We all long for the opportunity to grow, demonstrate resilience, and gain wisdom from our experience. But if we want to accomplish what’s important to us, discipline and willpower won’t get us where we need to go. This week’s featured book reveals compelling insights and actions to help master and maintain our motivation.
Master Your Motivation
Motivation is at the heart of everything you do and everything you want to do but don’t. Unfortunately, the ways we typically motivate ourselves don’t work. Relying on sheer determination eventually becomes exhausting — it’s not sustainable. And even setting goals can backfire — if you’re not setting them for the right reasons.
Susan Fowler says motivation is energy, and what matters is the quality, not the quantity. Traditional “motivators” such as fear, guilt, or the promise of a reward provide low-quality, short-term energy. Drawing on the latest empirical research, she proves that high-quality, optimal motivation is a skill that you can learn and apply.
Science tells us that satisfying three basic needs — for choice, connection, and competence — is essential to optimal motivation. You need to feel like you’ve picked your path, not that you’re being driven down it. Your goal should be linked to people or a purpose meaningful to you. And you want to continually learn and grow.
Through practical exercises and eye-opening stories, Fowler shows you how to identify and shift the quality of your motivation. The skill to master your motivation is important — it may be your greatest opportunity to evolve, grow in wisdom, and be the light the world so desperately needs.
Meet the Author
Susan Fowler has shared her message on optimal motivation, self leadership, and thriving together in all 50 states and over 40 countries. In her bestselling book, Why Motivating People Doesn’t Work . . . and What Does, Susan Fowler implored leaders to stop trying to motivate people because it just doesn’t work and aggravates everyone involved. Thanks to this bestseller, translated in over a dozen foreign languages, thousands of managers worldwide have learned how to activate their staff members’ optimal motivation. Now, with her latest book, Master Your Motivation: Three Scientific Truths for Achieving Your Goals, Susan is on a mission to help individuals master their own motivation, achieve their goals, and flourish as they succeed.
Widely known as one of the foremost experts on motivation and personal empowerment, Susan gained her knowledge through extensive experience in business, advertising, sales, production, marketing, executive and life-style coaching, and leadership training with clients as diverse as AARP, Dow, Eli Lilly, Fruit of the Loom, Google, and the National Basketball Association. Susan is also coauthor of the bestselling Self Leadership and The One Minute Manager with Ken Blanchard, and the creator and lead developer of The Ken Blanchard Company’s Self Leadership, the best-in-class self-leadership and personal empowerment program.
Susan lives with her husband, Drea Zigarmi, in San Diego, where she is a senior consulting partner for The Ken Blanchard Companies, a leadership consultant and motivation coach, and a professor in the Masters of Science in Executive Leadership program at the University of San Diego. Susan is a rotating board member for Angel Faces, a non-profit organization serving adolescent girls with severe burn trauma and disfigurements.
Praise from Readers
“Truly great performers in every field have mastered their motivation. Now we finally understand the magic—and the science—behind how they’ve done it. More importantly, Master Your Motivation is the first book to teach a revolutionary idea: motivation is a skill you can use to achieve your goals—and sustain high performance.” — John Calipari, Hall of Fame Basketball Coach, University of Kentucky
“I have no doubt that the powerful ideas in Master Your Motivation will change your perspective about motivation. But what I love about this book is how Susan’s storytelling brings the skill of motivation to life with relevant examples you can begin using today.” — Tracie Lorber, Director of People and Culture, Peet’s Coffee
“Master Your Motivation teaches you how creating choice, connection, and competence leads to the optimal motivation you need not only to be more productive but also to lead a happier and more peaceful life.” — Brian Tracy, bestselling author of Eat That Frog!
“Master Your Motivation is a wake-up call about the nature of motivation. The techniques Susan offers in this groundbreaking book work—I have personally seen people’s motivation transformed, allowing them to be more productive and personally fulfilled in their endeavors. She blazes a trail that leads to a new understanding of motivation that everyone can follow, myself included.” — Tom Hood, Deputy Director, Field Sales Leadership Development, Bayer
Learn More
- Visit Amazon to buy a copy of the book, or leave a short review of it.
- Check out the website for a free chapter and ways to support the book.
- Watch the recent webinar to learn scientific truths for achieving your goals.
Elizabeth Johnson loves the color yellow, strong {black} coffee, editing, and exploring the mountains in rural Wyoming and Utah, where she and her husband serve as church planters. In her free time, she enjoys learning new things, hand-lettering and acrylic painting, and gaming with her husband.