: often recommended exercise in personal development sphere, found thanks to Cal Newport’s ‘Study Hack Blog’ (idea).

Invoke the opposite question of the ‘dream’ job:

“What are you willing to suffer for?”

Learn how to choose when you go through periods of indecision by analyzing your answers from EX 1-5 in a ‘Dream grid’ and a ‘Reality grid’.

Sources

Sync & Suffer: designed by Otcho, inspired by the work of Mark Manson in ‘The subtle Art of not giving a F*ck’ (idea), and ‘thematic analysis’ as a form of qualitative data analysis (technique).

Define your values in the workplace.

Understand which action to take when outcomes are unclear. Applicable for both personal and professional contexts.

Sources

Personal values: designed by Otcho, inspired by the work of James Clear in his blog ‘Core Values List’ (examples of values), Mikayla Balk in her blog ‘30 personal values examples & how to live by yours’ (examples of values), Lyn Christian in her blog ‘Defining Your List of Values and Beliefs (With 102 Examples)’ (examples of values), Scott Jeffrey in his blog ‘The Ultimate List of Core Values (Over 230)’ (examples of values), and Mark Manson in ‘The subtle Art of not giving a F*ck’ (value criteria).

We forget up to 70% of what we learn within the first 24 hours (source: Ebbinghaus forgetting curve).

Use the technique of visualization to summarize your insights from EX 1-7.

Sources

Visual reminder board: often recommended exercise in personal development sphere, additional design by Otcho inspired by the work of Krista J. Munroe-Chandler & Michelle D. Guerrero in ‘Psychological Imagery in Sport and Performance’ (scientific basis), Vinoth K. Ranganathan & Vlodek Siemionow & Jing Z. Liu & Vinod Sahgal & Guang H. Yue in ‘From mental power to muscle power—gaining strength by using the mind’ (scientific basis), Ebbinghaus with his ‘Ebbinghaus forgetting curve’ (scientific basis), Super Bowl Bet in the movie ‘Focus’ (technique), Steve Wexler & Jeffrey Shaffer & Andy Cotgreave in ‘The Big Book of Dashboards’ (technique), Lidija Globokar in her Forbes article ‘The Power Of Visualization And How To Use It’ (technique), and Marcus Buckingham in his Harvard Business Review article ‘Designing Work That People Love’ (idea implementation).

Bonus exercise to find 'Ikigai' based on Jade Bonacolta’s work (#1 female creator on LinkedIn & Marketing lead at Google).

Sources

Published by Jade Bonacolta, inspired by the work of Hector Garcia & Francesc Miralles in ‘Ikigai’.