What are we after? What drives us?

I saw Naruto for last 5 days, about 200 episodes and then went on to read nearly 100 manga comics to satisfy my curosity. Of course it was nice watching playful Naruto full of enthusiasm, optimism and his lines like " I Never go back on my words! That's my ninja way!". He wants to be Hokage of his village, which is the topmost position for any ninja there and is most respected. He never gives up this dream even in the face of most impossible situations. I wondered what really drived him so much? He badly wanted recognition and respect especially after isolation in the whole of his childhood as due to him containing the chakra of demon (nine-tailed fox) everyone believed he contained evil within and stayed away. This probably also resulted in his hyper-active personality which was very amusing throughout the story and an attraction of Naruto. So when I analysed motivation factors, I found that most probably Naruto was after gaining respect and recognition of those around him, and it drives him to unimaganable levels of achievements. He really wants people around him to care about him, recognise him, respect him for what he is.

Coming to the real world I wonder if we are really that different? I wonder what we really want? Isn't it true that even many of our actions are driven to gain social acceptance and recognition. We too want overselves to be cared for, recognised and respected. When I thought about my goals and ambitions, most of them were found to be influenced by prospects of gaining wide social recognition and respect. Of course we also do things which are meant just for us, and we take real fun in it. But the answer I am after is that can the personal internal motives and incentive drive us to those limits as the social incentives and motivation as depicted in Naruto also and probably witnessed in many life situations. When people play soprts they enjoy but there is always competitive spirit to be better thjan the others, establish supremacy among those around, which can be derived from desire to command social respect. Same probably holds true for most other hobbies. Most of the actions and ambitions can be broken down and reducedd to these basic roots of desires for social acceptance and respect.

I also studied a few similar things in my Psychology course the previous semester, but never really thought about it much and regarded it as just another section of syllabus then. Now when I think of it social acceptance and respect are actually very fundamental factors which influence our daily course of lives.

What drives us? I had previously broken down my motivations into two Gs: Guilt or Glory, as I found one or the other underlying most of my actions and decisions. But as it can be seen both can be derived from social acceptance and respect. I used to think I am a rational individualist (in most of matters) and didn't care what world thinks as long as I am right (though it turns out out that I do have world in mind in long term, when they accept I was right), so I again question my beliefs...and continue to wonder What are we after? What drives us?