While you are planning your future and career, you may wish to think about what motivates you to work or what will motivate you to work.

Why do people work? Here are some which I have been thinking about.

1. (Survival motivation) They work for making a living, to provide for their family’s needs and wants, etc
2. (Enjoyment motivation) They work to keep themselves busy, entertained, occupied, to stimulate their minds, to learn etc
3. (Fulfilment motivation) They work for self fulfilment, find a greater purpose in life, give meaning to their life, satisfaction etc
4. (Achievement motivation) They work to satisfy their ego/ aspiration for power, prove something to themselves and others, peer recognition, social/ economic status etc

Survival motivation:

• This is the dominant driver in many people at the lowest level of the economic pyramid, people carrying out laborious/ tedious/ mundane/ risky tasks.
• In many of our families, we might find that there were older generations which struggled through their life with the survival motivation being the key driving force throughout their lives.

Enjoyment motivation:

• This is seen often in the case of spouses of well to do families (with considerable financial security) where one family member prefers to explore work as a source of keeping one self busy.
• This is also seen in many retired people.

Fulfilment motivation:

• This is often seen in the case of people seeking to do something useful for society with their lives. Often seen in people pursing non-profit organisations and social causes.
• This is the key driver often when one finds a person highly successful in their professional field quitting and pursuing a larger and socially more important cause.

Achievement motivation:

• Ex: a sportsman striving to be the fastest man on earth.
• Ex: a scientists wishing to be the most decorated scientist in his/her field. The motivation to stand above other fellow scientists.
• Ex: A desire to challenge oneself and prove that it is possible

Note:

• There is nothing right or wrong in any of these motivations.
• To each his own. Each person may value each aspect differently and be driven by each motivation in different proportions and combinations.
• You might also notice that succeeding in one motivation and failing completely in another may also lead to a lot of disappointment in life.
• An ideal job or career may be one that provides the employee an opportunity to “feed”  each of the above motivations to the right extent and proportion as desired by the employee.
• Of course, the great HR challenge for organisations is a) to hire employees whose motivation are aligned with what the organisation can provide and b) to find ways to help employees continuously “feed” their motivations.

Personally, I find my fulfilment motivation very dominant in me.