Hi there 🙂
How have you been? I am happy to post again 🙂
In this article, let’s take a closer look at motivation.
What Is Motivation?
Where does it come from?
Why do we sometimes have it, and at other times have to push ourselves to act?
While looking at entries in dictionaries, we find such expressions as «driving force», «reason», «purpose», «aim», and «willingness» defining motivation. During one of my brainstorms, a group of brilliant educators went with a «state» — a particular condition we experience.
Let’s combine them into a state of willingness to move in the direction of our purpose, driven by a force coming from… where?
According to psychologists, there are two sources of motivation: inside and outside*.
Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation
Intrinsic (internal) motivation comes from within and lasts longer. We do things we want to do for the enjoyment of the process. We pursue our hobbies and sports of preference, and the pleasure of these experiences becomes a natural driving force.
Extrinsic (external) motivation affects us from the outside. We do things because there’s a reason outside of us, such as a promised reward, for instance. We sometimes study before exams not because we are interested in the subject — we may merely want to get the grade and go home.
Why Are We Motivated?
One of the fundamental and most widely known theories is Abraham Maslow’s theory of human motivation. In short, we start with meeting basic needs and move to higher ones. The inner stimuli of meeting these needs determine motivation on our way to fulfilment.
Basic Needs: Physiological and Safety
Basic needs include physiological and safety ones.
Physiological needs are the strongest: people can barely think of anything else when extremely thirsty, hungry, cold, or sleepy. That’s why there’s a relative hierarchy — once we’re well-rested, warm, and full, we usually move on to our safety needs.
Safety includes shelter, security, and stability. According to Maslow, both children and adults feel safe when their lives are relatively organised and predictable.
Here we think of protection against natural catastrophes, dangerous situations of other origins, economic and political crises. We think of roofs over our heads, insurances of different kinds, public safety, and stable employment.
Love, Belongingness, and Esteem
Once both physiological and safety needs are met, we tend to focus on love and belongingness.
We want to feel part of a safe and friendly group, experience intimacy, be understood, accepted, and appreciated. We want to give and receive love. We meet these desires with family members, partners, children, friends, and social groups.
People also experience the need to be needed, and Maslow introduces esteem needs.
We want to feel self-confident, self-respected, worthy, and useful. We want to be respected and acknowledged for our deeds. These aims can be called the desire for recognition, accomplishment, prestige, reputation. Career choices often help us here.
Self-Actualisation and Fulfilment
According to Maslow, meeting all of the above needs does not yet make us happy.
Why is that?
Happiness is associated with being fulfilled, and self-actualisation is about this feeling. But what does it mean to be fulfilled?
Here we think of discovering and realising our talents and aspirations, and reaching our full potential. Creative needs drive people to produce artwork, while cognitive needs inspire learning and discovery.
Self-Transcendence
What happens when we achieve our full potential?
According to Maslow, we start experiencing spiritual self-transcendence needs.
We realise how interconnected everything is and shift our perspective from personal needs to serving a higher purpose. We find meaning beyond the self and are driven to selflessly contribute to the wellbeing of others, the environment, and the world as a whole.
How About Motivation at Work?
Another fundamental theory related to the workplace is Frederick Herzberg’s two-factor motivation theory.
In short, there are two groups of factors that affect our motivation at work:
- extrinsic hygiene factors
- intrinsic motivators
Let’s take a closer look at both groups.
Hygiene Factors
- Company policy and administration
- Supervision
- Interpersonal relationships
- Work-life balance
- Work conditions
- Remuneration: salary and benefits
- Status
- Security
Motivators
- Achievement
- Recognition
- Work itself
- Responsibility
- Advancement
- Personal growth
How Do These Factors Affect Motivation at Work?
Hygiene factors do not make people highly motivated or extremely satisfied. Nevertheless, when poor, they can easily lead to job dissatisfaction.
Positive changes in hygiene factors, such as regular pay rises, can produce good results. These results are, however, short-term.
Motivators, on the other hand, when present, make employees more engaged. They lead to longer-term job satisfaction and retention. Therefore, being happy about and interested in what we do naturally makes us feel more fulfilled.
One of my former psychology students shared an amazing idea of applying this theory to current professional circumstances in the form of a checklist — something that is often done by executives wanting to achieve better results 🙂
That’s all for today. Thank you for reading. In the next article, I’ll dive deeper into the subject of procrastination.
Stay tuned, and have a great day <3
*For a detailed overview with more examples and related issues, read this article in Psychology Today. This magazine is a reliable source of psychology-related information.
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