Daily Creative with Todd Henry

Unleashing The Power Of Motivation


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My new book releases October 6th. Below, learn how to get the full MCODE assessment when you pre-order the book.

There are things we experience our entire life, but never really have words to describe. For example, there are probably certain easy tasks that you simply can’t seem to get motivated to do, but others – that are much more difficult and less attractive – you are willing to tackle at a moment’s notice. Similarly, there are probably certain people in your life or on your team that you simply can’t seem to get along with, while other relationships just “click”.

I’ve come to learn that many of these unseen, yet routinely experienced dynamics are due to how you and everyone around you are uniquely motivated. About four years ago, my friend Rod asked me to take a motivation assessment he’d been working on. I was not excited. I’ve seen plenty of assessments, and frankly, most of them were not very useful to me. However, Rod promised me this would be different. And, in short, he was right. I was blown away.

The assessment that Rod and an entire ream of researchers had developed was founded upon over 50 years of research and over a million achievement stories. They had discovered that there are twenty-seven unique themes of motivation, and that depending on a person’s top handful of themes, certain work or relationships might bring them to life or make them wish they were dead. It was through this assessment that I discovered that my top motivaitonal themes are:


  1. Make An Impact
  2. Meet The Challenge
  3. Influence Behavior

So, when I can’t see the impact of my work, or when I don’t have a discrete and pressing challenge to tackle, or when I can’t see the direct influence of my work on the thoughts and behavior of others, I disengage. However, when these three things are present, I completely come alive and do some of my best work.


Because of this knowledge, I’ve been able to resolve recurring conflict in relationships, re-structure some of my tasks so they are more engaging, and change the way I think about outcomes so that they are more aligned with what naturally drives me. In short, it’s been life-changing.

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Daily Creative with Todd HenryBy Todd Henry

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