Now that we understand why motivation is so important for self-analysis, let’s look at the role our attitude plays in better understanding ourselves. Attitude can be described as your tendency (positive or negative), to think and feel about someone or something. Attitude is the foundation for success in every aspect of life. Our attitude can be our best friend or our worst enemy. In other words:
“The only disability in life is a bad attitude.”
When you start a business, you are sure to encounter a wide variety of
emotions, from difficult times and failures to good times and successes. Your
attitude is what will see you through the tough times and guide you towards
success. Attitude is also infectious. It affects everyone around you, from your
customers to your employees to your investors. A positive attitude helps build
confidence in the workplace while a negative attitude is likely to result in
the demotivation of your people.
How to cultivate a Positive
The good news is attitude is a choice. So it is possible to improve, control
and change our attitude, if we decide we want to! The following tips help
foster a positive mindset:
· Remember that you
control your attitude, not the other way around
· Devote at least 15
minutes a day towards reading, watching or listening to something positive
· Avoid negative
people who only complain and stop complaining yourself
· Expand your
vocabulary with positive words and delete negative phrases from your mind
· Be appreciative
and focus on what’s good in yourself, in your life, and in others
· Stop thinking of
yourself as a victim and start being proactive
· Imagine yourself
succeeding and achieving your goals
What is Motivation
Very simply put, motivation is
your reason for acting or behaving in a certain manner. It is important to
understand that not everyone is motivated by the same desires – people are
motivated by many, many different things. We can understand this better by
looking at Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.
Famous American psychologist Abraham Maslow wanted to understand what motivates
people. He believed that people have five types of needs, ranging from very
basic needs (called physiological needs) to more important needs that are
required for self-growth (called self- actualization needs). Between the
physiological and self-actualization needs are three other needs – safety
needs, belongingness and love needs, and esteem needs. These needs are usually
shown as a pyramid with five levels and are known as Maslow’s Hierarchy of
Needs
As you can see from the pyramid, the lowest level depicts the most basic needs.
Maslow believed that our behaviour is motivated by our basic needs, until those
needs are met. Once they are fulfilled, we move to the next level and are
motived by the next level of needs. Let’s understand this better with an
example.
Rupa comes from a very poor family. She never has enough food, water, warmth or
rest. According to Maslow, until Rupa is sure that she will get these basic
needs, she will not even think about the next level of needs – her safety
needs. But, once Rupa is confident that her basic needs will be met, she will
move to the next level, and her behaviour will then be motivated by her need
for security and safety. Once these new needs are met, Rupa will once again
move to the next level, and be motivated by her need for relationships and
friends. Once this need is satisfied, Rupa will then focus on the fourth level
of needs – her esteem needs, after which she will move up to the fifth and last
level of needs – the desire to achieve her full potential.
Understand Achievement Motivation.
We now know that people are motivated by basic, psychological and
self-fulfillment needs. However, certain people are also motivated by the achievement
of highly challenging accomplishments. This is known as Achievement Motivation,
or ‘need for achievement’.
The level of motivation achievement in a person differs from individual to
individual. It is important that entrepreneurs have a high level of achievement
motivation – a deep desire to accomplish something important and unique. It is
equally important that they hire people who are also highly motivated by
challenges and success.