Motivation is an inner state that inspires and guides any person's actions.
At it's most basic, motivation is a survival instinct - it gives us the
desire to eat, to rest, to reduce physical pain, to stay alive. But it is
also what drives us towards anything that we believe will make us happy,
whether that is a job, a person or a more abstract state of being.

When we are working towards a certain goal, motivation is the need we feel
to reach that goal, and it influences our behaviour in order to get there.