Whether religion respects free will is certainly debatable, and I think it is easily demonstrated that most religions do not.
However, getting back to the topic, I first noticed this phenomena of religous 'motivating' many years ago, and I made comment in an early thread about seeing muslim kids, in mandatory muslim schools, motivating. I just never made the broader connection. The straight version of motivation, stolen from the seed, was an extreme example of religious submission exercise. It completely submits your body to the concept that you are part of a group, not an individual. While doing this, you mentally follow suit. In addition, it identifies you to the other group members as one of them.
To all of us "motivators", just remember that it was something we consciously one day decided to do. It was part of our self-submission and our acknowledgement that we were becoming part of a group.
Think about speaking in tonques. If anyone here has ever been to a church where they speak in tongues, and been thru the pressure of 'doing it', and then once done felt the immediate bond to the rest of the church and the submission to the church's concepts, then what I am about to say will make sense.
Speaking in tonques is another form of 'motivating'.