What is motivation — an essay

From Newton’s Laws to Human Motivation

In order to accomplish a task, a goal, a purpose, a mission.

Let’s start with Newton’s quote, you are either at rest or in motion. To be more precise, Newton mentioned this.

Any object at rest stays at rest unless some force acts upon it.

Any object in motion stays in motion unless something acts upon it.

But then, how can an object at rest become an object in motion?

The answer: Energy.

For an object to be in motion, energy must be applied to it.

Let’s try to apply this law to human beings.

For a human being to be in motion, they need energy, to produce this energy they need to eat and nourish their brain so that it can live and operate their body.

But what happens when a human sets a goal, a task, and is unable to accomplish it.

You’re going to tell me they just have to eat and they will have the necessary energy to accomplish their task.

But that doesn’t work because some humans eat and still can’t accomplish what they want, but why is that so?

So eating would not be the energy that drives humans to excel.

But then what?

Motivation?

But what is motivation?

Motivation, not being permanent but temporary, is a form of energy that drives us to exceed ourselves over a short period of time.

Some scientists argue that motivation comes from the reward system that generates dopamine. Dopamine being the neurotransmitter of pleasure.

So, motivation would come from the pleasure of doing something or planning to do something.

But let’s push this further. If Jacques decides he wants to become a prosperous businessman, because he predicts in his head that money will give him all the pleasure in the world. Once prosperous, Jacques realizes that money brings him less pleasure than he thought. So his motivation to do things diminishes to the point of being unhappy in his daily work.

Jacques then becomes an object at rest because the energy (the motivation/pleasure) is no longer present to help him excel.

So how does Jacques become an object in motion again. You’re going to tell me an energy must be applied to him to get back in motion, but which one? The energy of motivation/pleasure no longer works because he knows that the pleasure he predicts for the future, will be less once present. If you have the ______, comment below.

I will let time fill the ______.