'self-motivation' originates from the combination of 'self' and 'motivation', where 'self' refers to one's own person and 'motivation' comes from the Latin 'motivus', meaning 'moving'.

'motivation' evolved from the Latin word 'motivus', which transformed into the French word 'motiver', eventually becoming the modern English word 'motivation'.

Initially, 'motivation' meant 'the act of moving', but over time it evolved into its current meaning of 'the reason or reasons one has for acting or behaving in a particular way'.