The Myth of Motivation: A Journey of Self Discovery

Copyright © 2013 Silvio Canale

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Manuscript Editor: John-Louis Canale

Cover Design: Nikki Wambolt

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The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

Balboa Press rev. date: 07/17/2013

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

Chapter 1

Concepts of Motivation

Chapter 2

Emotions, Feelings and Moods in Motivation

Chapter 3

Personality, Values, Beliefs and Self-Esteem in Motivation

Chapter 4

Brain, Mind and Thought in Motivation

Chapter 5

Wellbeing and Motivation

Chapter 6

Culture and Motivation

Chapter 7

Counseling and Motivation

Acknowledgements

Thank you, God

INTRODUCTION

The Myth of Motivation is the product of a research in the field of motivation. The purpose of the research was to evaluate the efficacy of motivational material and seminars in motivating people.

Further, one of the aims of the research was to establish whether the energy and enthusiasm felt after attending a motivational or inspirational seminar is enduring or whether it wanes after a period of time.

The intent of this book is not to motivate the reader, but to take the reader on a journey of self-discovery; to encourage the reader to learn about one’s motivational tendencies, to find the roots of one’s motivational drive or of one’s inertia, because, it is only through an inner process that one is able to discover one’s motivational proneness.

It seems that emotions, values, beliefs, moods, thoughts, personality traits, culture and education all affect motivation, in one way or the other; additionally, one’s intrinsic or extrinsic inclinations also seem to play an important role in the way we get motivated.

Motivation is a vast and complex field. Not only does it embrace every aspect of our humanness, but it also reflects our individuality: we think, we feel, we perceive different ways; what is interesting or valuable for one person, may not be as interesting or valuable for another; the way a person reacts to a stimulus, may be different from the way another person reacts to the same stimulus. This uniqueness of thinking, feeling, perceiving and reacting, which stems from our individuality, is at the base of our motivation: it determines ‘what’ motivates us, and ‘how’ it motivates us.

It is difficult to imagine life without motivation. A life without motivation would be a life void of any driving energy, void of any stimulation and feelings; a life where one would be perennially in a state of inertia and apathy.

We believe that what primarily motivates us is our humanness: from the need to survive, to the need to be comfortable; from the need to feel wanted, to belong and to feel relevant in one’s own community, to the need to be alone; from loving unconditionally, to using emotions to control and manipulate others; from seeking power and glory, to wanting to be humble and discreet; from being selfish, to being compassionate and caring; from seeking revenge, to wanting peace; from chasing accomplishments and successes to wanting to do nothing. Only we can attribute that special purpose and meaning to what we do, say and to how we feel. What motivates us is expressed through our motives and reasons. We do things, we say things and we feel certain ways, for a reason; that reason motivates us to act and react in certain ways.

When individuals say that they can motivate others, they obviously ignore the complexity of the motivational process. Excitement, passion, enthusiasm, interest and, inertia, lethargy and sluggishness, may indicate how motivated or unmotivated one is, but they do not offer any clues on ‘what’ may be motivating or demotivating a person. To better understand motivational stimuli and the way people react to those stimuli, we need to consider and understand the role emotions, feelings, values, beliefs, personality, education, culture, spiritual tendencies and our inherited make-up play in our reasoning and thinking processes, because, ultimately, our reasoning and thinking processes are the roots of our motivation.

Evidence shows that emotions and feelings play a very influential role in motivation; they may have an enhancing or debilitating effect on motivation. Emotions, feelings and moods can create states where an individual is devoid of energy, as in the case of depression, or where one is fully energized, as in the case of euphoria. In most cases, emotions affect our reasoning process and, as such, they can affect the objectivity of motivational stimulations. Feelings are the sensors of the field where our humanness and circumstances meet. Whether emotions contribute to negative or positive outcomes, for better or for worse, they reflect individual tendencies and emotional mapping. Much of what we do and how we do it is influenced by emotions. How a person reacts emotionally, indicates how that person perceives the world.

Motivation reflects a person’s worth, values, beliefs and personality. The meaning of life differs from person to person. Striving to find a meaning in one’s life and in what one is and does, is one of the primary motivational forces and it is pegged to our perceptions, our values, our beliefs and our sense of being. Putting too much emphasis on what one gives and too little value on what one receives or, worrying too much on what one is or is not, creates problems with our inner balance. Once people feel the need for self-affirmation and self-realization, they unconsciously manifest a dependency on others’ values, beliefs, opinions and expectations, with profound implications for an independent sense of self-worth. Would we be concerned about our worth, if there was no social comparison? It seems that many are motivated and enriched by others’ values and beliefs and yet, many are impoverished and demotivated by those same values and beliefs. The key to a good self-worth is hidden in our lenses.

