By guest writer Jackson McMahan
Your best life is a life that enables you to leverage your strengths as much as possible and minimize constantly bumping up against things that are challenging for you. The process of getting from where you are today to this new best life requires that you set goals and achieve them to make the necessary changes. This sounds simple, but for autistic individuals, even when the change is something they want, they can still struggle terribly with motivation.
The relationship between autism and motivation is a complicated affair. For many autistic individuals, finding the motivation to do something can be more challenging than it is for neurotypical people, even when it’s in sync with their goals.
The motivation to complete a task required to achieve a goal will uniquely intersect with an autistic individual’s interests and autistic traits. If their interests, executive functioning skills, and energy level are in alignment with the task, they can easily achieve their goals. At other times, the motivation isn’t there and the autistic individual is unable to find success, much to their dismay and confusion among the more neurotypical people around them.
This blog post will explore why many autistic individuals sometimes struggle to find the motivation they need to achieve their goals. I will also cover the intersectionality between autism and motivation, what challenges can cause a lack of motivation, and how autistic individuals can overcome those challenges.
Motivation is needed to achieve goals that improve the quality of life, and this blog post can help autistic individuals create their best life, even if they struggle with motivation.
Understanding Autism and Motivation
Autism affects each individual in different ways, including what they find motivating and how they set and achieve goals. Every individual is unique, but here are some common ways autism and motivation intersect.
Intrinsic Motivation
Intrinsic motivation comes from people doing something out of personal enjoyment or purpose. For autistic individuals, their intrinsic motivation is often tied to their specific interests and passions, which are usually more intense than more neurotypical people.
Extrinsic Motivation
Where intrinsic motivation can involve an autistic individual’s special interests, extrinsic motivation comes from outside sources. These sources can include not wanting to disappoint someone or wanting a reward. A desired reward can be internal, like feeling great about the accomplishment, or external, such as being recognized at work. In situations where the intrinsic motivation may not be strong for an autistic individual, an extrinsic motivator can fill in the gap.
Executive Functioning
Executive function also plays an important role in setting and achieving goals. Executive functioning includes skills like planning, organizing, and prioritizing tasks, which are areas some autistic people struggle with. Challenges with executive functioning can make the process of breaking down a goal into manageable steps more complex, affecting one’s motivation to pursue it.
Challenges Related to Autism and a Lack of Motivation
Now that we know how autism and motivation intersect, we can look at where there may be challenges. Having autism doesn’t mean the person is always unmotivated. Having autism and a lack of motivation only happens when the motivators don’t sync with the individual's autistic traits.
Tasks Not Aligning with Interests
Autistic individuals have brains that are very interest-driven. Many can hyperfocus for hours on things that interest them, but the flip side of this coin is that if something is not of interest, they may struggle to focus on it. Goals and tasks that align with an autistic person's interests can be easier for them to begin than goals that don’t. When a goal doesn’t relate to their interests, that’s when a lack of motivation can crop up. The goal in question doesn’t excite the individual as much so they are unmotivated to do it. They may also not have an extrinsic motivator that’s strong enough to make up for the lack of an intrinsic one.
Executive Functioning Challenges
Executive functioning skills can include planning and beginning tasks. When an autistic individual struggles with those skills, they can become unmotivated. They are unable to plan what goals they want to accomplish or follow through with them. In this case, feeling unmotivated ends up being one of many problems autistic individuals must deal with if they have executive functioning challenges.
For example, if the person struggles to create a plan for achieving the goal or struggles with just figuring out what the next best step is, it’s going to be near impossible to get started on their goal.
Burnout
One unfortunate truth about having autism is that the person uses a lot of energy on things that more neurotypical people do not. Throughout the day, they may spend much of their energy masking their autistic traits or working on tasks that exhaust them. This loss of energy can result in burnout, which makes feeling motivated impossible.
When someone, especially an autistic person, is low on energy, they lose their motivation to do anything that exceeds the energy available. From the outside many people think this looks like laziness, but it’s literally a result of the person not having enough energy to complete the tasks they need to complete.
The Next Best Step is Too Large
Sometimes, the scope of a task can be so large an autistic individual may not want to do it because they don’t know where to begin. They put it off because it’s too overwhelming or requires too much energy even when it seems to more neurotypical people that it’s not a big deal. Regardless of the reasoning, this can limit what tasks or goals an autistic individual would motivate themselves to do.
