The power of motivation

Motivation is the key driver to success. It definitely plays a huge role in your success in anything you attempt.

It is defined as the process that initiates, guides, and maintains goal-oriented behaviors. Motivation is what causes you to act, whether it is getting a glass of water to reduce thirst or reading a book to gain knowledge.

“The term motivation refers to factors that activate, direct, and sustain goal-directed behavior… Motives are the ‘whys’ of behaviour — the needs or wants that drive behavior and explain what we do. We don’t actually observe a motive; rather, we infer that one exists based on the behavior we observe.”
(Nevid, 2013)

Components of Motivation

Anyone who has ever had a goal (like wanting to lose 20 pounds or run a marathon) probably immediately realizes that simply having the desire to accomplish something is not enough.

Achieving such a goal requires the ability to persist through obstacles and endurance to keep going in spite of difficulties.

There are three major components to motivation: activation, persistence, and intensity.

1. Activation involves the decision to initiate a behavior, such as enrolling in a psychology class.
2. Persistence is the continued effort toward a goal even though obstacles may exist. An example of persistence would be taking more psychology courses in order to earn a degree although it requires a significant investment of time, energy, and resources.
3. Intensity can be seen in the concentration and vigor that goes into pursuing a goal. For example, one student might coast by without much effort, while another student will study regularly, participate in discussions, and take advantage of research opportunities outside of class. The first student lacks intensity, while the second pursues his educational goals with greater intensity.

Theories of Motivation

What are the things that actually motivate us to act? Psychologists have proposed different theories to explain motivation:

• Instincts: The instinct theory of motivation suggests that behaviors are motivated by instincts, which are fixed and inborn patterns of behavior. Psychologists including William James, Sigmund Freud, and William McDougal have proposed a number of basic human drives that motivate behavior. Such instincts might include biological instincts that are important for an organism’s survival such as fear, cleanliness, and love.
• Drives and Needs: Many of your behaviors such as eating, drinking, and sleeping are motivated by biology. You have a biological need for food, water, and sleep. Therefore, you are motivated to eat, drink, and sleep. Drive theory suggests that people have basic biological drives and that your behaviors are motivated by the need to fulfill these drives.
• Arousal Levels: The arousal theory of motivation suggests that people are motivated to engage in behaviors that help them maintain their optimal level of arousal. A person with low arousal needs might pursue relaxing activities such as reading a book, while those with high arousal needs might be motivated to engage in exciting, thrill-seeking behaviors, such as motorcycle racing.

Extrinsic vs. Intrinsic Motivation

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. 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.

Bottomline:

There’s no such thing in this world as procrastination or laziness.

If I gave you US$3 million dollars to meet me at the top of a hill at 3am, would you do it? Hell yeah, I would. I wouldn’t even procrastinate, I wouldn’t even be lazy.

So the point is that the things that you are constantly putting off, it just happens that it is not a priority for you. You don’t want it bad, you just kinda want it.

If you want to get rid of the laziness or procrastination, you have to make your tasks/goals a priority. To do so, you need to find out why it is so important for you, why you are working so hard for it or why you want to do something in particular but you never find time for it.

Finding the reason you want to do something and emphasising it as much as possible, giving it the right amount of positive thoughts every time you don’t feel like completing that particular task, will grow your motivation to do it.

Your reasons have to be so strong that it forces you to jump out of bed every morning. So strong that when it’s time to work, you are like a boxer in a locker room before a fight, raring to go.

If your reasons are not strong enough, lay stress on those reasons to make them strong enough. Because you’re just not thinking extensively of the benefits, you’re not motivated enough

but the motivation can be fed and can grow.