When you say of motivation, what naturally occurs to mind?  Do you see it as a will power?  Or are you motivated enough to achieve your goals and inspiring others to do the same?  What is that something that keeps you going each day living no room for abandonment and giving up?  That something is called motivation.

What is motivation?  In psychological term, it is that causes behaviors.  Motivation is the driving force or the reason behind a particular action.  It may be based on basic needs of an individual.  Like for example you are hungry.  Your hunger motivates you to look out for food to satisfy your empty stomach.  In addition, motivation may also rely on higher desire, such that after a meal even if you are full already, and yet you want a slice of cake, even if you do not really need the cake but still you get up and get yourself a slice of it simply because you like the cake being its your favorite dessert.  Furthermore, motivation may also be rooted from a higher concept.  And such type can be relatively found within a person’s morals and beliefs.  A good example for this is volunteering in some food kitchen or charity institutions due to being motivated in helping the less fortunate and other members of the marginal society.   

Motivation is primarily governed by a reward.  Such reward may take the form of any positive acknowledgment for any given behavior.  In life, you will come across many motivating factors that will push you forward and will keep you going, aspiring you to be better while in constant pursuit to accomplish particular tasks.  Eventually in the end, all your labors and aspirations will bear fruit and you will be greatly rewarded.  Rewards can be extrinsic or intrinsic.  An intrinsic reward may be a self-satisfactory feeling or being proud of an accomplishment, while the extrinsic reward is anything from money, to food, and to love.

These extrinsic and intrinsic rewards can either be less or more motivational depending on the situation or the person.  Some people chose to do volunteer works because of the intrinsic motivation to offer a helping hand without any expectations of a material reward.  On the other hand, there are people who need extrinsic rewards of being paid for their work due to reasons that praise is not sufficient enough to keep them motivated.  Therefore, every individual is utterly unique from each other. 

A person’s basic needs proved to yield stronger motivational power than motivation relied on moral code.  Take into account the situation wherein you are out on the street starving to death. You may not feel the righteousness of stealing but the need to eat may somehow modify your motivating factor. 

If there are people being motivated by needs, there are those that are instigated by higher concepts.  Such example will be those people that go on a hunger strike believing that such cause will overcome their basic need to eat in order to clearly make their moral point towards a particular institution or the society in general.  For religious people and those with higher sense of motivation and purpose than others, are oftentimes stimulated because of their faith in the higher power.  Individuals with greater motivational factors tend to please and practice utmost care as not to offend the higher power.  Regardless of whether these concepts have truth in them or not, the rationale behind everything is the fact that motivation is very logical.

A person has to look at and discern on what motivates him or her.  Human beings have to decide what their necessities, desires and ideals are, all of which are the significant factors of their presence in this world.  Motivations may be conflicting with one another.  Therefore, such motivational factors must be well balanced and in proportion.  It then comes down to setting priorities, putting first things first and knowing what truthfully matters and what may be left behind.  As all of these are sorted out, only then you will finally see a clear picture of what you want in life and what motivation is all about.