“We are living in VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous) world, especially during this pandemic and even post-pandemic period. During these times, we may need to take a step back and reflect on where we are and where we want to go. Self-improvement books provide a way to systematically guide us through this process—and there are lots of such books.

What makes Turbo Motivation stand out from the crowd is that the “know-hows” are evidence-based. Dr Rajaram and Dr Tan have distilled the essence from state-of-the-art research on psychology of motivation and from their corporate and consulting experiences to offer excellent advice on how we can achieve our goals and aspirations. More importantly, the authors offer clear, simple steps so that we can move from knowledge to actions to reach these targets. Right off the bat, the book includes a personal audit for us to discover what drives us intrinsically and extrinsically and what demotivates us. Following that Dr Rajaram and Dr Tan suggest guidelines on harnessing these motivators and overcoming the demotivators. I also totally enjoyed the stories that they tell throughout the book, making going through the steps to motivate oneself a fun process.

I highly recommend Turbo Motivation to those who aspire to propel themselves to attain their goals, be resilient, live a meaningful life, and develop good relationships (and especially avoid toxic ones). This book is also highly recommended for managers and leaders who want to propel those around them to achieve similar ends.”

— Professor Foo Maw Der, PhD (MIT)
Nanyang Business School, Nanyang Technological University
Director, Asian Business Case Centre
Director-designate, Nanyang Technopreneurship Centre

" If you struggle to build motivation because of a lack of inspiration or are not sure where to start, this is the book for you. In this book, the authors use their personal experiences paired with extensive literature research to provide readers with actionable tools that serves as a jump start for people who are trying to sustain motivation, seek inspiration or to simply get back on track with the book’s essence, “Get started and keep going” which revolves around the paramount importance of building a constant stream of motivation in one’s daily life where the levels of motivation that you have can make the difference between reaching your goals or falling short.

After reading this book, you will better understand the science between motivational theories and how motivation works alongst with a clearer self-awareness of what truly motivates you with the help of the various personalized actionable activities. All in all, to have a better understanding of which motivational strategies are better suited for you and how to effectively overcome obstacles and demotivating factors to sustain motivational levels over the long run."

— Lee Jeryl
Undergraduate, Business

“Do you find it easy to start working when something needs to be done? Are you clear about the goals you want to achieve in the short-to-medium term future? We are challenged to ponder these and other questions in Dr Kumaran Rajaram and Dr Eugene Tan’s Engineering Your Psychological Well-Being: Turbo Motivation.

This superb book takes readers on a personal journey to discover the optimal balance of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations needed to fulfil their aspirations. Each chapter distils the latest research from motivational psychology into an action plan for personal growth. The regimen begins with a Personal Motivation Audit, in which the reader gauges their own motivation baseline and identifies their major motivators. From there, Dr Rajaram and Dr Tan outline strategies for elevating one’s motivation level by expanding the presence of their major motivators in their daily lives. The authors train us to detect various situations that inhibit motivation—the absence of “push” and “pull” factors, distractions, unrealistic expectations, unconducive environments, and toxic relationships—so that we can prevent them from setting us back on the path to realizing our full potential.

Rajaram and Tan’s message is unapologetically empowering. They affirm that we all have the capacity to enhance our motivation by judiciously curating our environments, by cultivating a growth-oriented mindset, and by injecting motivation-reinforcing behaviours into our routines.

In short: today’s level of motivation need not be tomorrow’s. The authors guide you through every step of the way forward with specific, measurable strategies to turbo-charge your motivation. Far from setting unattainable standards, this is a book that equips readers with the tools to become the best versions of themselves.”

— Associate Professor Andrés Carlos Luco
School of Humanities (Philosophy), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

“How should you plan on kickstarting a goal and keep yourself focused and motivated until the end? Is it possible to be successful with your professional goal pursuit and still attain optimal psychological wellbeing? In this book “Turbo Motivation: Igniting Your Inner Engine to Supercharge and Sustain Your Motivation”, Dr. Kumaran Rajaram and Dr. Eugene Sern-Ting Tan address these questions by focusing on practical know-hows and easy-to-implement strategies.

