Unlocking the 16 Secrets to What Really Motivates You

What really motivates you? Psychological research shows there are sixteen universal desires that drive all human behavior, from power and independence to family and tranquility.

In this episode of The BIGG Success Show, we explore these motivations, inspired by Dr. Steven Reiss’ book Who Am I? The 16 Basic Desires That Motivate Our Actions and Define Our Personalities.

You’ll discover how to rank your own motivations, evaluate whether your life aligns with them, and take steps to act on what matters most.

Takeaways:

• Understanding your core motivations is crucial for achieving true happiness and fulfillment in life.
• Dr. Stephen Reese identified 16 basic desires that shape our actions and define our personalities.
• Finding and fulfilling your calling is essential to attain inner peace and feel like a success.
• Ranking your motivations can help you align your daily actions with your core values and desires.

BIGG Highlights

[00:12] Exploring Identity

[01:30] Exploring the 16 Motivations Behind Our Actions

[03:19] Exploring Human Motivations

[04:08] Basic Motivations: A Deep Dive

[05:13] Exploring the 16 Basic Motivations

[07:39] Understanding Motivation and Fulfillment

• Who Am I? The 16 Basic Desires That Motivate Our Actions and Define Our Personalities by Steven Reiss

Links referenced in this episode:

• biggsuccess.com
• biggsuccess.com/blog

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome to the BIGG Successshow. Today we ask, what motivates
you?
BIGG success with theprofessor and Mary-Lynn.
Who am I? Boy, that's aquestion people have asked since
the beginning of time, Ithink. Who am I? You know, it's just
that basic metaphysical kindof question. And so this show actually

(00:22):
was inspired by a book withthe title Who Am I? The 16 Basic
Desires That Motivate OurActions and Define Our Personalities.
It's written by the late,great Dr. Stephen Reiss.
Dr. Reiss found that happinessand life satisfaction come from a
sense that our lives havemeaning and fulfill a larger purpose.

(00:42):
He calls this value basedhappiness. And he has defined 16
universal desires that driveall meaningful behavior.
Now, BIGG success, of course,is defined, defined by us, I should
say defined as inner peace,which flows from three sources. Finding
and fulfilling your calling,striving daily to reach your full
potential, and staying true toyour vision and values. Almost forgot

(01:07):
that third one, Mary-Lynn. Oh,you staying true to your vision and
values.
That is a spectaculardefinition of BIGG success, if I
might say so myself. And ifyou don't have a sense of inner peace,
you're not going to feel likea BIGG success. And you won't have
inner peace if you don't findand fulfill your calling. If you
don't strive to reach yourfull potential, if you don't stay

(01:28):
true to your vision and values.
Now, in order to do thesethings, you need to understand the
motivations underlying your actions.
Today we're going to look at16 motivations. Number one is power.
Now, I think a lot of peoplewhen we hear the word power, we immediately
flinch. Right? I mean, I don'twant to be a powerful person. Right.

(01:49):
But what we're really talkingabout here is the desire to influence
people, to be a leader. Thatis kind of playing to that power
motivation.
Right. That doesn't meantrying to have power over people.
Correct.
Number two is curiosity.
Real simple one. Right. It'sjust the desire for knowledge, kind
of the why? Sort of like thatchildlike nature.

(02:10):
Number three, independence.
The desire to be autonomous,to not be dependent on something
or someone.
Number four, status.
That's pretty easy, right? Thedesire for social status, including
desire for attention.
Sometimes the importance ofsocial status actually causes unhappiness.
Yes, that's true.
To be careful there. Numberfive, social contact.
Yeah, that's just the desirefor peer companionship, the desire

(02:33):
to play, the desire to have aplace to belong, the desire to have
people who we feel like webelong with.
The sixth basic motivation is,is vengeance. That doesn't sound
so good.
Right. Because we think ofvengeance as the desire to break
or to get even. Right. Ialmost said break even. That's another
show. Exactly.

(02:54):
And that just, you know, thatgrips at your heart, that prevents
you from having a happy life.
Well, but the thing is, keepin mind these. These are psychologists,
and so they. They sort ofdefine things maybe a little differently
than we might. So vengeancealso includes that desire to compete,
that desire to win. You know,somehow we would call that. I would
call that more likevalidation. But they're.

