Motivation is literally the desire to do things. It's the difference between waking up before dawn to pound the pavement and lazing around the house all day. It's the crucial element in setting and attaining goals—and research shows you can influence your own levels of motivation and self-control. So figure out what you want, power through the pain period, and start being who you want to be.
It would not be realistic for me to expect my under 10 daughter to tell me: 'well, mom, the motivation behind my action is that...'. I doubt that even my own dad, who is now more than seventy years old, would be able to explain to clearly explain the motives behind his actions, as the word desire comes easier in mind. Don't you find that it appears easier to relate actions to emotions: 'you are making me upset', 'you pushed me into doing this', 'I was feeling sad, that is why I did that', etc. Do not hesitate to let me know if you have never heard such sentences. We all need to express our emotions, however I believe that we should distinguish between how we feel and what we do. I am not a big believer in: 'I desire to do that, that is why I did it'. Such conceptualization is not a satisfactory explanation to me.
According to Dictionnary.com:
Desire a longing or craving, as for something that brings satisfaction or enjoyment: a desire for fame.
The concept of 'desire' deals merely with emotions and I believe that focusing on only that is walking on fine ice. Emotions are important. We need to express them. I am a true believer of that. What we do can be related to our emotions; however, I argue that we need to look beyond our emotions if we want to understand the reasons behind our actions. Having just a desire to do something is not enough for us to go ahead and do it. Desire may give us the urge to act upon whatever it is we have in our mind, but it will not necessarily give us all the needed strength to actually act. Desire creates the craving. Having a craving is one thing, taking the necessary steps to appease our craving is different. Thus, I focus on MOTIVATION.
As previously indicated, in my upcoming blogs I will look at the reasons behind why it is we do what we do. Do not hesitate to write me your comments during this process, as healthy dialogues can only lead to healthy development of the mind.
Until next time.
Motivation is something I have been thinking about and writing on my blog about the past few days as I am focusing on my values and what I am doing/not doing to live up to them. I find that sometimes my motivation is not fully there even though I really want something to happen. I can sometimes be too lazy, too tired, too busy with work, too busy wasting time on WWF, etc.
ReplyDeleteYou are raising a good point about the relation between how we feel and how depending on our level of motivation, we actually proceed to action. Motivation can take us from want we WANT to what we DO. Thanks for your useful comment.
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