Free Self-Assessment
What's Running Your Motivation?
A short IFS-informed reflection tool for noticing which of your psychological needs your protective system may be guarding, and what that protection looks like.
When caring isn't enough
Low motivation is often protection
You can care a great deal about something and still find the energy drains out the moment you reach for it. Most advice treats that as a strategy problem: find the right system and the motivation will follow. Another reading is that a protective part of you is stepping in, holding back, pushing hard or shutting down, to prevent a deeper exposure.
This self-assessment draws on Self-Determination Theory, which describes three core psychological needs behind sustained motivation (autonomy, competence and relatedness), and on Internal Family Systems, which asks what the stuckness might be protecting. It is a way of noticing, not a way of scoring.
Inside the PDF
What you'll find inside
- Three short sections, one for each core need: autonomy and competence, relatedness, and the protective layer underneath
- Nine prompts: rating scales, a tick list and open questions to write on at your own pace
- Three response profiles: the protector who holds the brakes, the part driven by pressure rather than desire, and the system that runs hot, then collapses
- A curiosity question for each profile, to take into your own reflection
- A closing page on what to do with whatever surfaced
- No scoring and no totals: identification by recognition only
For the thinking behind it, read IFS for Motivation and Feeling Stuck: What Your System Is Protecting You From.
Who it's for
Who this is for
This is for anyone who cares about something and keeps stalling on it: the project that never quite gets finished, the effort that feels hollow, the energy that arrives in waves and then crashes. It may suit people who have tried the systems, the habits and the accountability partners, and are still wondering what is in the way.
It is not a screening tool, and it cannot tell you whether you are depressed. If low motivation comes with persistent low mood or significant distress, please speak with a therapist or your GP.
Why this lens helps
Why IFS makes this different
Most motivation tools ask what to do differently. IFS asks what the part that holds back believes would happen if you fully committed. That belief usually has a history, and it tends to ease when it is met with curiosity rather than pressure.
That question is usually easier to ask once you have seen your own pattern written down.