(03:15):
They're lumping competitiveness.
Yes, they're lumping that inunder vengeance.
Okay. Number seven. Honor.
Yeah. The desire to obey atraditional moral code. You know,
to stick with your values.Hey, that sounds familiar. Staying
true to your values. Yes, it does.
Number eight is idealism.
Yeah. That desire to improvesociety. So justice, altruism, you

(03:37):
know, giving, sharing, thatkind of stuff.
Number nine, physicalexercise. Wait a minute. I don't
have that desire.
You don't have that?
Unfortunately, I'm working on that.
The desire isn't the problem.It's the next step.
Yeah, that's it.
But the thing is, it's thisdesire to exercise our muscles, I
think, exercise our minds tosome extent, but just be healthy.

(03:59):
Number 10, romance.
Yeah. I mean, courting is thedesire for a significant other.
We're talking about basicmotivations here. Number 11 is family.
Yeah. The desire to, you know,be. Be involved with somebody and
raise one's own children.
Number 12 is order.
This is the one that'stoughest. Right. Order. The desire

(04:19):
to organize, to be organized,to kind of have rituals.
Number 13. Eating or motivatedto eat.
I mean, you have to bemotivated to eat at some point, don't
you? That's what I thought waskind of comical looking at this list.
But it's just that desire toeat is how they define it.
I'm extra motivated to eatwhen there's pizza on the menu. But
anyway. All right. Number 14. Acceptance.

(04:42):
We all. We. A lot of peopleface this. I mean, we all to some
degree, want to be like otherpeople's approval. Right, right.
Number 15, tranquility.
Yeah. This. The desire toavoid anxiety, fear. You know, I
think this kind of plays tothat inner peace that we talk about
with BIGG success.
And the 16th basic motivation,according to Dr. Reiss.
Drumroll, please.

(05:04):
Is saving.
Yeah, Just the desire to livefrugally. That, you know, we value
that. That we value theability to collect things. That's
savings.
We're talking today aboutmotivation. More specifically, the
16 basic motivations. Now,we're ready to talk about what to
do with them. It involvesthree steps.

(05:24):
Professor, what's step number one?
Rank the basic desires. Sothese 16 desires rank them from most
important, make that a one,all the way down to the least important.
That's a 16.
Step number two is to look atyour rankings for consistency with
your life.
Yeah. So if you catch whatwe've done, we've just ranked them
right now we're going to lookat our and think about our life and

(05:47):
how we're living with our toppriorities. And we're going to see
how congruent are we, how insync are we, how harmonious are we.
So which desires rank high onyour list? Does your life reflect
that you're comparing kind ofthe desired desires versus the real
world results?
Okay, can we break this downinto some examples?

(06:09):
You certainly, Mary-Lynn. Ofcourse we can.
I like the examples. Helps meget going.
So let's just say that socialcontact is important to you. So ask
yourself this question. Do Iwork in an environment that allows
for companionship? If so,yeah. Yeah. Actually, if so, we'll
take that up with the next step.
All right.

(06:30):
Another example would be ifindependence is important, are you
in a work environment thatencourages individuality or is it
all about the team? You know,both those things are good, but with
a person who valuesindependence, it's going to be more
important than a person whovalues acceptance. A third example
is. Let's go back to the power one.

(06:51):
Okay. Let's say you do haveyou like that. The Professor likes
that powerful role.
It's the first one. And I alsothink it's one of the two that could
kind of come across asnegative. Like the eating one is
just kind of like just to bekind of weird. Right. But I mean,
I know it's somethin we haveto do. And I suppose, you know, if
you're starving, eating isgoing to be a major motivator. Right.

(07:12):
We just don't happen to be inthat place. But I think that power
and vengeance are two that wekind of look at in a negative way.
So let's take power. Let's sayyou have a high desire for power.
Well, in our earlier example,we asked the question, are you on
track for management? Well,let's just say the answer is yes.
Great. Then you should bemotivated to keep pushing. But let's

(07:33):
say it's no. Well, then askyourself the question, how do I get
on track for management?Understanding what motivates you
and then acting on thatinformation is going to give you
a greater sense of meaning andfulfillment. I don't care how you
define it. That's BIGG success.
That is some pretty powerfulstuff there. And if you found this

(07:54):
show helpful, would you shareit with your friends? We'd really
appreciate you helping us getthe word out about what we have to
offer here at BIGG Success.
And thanks to you listeningtoday, we feel more motivated.
To keep on podcasting! Anduntil next time...
Here's to your BIGG success.
Find BIGG [e-mail].