How are you? Tonight, I would like to discuss the topic of motivation.
Motivation is what drives us to achieve goals. It's the arousal, direction, and persistence of behavior that formulates this driving force. Motivation can be intrinsic or extrinsic.
Intrinsic motivaion refers to motivation that is driven by interest or enjoyment in a task itself. Personally, I fall under this category, What motivates me is helping people. It's a passion of mine. This passion led me to want to become a be a doctor. At a very young age, I took interest in the sciences and/or anything health related. Over the years, this passion developed into a love. As a result, this love for helping others has defined me as an individual. Quite the story huh? lol. On the other hand, not everyone is like me. He/she could have been motivated by external factors such as rewards, punishments, competition, and so on. This is where extrinsic motivation comes into play. Extrinsic motivation comes from outside the individual.
There are 2 basic types of thories that describe motivation. They are:
content-what energizes behavior
and
process-how behavior is energized
With that being said, what factors do you believe motivate you?
According to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, human beings have wants and desires which influence their behavior. Only unsatisfied needs influence behavior, satisfied needs do not.Since needs are many, they are arranged in order of importance, from the basic to the complex.The person advances to the next level of needs only after the lower level need is at least minimally satisfied. The further the progress up the hierarchy, the more individuality, humanness and psychological health a person will show.
The needs, listed from basic (lowest-earliest) to most complex (highest-latest) are as follows:
Physiology (hunger, thirst, sleep, etc.)
Safety/Security/Shelter/Health
Belongingness/Love/Friendship
Self-esteem/Recognition/Achievement
Self actualization
Herzberg's two-factor theory a.k.a. intrinsic/extrinsic motivation, concludes that certain factors in the workplace result in job satisfaction, but if absent, they don't lead to dissatisfaction but no satisfaction. The factors that motivate people can change over their lifetime,but "respect for me as a person" is one of the top motivating factors at any stage of life.
He distinguished between:
Motivators; (e.g. challenging work, recognition, responsibility) which give positive satisfaction, and
Hygiene factors; (e.g. status, job security, salary and fringe benefits) that do not motivate if present, but, if absent, result in demotivation.
Other notable content theories include: Deci's Self-Determination Theory, Reiss' Theory, and McClelland's Theory.
In contrast, process theories attend to the context in which taska are performed. These theories include:
Equity theory, in which people compare themselves to others and contrast their percieved inputs to them.
Goal setting theory which emphasizes setting specific goals to achieve performance.
Expectancy theory which assumes people are rational decision makers.
Other notable process theories include the reinforcement theory and job-characteristic model.
With that being said, motivation is what drives us to achieve our goals. Everyone is motivated by different factors whether they are intrinsic or extrinsic. Regardless of whatever the factors may be, whether or not you achieve your goals is solely up to you. Therefore, I encourage you to:
1. Think BIG! but be realistic w/ yourself.
2. Set both short & long-term goals and stick to them.
3. Be your own BIGGEST fan! There's no better motivator than yourself ;-)
4. Do what makes you happy! For if you're willing to put forth the necessary effort into achieving your goals you will do so w/ optimal performance which will lead to your desired outcome.
and Remember:
No comments:
Post a Comment