Motivation is:
-An internal state or condition that activates behaviour and gives it direction.
-A desire or want that energizes and directs goal-oriented behaviour.
-An influence of needs and desires on the intensity and direction of behaviour.
Yeah, I didn’t get that last one either. But they generally mean the same thing. You’ll probably notice that the statements even shares two common words:
behaviour and
direction. So, it is a
behaviour which gives us
direction in life. Nothing we don’t already know perhaps. What you might not have noticed, however, is how selfish we are towards achieving our goals. Truth be told, all of our motivation draws from the fact that we are ultimately reinforcing our ourselves.
STORY TIME! Long ago, somewhere around where Middle Earth was, some idiot dressed himself with metal plates and forged rusting pieces of tarnished iron slivers into a weapon in an attempt to slay a dragon. This sounded all well and good, if only for the fact that dragons, who were thought to be a government conspiracy intent on increasing peasant productivity until 1304, are mythical creatures. That is, they do not exist.
So all the moron had to do was set himself alight (somewhere out of view) and subsequently jump into a pond. The next morning, HE would find himself sitting at an obscenely round table, telling tales of how HE had dragon meat for breakfast, how HE wore the scars of a true champion, and how other witnesses were disintegrated where they stood, simply because they had neglected to wear some form of protection, such as his “Knight’s Armor of Dragon Slaying +2”. For HE slew a dragon, and HE would be a branded a hero for the rest of his life.
But what was his true motivation? Did he flay thin air in false pretense and suffer 3rd degree burns just so he could ease the fears of the people? Yeah, right.
There are at least 3 positive outcomes that could have been a favourable motive.
a) HE gets to make out with a virgin maiden. HE even gets to choose which one. If HE likes long hair however, HE had better be prepared for one heck of a climb.
b) HE gets the medieval equivalent of a blank cheque. The phrase ‘filthy rich’ is redefined.
c) HE gets townwide recognition. This is good for self-esteem, as shown by the equation Self-Esteem=Success/Pretensions. In this case, success just went off the scale. Any pretensions derived from guilt were washed away because he was now famous, and also because his bath water was imported from Heaven.
Now you might think, “Yon virgin maiden need not make out with said knight, yes?” but lets not forget that she also has a viable motive. Just refer to that second possible outcome right there, and you probably know what I mean. I’m sorry if you happen to be female and feel offended, but that’s what womenfolk did back then; look pretty. Come to think of it, not much has changed.
Actually I did have a point. It was that there isn’t much going for noble deeds these days. How often do we actually do something because it’s right, whilst not thinking of the respect we would earn? How many selfless acts do we accomplish for the greater good? While this may be a personal opinion, I would give an approximate estimate of zero. Not because we are evil people, but simply because we were made to be egocentric. Essentially,
motivation is our instinct to survive.
And that includes me, too. I may say that I blog here because I like to enlighten other people (heh), but I really do have a hidden agenda. Honest. And no, I’m not gonna tell you. It’s called hidden for a reason.
Ponder.
The word of the day is: Sucks (as in “Behavioral Science…”)
