Mithilakalam

One of my friends came to see me at my office and wanted to discuss his concerns for his younger brother. He was bothered that his brother was wasting time. He wanted to  motivate  him to focus on his studies. To be frank, I am not an expert or a motivational speaker, but we do share a wonderful bond. He might have chosen trust over credentials for sharing his concerns, I guess. I asked him –  ”  Close your eyes and think of a person. Tell me who comes to your mind?  ”  He quickly answered, “My uncle”, (he teaches college students at one of the most reputed universities in the U.S.A), “and I asked why? He said that my uncle is very  knowledgeable,  he knows a lot about this world. Since he reads a lot, I get to know a lot from him.” He is  motivating   and an inspiring   personality.  He patiently answered me, in a very soft tone. I did offer him some suggestions but after he left, I kept on thinking about it. After...

Motivation is a process activating, directing and maintaining a goal-directed behaviour. So the goal, behaviour and drive are interrelated and are influenced by human values and culture. A need can become a drive if felt strongly and can direct human behaviour to attain the goal, need gives rise to a goal. Need, motive and drive are often used interchangeably, and even ‘goal’ is used interchangeably with ‘incentive’. A need pushes us, the corresponding goal or incentive pulls us. The Hindi translation of the term goal is “Lakshya”-something that one aspires to achieve, for example, one may want to perform well in his/her exam, or would like to buy a car in the next financial quarter or a scientist may want to discover a vaccine for the novel coronavirus. Thus, a need (physiological, security, affiliation, esteem or self-actualization needs) pushes an individual to make efforts, modulate behaviour towards attaining the goal. However, the need for achieving these goals may be ...