What drives a person? What makes us act in a certain way? What makes us feel alive? These are feelings, this is the leading force that defines our aspirations. However, the question of what drives a person, reason or love, is still open. The modern world requires the individual to “turn on” the head. But what is more important of this? What moves a person forward?
Mind influence
We live in an era of technological progress, which hardens people, dulls feelings and casts doubt on the opinion that desire drives a person. The theory of motivation for human behavior is taught in a separate course at institutes, and is studied by the scientific community. But there is no consensus on what drives a person. Reason is defined by two concepts - this is fear and pride. It is these components that provoke and motivate a person to action. Events in life, whether good or bad, are perceived by the person as inhibitory or provoking impulses to action in the future. In turn, pride can be defined as the desire to be in front, to achieve more than others, to prove that you are worth what and can be higher than others. Here, failure and disappointment can serve as an incentive to act only in order to amuse one's pride. Any society operates in accordance with any rules or principles. However, pride, being the best motivation, often forces us to act contrary to established rules of conduct. It turns out that in such situations the action itself is important.
What does love mean?
And if the mind is a rational motivation, then feelings are the irrational motivation of behavior for an individual, these are dangerous desires that move a person. People like to justify their actions with the words “I want so much”, “I love so much” and so on. Succumbing to such impulses, many act thoughtlessly, impulsively, while not often even trying to think about the consequences, succumbing to momentary emotions. Often, one may encounter the fact that, satisfying one’s little joys or acting in a certain situation as one wants, the actions of the individual are absolutely not amenable to logic and for others such actions can be simply inexplicable. It can concern any sphere of life: travel, choice of partners, hobbies, profession and so on. You can do architecture all your life, and then drop everything and go sing in a restaurant just because you have long dreamed about it. No one will understand, but we want it so much, like it and so on. Many believe that it is love that drives a person.
What is the outcome?
It turns out that in the life of each person both criteria occupy an important place. Thanks to both love and reason, a person can balance his whole life. Often a person is driven by an idea. Scientists have long proved that the real joy and a sense of "flow", a person receives in the first place by doing what he likes, what he likes, but by reason and logic. The actions that we perform “on emotions” dictate to us inexplicable desires, which we strive to fulfill in defiance of accepted norms, principles and logic.
Reason or love?
Voluntarily, not a single person will act all his life only based on what reason dictates to him. And for someone, even betraying their heart feelings and love is akin to a crime and is possible only under the influence of outside. An example is marriage at the insistence of parents, without love. Both ancient thinkers and modern philosophers adhere to a position whose essence is that the mind will never defeat feelings and love. And here we are not talking about physical drives, but about the most sincere deep love that comes from the heart. Reason, motivation do not make any sense when in a person’s life there is love that takes all thoughts, which breaks from the inside, for which one wants to roll mountains. When thoughts haunt you day or night, then what kind of reason can we talk about? Philosophers of all time and peoples were interested in this question. Consider the most significant theories.
What did Plato write about?
For Plato, the driving force of not only the development of a particular individual, but of society as a whole, was the desire for knowledge, research, and truth. True pleasure is not following feelings, only wisdom determines all actions and only thanks to it one can get true pleasure. Plato wrote that there is no alternative in the power of joy than the joy of knowledge. It can be concluded that Plato preferred mind, moral duty, service to society, rather than feelings and emotions.
Freud's Theory
Sigmund Freud adhered to a different point of view, he believed that the force that makes a person act is nothing but the sexual desires of people. And this motivational force does not release a person from birth to death. Unfulfilled at least halfway sexual desires entail aggressive behavior. What moves a person in Freud? He believed that most people act only focusing on their "base" instincts and their actions are not subject to either reason or logic. Freud attached great importance to the human sex life, considering it to be the main principle of everything.
The followers of the theory of the philosopher to this day urge everyone around to take care of their sex life, as this helps to avoid manifestations of aggression, neurosis, health problems and even unpleasantness in communicating with people. However, this theory has long been under the shadow of doubt, because long-term observations tell us that libido is not the ultimate truth. Sigmund Freud's theory was that the leading instinct and motivational force is the libido instinct. The theory is still popular today. For example, many psychotherapists develop their own methods based on Freud's theory to identify problems in the behavior of spouses, for example. To make them the right “diagnosis”, the therapist asks questions about intimate life, believing that marriage can be saved only by restoring the sexual life of partners. In many cases, such techniques work. But not everyone agrees with this. In particular, the famous Australian psychotherapist Alfred Langle. And to the question of what drives a person, Langle replied that it was primarily sensations and feelings.
Negative Motivation
Often a person is driven by instincts, namely, negative situations, various troubles, inconveniences, difficulties, which not only prompt, but force to act. The simplest example that everyone knows is the fear of children from school to give a bad grade for incomplete homework or bad behavior. Not only fear of poor grades, but also condemnation from teachers, fear of parental control and subsequent punishment. However, negative motivation is often short-term and is not designed for a long time. For example, in schoolchildren this motivation ends exactly at the moment when the punishment is canceled. The incentive to action immediately disappears. The following factors cause negative motivation: verbal, material or physical punishment, restrictions on freedom or other deprivations that are social in nature. With age, the person’s resistance to negative motivation also grows, while for children and adolescents who are directly dependent on parents or other people, a condescending attitude to negativity is quite difficult.
What motivates self-development?
What forces move a person in his activity? The first and most important thing that motivates us to engage in ourselves and develop is the desire to realize ourselves in life, which, in one way or another, is inherent in every person. Here we are talking about the fact that a person must constantly learn, learn something new. Someone attends courses, improves their qualifications, learns something new throughout their life. If you believe Maslow's theory, the best source of motivation is a passionate desire to prove to yourself and others your compactness in professional matters, as well as the full realization of yourself in certain areas of life. The scientist believed that the main motive force is the movement towards the knowledge of something new.
At the same time, fear of uncertainty can inhibit this motivation. The greatest joy to a person is delivered by his own new achievements, preferably with a positive outcome. As for failures, mistakes, criticisms, inhibition of active motivation takes place here, which may affect the further activity of a person. The example of other successful and talented people, which can even be compared with the internal satisfaction of one’s achievements, also encourages action. This is due not only to the achievement of goals, fame, but also recognition from other people. Only anticipation of new victories, especially after a series of successful results, encourages a person to do impossible things.
Motivation basics
This theory is not about factors that are directly related to a specific activity. They are defined as motivation, which affects the external content, and not on the execution process. This may include a sense of responsibility to other people, and it does not matter if this is relatives, colleagues or anyone else. Also, one cannot fail to mention the desire to be recognized, to get approval from others. Nowhere without self-improvement, motivation to get a certain status and social status. And even the most banal motive is the desire to avoid unpleasant consequences and the fear of getting a negative result due to one’s own actions and actions.
External motivation
As for external motivation, here we are not talking about the content of the activity, this factor does not cause any interest. First of all, it is external attractiveness, here we are talking about material wealth, recognition, social status and so on. It turns out that in external motivation, the evaluation of activity, behavior, and actions by other people is of great importance. In this case, it is most important for a person to hear and realize that his activity has weight among others. Glory and recognition are what everyone longs for.
What is the conclusion?
Effective activity is possible only if it is based on several motivational aspects at once. The more motives a person drives, the more effective his activity will be. Therefore, our desire for self-development includes each of the listed theories in one or another quantity.