Hierarchical Motivation

Extrinsic & Intrinsic Motivation

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs shows where the motivation for a person is stemming from.   

In the Physiological Realm, human needs are at the bottom of the pyramid.  These are the most basic needs to eat, breathe, sleep, etc.  No real motivation, other than to sustain ones life. 

Safety, Love/Belonging, & Esteem the motivation is extrinsic, outside of oneself.  Pleasing others, which may have started for the purposes of survival, wanting the latest thing (i.e., shoes, car, or iPhone) to prove you belong to a group or social class of people, caring more about what people think of you, then how you see yourself, are all motivators outside the self.  In these realms the outside world is telling us what we need in order to be happy. In this realm the Ego is born (Earth Guide Only). You may want to look at Memes & Memetics to understand this idea better, and the drive for our consumerism. Malow saw these as deficiencies, because they do not bring true lasting happiness.  In these realms of the we are experiencing "D-Motivation, D-Needs, & D-Love. The "D" represents the deficiencies. 

GOLD STAR

The conditioning to extrinsic motivation begins as young children.  Every time a GOLD STAR was placed on our homework for a job "well done!"  The shift from wanting to do good work because of what we valued, began to be about how to get more GOLD STARS, because this meant other people judged our work as worthy.  Are motivation became more about pleasing others versus pleasing ourselves.  GOLD STARS placed our motivation of living extrinsically and we began to lose our truest nature.

The Wellspring Within

Self-Actualizer's know the boundless wellspring of BLISS.  To experience "bliss" we must be attuned with ourselves to know our intrinsic motivation. When we listen to the truth of who we are and we do the thing(s) our heart is telling us to do, life is more joyous. As children we all played, we played for the joy playing. We all learned from a place of  joy, through play.  As children in play, we lived in the realm of Self-Actualization.  Self- Actualization is our true nature of BEING, with no deficiencies.