Motivation is a mysterious strength that is vital for achieving goals; but often becomes annoying when you need it the most. You try really hard to call it up but all go in vain. Self-motivation is a quality that many people naturally have by inheritance while others work hard to develop it. Many people have that “Get up and Go” mindset; which usually goes with several names likes motivation, work ethics, self-control, persistence etc. And when these people are motivated to work on succeeding in a particular quest, this mindset is a really significant factor.
Why some people are motivated to work while others not? Will Smith, American actor, is a competitive guy having huge work ethics. He works for extra hours when others are happy to take a day off; he speeds up his work when others slow down. This trait of self-motivation is valuable in both work-places as well as in personal lives.
Quality of self-motivation develops from an early age of a student to prepare him for future life. School’s system is highly structured where students complete their homework under strict intructions. And students in college do their homework on their own by their self-motivation.
Dopamine – A key Element of Motivation
Scientists have discovered that the origin of sense of motivation is a part of brain known as nucleus accumbens, which is in the small section that sends chemical messages through neurotransmitters to the rest of body. This strongly influences mindset like completing a project, eating healthy, doing work-out etc. The key neurotransmitter in this is Dopamine, which releases in nucleus accumbens and triggers the sense of motivation to carry out a task and accomplish a goal no matter what the hurdles come in way.
The head of Behavioral Neuroscience Division at the University of Connecticut says, “Dopamine helps bridge what scientists call psychological distance”.
What are other factors which contribute to motivation in some people while not in others?
Past History Experiences
Motivation connects to people’s past lives and their environment; an environment where people are competitive in hard working to come on top position; and other environment where people are not much competitive in their works.
Let’s take example of Japan where there are a lot of people living. This scenario automatically builds competition among students to get studied in top college or university by competing and continuous hard-working. People living in places like Japan, are more motivated even outside schools and into their real world, to do their best at their works.
Other places are not much competitive. Their people are much relaxed and do not find it competitive to work hard to get into top institutes. This is because they know their families are rich who, in case of their failure, can bribe anyone to get a good job.
Purpose as a Motivator
It seems natural for some people to be more motivated than others, but this is not the case always. Sense of motivation in some people also connects to the sense of purpose behind any work which keeps on motivating them to carry on with their work even through tough times. One such purpose is Survival. Such people set high and achievable goals for themselves to survive, by focusing on their target with their strong mindset. They adopt optimistic attitude even in their hard times, which then drives them towards achieving their goals.
Take a live example of Elon Musk, who is a great inventor and an engineer. His motivation led him from the field of computers into the land of engineering, where he never let his failures stop him from going ahead.
He founded a company named SpaceX, in 2002, with the purpose of building spacecraft for commercial space travels. In 2006, SpaceX’s first rocket launch failed just after 33 seconds of its departure. In 2007 and 2008, its’ second and third chances of establishing his company’s integrity also ended up in failure. This failure almost killed the company; still he didn’t back-off from his work; because his motivation was there to achieve his goal in any case. So he funded its fourth launch in late 2008 which went successful and achieved its set target. And now SpaceX is a billion-dollar successfully running company.
When there is motivation, one can never exhaust from his work because then his passion becomes his profession.
Following these factors of motivation, learn techniques to improve motivation at workplace.
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