Thoughts, feelings, sensory and mental stimulations, all have the ability to activate specific parts of the brain. Once the brain cells or neurons are activated, they send messages to various parts of the body, including our organs, via neurochemicals. These messages have an excitatory or inhibitory somatic effect. Depending on the type of somatic response, it depends whether motivational proneness is affected in a positive and energizing manner, or in a negative and debilitating way. Thoughts, depending on their nature, can impede or enhance motivational drive—positive thoughts enhance motivational stimulation, negative thoughts wreck motivational stimulation.

The motivational process may or may not include conscious thinking; we may be conscious or mindful when fulfilling a need or we may not be. For example, we routinely attend to our daily needs without giving them much thought; it’s a process of habituation. A person who is driven by intrinsic needs feels a different motivational drive than a person who is driven by extrinsic needs. These motivational tendencies, often, exercise their effects in an unconscious way: we work to make money; we need money to buy things; what we buy is an individual choice and serves a specific purpose, to impress others or to enhance one’s wellbeing, or both.

There is a reciprocal stimulating effect between motivation and wellbeing: people are motivated to achieve a state of wellbeing and, a state of wellbeing, in turn, provides good motivational energy to pursue life goals. Individuals in a state of wellbeing demonstrate more drive and enthusiasm than individuals who are in a state of ill-being.

It is said that pleasure, encapsulated in wellbeing, is one of the most important factors for pursuing wellbeing but, pleasure, because of its shallowness, can only generate an elusive sense of wellness. The true meaning of wellbeing lies in its meaningfulness and in its capacity to generate feelings of fulfillment and contentedness. External conditions and internal characteristics influence the perception of wellbeing. Wellbeing varies according to our culture, according to values and beliefs of our community and to our concept of life. Some people have a simplistic concept of wellbeing, others a more eclectic one. Some individuals focus on short-term goals, others on long-term goals, such as retirement and old age. Who makes the better decision? Only time will tell! What if one doesn’t get to old age? Do we have any control over our destiny?

When we live life crises, we have a chance to grow and become a better person. Although things will never be the same again and, we will never be the same as before, crises offer us the opportunity to change and to learn about life; to learn the real meaning of wellbeing. It is only after we lose what we have that we realize its true value. The key to wellbeing may rest in understanding the lessons of life and surrendering to God’s will. The flow may just take us to where we have always wanted to go. But, then again, that is an individual choice.

Perception has its roots imbedded in culture: what motivates one may not motivate the other; what is important to one may not be important to the other; what is valued by one may not be valued by another. The way we perceive and react to a stimulus is affected by cultural diversity.

Cultural diversity is feared by many and grossly misunderstood. Cultural diversity should not be perceived as a threat, but as a stimulus that, through its many facets, is able to expand and improve our knowledge of the world and give a deeper meaning to the meaningfulness of life. Cultural diversity teaches us that we are all part of the human race, without distinctions, and that we all have basic human needs to fulfill, even though we may adopt different ways in fulfilling them. What motivates us, and how and to what extent, is very much governed by our cultural traits. Culture helps give us meaning, and meaningfulness is at the base of our motivational drive.

The last of human freedoms is to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances and to choose one’s own way. The sort of person one becomes is the result of an inner decision and the way we react to the outside world, and we believe that, multiculturalism, not monoculturalism, provides a person with the most stimulating outside world.

‘I do my things and you do your things. I am not in this world to live up to your expectations and you are not in this world to live up to mine. You are you and I am I and, if by chance we find each other, it’s beautiful, if not, it can’t be helped’ (Gestalt prayer).

Values join people into societies and yet values preserve for them a freedom which makes them individuals. A community may lay down how individuals must act, but it has to allow individuals the freedom to act according to one’s standing. Thus, our values may be the same, but they have individual relevancy.

We may question as to why some people feel morally responsible to tell others what to do. In almost every field, we are constantly told what is good or bad for us, what to wear and not to wear, what we should believe or not believe, what we should buy or not buy, what kind of work is good for us and what is not, and so on. People always attempt to influence or change the way we behave and think; they believe that they have the right to interfere with our lives and choices and, they do all this, of course, under the pretext that they care about us and that, they do so for our own good. But, how do they know what is good for them, is good for us?

