People. : Cycle of Success, Part 2

Recap: In Part 1 of this series, I shared with you the importance of values and intrinsic motivation in the cycle. Values form our intrinsic motivators, which are the internal motivations calling us to actions without an external benefit in sight.

When we are intrinsically motivated, we are often called to action. The actions we are called to are dependent on our values, which is why our intrinsic motivations are formed by our values. The importance of being called to action is that when we are called to action, and act in response, we create opportunities for ourselves to connect with others.

What are you passionate about? If you aren't sure, that's okay - What is something you enjoy doing? The first thing that comes to mind for me is teamwork. I am passionate about being on and leading interconnected, high performing teams. What came to mind for you is likely different, but once you identify it, try tracing it back to your IMs (Intrinsic Motivations). There is a good chance you will succeed in finding most, if not all of your IMs playing a role in that passion/enjoyment. For me, my IMs all find high involvement in teamwork. Being on a team is a great way to reach and connect with people to serve the Kingdom because it creates an area of influence on multiple people. While performing on teams, it helps me grow in the areas that I strive growth, and makes me a better teammate and team member which is essentially what my family will be someday; a team. (Underlined are each of my IMs from Part 1, Serving the Kingdom, Influencing others, Self-growth, Future family.) Taking action to be active in teamwork puts me around people who are likely also passionate about teamwork. Through that, those people will tend to share similar IMs, and in reference to Part 1, similar values.

Since teamwork is an obvious example of a passion that brings people into relationship, here is another example that might be difficult to see where people come about:

Let's say you said hiking was your passion. Your IMs might be influenced by values of curiosity, fitness, challenge, etc. While you might not be constantly around others when hiking, you can still meet people. If you pass the same person every day on your favorite trail, say hi! If you never see anyone on your trail, find online groups of trail runners/hikers and get connected. Your passion might not be an area where people exist, but if you want to reach more EM (Extrinsic Motivation), you'll have to be even more intentional to get connected.

Connecting with people who have similar passions often means similar IMs and similar values. When we connect with people who are similar, they help keep us aligned/centered with who we are. To be clear, this does not mean you shouldn't connect with people who are different. People similar to us help keep us aligned with who we are; people who are different from us provide other perspectives that help us see the whole picture.

Our IMs push us to actions by which we reach people, and by reaching people we create opportunity for transactions of extrinsic motivation.