The book offers a useful way of conducting a “personal motivation audit” as well as a pragmatic approach of finding out why you are not feeling motivated. The authors spice up their self-improvement book with some of their personal experiences and intuitive wisdom. If you are keen to understand the correct mix of motivational strategies and nuances in achieving your personal and professional goals while maintaining your psychological wellbeing, this book is a must-read!”

— Assoc Prof Marilyn Ang Uy
Nanyang Business School, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

“Everybody benefits from an inspirational talk or read. Turbo motivation will provide opportunities for its readers to be inspired. Starting out by exploring different types of motivation, and asking readers to evaluate their personal motivation levels, the book then guides us through a journey of self-discovery helping us to analyze what makes us tick, and to think about issues that might be holding us back, and perhaps affecting our psychological well-being. From there, we are turboed into a section that shows us how to boost our motivation and with it our productivity, propelling us to greater heights. This last section links natural law such as Newton’s Law of Cause and Effect to everyday life reminding us that to achieve a goal, we must invest the necessary input. It also provides us with effective blueprints for motivation such as the CAMPI Method which offers steps to achieve high levels of motivated behaviour.

Clearly written and comprehensive, the book offers valuable content for a self-improvement book with easily understood ‘know-hows’ and strategies vital for anyone to achieve their goals and aspirations. The result is a highly enjoyable and enriching experience for readers.” 

— Mark Brooke (EdD)
Senior Lecturer, Centre for English Language Communication, National University of Singapore

"If you are drowning in feelings of languish and lack of motivation, this book may just be the boost you need. Whether you are a student, working professional or simply want to improve your life, the comprehensible explanations inside will help you understand the mechanics of motivation and how you can sustain your motivation level to achieve anything you set your mind to. Simple, clear, and practical strategies are also given to incorporate into your everyday life.

If you have a desire to make a change and are willing to write out answers to the questions asked, you’ll gain a lot out of the book. This book has motivated me to take an honest inventory of who I am and how I can build better habits to lead a more fulfilling and happy life."

— Ho Jia Xuan
Undergraduate, Business

“Engineering your Psychological Well-Being - Turbo Motivation is a wonderful contribution to the increasingly important field of positive psychology by two learned and distinguished authors. Dr Kumaran Rajaram’s stellar academic credentials and background and Dr Eugene Tan’s astute and observant clinical insights work beautifully here to offer readers an easy to read manual on how they can, firstly, better appreciate the potential roadblocks that may stand in the way of them feeling motivated to pursue their dreams and goals and, secondly, develop and incorporate time-tested and science-backed strategies and tools to turbocharge and stay motivated so that they can increase their well-being and achieve success in all aspects of their lives.

Engineering your Psychological Well-Being - Turbo Motivation is an important and timely book, particularly given the difficulties and challenges many of us are facing due to the ongoing pandemic. This beautiful book is a gift and a blessing to those of us who wish to navigate the road ahead in the most optimal and beneficial manner, notwithstanding the inevitable setbacks and curveballs that have been thrown at us, and to clothe ourselves with life-affirming skills that ensure we remain steadfast and fully motivated to make the best of the situations we may find ourselves in.

I fully endorse this excellent book which I intend to keep close to me and refer to often and I am certain you will find the book to be as insightful as I have.”

— Associate Professor Samtani Anil
Head, Division of Business Law, Nanyang Business School, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

“A book for a hopeful tomorrow. In this present era of reset, this book will guide the reader to achieve holistic health (mental and physical) through its "hacks" and "stratagems". I found the read to be nourishing and motivational. It inspires me to be a better person immediately with necessary scaffolding.”

— Mr. Baiross
Advocate & Solicitor and Managing Partner, IRB Law LLP

“Some people around us seemingly possess an unwavering drive towards achieving their goals. They understand the fundamentals of motivation – why they do it and how they can continue to sustain this motivation. The processes underlying this motivation are simple to understand yet barely internalized and embraced to aid in formulating motivational strategies. Everyone derives motivation from a myriad of influences and harnesses this subsequent motivation differently.

