Motivation- The Desire and Drive to Achieve your Goal!

All of us need motivation, whether it is at the workplace or at our homes. Whether it is not being able to complete a presentation on time or delaying that trip to the grocery store. It is not uncommon to find ourselves completely devoured of motivation or our actions completely in control by forces and factors in our environment.

Motivation – the desire and drive to achieve a task can usually be of two types.

Extrinsic motivation, which refers to the driving forces that we get from the environment whether that is incentives in the workplace or social validation and appreciation in the form of praise in the socio-cultural context.

The other type is called ‘Intrinsic Motivation’.

It constitutes the driving forces that are unaffected by the external environment and are dependent on what satisfies the individual. In other words, intrinsically motivated behaviours are those that give pleasure to the individual.

Several studies have shown that positive reinforcement in terms of providing motivation for desired behaviour is not highly beneficial for creative tasks. It is a highly effective method when it comes to mechanical and muscle oriented tasks.  Duncker’s Candle Problem is one such example.

Peak Performance and Real Performance

An individual’s best performance at any given point of time is his/her Peak Performance.

It can be attributed to situational demands and the inner drive to achieve something. For example, that time when you completed 8 presentations in a day, without compromising on their quality.

Your every day performance will vary from your Peak Performance, and is usually lower than it. It is Real Performance.

So, the desire is to reach your peak performance as often as possible.

That should be the motivation to modify your actions and behavior.

Essentially, be your own competition.

People commit a  common mistake of taking big leaps. Extrinsic motivators like increments, incentives or social praise often back such behavior.

For example, if you want to become the CEO of an organisation, it cannot happen overnight – not in an MNC, not even in a start-up. You have to be an employee first, a manager then, a superior then in order to become a CEO and a good one at that. Even in a start up, you might call yourself the CEO but you will be adapting to the roles of an employee and a manager.

It becomes important to stop competing with others and start competing with yourself. In the true sense of competition, nobody besides you has the same starting line as you. The constant endeavor to become a better version of yourself is the intrinsic motivation that we need.

So what we are saying is, take control – of the things that motivate you and inspire you.

Let those things come from within you instead of the environment around you. Financial and social growth will come as a by-product of the actions you take when intrinsic factors drives you.

Disclaimer:

THE VIEWS AND OPINIONS EXPRESSED IN THIS ARTICLE ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHOR AND DO NOT REFLECT THE VIEWS OF SPEAKIN, ITS MANAGEMENT OR AFFILIATES. SPEAKIN MAKES NO REPRESENTATION AS TO ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS, CORRECTNESS, SUITABILITY OR VALIDITY OF ANY INFORMATION ON THIS ARTICLE AND WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY ERRORS, OMISSIONS OR DELAYS IN THIS INFORMATION OR DAMAGES ARISING FROM ITS DISPLAY OR USE.

Vivek Arora

Vivek Arora has been in the Learning & Development space since 2003. His journey in the L&D industry began as a consultant with TMI in 2004. In 2006, he founded a company called Life Strategies that went on to become Maynard Leigh Associates India – a franchise of its UK partners. This is when his tryst with his first love – theatre – began. He is currently Director, Business Development at Maynard Leigh Associates, India.

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