Motivation – 1 How to better identify what you want and get it! Help others identify what they want and support them to go after it!

One theory about what motivates us, Choice theory, developed by Dr William Glasser, sees motivation arising from our drive to meet certain biological needs – physical and psychological.  It identifies five basic needs. They are the drivers (motivators) of our behaviour as we seek to satisfy these needs.

The five needs are:

Survival (air,  food,  water,  shelter, health,  sex, exercise)

Love and belonging   ( friendship, cooperation, involvement , companionship, caring,  intimacy, relationship, connection )     

Power and worth ( importance, recognition,  competence ,  pride,  achievement,  competition,  respect,  being heard, significance,  skills, impact,  pride)

Freedom (choices,  independence, options , autonomy,liberty, physical movement,  psychological space)

Fun (enjoyment,  pleasure,  learning,  relaxation, play/ hobbies, laughter)

We put images of what we want on an imaginary scale with what we have got.

Our brain compares our images of what we want with what we have in the world. We then set out, through our behaviour, to control our world to get what we want.

Now is when things get interesting.

As we start to recognise why we are so driven to beat our competitors; or get so hurt when our friends or family members aren’t as forthcoming as we would like, we can start to make sense of our world in a different way.

Take the time now to look at each of the above five categories and list down or underline at least one key word from each category for yourself.

What behaviour – action or reaction- does this frequently provoke in you?

In our next blog we’ll look at what comes next.

Next blog

Having a sense that this is how and why we now respond in certain ways, can free us up to choose if we want to continue to respond as we now do.

 Mary Gray ( View blogger profile here)

Executive Director

Home and Family Counselling