Motivation Matters More Than Ever

Motivation Matters more than ever.

Every one in a while, I’ll see something funny, inspirational, and motivating  at the same time. This picture is of a car with THREE pizza delivery thingies on the roof – from Pizza Hut, Domino’s Pizza, and Papa Murphy’s Pizza, Little Ceasar’s Pizza, Papa John’s Pizza.  Yeah, this guy delivers pizza for 3 different pizza companies.

To me, I think it demonstrate motivation [2. Motivation is the activation or energization of goal-oriented behavior. Motivation is said to be intrinsic or extrinsic. The term is generally used for humans but, theoretically, it can also be used to describe the causes for animal behavior as well. This article refers to human motivation. According to various theories, motivation may be rooted in the basic need to minimize physical pain and maximize pleasure, or it may include specific needs such as eating and resting, or a desired object, hobby, goal, state of being, ideal, or it may be attributed to less-apparent reasons such as altruism, selfishness, morality, or avoiding mortality. Conceptually, motivation should not be confused with either volition or optimism.], diligence, hard work, ingenuity – and, it’s also a funny and humurous thing to see.  So, enjoy this picture I’m calling “Motivation Matters” [3. This form of motivation has been studied by social and educational psychologists since the early 1970s. Research has found that it is usually associated with high educational achievement and enjoyment by students. Intrinsic motivation has been explained by Fritz Heider’s attribution theory, Bandura’s work on self-efficacy, and Ryan and Deci’s cognitive evaluation theory. Students are likely to be intrinsically motivated if they: attribute their educational results to internal factors that they can control (e.g. the amount of effort they put in), believe they can be effective agents in reaching desired goals (i.e. the results are not determined by luck), are interested in mastering a topic, rather than just rote-learning to achieve good grades.].

Image of “Motivation” [4. Extrinsic motivation comes from outside of the performer. Money is the most obvious example, but coercion and threat of punishment are also common extrinsic motivations. While competing, the crowd may cheer on the performer, which may motivate him or her to do well. Trophies are also extrinsic incentives. Competition is in general extrinsic because it encourages the performer to win and beat others, not to enjoy the intrinsic rewards of the activity. Social psychological research has indicated that extrinsic rewards can lead to overjustification and a subsequent reduction in intrinsic motivation. In one study demonstrating this effect, children who expected to be (and were) rewarded with a ribbon and a gold star for drawing pictures spent less time playing with the drawing materials in subsequent observations than children who were assigned to an unexpected reward condition and to children who received no extrinsic reward.]

It’s Your Turn

What motivates you?  Do inspirational acts or stories?  Does money motivate you?  What about opportunity – does that motivate you?  Is the chance to make a difference a motivating factor?  To you, what is the definition of Motivation?  If you’re familiar with Daniel Pink, what would Daniel Pink say about the image of motivation above?