Motivation: The driving force behind our actions

Motivation is an impulse that makes people act to achieve their goals. Motivation involves emotional, biological and social phenomena and is a process responsible for initiating, directing and maintaining behaviors related to the achievement of goals.

What does the Bible say about Motivation?

Motivation and Goals – Why are we often overcome with great discouragement? Why do our lives often seem aimless? The answers to these questions are concentrated in the following answer: because we lack motivation and goals.

Human improvement professionals, people managers and entrepreneurs talk more and more about the importance of motivation and goals. Every institution or person, they say, needs to be permeated by both. Without goals, the motivated person becomes "crazy". He gets carried away with everything, does not finish anything and still feels that his/her energy is being wasted. Without motivation, the person with goals feels a lack of energy and willingness to fulfill their dreams.

In our Christian living, we also need to have motivation and goals. For the Christian, motivation comes from the human spirit filled with the Spirit of God. Paul makes this very clear when he says that he learned to live contentedly regardless of the situation and that he could do everything in God. The motivation that God promotes in us is exactly this: to feel full of strength to do everything (Phil. 2:11-13).

This text addresses three main points:

1. 1) Goals can be received by a heavenly vision, we will see this in Paul's story;
2. God has a global vision and a well-defined goal;
3. Jesus had a strategic vision and His work contemplated it. I hope that after reading it, you will feel inspired to have motivation and goals in your spiritual and human life. Let us start?

At midday, O king, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining round me and those who journeyed with me. 14And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It hurts you to kick against the goads.' And I said, 'Who are you, Lord?' And the Lord said, 'I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. But rise and stand upon your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you to serve and bear witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, delivering you from the people and from the Gentiles—to whom I send you to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.' "Wherefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but declared first to those at Damascus, then at Jerusalem and throughout all the country of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God and perform deeds worthy of their repentance" Acts 26:13-20.

Paul received a heavenly vision and that vision became his goal. He was obedient to the vision he received. Similar to Paul, God has a heavenly vision for our lives. God has a goal, which contemplates the preaching of the gospel and the gospel reaching all nations (Acts 1:7-8).

During his journey, spiritual motivation led him to extraordinary success, such as what occurred during his second missionary journey, when he was motivated to visit Asia Minor because of the vision of a Macedonian man who begged him to pass there.

In the evening, a vision came to Paul in which a Macedonian man was standing and pleading with him, saying, "Come over to Macedonia and help us". As soon as he had the vision, we immediately left for that destination, concluding that God had called us to announce the gospel to them Acts 16:9-10.

From the story of Paul there are two important lessons:

1. The heavenly vision is given by God, it becomes his goal, and he must realize it;
2. If the motivation is spiritual, we succeed in fulfilling our God-given goal;

Paul's story teaches that our motivation comes from the Holy Spirit. This is very important. Furthermore, it also teaches that goals are delivered in a spiritual vision (although this is not the only, nor the main means used by God).

MOTIVATION AND GOALS WILL GENERATE A BOOM IN YOUR SPIRITUAL AND HUMAN LIFE

Why is motivation important?

Motivation is what makes individuals give their best, do their best to achieve what they want, and many times, some even end up "passing over" other people.

How to find motivation?

Motivation can happen through an inner force, that is, each person has the ability to motivate or demotivate, also called self-motivation, or intrinsic motivation. There is also extrinsic motivation, which is generated by the environment in which the person lives, what happens in their life influences their motivation.

How to have more energy and motivation?

Take a self-assessment: who are you and who do you want to be?
The first step to more motivation is — guess what! — find out what motivates you. Obvious, right? Not so much.

Have you noticed how difficult it is to understand who we are and, above all, who we want to be?

Set goals and targets: where do you want to go?
After that real leap into your inner self, let us do a more practical exercise to improve your motivation.

Given your reflections on who you want to be, how about seeing these aspirations as something possible?

Yes, you already know: it is time to set goals!

It is through them that you will be able to shape, little by little, your routine so that it is more in line with your positive ambitions.

The result of this is that your everyday actions will be easily self-motivated. After all, you know exactly where you want to go with them and what they add to your life.

Have self-discipline: is the motivation really so spontaneous?
With your main goals in life more clarified, the motivation will be natural. But be careful! She is not that spontaneous and requires a lot of dedication. If you deviate from the previously defined goals, the effect will be the opposite of what you wanted: demotivation for sure!

There is nothing that lowers our spirits more than feeling that we have sabotaged our dreams ourselves, is there?

So make it happen! Focusing on your goals is essential to keeping your motivation up. For this, being careful in time management is essential.

Motivation according to psychology

According to Abraham Maslow, man is motivated when his needs are all met in a hierarchical way. Maslow organizes these needs as follows:
- Self-realization
- Self esteem
- Social
- Safety
- Physiological

Such needs must first be met on the basis of written needs, that is, physiological needs are the starters of the motivational process, however, each individual may feel needs above or below the ones he is performing, which means that the process is not plastered, and yes flexible.

For Frederick Herzberg, motivation is achieved through two factors:
Hygienic factors that are external stimuli that improve the performance and action of individuals, but that cannot motivate them.

Motivational factors that are internal, that is, feelings generated within each individual from the recognition and self-realization generated through their actions.

David McClelland, on the other hand, identified three needs that would be key points for motivation: power, affiliation and achievement. For McClelland, such needs are "secondary", they are acquired throughout life, but they bring prestige, status and other sensations that human beings like to feel.

What to do not to lose motivation?

1. Believe in yourself first of all, believe in yourself.
2. Think positive.
3. Learn from mistakes.
4. Have dreams.
5. Set goals.
6. Do not give up fighting.
7. Perform activities that make you happy.
8. Celebrate achievements
9. Avoid discouragement

What leads to lack of motivation?

If you have been feeling down for more than six months and cannot change even though friends and family try to offer you outings or things that at other times would have given you a lot of excitement, you may be depressed.

The brain is responsible for rewards. Everything that gives us satisfaction in doing, we will want to do again. The reverse is also true, we tend to avoid anything that gives painful results. We often do not know why we get discouraged about some things. Sometimes they are discouraged because the work takes a lot of work and a lot of time. So divided the work into parts to animate.