Get Motivated! was an eye-opening read for me.

Tamara Lowe is the founder of the Get Motivated! Business Seminars. She, and her husband, Peter, take their team to dozens of cities across the country every year. They spend a day, along with several others known for their motivational and leadership skill, teaching and boosting the motivational levels of thousands of people.

I had the privilege of attending a Get Motivated! Seminar in Springfield, Missouri, in October of 2009. It was at that seminar that I received a copy of Tamara’s book, Get Motivated! It took me a few weeks to get to a point where I could read it, but once I started, I had a hard time putting it down.

I have to admit up front that I’m not sure I agree with everything she wrote, much of which will reveal itself in the following reviews. However, there are massive amounts of information in this book, and I learned much from it; even from the portions that I didn’t necessarily agree with or didn’t like.

There is a lot from this book that I’d like to process as I write about it. As a result, I will make several posts about this book over the next few days.

The New Science Of Success

Tamara Lowe’s first section of the book is entitled “The New Science Of Success.” In this section, she outlines her goals for the rest of the book, and sets up the reader to gain as much from her writing as possible.

We are all designed to be the best we can be. God has created each of us with specific gifts and talents that enable us to accomplish our purpose in life. In order to achieve that success, we need to motivate ourselves, or get motivated by someone or something outside of ourselves.

According to Tamara,

“The more motivated a person is, the more success he or she experiences. Motivated people advance farther and faster in their careers, earn more money, are more productive, experience more satisfying relationships, and are happier than the less motivated people around them. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say that motivation is one of the greatest keys to success in every area of our lives.”

That’s a pretty compelling statement. I wanted to continue reading, if for no more reason than to see if she could justify that idea in itself.

Tamara’s first chapter deals with the four laws of motivation. Let’s just list them out, and then talk about them.

Law #1 – Everyone is motivated differently.
Law #2 – Each individual has a unique and distinct
      motivational type.
Law #3 – What motivates one person can de-motivate another.
Law #4 – No one motivational type is “better” than any other.

Law # 1 – Everyone is motivated differently.
Each of us have our own unique styles and personalities. What motivates me to accomplish something may be different from every other person around me.

As I read this, I couldn’t help but think of my children. Of our four kids, three of them have very distinct personalities. And our youngest, at just over a year old, shows every indication of differing from the others just as drastically.

As I thought about my kids, I realized that each one of them is motivated differently. What sparks an interest in one of my kids may seem dull to another. The ways my son is challenged to do something is a foreign concept to my daughters.

For example, my son, Titus, loves a challenge. When it’s time to do his chores, he thrives at it if we tell him we are going to time him to see if he can beat the clock. That fires him up to fold his laundry. Now if I could just get him to fold mine…

But while Titus is challenged by a goal of beating his best time, our daughter Hannah could care less about how long it might take her. She prefers to take her time and make sure everything is folded right and stacked neatly and precisely, and is in exactly the right place.

Everyone is motivated differently.

Law #2 – Each individual has a unique and distinct motivational type.
Tamara suggests that each one of us has a unique achievement pattern, what she calls Motivational DNA.

Just as your genetic DNA determines your height, eye color, and other physical attributes, Motivational DNA dictates how you are best motivated. This DNA is made up of three areas: your Drives, your Needs, and your Awards.

Within each of these three main categories are two different divisions. Your combination of these six areas, your motivational Drives, Needs, and Awards combine to form a unique profile: your Motivational DNA.

If the quality of your life is determined in a large part by your motivation, then it stands to reason that you will succeed or fail in your life goals, relationships, career, finances and other areas all based upon your Motivational DNA.

So, in order to be successful in any or all areas of my life, I need to identify what motivates me the most, and learn to recognize that pattern. Plus, if I learn to recognize the motivational patterns in others, it will enable me to help them become more successful as well.

Law #3 – What motivates one person can de-motivate another.
This idea simply expands upon the idea presented in Law #1. If we are all motivated differently, then it makes sense that what works for one person might not work for another.

If I tried to challenge Hannah to fold her laundry with a timed challenge, her response would be to totally ignore the clock. And if I pushed her toward that type of motivation, she would simply not fold her laundry at all. She would quickly become de-motivated by what excites her brother.

Law #4 – No one motivational type is “better” than any other.
It is a testimony to the grandness of God’s design that he created us all differently. But just because you are not like me, in gifts, talents, personality, or Motivational DNA, that does not imply that one of us is better than the other. We are simply different.

Motivational DNA Defined
So how do you determine what motivates you, or others? Tamara has researched and studied over 10,000 people. And these people have revealed that we each are motivated by six main principles.

“Motivational DNA is made up of Drives, Needs, and Awards.

The Drives for connection and/or production are the internal forces that mobilize a person to act.

The Needs for stability and/or variety are core requirements that a person must have in order to feel fulfilled.

Internal and/or external Awards are the types of compensation or remuneration a person desires to reward achievement and encourage performance.”

You and I, and everyone else on this planet, are motivated by a combination of these six traits. In fact, we are each strongly motivated by one of each pair. We each have a definite preference for three of these motivators.

So how do you determine just what your Motivational DNA is? Tamara has developed three probing questions that will get you started down the right track. Here they are in her terms:

1. Do you tend to be more competitive or cooperative?
Competitive people have what I call a Production Drive. They are inclined to be task-oriented. Cooperative people, on the other hand, have what I term a Connection Drive – in other words, they tend to be people-oriented or people-centric.

2. Do you prefer constancy or change?
People who prefer constancy have what I refer to as a Stability Need – a desire for consistency, order, and routine. In contrast, people who prefer change have what I call a Variety Need. They are stimulated by new experiences and energized by change.

3. Which would make you feel more valued at work: sincere appreciation without a financial bonus, or a bonus without appreciation?
If you’d rather have appreciation, you possess what I call an Internal Award system – one characterized by private recognition and contribution. If you’d rather have the monetary bonus, you have what I call an External Award system – one characterized by public recognition and opportunity for advancement.

In my next post, I will dig a little deeper into each of these six characteristics of Motivational DNA. I’ll do so for two reasons: first, to deepen my understanding of each of them by articulating each of them in my own words; and second, to share them, as well as my thoughts, with you, the reader.

Having answered these questions about myself, and after having done the hard work of figuring out what my Motivational DNA might be, I found a convenient tool. At the end of each chapter, Tamara Lowe gives away bonus gifts. The gift found at the end of the first chapter of Get Motivated! is access to an assessment tool that helps you determine your Motivational DNA. After about twenty minutes of answering a few questions, your results are tallied and your Motivational DNA is identified. You can find this tool at Tamara’s website, www.getmotivatedbook.com.

My initial discovery showed that my Motivational DNA is a CSI. I have the Drive of a Connector, with a Need for Stability, who prefers Internal Awards. After using Tamara’s assessment tool, I found that my initial discovery was right on target. I was confirmed to be a CSI.

However, after reading the next few chapters, which describe each of these six traits in more detail, I was surprised to see that all six of them described me quite accurately. I reflect different traits when facing different circumstances; and sometimes I reflect different traits for seemingly no reason at all. I was confused…

But regardless of my lack of clarity, I began to see some of these traits displayed in the lives of the people around me: my wife, my children, my friends, and my co-workers. And as I began to understand what motivates them, I can tailor my communication and interaction with them to reflect their traits, and in doing so, move those relationships to a deeper level.

In my next post, I will dig a little deeper into the specifics of each of the six different character traits. But until then, I challenge you to purchase a copy of Get Motivated! Read it. And then take the assessment found at www.getmotivatedbook.com.

So, what is your Motivational DNA? Please share…