The Motivation That Can Inspire You To Achieve Any Goal

What Is Motivation?

Motivation is a complex idea that is quite difficult to define but commonly, it is a drive or an inner force that prompts an individual to do something. Motivation is the ability to drive oneself to take initiative and action to pursue goals and complete tasks. It’s an inner drive to take action — to create and to achieve. It’s what pushes you to keep going on tasks, especially those you’re pursuing because you want to, not because someone told you to. Gellerman emphasizes that internal tensions are at the base of motivation. He says that “Motivation, as we commonly use the term, is our speculation about someone else’s purpose, and we usually expect to find that purpose in some immediate and obvious goal such as money or security or prestige. Yet the particular goals that people seem to be striving for often turn out, on analysis to be the instruments for attaining another fundamental goal. Thus wealth, safety, status, and all the other kinds of goals that supposedly behavior are only paraphernalia for attaining the ultimate purpose of any individual, which is to be himself. However, many researchers put it simply and suggest that motivation is an inner drive that prompts the individual in a certain direction to achieve the desired goal.

What drives motivation?

The sources of motivation can be experienced as either internal in the form of push motivation or external as in the case of pull motivation. Push motivation is described in terms of biological variables originating in a person’s brain and nervous system and psychological variables that represent properties of a person’s mind, such as psychological needs.

It is never too late to be what you might have been.

George Eliot

Intrinsic motivation

Intrinsic motivation refers to pursuing a goal based on internal factors.

Rather than external rewards, like money or recognition, intrinsically motivated actions have a built-in personal reward. Feelings of enjoyment, finding purpose, and achieving excellence comes from pursuing intrinsically motivated goals.

In other words, our deepest desires want, and dreams come from within and drive self-motivation.

Intrinsic motivation is, “ The Motivation that arises from factors such as interest or curiosity.” Intrinsic motivation deals with behavior performed for its own sake to experience happiness and pleasure. Hence, intrinsic motivation is the motivation that is inspired by some personal factors such as needs, interest, and for own sake.

Extrinsic motivation

Extrinsic motivation relates to actions that we pursue based on external factors. In the case of extrinsic motivation, we aim to attain some kind of rewards such as money, status, or good performance. However, Santrock defines “Extrinsic motivation involves doing something to achieve something else (a means to an end). Extrinsic motivation arises from outside the learner and reflects practical goals, such as attaining an academic goal or job promotion. It influences an external stimulus that makes a learner learn for a practical purpose.

Remember that changing your life for the better doesn’t happen overnight. When you set out to achieve a big goal, expect to progress in small steps.

When you feel a dip in self-motivation, remember all the concrete actions you can take to avoid crashing and giving up too soon. Turn to your friends, get guidance from wise people in your circle, practice self-care, and stay positive.