The amorality of all this lies in the fact that, firstly, no one has the right to change another person’s beliefs and ways of life and that, secondly, one assumes that one’s views, beliefs and ways of life are better than that of another.

It is our right to question what people tell us, whatever its form: verbal, visual or written. Do they really know us that well as to suggest what is good and what is bad for us? How do we know when we are being deceived? When we think ‘What shall I do about this problem?’, how do we know whether a book, a counselor, a manager, a mentor, a father or mother, or a significant other, can really help us? Are we being objective enough about someone else’s ability to help us?

In the field of motivation, there are individuals who have strong opinions on how people should be motivated, on how they should feel and behave when fully motivated. They give examples of personal successes and of their fantastic lifestyles. They then proceed to tell others how to be successful, how to be admired and how to become rich and famous.

We all have needs, and it should be recognized that needs also differ from person to person. Even when we talk about basic human needs, which manifest a certain commonality, we must agree that the way we go about fulfilling them varies from person to person. Our genetic make-up, culture, age, gender, profession, trade, political and religious orientations, economic and social status, environment and so on, accentuate our individuality on how we think, act, react and perceive and, in turn, they all may play a part in how we value and fulfill our needs. It is important to understand and accept our diversities and that, our needs, priorities, wants and desires differ from person to person. Expecting the other person to be like us, to like what we like, to be motivated by the same thing and to behave the same way we do, is to deny the other one’s individuality. Life’s problems affect us in different ways and we all develop our unique ways to solve them. If we imitate others at solving problems, we may also, unknowingly, copy their faults and mistakes. We may lose our sense of self.

There are so many ‘motivational’ books presenting the author as a school drop-out, who started with nothing and who now has become very successful by doing this or that. The book, then, goes on presenting step-by-step various methods on how to become successful in life. Should we be inspired only by these kinds of success stories or should we also be inspired by volunteers who dedicate their lives to the wellbeing of others? How much influence do our values have on our choices? Should we follow someone else’s path or our own?

A person, who is in a state of amotivation, would have problems coping, identifying and dealing with one’s state, and we feel that that person would experience some degree of difficulty in knowing what to do, to get out of that state. It is well established that amotivated people are susceptible to suggestions, prompts and promises because of their low sense of self-worth and self-confidence. A persuader, a helper or a motivator ought to be aware of this psychological precariousness and should be conscious of one’s vulnerability and, desist from taking advantage of this state of being.

From the diversity of the material presented in many stores, bookshops and online, under the section ‘Motivation’, we assume that inspirational, spiritual, energizing and psychological wellbeing material is all seen as ‘Motivational’ or able to affect, in a positive way, someone’s motivation. It is not uncommon for someone languishing in a debilitating amotivational state to feel confused about all this material, to know what to read or what to do, to get out of one’s state.

There have been cases where, some people, deeply disenchanted with their career or their life and itching for a change, have attended expensive ‘motivational’ seminars and, at the end of these seminars, have felt so energized, stimulated and ready to go that they have resigned from their jobs and borrowed money to start new ventures. Those individuals who didn’t have a proper business plan or didn’t have enough experience in their new chosen fields, after a short period of time, found themselves with a mortgage and no business. Feeling inspired and energized is good, but it is equally important to reach deep within us in a conscious and objective way, and realistically assess our skills and potentials, before we commit ourselves to new plans. Our individuality of skills, talents and preferences must be recognized.

Did the ‘motivational guru’ have any moral obligation toward the attendees of one’s seminar? One may argue the point that the speaker did not tell the participants what to do, nor force them to do anything or take any action; one may argue that the guru did not force anyone to attend one’s seminar; one may argue that people should properly research and plan new business ventures, before fully committing themselves financially or otherwise. We say that people should do their homework and exercise caution before making certain decisions. They should be a little more discerning about what they believe, what they hear and what they read.

Far from belittling this approach, many of us have believed and still believe that, gathering people in need of help with their motivational problems, into a single fold, is acceptable and it is the thing to do. This approach assumes that we all have the same needs and that we all go about satisfying them the same way.

The complexity of the field of motivation is only now starting to surface. For far too long, motivation has been viewed through the wrong lenses, described with the wrong words and dealt with the wrong approaches. Enthusiasm, excitement and vigor, and discontentment, apathy and sluggishness, have often been the indexes used to measure one’s motivation or the lack of it, even though some of these emotions and feeling states can change or wane within short periods of time, according to situational circumstances. They lead to superficial and inaccurate assessments. The roots of motivation have seldom been addressed.

