What Is Motivation and Is It Crucial to Success?

What is Motivation? Is It a Part of Your Success?

Motivation is the reason for people’s actions, desires and needs. It is the reason you act a certain way or the cause behind repeating certain behaviors and actions.

Here’s the official definition, according to Dictionary.com:

1. The act or an instance of motivating, or providing with a reason to act in a certain way:

I don’t understand what her motivation was for quitting her job.

2. The state or condition of being motivated or having a strong reason to act or accomplish something:

We know that these students have strong motivation to learn.

3. Something that motivates; inducement; incentive:

Clearly, the company’s long-term motivation is profit.

Motivation means the inspiration behind the behavior, to induce by persuading or influencing, to cause you to do something, or the impetus or driving force behind doing something.

If you’re like most people, you’ve been told you need to get motivated in order do something. It could be your mom telling you to get a job in high school or your friends in college encouraging you to get motivated to study. Or even telling yourself to get motivated to follow your passion and start a business.

Motivation is often your WHY. It’s why you do something. It’s the reason behind the goal. Your motivation can be very high the entire time you are reaching for a goal or it can wane and keep you stuck. But when you hit a slump, it doesn’t mean it’s the end of the road. You can get motivated again.

Is motivation something you naturally have or is it something that you have to learn? It’s both. At birth you are motivated to be cared for, fed, dry and held. You are motivated to learn to talk, walk and become an independent individual. As we get older motivation often comes from something we desire such getting in shape so we feel more desirable or to master certain skills to obtain our dream job.

Why We Need Motivation

Sometimes it’s hard to get started or hard to continue when we are reaching for a goal. It can often be hard to reach the finish line. But no matter what stage you’re at, you need motivation to complete it.

Motivation is important for a variety of reasons.

• It’s what gets things started. Without it anything you choose to do takes more effort and will end up being less successful. Without it you might not even get started on what you choose to do. Motivation is the desire to start and work towards an end goal with the right attitude to be successful.
• Motivation fuels you to continue. It keeps you going. You have to nurture your motivation, sometime reevaluating what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. But as long as you keep your motivation strong, you will succeed.
• Motivation can keep you going when things get difficult, expensive or complications occur.
• Motivation can change. Your reason for accomplishing your goal might change as you go along. Maybe you started out with one reason but it changes halfway through or even again at the end.
• Motivation keeps you going. When you have a long way to go you can get tired, burnt out or disappointed along the way. But by having a strong motivating factor you can keep going and know it will be worth it in the end.

Motivation can be many different things to different people. Having more money is a motivation. Improving your health is an excellent motivation. Improving your lifestyle for your family or even starting or expanding your business can both be great motivational factors. No matter what your motivating factor is it’s important to remember to keep your momentum and motivation high and fresh.

What is motivation for you and helps you to achieve success?