Motivation

Motivation is a funny thing. If there’s a lot of motivation, it can make us do certain things. It can make us not do certain things. It can make us try to do everything. It can make us do nothing. It can make us focus solely on one thing, It can blind us.

On the other hand, if there’s no motivation, nothing happens.

Motivation is funny in another way. There are two kinds of motivation. There is internal and external motivation. Doing something for what you give yourself (internal motivation) and doing something for what someone else gives you (external motivation).

Doing something for what you give yourself just feels good. It’s interesting. You learn something. You enjoy it. You have Autonomy. It can lead to Mastery. And those are it’s Purpose. That’s serious motivation. That’s Drive

You can also get that from doing something for what others give you. You could have Autonomy if the other person sets the target, but you pick the path. You can have Mastery by learning something along the path you pick. And you can take on (or agree with) the other person’s purpose. You just have to pick the right person and the right target/purpose.

What extrinsic motivation can give you, that intrinsic motivation doesn’t necessarily have, is guardrails. Intrinsic motivation can (not always, but sometimes) push you towards local maximums. Without sufficient self-awareness, intrinsic motivation can lead to nerd sniping. You choose the most interesting path. You learn the most. You fulfill the specific purpose. But you missed the bigger goal you started working on.

Sure, you can (and should) keep track of the bigger goals and be aware of when you’re nerd-sniping yourself, but that’s hard. External motivation provides that awareness for you. Or, at least gives you an external point to check against. And because it’s external, there’s something you don’t get if you don’t meet the goal. It could be anything from a badge on a website to an atta-boy to a paycheck. Whatever it is, if you don’t meet the goal, you don’t get it.

That’s the key difference. That’s the guardrail. You don’t get something. With intrinsic motivation you can easily end up changing the goal/purpose so that you are getting your immediate needs met. You climb that hill right to the local maximum, and you’re stuck. No matter which way you go from there, it feels worse, because every direction is downhill.

With extrinsic motivation you can’t do that. That local maximum becomes a bias in a direction, and you might go part of the way there. Eventually, though, the bias is overcome by the pull (or push, depending on how you view things) towards that external goal gets you back on track. It helps keep you from getting stuck on along the way.

There’s also another thing to keep in mind. While your capacity to do things is limited, your motivation doesn’t have the same limits. And intrinsic and intrinsic and extrinsic motivation come from two different suppliers. They’re not a Zero-Sum game. You don’t have to give up on one to get the other. More is better than less, and you want to balance them.

When they’re balanced, you not only meet the external goals and get those rewards, you also meet your internal goals, and get those rewards.

And that can help reduce or even avoid burnout. Which is good for all of us.