The desire to continue progressing toward a life with meaning, purpose and worth living is one aspect of motivation. It encourages competition and enhances personal and social connections. Its deficiency results in depression and other mental illnesses.
…
To get motivation, it is crucial to understand and ask yourself
1. What benefits do we get from motivation?
2. What motivation types exist in humans?
3. What is Maslow’s pyramid?
4. Why is it essential to climb Maslow’s pyramid step by step?
5. How can I increase motivation (evidence-based)?
…
Why It is Important to Have Motivation
Motivation activates behaviour by using biological, emotional, social, and cognitive forces. Motivation is used to describe why someone does something. It is the driving force for human behaviour. It can help people work more efficiently toward their goals. It plays an essential role:
1. To take action
2. To care about yourself
3. To be independent and decisive
4. To control your life
5. To improve your happiness and well-being.
…
Two types of motivation
Knowing and understanding the two types of motivation can help you look at motivation as a tool to use.
Intrinsic motivation
It occurs when inspiration comes from within, such as a desire to improve at a specific activity. Intrinsic motivation tends to push people harder, and the results are more satisfying.
Extrinsic motivation
It is caused by outside forces that inspire a person, other people, or rewards such as teamwork, success, recognition, or even a desire for money.
…
The Psychological Needs for Motivation and Happiness
Humans are social creatures. As creatures, we have needs, and as humans, we have more highly developed desires.
The needs hierarchy system is a commonly used scheme for classifying human motives.
Maslow created the hierarchy of needs, which consists of five hierarchical classes. People are motivated by unsatisfied needs, according to Maslow. The requirements, listed from basic (lowest-earliest) to most complex (highest-latest), are as follows:
1. Physiology (hunger, thirst, sleep, etc.).
2. Safety/Security/Shelter/Health.
3. Social/Love/Friendship.
4. Self-esteem/Recognition/Achievement.
5. Self-actualization/achievement of one’s full potential.
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs emphasizes specific characteristics, like family and community, that involve meeting the requirements.
For an individual to achieve self-actualization, basic needs such as safety, love, belonging, and esteem must be met first. Needs can overlap within the pyramid, but lower requirements must increase. Food and shelter are examples of basic needs. Receiving protection is related to the need for safety.
Individuals must feel some attachment to give and receive love. In personal life, competence and control involve meeting the need for esteem.
Failure to satisfy lower and higher needs can harm mental health. This could result in depression symptoms and low self-esteem during adolescence. The individual will have less confidence if safety needs are not met during adolescence.
The fundamental requirements are based on the pyramid’s first step: physiology. If there are deficiencies at this level, all behaviour will be focused on compensating for them.
If people haven’t slept or eaten enough, they won’t be interested in their self-esteem desires. As a result, people with the second level develop a passion for security.
After securing the first two levels, the motives shift to the third level, the social sphere. The fourth level of the hierarchy involves psychological requirements. While the top level is self-realization and self-actualization.
…
Why Is It Important to Climb Maslow’s Pyramid Step by Step
Maslow’s theory of the hierarchy of needs can be summarized as follows:
When unsatisfied, human beings have wants and desires that can influence their behaviour. A hierarchical structure of needs reflects varying levels of importance to human life.
Higher-level needs are postponed until lower-level needs are at least minimally met. Higher-level needs are associated with individuality, humanity, and psychological health.
The study conducted by Tay and Diener with 60,865 participants from 123 countries suggests that human needs are the same regardless of cultural differences. But, the ordering is not strict:
“Although the most basic needs might get the most attention when you don’t have them,” Diener explains, “you don’t need to fulfill them in order to get benefits [from the others].” Even when we are hungry, for instance, we can be happy with our friends. “They’re like vitamins,” Diener says about how the needs work independently. “We need them all.”
…
3 Scientifically Proven Ways to Increase Motivation
Motivation is a desire to take action. The lack of motivation can be caused by mental health problems like depression, anxiety, stress, and other disorders.
The first step to having motivation is to know if there is an obvious reason, like health problems, past trauma, habits, behaviors, or a lifestyle that may stress you. If there is a fact that we can not change and we see it as a “problem,” try the methods below or contact your healthcare professional.
The following methods can increase your motivation and feelings of happiness:
1. Setting realistic goals
Setting goals and planning can help you achieve your goals. Frank L. Smoll, a Ph.D. and a working psychologist highlighted three essential parts of goal-setting, which he called the A-B-C of goals.
A — Achievable
B — Believable
C — Committed
In the handbook of positive psychology, the author highlights the importance of commitment: “Two types of causal factors are critical in commitment: the belief that the goal is important and the belief that one can achieve or make progress toward it.”
The study shows that goal setting and having good planning skills are linked to subjective well-being. The good news is that these abilities can be learned.
“Setting goals is the first step from turning the invisible to visible.”-Tony Robbins
2. Self-care
Self-care is a part of our daily activities. It is responsibility to care for our own physical and mental health. It includes a healthy diet, healthy sleep, exercise, and even activities like shaving your beard, brushing your teeth, and so on. The research shows that poor nutrition leads to cognitive impairment and cognitive decline.
A healthy diet can help you to reduce the risks of malnutrition, heart disease, cancer, obesity, and other problems. In the BMJ article, the author says, “Poor nutrition may be a causal factor in the experience of low mood, and improving diet may help to protect not only the physical health but also the mental health of the population.”
“Exercise improves mental health by reducing anxiety, depression, and negative mood and by improving self-esteem and cognitive function.”
Healthy Sleep has improving effects on mood, productivity, and memory. It decreases stress. It defines our physical and mental health.
3. Positive thinking
It is important to know that positive thinking, positive emotions, optimism, and hope are linked to well-being.
Positive thinking has many health benefits, including physical and psychological well-being. It reduces the risk of depression, stress, stroke, cancer, and other health problems.
The studies have suggested the evidence:
“Positive thinkers encounter circumstances with optimism and if they encounter stressful situations they appraise it as controllable and use coping strategies that are functional, efficient and problem focused”-Carver & Scheier, 1998
According to Lazarus & Folkman — “Positive thinkers will appraise the stressful situation as less threatening and cope with it effectively compared to negative thinkers.”
…
In summary, face problems as challenges.
There are lots of challenges in our daily lives. I am saying “challenges” and not “problems,” because we should do our best to overcome them. We often are tempted to take “the path of least resistance” because it’s the simplest and most common method. But easy does not mean better or self-development.
We should try to change our perceptions. The obvious solution to confronting challenges or fears is to see them as opportunities for growth.
—
This post was previously published on medium.com.
***
You may also like these posts on The Good Men Project:
White Fragility: Talking to White People About Racism | Escape the “Act Like a Man” Box | The Lack of Gentle Platonic Touch in Men’s Lives is a Killer | What We Talk About When We Talk About Men |
—
Photo credit: Mika Baumeister on Unsplash