What is motivation?
Motivation is defined as the reason or reasons one has for acting or behaving in a particular way. Generally speaking, motivation is known as a driving force for why you do something.
Intrinsic Vs. Extrinsic Motivation
Intrinsic motivation refers to motivation coming from within, promoted by yourself. This can be rooted in your identity or the enjoyment in an activity. Essentially, the experience of the activity is the desire to do it. Extrinsic motivation refers to motivation inspired by external forces. For example, this may be reaching an outcome or accomplishing a goal. Between the two, intrinsic motivation tends to be more fulfilling and push people more. Knowing that intrinsic motivation is the more compelling motivator, how can we try to facilitate these types of motivations?
- Reflection: Intrinsic motivation comes from your identity or simply your own fulfillment in an activity. As such, it is imperative to identify the reasons for why you are doing something. The following questions can help prompt some thought about this:
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- Why are you doing something?
- How important is the task at hand?
- What are you willing to do?
- What will you do?
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How To Promote Motivation:
Even when knowing your extrinsic or intrinsic motivators, it can still be difficult to motivate yourself. As such, here are ways to promote motivation:
- Make the Task more Enjoyable: This can be changing your environment, like studying in a cafe or library instead of at home. You can also make the environment around you more engaging and enjoyable, like improving the atmosphere around your room with decor. Additionally, opt to do the task with other people -not only can this motivate yourself to do the task, but you can enjoy time with friends and family. Other ways to make the task more enjoyable is putting on music or rewarding yourself with snacks and drinks.
- Create a Routine: By creating a routine, this builds habits. Habits are rituals or behaviors that you perform regularly, often without thinking too much. To build a routine, create a cue. For example, this could be drinking a coffee before starting to work or playing a certain playlist before going to work out. This cue can make it easier for you to start an action. As such, this can help prompt yourself into doing the task you want to accomplish.
- Build off of Success: Celebrate the small wins and recognize your success. Try to experience small successes -these small celebrations can compound and allow yourself to gain momentum. Momentum can promote even more success and build you up to more challenging tasks.
Motivation Myth:
A general myth around motivation is that more motivators will yield more motivation and therefore better progress. However, more motivators doesn’t mean that you will necessarily be more successful. This is called the over justification effect: multiple extrinsic motivators can “muddy the waters” when there is already an intrinsic motivation. As such, if you have trouble with motivation, consider identifying your motivators and opting for more intrinsic and less extrinsic motivations.
Sources:
Motivation | Psychology Today Canada
How to get motivated even when you don’t feel like it
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2024/01/31/motivate-yourself-strategies-habit-building/
https://www.lifehack.org/articles/featured/thirteen-tricks-to-motivate-yourself.html