Motivation is often the driving force that decides who does and who does not achieve. The simplest definition of motivation is “the reason why we do what we do“. It then gives rise to such questions as why do I want to succeed, what is my reason for waking up today, what is my core reason for being who I am. Am I self determined or am I determined by what is around me? The question of motivation is fundamental in determining to what extent are we independent minds or are we so helplessly connected to the world that we are defined by our interactions.
Why I wake up?
Do you wake up because of your role in the world system? Or do you wake up in order to define your role in life? Simply put, ”
Do you wake up to define your role or do you wake up to fulfill the role defined for you? “
These are the fundamental questions which determine what motivation is and what kind of role it plays in our lives.
External Motivation
The world as it is when we are born already has a system in place, cultures and traditions hence there are standards set for which we are assimilated into. For example when you are introduced into school and its grading standard your motivation is directed into “excelling in class” to pass the grades to be an acceptable “intelligent” member of society. Your motivation can grow depending on your interaction with society such that you are taught to aspire to achieve the standards.
External motivation can be taught or coerced into one to accept it in order to fit in. In the plight of circumstances, being left behind is not an acceptable norm for most people, hence the need to stay on track or within behavioral distance can then be the motivation that one accepts and internalizes.
The monkey experiment is a simple example ” if you have 5 monkeys in a room who have learned a specific behavior in time they will create their own cultures determined by experiences they face hence traditions and cultures are programmed into all. However if a new member is introduced into the group and tries to create new habits, they might face resistance which results in them assimilating the pre-defined societal traits of the group.” Our need to fit in and not be a castaway from society may serve as the motivation to act and wake up to achieve the set standard which make us a “useful” member of society.
Your desires maybe internal but are they really? How can we be sure that our fantasies have not been motivated by movies, songs and the stories that surround us?If your motivation is to a yacht, is it by choice or by external association.
External motivation will always exist because we live in a system, however we can choose the quality of motivation that we want by determining the standard of life we wish to aspire to. Different factors can determine what kind of motivation you assimilate in life, and these factors can range from close acquaintances, work motivations, family motivations, business motivations, political motivations, religious motivations and much more. Your environment can be the limiting factor or the liberating factor with regards to motivation. Exposure can be a life force of motivation.
Internal Motivation
Your subconscious is only as good as the conscious decisions we make. We function in order to fulfill life in the temporary and in the infinity, however what we are closely aware of is the temporary hence our motivation usually is driven by what is closest to us. When we are born what drive us is our DNA programming, our cellular function and brain activity. We breathe automatically, metabolism happens without being conscious of it and perception among many things happens instantly without us questioning what it is. By existence we already have motivation to live which is functional in nature, we are programmed to be alive.
Internal motivation then can be questioned if it is a preferred motivation that we select based on what we interact with. Our external associations can be accidental, forced on us or chosen by us, however we can choose what we prefer as our motivation. On the primitive level our motivation is survival, however as we become intelligent, hence more aware of what we can achieve in “survival”, we can then seek out to live in comfort. Before we discover fire as a species our survival leads us to gather more than hunt, but after we discover fire our motivation becomes preferable to hunt for that succulent meat because we have better use of it. It can then be postulated that intelligence and knowledge are the bedrock of internal motivation but not necessarily through external association. We still posses the programming for imagination, however one can argue that how can one imagine without an external perception? Can we formulate a world in our imagination without the periodic external interaction to stimulate our minds?
Consequently it becomes clear that that the external world is simply a resource that we can use to create worlds in our minds. Is the world outside you or inside you? As you sit, you can hear sounds, see things, but their existence to you is a direct output of your internalization, that is interpretation and conceptualization. What we do with the external world is dependent on what we do with it in our minds. Our minds are the kings and queens of motivation, internal or external.
What it all means
Your greatest motivation is not what the world does to you, it is what you use the world resource to create for yourself. The universe is a resource and your motivation is you. Your interactions and external associations are stimulants to a greater motivation. You perceive by your interpretation of what you hear, see or smell determining what motivates you.We seek dominion over the world yet we already have it, our weakness is the inability to interpret our position or relationship with the world. The earth is there for us to use as we please, until we can interpret what we associate it as a resource we will continue to wait for the world to inspire us.
Imagine being stuck on an island, do you wait for the island to motivate you or do you look for the resource around the island to survive and ultimately live a better existence. People can have a strong correlation to external events and feel that is what motivates them however the real truth is they need an external event to stimulate their motivation.
Your external environment is not your motivation, it is your stimulant should you decide to use it to greater thinking. Your external environment includes people, processes, technology, nature, stars and the air you breathe. Everyday you make decisions and each decision is a domino falling on to the next one. Are you motivated?
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