Someone not too long ago asked me how I motivate myself, and I was quite puzzled by the question, like “what do you mean motivate myself? That’s not how motivation works?”, because to me motivation has always come from external sources, like people, situations, experiences etc. But no, apparently some (many? most?) people can somehow motivate themselves. I’d like to have that power please.
You never do things for yourself? No hobbies or anything that are basically “pointless” aside from your own personal satisfaction? Never done something to challenge or better yourself with no reward from someone or something else?
Doesn’t matter, if you do things for yourself that’s intrinsic motivation. Doing it for money, because it pays the bills, or some other reason outside yourself would be an extrinsic motivation.
Of course, I do things because they’re fun to do. But those things don’t require any effort. When people talk about motivating yourself it’s usually about using the motivation as a tool to do things that take a lot of effort.
Someone not too long ago asked me how I motivate myself, and I was quite puzzled by the question, like “what do you mean motivate myself? That’s not how motivation works?”, because to me motivation has always come from external sources, like people, situations, experiences etc. But no, apparently some (many? most?) people can somehow motivate themselves. I’d like to have that power please.
intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation.
You never do things for yourself? No hobbies or anything that are basically “pointless” aside from your own personal satisfaction? Never done something to challenge or better yourself with no reward from someone or something else?
yeah but those wont pay the bills
Doesn’t matter, if you do things for yourself that’s intrinsic motivation. Doing it for money, because it pays the bills, or some other reason outside yourself would be an extrinsic motivation.
Of course, I do things because they’re fun to do. But those things don’t require any effort. When people talk about motivating yourself it’s usually about using the motivation as a tool to do things that take a lot of effort.