Human Motivation: Tips and Principles

The theory of human motivation was proposed and developed by A. H. Maslow. According to him, human desires are never-ending and can be classified into five categories. They are physiology, safety, love, self-esteem, and self-actualization. They are termed as basic goals. These basic goals are related to each other and are generally arranged in a hierarchy of prepotency. Human motivation is a reaction that our body has to some form of either internal or external inspiration.

In simple terms, it means that a person’s body is responding to inspiration. It deals with directing a behavior to a particular goal.

It is generally seen that internal stimulations such as eating or sleeping do not need motivation. However, sometimes in life people feel that they need to motivate themselves to carry out other important functions in life. It is important to set goals in order to achieve certain targets. Without goals, it is seen that people cannot begin to get motivated. This is because as humans, people need to have the reason to do something.

There are three essential types of personalities that resolve human motivation.
The first deals with the need for achievement. It is the desire to excel at things and endeavor to succeed. People of this type are in it for the competition only. The second type deals with the need for power. It is the drive to convince people to behave a certain way with the power of human motivation. People of this type are in for the power and do not care much about the competition. Finally, the third type deals with the need for affiliation. It is the strong desire for close interpersonal relationships with others. People of this type are in just for friends. They tend to cooperate just to have the social aspect.

Human behavior is unique in nature. An inspiration or means of motivation for one person may not be the same for another. It is a highly subjective concept that varies from person to person.