Overview of Motivation and How It Changed Over Time

The Driving Force Behind Human Actions.

It is pretty normal to feel unmotivated or demoralized nowadays. We all struggle to find a purpose or a genuine source of motivation to help us to get out of bed every day in the morning. There is absolutely nothing wrong with you if you feel like that.

As we evolve, we also learn more about this universe, and the human body and mind. There was a time when we thought the earth was flat. Then as we learned more and researched more, we realized that it is actually round (or maybe it is actually oval).

Let us see what motivation is and why the old methods of motivation are deprecated.

Three sources of motivation:

1. Biological
2. External
3. Intrinsic

Biological impulses

Human beings have biological needs, such as hunger, thirst, and sexual desire. It is the lowest-level impulse that responds to the need for survival.

External motivation

This type of motivation makes us react to rewards or punishments. It is the strategy used to train animals.

Intrinsic motivation

The third and most important motivation is intrinsic motivation, true motivation. It was after the mid-twentieth century that scholars of human behavior began talking about intrinsic motivation. The researchers noted that people can be motivated only by the enjoyment or satisfaction that activity provides.

In every human being, there’s an intrinsic unit that generates this type of motivation. Intrinsic motivation is, then, the one that exists when we do things because we feel joy, happiness, and personal satisfaction.

Motivation, now vs then

Recent research shows that external actions (reward and punishment) have become counter-productive. In long run, it turns fun and joyful activity into an uninteresting one. A passion becomes a task. It transforms a creative being into an automaton slave.

Motivation 1.0

Many years ago, the only concern man had was his life and his own survival. Perhaps finding food during the day and finding shelter at night. This was the main drive of humanity for a long time.

Motivation 2.0

Inspired by the first law of Newton, the system of reward or punishment became the newer version of motivation with the beginnings of the industrial era.

Rewards were designed to reinforce desirable behaviors and punishment to avoid unwanted behavior. This type works on certain occasions and in most cases, it crushes creativity. This type of motivation is more likely to be liked by agreeable people.

Motivation 3.0

Our deep desire to direct our own lives, expand our capacities, and be protagonists who contribute to the world.

Human beings are designed to be active, curious, and creative not just to obey. Autonomy and self-regulation contribute positively to intrinsic motivation. So for instance, flexible working hours where you let your employees choose when to work will affect immensely in their motivation.

Let’s get real

It is not easy to change the course of how people think and believe, and as a result of that, it will be very difficult for the world to unlearn old ideas. We are in the middle of a transition here and as a result of that many of us feel unmotivated every day. That is why I mentioned earlier that it is 100%, not your fault to feel like that.

However, after searching around a bit, educating yourself in this regard, and reading this blog post, remaining in that situation might be your fault because in the end you are responsible for your life and you have all the power and control over your world to change it.

In each human being, there is an inner force that drives him. Characterized, by that inner impulse that moves a person in the pursuit of perfection.

Remember, there’s no destination, enjoy the journey.

Question

Arguably, you can have and do whatever you want in this life, but what is it that you want and what are you doing about that to achieve it?