Signs of Other Issues
Sometimes a lack of motivation suggests an autistic individual is experiencing an issue like social fatigue. At other times, the lack of motivation can cause an issue such as autistic inertia or autistic burnout. The autistic person may be trying to operate in a sensorily toxic environment that to more neurotypical people feels perfectly comfortable, but it’s overloading the autistic individual’s brain.
If they have the pathological demand avoidance profile, also known as a persistent demand for autonomy, they may need to feel in control of their life and their choices before they can experience motivation. They need to feel self-determined.
In this context, the connections between autism and motivation are more than how autistic traits interact with motivational ones. A lack of motivation can be an important clue that there is something else that needs to be addressed before they can activate intrinsic motivation.
Motivation to Achieve Goals
When an autistic individual wants to motivate themself to achieve goals, this can involve factors like understanding what motivates them or finding goal-setting methods that fit their needs. It’s about finding the right framework to make sure they're consistently motivated. Here are some strategies for how autistic people can motivate themselves to achieve their goals.
Align Goals with Personal Interests
These interests can range from a hobby like video games to a school subject like math. When engaging with these interests, an autistic individual often hyperfocuses on them. This cognitive investment can result in a flow state that further maintains their engagement and motivation.
It is also important that the autistic person's goals resonate with their core values and beliefs. Goals that align with what they deeply care about are more likely to keep them motivated than ones that don’t. If a goal seems to conflict with their values or doesn't engage their interests, then they might decide it is worth reconsidering or reframing it in some way.
Figure Out Extrinsic Motivators
Sometimes, we all have to work on tasks that don’t appeal to our interests. In those cases, an extrinsic motivator can become a key source of motivation. Figuring out which extrinsic motivators work best and applying them to situations that call for them can help with progress toward goals. Maybe the autistic individual decides they will tell someone they are going to do a specific task so someone else knows their goal; this can help them feel accountable to the other person. Maybe it’s a reward they give themself for special situations.
Break Goals into Manageable Steps
Large goals can be overwhelming, so an autistic individual can counteract them by breaking the goals down into smaller, more manageable tasks. This step-by-step approach can make goals seem less daunting and more attainable. Breaking down goals into smaller, more manageable steps also provides the satisfaction of completing tasks more regularly and feeling a sense of progress, which can further boost motivation.
If this sort of task analysis is a struggle, using a tool like Goblin.tools can help the autistic person figure out what the steps are. If they can’t figure out what the next best step is, Goblin.tools will even break that step down further and further until the next step feels like something they can easily do. Once they have that first step done, it’s often quite easy to keep going.
Incorporate Visual Planning
Many autistic individuals are visual thinkers, so it can be helpful to incorporate visual elements into goal planning. Using diagrams, charts, or vision boards allows them to clearly outline their goals and the sequential steps required to achieve them. This method not only makes the process more tangible but can also help them organize and track their progress.
Use SMART Goal Setting
The SMART approach to goal setting involves creating objectives that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Many people find the SMART criteria helpful for goal setting, however, it's important to adapt this framework to fit the specific needs of the autistic person. For example, if rigid deadlines stress them out, then they can consider redefining the "Time-bound" aspect to be more flexible. Doing so allows them to adjust the framework based on their current situation or capabilities.
If they are having trouble figuring out a framework that will help them, they may consider reaching out to Thrive Autism Coaching and working one-on-one with a coach who can help them break their goals down into manageable steps and help keep them accountable. Click here to schedule a complimentary consultation to discuss the situation and determine if one of our coaches is a good fit.
Final Thoughts About Autism and Motivation
To summarize, the relationship between autism and motivation is about how an autistic individual’s traits interact with the ability to motivate themself in ways that are different from a more neurotypical person’s experience of motivation.
A lack of motivation can indicate there are invisible stumbling blocks at play like executive functioning challenges or burnout that are interfering with an autistic individual’s ability to motivate themself. Where that is the case, the stumbling blocks need to be addressed first before intrinsic motivation can bloom.
Once that happens, ideally, the autistic individual can find the right combination of intrinsic and extrinsic motivators to achieve their goals, perhaps with a little outside support. This may be a highly iterative process, but it’s important to figure out what motivators work for each individual and how to adapt them to their individual needs.
Figuring out a good framework for working toward goals, like the SMART goal system, and aligning them with the individual’s interests as much as possible can be helpful. Then they can then break the larger goals into smaller ones or incorporate visual planning if they are a visual thinker. It might take a little experimentation, and if they are really struggling with this, they may consider working with one of our coaches, at least temporarily, who can help them create an achievable plan.