subject: Motivation - The Force That Controls Our Actions [print this page] The desire for self-improvement is a natural one. Everyone, in general, wants to improve their lot in life. They may wish to change their physical appearance. They may wish to increase their material wealth. They may even wish to gain greater spiritual knowledge. All these desires each have one thing in common. They all require motivation, both to begin the quest for change and to maintain the journey for change until the end.
Motivation is an interesting concept. This is because the motivation to do something or not to do something can come from outside or inside any given individual. These differing forms of motivation are known as extrinsic and intrinsic motivation, respectively.
Outside motivation is known as extrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation can also be either positive or negative. For example, an individual is motivated to stay at his or her desk and work by the reward if a salary, Conversely, that same individual my also be motivated to stay at his or her desk and work by the fear of losing that salary. One is an example of positive extrinsic motivation and the other is an example of negative extrinsic motivation. As can be seen in this example, both forms of extrinsic motivation can be acting on an individual at the same time.
Inside or interior motivation is known as intrinsic motivation. Unlike extrinsic motivation, intrinsic motivation is controlled by an innate interest in a given behavior. On other words, it is the enjoyment derived from a given activity that motivates an individual to keep pursuing that activity. An example of intrinsic motivation would be any number of hobbies that exist world wide. A hobbyist pursues his or her hobby for the enjoyment that it brings, not for the money that can be made by doing it or any punishment that will be imposed if it is not done.
It should be pointed out that the desire for self-improvement can be driven by both extrinsic and intrinsic motivation at the same time. For example, the desire to lose weight can be caused by an external factor and an internal factor. The external factor could be a desire to appear more attractive in a social setting and the internal factor could be a desire to feel healthier. In addition, the satisfaction in actually losing weight serves to reinforce both the extrinsic and intrinsic motivations that gave rise to the desire in the first place.
Human motivation is a complex subject and one that any person with a desire for self improvement needs to understand. Understanding the motivation for a given desire can help someone to achieve that desire more easily and maintain the results of that achievement more readily.
