What is motivation and how to improve it for success?

From birth, the child has physiological and physical needs. In the future his goals, interests and desires are determined by the environment. Intentions are transformed into motives that push the person to action or conscious planning. What is motivation - in this article.

What is motivation?

This is a set of factors that induce the person to work with a certain target orientation. The concept of motivation is studied by sociology, biology, and political sciences. Motivation is built around the needs of man and while he seeks to satisfy them, he develops and grows, moving to the next stage of the hierarchy of needs. The latter are the main sources of human activity. This applies to both cognitive and practical activities.

Motivation of the individual in psychology

Motivation to action is closely related to intention, desire, purpose. The motivation of a person acquires content both from an object that has been subjected to directed action, and from a need that is satisfied as a result of its accomplishment. Different needs, as well as the ways of their implementation, can cause the struggle of desires, and here everything will depend on the level of development of the individual, its value orientations.

Motive and Motivation in Psychology

The needs of man are conditional and mobile. The need and motivation are in close connection. The first stimulates the individual to activity, and its component is always the motive. He encourages a person to do what will satisfy his needs. Motive and motivation are not the same thing. The latter is a combination of internal and external driving forces that induce a person to act in a certain way. The motive is its steady personal property, which together with the needs, goals and intentions stimulates and supports the behavior of the individual.

Motivation and incentives

A conscious desire to act, backed up by external support, encourages a person to go forward and achieve his goals. Thus allocate such functions of motivation:

Emotions and motivation

Emotional experience allows an individual to quickly assess his inner state and the need that has arisen, and in accordance with this, build an adequate form of response. In a conscious or unconscious mental factor that induces a person to perform certain actions, the concept of motivation consists, and emotions are in close contact with him. They allow us to assess the level of satisfaction of needs and at the same time appear as a consequence of the emergence of motives.

At achievement of the put purpose positive emotional experiences are formed. Memory fixes this and in the subsequent they arise whenever there is a corresponding internal motivation . Emotions are born and when there is a strong impulse to action, when obstacles are found in the satisfaction of desires. In any case, they mobilize a person to achieve success.

Motivation and needs

The most widely used work was A.Kh. Maslow is an American psychologist, the founder of humanistic psychology. He believed that motivation and human needs are interrelated: the first is based on the second. It is generally accepted that a person moves to a higher level when he meets lower demands. At the heart of the pyramid are physiological, unconscious needs, and above is the need for security, love and recognition, self-actualization, understanding, etc.

Motivation for success, which is part of the hierarchy model, has gained wide application in the economy. At the same time, physiological needs are wages, sick leave, leave. The security of the organization of trade unions, benefits, safe working conditions. Next come the need for respect, recognition, self-expression, self-realization, etc.

Basic theory of motivation

At one time, different scientists developed many doctrines that contradict each other. Theories of motivation explain why some people are more focused on achieving the goal, while others are less. Some psychologists believe that the most important responsibility for the actions of an individual is borne by internal mechanisms, while others rely on stimuli coming from the environment. Still others try to figure out whether the individual achieves this goal through motivation or is guided by habit. At one time Maslow, M. Cleland, D.S. Adams et al.

Types of motivation

Motivation to action can be external and internal. In the first case, this is due to circumstances from outside, and in the second - to internal motives. Types of motivation include the driving forces of positive and negative coloring: "If I do this work, I will get paid, or if I do this work, the boss will not reprimand me." A sustainable motivation for action is based on natural needs - sleep, thirst, hunger, and unstable requires support from outside - cure the disease, stop drinking , etc.

How to find motivation?

In the life of every person, there are times when you do not want to do anything. Apathy and longing attack, life appears meaningless. Strong motivation and the best arise only on the condition that a person wants to achieve something. He is sure that he will succeed and knows that it is his duty to himself. The absence of any of these items leads to a drop in motivation. You can find it if you imagine in the smallest detail your desire, stir emotions, predict further benefits.

To increase your confidence that everything will turn out, you need to prepare for the difficulties: get new knowledge, if necessary, find those who are interested and will help. The concept and essence of motivation is to reveal all your abilities and talents, to prove to yourself that you are worthy of it. Instead of crying for life, spend time and energy with benefit.

Here are some practical tips:

  1. Set a goal.
  2. Take a timeout. Sometimes it is useful to relax and rest a bit before rushing into battle.
  3. Find something that will inspire and stimulate the attainment of the goal.

How to increase motivation?

It often happens that one desire is not enough. There is not enough of a push, after which the process will go on rolled. Personal motivation will increase if:

  1. Take the first step . As you know, he is the hardest. Wanting to lose weight, do not think about how hard it is to do and how long it will take. You just need to start.
  2. Find the problem and solve it . To understand what motivation is and how to improve it, you need to identify the reason that does not achieve the desired and eliminate it. To learn a foreign language if it is necessary to communicate with foreign colleagues.
  3. Do not compare yourself with others, but take your own height . In life as in sports, the strongest will win, but the resources and physical capabilities of all are different.

Motivation films

Such themes can be traced in many paintings. Here are some of them:

  1. "Knockin 'on Heaven" . The film makes you think about the meaning of life, about what means a person chooses on the way to his goal. Motivation for success appears when heroes understand that life is finite and sooner or later death will overtake everyone.
  2. "The Green Mile" is one of the best creations of cinema. This picture is about deception and betrayal, philanthropy and compassion. In her dough, the passions and fears of the heroes intertwined, but the good in the end conquers evil.
  3. "Slumdog Millionaire" . The concept of what motivation is revealed in the picture in full. A poor boy goes through a path that no one will want and becomes a real person, a strong and self-confident person.

Books about motivation

There are many literary works in which the authors give advice on finding and increasing their own motivation, as well as give examples from life, describing the fate of people who have succeeded to all deaths. They include:

  1. "Be the best version of yourself" by D. Waldschmidt . In it the author tells about all known personalities who, despite the existing problems and shortcomings, became objects for imitation and envy.
  2. Books on motivation include and "Atlant straightened his shoulders" A. Rand . The author wrote her for 12 years, famously twisting the plot and bringing the thoughts and sayings of the great philosophers.
  3. What motivation is and how to understand what to do and where you need to move can be from the book "Everything is possible! Dare to believe it ... Act to prove it. " Aiken . On the author's account there are more than 120 training programs and seminars. He advises well-known companies of the world and helps to solve pressing issues, set goals and achieve them.