subject: Define Motivation - Perspective And Action [print this page] You have probably heard a lot of people talk about motivation recently. This has been a hot topic, especially in the self-help circles. Everyone is reading books about how to feel good about themselves and how to get ahead in both business and life. You have probably wondered if these kinds of books actually work. The truth is that some might work and others might not. It really depends on you and what you want to get out the literature you read and the things you hear. In a sense, this is what motivation is all about. In order to define motivation, we have to look beyond its actual dictionary definition and look at what the word actually implies.
When we define motivation, we want to look at the big picture. If someone works really hard in your workplace, but they are always complaining because they hate the job and they feel they don't get paid enough, is this person motivated? Probably not. This person might be working to burn off anger or stress. This person might feel scared about losing the job he or she has and is trying to make up for the bad attitude with a little extra work. Motivation is as much about perspective as it is about action. Motivation is what drives us to do our best.
You can't define motivation simply by looking at success. You have to also consider that success is not the same for each and every person. For some people, success is all about money. For others, it's about friends and family. It's not fair to say to the family man that he is not motivated because he hasn't moved to the executive position because he was taking care of his family. He was motivated in a different way. Maybe some people would not even say that what he did was work.
In brief, in order to define motivation, you have to think about perspective and big picture world view. You have to think about what drives people to do their best. What's most important to remember is that if you want to be truly motivated, you have to find the work that you love to do, and you have to put all your energy into it. It doesn't matter what kind of work it is or how much it pays. If you put your heart and soul into an activity, then you are being motivated and you are being successful.