We usually have a reason for some of the things we do, for what we say and for how we feel; the solution to our motivational woes does not lie in fixing the things we do or say, but in addressing the reason for doing or saying those things; by addressing the motives. The basic theory of motivation states that motives determine our actions and reactions and that, motives are at the core of our individuality.

Even though people have attempted to categories human motives, the actions and reactions that stem from motives cannot be categorized, predicted or anticipated. Cultures, environments, spirituality, gender, age and education, to name only a few, all exercise an influence over our motives, one way or the other, but there is an unpredictable individuality in the way we respond. That human beings share basic needs is well known; we are all motivated to quell our hunger to avoid starvation; we all eat to fulfill a basic need. The motive is to survive. But we also display different reasons for favoring red meat over seafood, or rice over legumes. And the latter displays our uniqueness more than the former.

Is there a way of succinctly describing the individuality of motives outside basic generalizations? If we assume that we all enjoy making money, is the motivation for making money the same for every individual? The motives for making money can be many! Whilst a person, for example, may spend a whole life accumulating wealth because one enjoys having a reputation of being rich, another may make money to foster one’s education, to better one’s health or to travel the world. One may have intrinsic motives; the other may have extrinsic motives.

Also, not all the things we do and say have to have a motive. Behaviors can be of a habitual nature and a person may not always be conscious of what one is doing or saying. We accept the fact that some behaviors stem from cultures and environmental conditioning and therefore manifest in an unconscious way. Behaviors may even reflect the effect of stupefying substances and mental states. Under these circumstances, the individual may not be fully aware of one’s actions, and therefore, unable to give a reason for one’s behavior.

We are free or we should be free to choose between misery and contentment, happiness and sadness, richness and poverty, and so on. We often choose to endure misery rather than embrace the pain of change and, to many this may appear puzzling. Motivation is an inner phenomenon; it is a vessel of which only we can be the captain. We should not delegate our duties onto others; we should not entrust onto others the task of telling us what is meaningful, what is good and what is bad. It’s our life! We give it meaning! Finding our path to meaningfulness is the key to motivation; we should not adopt a path used by others, no matter how difficult finding our path might be.

Silvio Canale

Chapter 1

Concepts of

Motivation

The predominant concept of motivation is that a person is motivated when one feels enthusiastic, inspired, determined, energized, passionate, excited, interested or keen about something. We read motivational books, we watch motivational DVDs and we attend motivational speakers’ seminars to feel motivated, to feel inspired.

But, there is much more to motivation than just feeling inspired, determined and energized. Why is it, for example, that certain things motivate us more than others? Why is it that we don’t always feel motivated? Where does this feeling come from and, what affects this feeling? Why is it that we feel more motivated when we are happy, than when we are sad? What role do emotions play in motivation?

Is motivation a concern only when we need to do something, when we need to perform a task? What about the motivation that stems from wanting to be the best in our profession or trade, from wanting a better life or, the motivation that stems from the love we have for our loved ones? Some people may be motivated to make a lot of money, to seek peace and tranquility or to serve one’s country, whilst some others may be motivated to dominate or to seek power. It seems there is a little more to motivation than just feeling inspired, energized or excited.

The other points we wish to debate are: If we don’t feel motivated, do we believe that someone else can motivate us? If so, how does this motivational process work? Does this motivational ‘energy’ last a long time or a short time? What happens to this energy when we have to deal with the facts of life, or when we have to deal with our dilemmas?

Our aim is to look at the various aspects of motivation, and also to assess the effects feelings, values, beliefs, cultures, personality, education and other factors have on motivation. Our aim is to address the ‘motives and reasons’ of motivation and, how motives and reasons become the roots of motivational drives.

The main concepts of motivation have been based on behavioral theories: if an individual appears to be enthusiastic, energized, inspired, keen, interested, happy or passionate about something, it is said that that person is motivated; if an individual appears to be bored, lazy or lethargic, it is said that that person is unmotivated. Predominantly, the motivation of an individual is assessed according to that person’s behavioral characteristics.

The motivation of workers, for example, is gauged according to the interest and passion they show toward their task or their work; the motivation of a teacher is reflected by one’s enthusiasm and dedication; the motivation of a young person is manifested through one’s persistence in pursuing a goal. We basically have learnt to determine how motivated or unmotivated people are according to the behavior they manifest when performing a task and, according to their actions and reactions. We assess another person’s motivation by following a phenomenological process: we give a subjective interpretation of what we see and of what we believe it means and so, we conclude that, a person who shows a great deal of interest in an activity is motivated; one that shows disinterest, instead, is unmotivated.

