Motivation

Motivation is the will to do, and the will to do well. Motivation may be self-directed, or one may be motivated by others and by the environment, and one can motivate others as well. What motivates the self and how can one motivate the others? Since the entire emphasis of motivation is on one's or other's action or good performance it is worthwhile to see what performance (which is essentially behaviour) depends upon. Performance depends on two factors. (1) The first is competence, which comes from knowledge, skill and experience and is an acquired character. (2) The second is motivation or the willingness to do the job well.
Self-motivation is the ability to change one's behaviour to strive for better performance. Motivation of others is the ability to influence the behaviour of other people in such a manner as to get them to do what you expect them to do, because the person motivated enjoys doing it. The entire stress is on change in behaviour. Thus it is pertinent to understand human behaviour. Not only to determine the 'whys' of past behaviour but to some extent to predict, to change, and even to control future behaviour.

Behaviour

Behaviour is 'need' based and goal oriented. The basic unit of behaviour is an activity. In fact all behaviour is a series of activities. As human beings we are always doing something: walking, talking, eating, sleeping, working and the like. Why do people engage in one activity and not another? How can we understand, predict, and even control what activity or activities a person may engage in at a given moment? To predict behaviour one must know which motives or needs of people evoke a certain action at a particular time.