An analysis of motivation

Photo by Clark Tibbs on Unsplash

Motivation is a very interesting topic. We all want to be motivated to do things that we don’t always feel like doing, but know we should. So lets look at the 3 core components of motivation to better understand how we can build it and actually feel motivated.

1. Need

There has to be a need for a behavior to start or change. Typically we aren’t motivated to do something out of love unless its something we want to do. For example a basketball player doesn’t mind working out to improve their strength and speed because it makes them a better basketball player. In this example there was a need and it led to the change. We can find examples of wants and needs throughout our own lives as well. What we need is often different than what we want. Wants tend to be higher level things, but are driven by our needs. So if we want to make ourselves more motivated we need to find ways to make ourselves need the thing we want to change.

2. Desire

Motivation is driven by desire. Again this is something we see very often in sports. It is the drive to be an all star or a champion. This desire is what makes it possible to work hard consistently. If there is no desire, you are much more likely to skip hard steps. Working hard feels terrible, after all it is hard. But if we have desire then we want to do the hard things because it makes us better…