But, observing a person perform a task with enthusiasm is different to knowing what produces that enthusiasm. A person who performs a task with vigor may do so because one enjoys that task, but it also may be because one has to meet a deadline, one wants to keep one’s job, one wants to create a good impression, or because one has been promised a reward. The reason behind one’s action, which is at the base of one’s motivation, is only known to the person concerned and it cannot be accurately interpreted by only what one is able to observe. The root of one’s motivation lies in ‘what’ drives that person’s enthusiasm, not in one’s enthusiasm. The key in knowing one’s motivation is not in measuring a person’s interest, enthusiasm or passion, but in knowing the motive or the reason that stimulates or generates one’s interest, enthusiasm or passion. A feeling state, for example, affects motivation, but it is different to motivation.

Motivation has been described as the mental process, function, or instinct that produces and sustains incentives or drives, in human behavior. Basically, motivation is an inner process. It represents the need and the reason for doing something. The term ‘motivation’ has the same root as ‘motive’. ‘Motive’ derives from the Late Latin word ‘motivus’, meaning ‘impelling or moving’. The word ‘motivus’ was adopted into the Old French as the word ‘motif’ and later taken into Middle English as the word ‘motive’ or ‘motif’. It refers to that stimulus which inwardly moves a person to act or behave in a particular manner. A motive is the reason that prompts a person to act or feel certain ways (1).

We can therefore say that, the perception of feeling motivated and the source of one’s motivation are two different things and that, the amount of interest, passion, enthusiasm and perseverance only reflects the degree of one’s drive, not one’s motivation. Motivation is more than just a feeling or appearing to be energized or inspired. Motivation is rooted in motives, reasons and purposes and, as such, is linked to and can be affected by environments, emotions, moods, values, beliefs, cultures, spiritual orientation, personality, and many other factors.

Most of the available literature on motivation shows that, the prevailing concepts of motivation are based on observable individuals’ behaviors; motivation has been studied, primarily, by observing and by assessing people’s behaviors. Motivational tendencies have been analyzed according to the degree of interest or disinterest shown when performing activities and to the quality of work produced. For example, people who work at a level below companies’ expectations are said to be poorly motivated and those who meet companies’ standards are said to be well motivated; students with high academic achievements are said to be motivated and those with low academic records or who regularly skip classes or lectures are said to be unmotivated; people who are active in life, show a higher degree of motivation than those who are lethargic. The literature seldom addresses motivation as an individual’s inner process, albeit what drives a person is very much an inner phenomenon.

We may feel reluctant or unmotivated to do something we don’t like, whatever that reason might be, or we may feel that we can’t wait to do something we really enjoy. A person may be reluctant to finish a task, but may be prepared to travel hundreds of kilometers to go and support one’s team. Where do these preferences and tendencies come from? What drives people to do one thing and not the other? Is it fair to brand a person ‘unmotivated’, if that person shows no interest toward just one task? Can we really judge someone’s motivation by only what that person manifests?

People’s motivation is discriminatory. What motivates and what does not motivate cannot be accurately predicted nor can it be correctly assessed by evaluating one’s behavior or conduct.

A man who takes a siesta every day may do so because of one’s habit, culture or because one may feel tired. A person who desists from endorsing a plan may do so because one doesn’t believe the plan will succeed, one may not want to co-operate with the person in charge of the plan or because one feels they have nothing to contribute. One cannot establish, exactly, what motivates the man to take a siesta everyday or what motivates the person to desist from supporting the plan. We, as spectators, can only witness the action; we cannot be sure what causes the action. The cause is only known to the person who owns the action.

To clarify further our concept that motivation is an inner process, let us consider, for a moment, a woman grappling with a stream of negative thoughts. The woman may show a diversity of somatic reactions: from being very calm to being very upset, from being silent to being very talkative, and so on. The woman finally may realize that negative thoughts can have a severe negative effect on her health and so, she tries to deal with the thoughts the best way she can; she may engage in a variety of behaviors that, she believes, will help her deal with her negative thoughts: she may dance, sing, laugh, argue, fight, keep busy and so forth. What motivates her to behave certain ways is linked to what she believes will help her regain some inner tranquility. What she manifests may not describe what goes on inside her mind. It is impossible to know what motivates her to sing or dance, unless one asks her directly and, as long as she is prepared to tell the truth.

