Motivation and well-being: exploring the relationships

Hermundur Sigmundsson, Håvard Lorås

Drawing on positive psychology and motivation science, this study examined whether grit, growth mindset, and passion represent interrelated motivational traits associated with holistic well-being, conceptualized through flow proneness, flourishing, and meaning in life. A cross-sectional online survey was completed by a Norwegian convenience sample of 585 participants, including 222 males (37.9%) and 363 females (62.1%; mean age = 33.2 years, SD = 15.2). The study explored whether motivational traits clustered together, whether well-being indicators formed a coherent latent factor, and whether personal motivation was associated with holistic well-being. Correlational analyses showed moderate-to-strong positive associations among grit, growth mindset, and passion, and among flow proneness, flourishing, and meaning in life. Regression analyses indicated that grit and passion were consistently associated with well-being outcomes, whereas growth mindset contributed uniquely to flourishing. Structural equation modeling supported a significant association between the latent personal motivation factor and latent holistic well-being factor, β = .65, SE = .04, p < .001, with acceptable model fit, χ 2 (7) = 39.43, p < .001, CFI = .974, TLI = .945, RMSEA = .089, 90% CI [.063,.117], and SRMR = .032. These findings suggest that perseverance, passion, and adaptive beliefs may represent related but distinct motivational resources associated with engaged, meaningful, and flourishing lives. However, because the study used a cross-sectional convenience sample that was predominantly female and Norwegian, the findings should be interpreted as associational and generalizability across populations needs to be further examined. The results suggest that efforts to support well-being may benefit from considering multiple motivational traits, and that longitudinal and experimental research are warranted to examine potential causal pathways.