Notes on Motivation

What is motivation? What motivates you as a person? Is there any great one thing that ultimately motivates us?

In Psychology, motivation is defined as the process that initiates, guides and maintains goal-oriented behaviors. Motivation is what causes us to act, whether it is getting a glass of water to reduce thirst or reading a book to gain knowledge. It involves the biological, emotional, social and cognitive forces that activate behavior. In everyday usage, the term motivation is frequently used to describe why a person does something.

Different types of motivation are frequently described as being either extrinsic or intrinsic. Extrinsic motivations are those that arise from outside of the individual and often involve rewards such as trophies, money, social recognition or praise. We become active when somebody recognize your effort and expect for a rewards. According to some, money is the most common motivator. When money speaks for a person, it really influences him and sometimes the impossible could be possible by money. I doubt this is the reason why people corrupt and kill. See what money can do. I must admit that money has an extraordinary force that person will be tempted to act differently. We need money in order for us to survive. We cannot get the goods and services we want if we don’t have money. But we have to be reminded that money is created to facilitate trade.

Intrinsic motivations are those that arise from within the individual, such as doing a complicated crossword puzzle purely for the personal gratification of solving a problem. It is driven by an interest or enjoyment in the task itself, and exists within the individual rather than relying on any external pressure.Research has found that it is usually associated with high educational achievement and enjoyment by student. These are non-monetary motivators and considered as highly subjective. These are more noble acts that do not count how much effort you made and how much have you given up resources to achieve such.

Now if I ask you on what motivates you, what would be your answer? Is it more intrinsic or extrinsic? Do you believe that money is the ultimate motivational factor given your current condition? What’s really important to you? Try to ask yourself these questions and reflect how these motivators affect you.

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