The woman is obviously motivated to take care of her health. One can only imagine the damage constant negative thoughts can do to the organism. The thought-stopping process is very much an internal effort and what goes on inside a person’s mind cannot be observed nor should be implied by analyzing one’s behavior. The person is definitely motivated to stop her negative thoughts, but it is very much an inner process and, in this case, known and felt only by the person concerned. Individuals who experience certain stimuli will be motivated to react in accordance with the nature and severity of those stimuli.

It is difficult to know what the motivating forces of a person’s behavior are, unless we ask the person concerned. Stimuli, whether they originate from the outer or from the inner, have the ability to generate conscious and unconscious reactions; the meaning we attribute to stimuli is very much a personal process which reflects our self. The way we react to stimuli, in some cases, may be predicted, but what makes us react the way we do is very much an intimate process.

Effects and diversity of stimuli

What is this ‘inner force’ that drives and motivates us in so many different ways? Is it the work of the mind? Is it genetic? Is it something we acquire during our early years, as we grow up? Is it something to which we react automatically or is it based on a reasoning pattern?

Evidence suggests that, as human beings, although we share many common features and characteristics, we all differ from one another in the way we perceive things; no two human beings are alike. We have different worldviews, but we also have different values, drives, emotions and feelings. We are physiologically and psychologically differently from one another. Our ways of reacting to stimuli vary from person to person; the way a person responds even to the same stimulus is conditioned by one’s feeling states and by one’s environment, and therefore, we can say that the way we react to a stimulus, may even change from one moment to the next. Mood changes, negative or positive feed-back, are some of the factors that can influence the way we perceive and react to stimuli.

It is hard to predict a person’s reaction to a stimulus. However, there are circumstances where one may anticipate an individual’s reactions; these are often based on the individual’s known values or beliefs: a person, who, we know, values spending the week-end with one’s family, would not react favorably to being forced to work on a Sunday; a statement that offends some people’s religious beliefs, would prompt some negative reactions from followers of that religion; if we know that an individual has a predilection for certain items, we would expect a favorable reaction, from that person, to an advertisement offering those items at a discounted price. A negative reaction would prevent a person from experiencing any motivational stimulation.

A couple of examples may further highlight the relevancy of individual tendencies when exposed to stimuli and, of their relationship with motivation. Let’s say that a group of people shop at a particular store: some of them may shop there because the merchandise is low priced and of good quality, some may shop there because the store is conveniently located or offers good parking facilities, and some others will shop there because they appreciate the friendly staff; some customers may shop at that store for all three reasons. Each stimulus motivates us to shop at that store. The more the stimulus is concordant with our expectations and needs, the more we will be motivated by that stimulus. If the shop is owned by one of our relatives, and we strongly value our ties with that person, we may patronize that person’s business, whether the merchandise is cheaper or more expensive. A discordant stimulus would prompt a negative reaction. If a shop sells merchandise which goes against our values and that we find offensive, we would not support that establishment. Similarly, if some business people have a bad reputation, despite attractive offers, we may decide not to use their services.

The nature, significance and meaning of a stimulus and its perceived benefits or damages, exercise a strong influence on our motivational tendencies. We may also add that, the way we react to a stimulus and the reasons for reacting certain ways, are only known to the individual concerned and may never be known to an observer. This inner reaction, particular to each individual, is fundamental in understanding the individuality of motivational processes.

Motivation may be experienced briefly or over a long period of time. The energy varies according to the intensity of the stimulus and the prepotence of the need. If we need to satisfy our hunger, our motivation to search for food will be very strong and its strength will be proportionate to the period of time we have been without food. The motivation will assuage as we approach satiation. If we are in the process of purchasing a house, we will feel motivated to search for one until we find the one that satisfies our needs. If we wish to obtain a specific education, the motivation to study may last many years. If our role in an organization is not recognized or appreciated, we may be motivated to desist from co-operating, until such time our contribution is acknowledged. Hearing a song may remind us of a person we love and may prompt us to buy a gift. The feeling, relevancy and value we attribute to the stimulus has an effect on the way we react to the stimulus. The reaction reflects our sentiments of that moment. Once the need is appeased, we revert to the previous state of being. The importance and urgency of needs play a significant role in motivation.

We will see in later chapters how our reaction to a stimulus may also be governed by our personality, culture, environment, gender, age and education, and psychological, physical and spiritual wellbeing.

Motivational role of needs

A