This book goes down on a personal level – guiding you to audit your own personal motivations through questionnaires to assess your motivation level and what factors influences your motivation the most. Common motivation traps such as distractions and unrealistic expectations can befall anyone, from students to adult learners and working professionals. Actionable steps easy to comprehend are suggested in order to prevent your motivation from derailing. Set aside the factors hindering your motivation, can we ‘turbocharge’ our motivation way more than we thought we could have? Look for the compelling approaches and handy strategies to find the ‘motivation behind your motivation’. There would be days which seem omni presently gloomy, but this book teaches us how to brush the dust off and regain your momentum in working towards your goals.

No matter what your present circumstances are – reeling from a failure or making mighty progress; motivation is the process which ultimately links your goal setting to achieving them. This book can help you transcend basal levels of motivation and make enduring positive change in how you work to achieve your goals in life.”

— Mr. Amit Kumar Garg
Head of Partner Management

“Dr Kumaran Rajaram and Dr Eugene Tan have written a practical and enlightening book on motivation strategies. If you have a goal to strive towards or want to achieve more in your life or work, this book will help you overcome key barriers to motivation and implement strategies to stay motivated. With the rise of social media and a more fast-paced world, it has become easier to be distracted or feeling like one is chasing the wrong goals in life. Many of my peers and colleagues regularly experience career or life ‘crises’, no matter what age they are at.

The book provides you with a quick and structured way to take an introspective look at your motivation factors in life and evaluate your personal motivation level. Even as a working adult with already set career goals, I found it very helpful to run through the exercises in the book and realign my goals with my motivations in life. The strategies shared in this book are displayed in clear frameworks and are easy to implement. To stay motivated towards my goals, I build motivational strategies into my daily routine and have integrated the strategies in this book into my own routine.

I highly recommend this book to anyone looking to have a boost in your career or achieve personal goals in life. Dr Kumaran and Dr Eugene have outdone themselves with another solid book on motivation strategies!”

— Loh Cher-E (Jordan)
NTU Alumnus, Accountancy & Business Class of 2016

"Kudos to the authors for their outstanding ability to translate an academically dense topic into an accessible book for virtually anyone without the pre-requisite knowledge to benefit from it. It is evident that the authors deliberately used less technical jargon and communicated clearly. Also, the authors purposefully adopted a personalized, lived experience of having applied the motivational strategies is particularly usefully for readers to adapt to their respective contexts.

In essence, this book contains easy to comprehend 'know-how' and motivational strategies, which is crucial for anyone who desires to be motivated to achieve their goals and aspirations. The methodical and structured approach in distilling the motivational strategies, juxtaposed with up-to-date examples that readers could quickly identify with, is another key strength of this book. Readers can appreciate the unpretentious framework applied consistently throughout the book. For instance, the focus on people's well-being and relating the motivational strategies to helping people manage their mental wellness during the Covid-19 pandemic is brilliant and relatable. Not only will such an empathetic approach benefit readers in the challenging time that we are in, but it would also be helpful for readers in the subsequent crises they may encounter in life.

This book is instrumental in uplifting many to support their psychological well-being through motivational strategies and 'know-how'. Anyone leading a team would gain from adopting these motivation strategies to propel their team members to greater professional heights."

— Dr. Samson Tan
Head, Centre for Innovation in Learning (IN-Learning), National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

"In today’s world, everyone tries to be the best version of themselves every single day. However, the process gets tiring, especially if there aren’t any solid results. As a university student, I am often overwhelmed with tasks, and it is very easy to be demotivated or “burnt-out” throughout the semester. Prof. Kumar’s Turbo Motivation book highlights a few strategies that I find handy to keep along with me on my journey. By encompassing some of the valuable strategies in the book, I am confident that I will be able to able to build a stronger mental moat around my journey in both career and studies.

I highly recommend this book to those that are feeling slightly lost in their path trajectory as the content helps them to shape and guide their process. For those that are on track, the strategies in this book very apply in every setting and I am sure that there is more than a thing or two that one can easily takeaway from this book. Kudos to the authors of the book for consolidating years of experience into a simple but extremely useful guidebook for the rest of us. "

— Jordon Woon Li Sheng
Undergraduate, Business