Motivation is a word you come across more and more often. Because we seem to have to do everything, do business based on a well-motivated story. The things you do in paid and unpaid work, hobbies, where you live, who you hang out with. They all have to be conscious processes and so there has to be a story behind them. Not that strange in itself, because you can translate it into living consciously and no longer on autopilot, meaning thinking about everything you do. Changes in an era bring about this process of consciousness and therefore force us to more or less think about things and not to do them automatically or because that is how it should be. Yet vigilance is not a bad thing in such a process, for example it could destroy the spontaneous.
What does motivation actually mean?
In short, motivation is what makes a person do the things he/she does. Motivation goes far in the process of human behavior. Motivation determines so much in human life, which sometimes also concerns unconscious processes. It is split into intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.
Intrinsic
Intrinsic motivation comes from the person himself and although people want to know the reasons why you do what you do from a conscious process, intrinsic motivation can also just be a feeling. Something that can’t really be explained with a reason, but it feels that way. Just think about the reason why people say that you should have a feeling about the house you buy. You step inside and the feeling is either there or it isn’t. If the feeling is there, this is an intrinsic process. If it is a process of a beautiful home that can be easily renovated and ultimately sold again, then it is an extrinsic process.
Extrinsic
Extrinsic is therefore a motivation from an external source. In the case of the aforementioned house, it may be that you can sell the house at a certain point for a profit or that it is a marketable house that you are buying. Or just think about accepting a new position not because you really want to do this work, but because it will provide a good salary or nice bonus. Your motivations for doing something are therefore fueled by external factors.
How real is motivation?
Everyone is familiar with the application that, in addition to a CV, must be provided with a motivation. The reason why you are suitable for that position and not the other person. This also requires a great deal of creativity to ensure that your motivation is not too similar to that of someone else. After all, arriving with the fact that you just want a nice job and that you like it is not sufficient motivation. On the one hand, this is good, because it more or less forces you to delve deeper into the organization and see what appeals to you about this position. Which, by the way, can also result in a fictitious story for the person who needs to have a job because he/she currently has no job. Which means that the value of a motivated story should not be overemphasized. Certainly not during an economic recession. Speaking to someone and asking them about their motivation, among other things, often yields more than a nice piece of text.
Feeling
People who give space to their feelings and say that they do something because it feels good do not actually have good motivation and yet such a process is often worth much more. Someone who does something because it feels good is close to their own feelings, which means that it is in the line (the flow) of the person themselves and is not a made-up story. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always come across well. After all, it is often seen as impulsive and not well thought out. Sometimes this is the case, but not always.
This in turn says more about the person who should value it. Not an accusation but an observation and it has to do with the fact that we are programmed from a young age. Programming also involves evidence, facts and not so much a feeling. Feelings are vague and intangible and we all want proof. A well-motivated story is then worth much more, while someone with a creative mind can put together a perfect story that then has no underlying thoughts or is just hot air.
Finally
Motivation in the traditional sense of the word is therefore important to a certain extent; it is better to give space to the feeling and ultimately try to put the feeling into words. Sometimes with some help from someone who can ask you the right questions. But as long as we walk within the well-defined framework of motivation and we have to explain why we want, buy, do something, this process will not change very quickly.