Why You Need to Know About Intrinsic Motivation

How to enjoy the process rather than struggle to reach a goal

What would you rather your motivation be dependent on; your own joy in the process, or external rewards? In this article, I’ll teach you about different types of motivation and what you can do to ensure your motivation doesn’t rely on anything but yourself.

Different types of motivation

Motivation is often divided into two categories: intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. The difference between the two is where the motivation originates.

Intrinsic motivation comes from within yourself. It is the motivation you get from simply enjoying something. Think of your favorite hobby. What drives you to do that? Chances are you do it because you’ve found something you enjoy and feel that you are or can be good at.

I’ve had many hobbies, and can at times be so motivated that I think of nothing else. That is the power of intrinsic motivation. It drives you to engage in an activity because you enjoy it.

Extrinsic motivation comes from external factors such as rewards, pleasing others, avoiding punishment, etc. An extrinsically motivated person engages in an activity as a means to an end. That is the type of motivation many people have for their job. They go to work because they get paid to be there.

It’s possible to be both intrinsically and extrinsically motivated. They exist on different spectrums and don’t necessarily have to affect each other. You can do your job because you want to get paid, but at the same time enjoy the work that you do.

Why you want to be intrinsically motivated

Aside from the obvious conclusion that enjoying an activity is more enjoyable, researchers have found that intrinsic motivation can lead to better results.

Let’s think about this. Two people start playing the piano at the same time. One of them enjoys playing the piano and would rather do that than anything else. The other sees the money and fame that can be showered upon master pianists. When they hit obstacles in their road towards success, which of the two people do you think will be more discouraged when it takes longer than expected to make a living or become famous?

I would imagine that the person who is motivated by money and fame might start thinking that their goals are impossible, while the person who enjoys the piano will keep playing because regardless of obstacles, it’s still fun.

How you can increase intrinsic motivation

So if intrinsic motivation is simply based on how much you enjoy doing something, can we affect it at all? It turns out there are several ways to do this.

If you make yourself believe in your own capability to do something, you can end up being more motivated and enjoying it more. After all, it’s pretty hard to enjoy something you suck at. Based on Bandura’s theory of self-efficacy, a good way to make yourself believe you can do something is by accomplishing tasks that are like what you want to achieve but smaller in scale.²

A good method for doing this is setting small goals that are challenging but have a high chance of accomplishment. Challenging yourself can increase intrinsic motivation.¹ If you want to have an Instagram account with 100k followers, you can increase self-efficacy by making one that reaches 1,000 followers. You’ll also learn a bunch along the way to reach your smaller goals.

If you can get curious about something, this can also lead to increased intrinsic motivation.¹ There are a lot of things you don’t know, regardless of the topic. By diving in and giving yourself a taste of what you don’t know, you can pique your curiosity about those topics, leading you to want to learn.

To take an example from my own life: in my recent efforts to build multiple streams of income, I have come across many methods and concepts by researching broadly on a surface level. I’ve then become curious about some of the methods, such as writing, or social media, thereby becoming motivated to learn more.

Don’t reward something that doesn’t need rewarding

According to Schunk et al. (2014), if you are motivated because you enjoy doing something, rewarding yourself or getting rewarded can diminish that enjoyment, making your motivation dependent on these rewards. If that reward is then removed, you may find yourself no longer wanting to do an activity that you enjoyed before.

If an activity is rewarding enough in itself, be careful with rewarding yourself for it. You may find that you inadvertently start doing it for the reward rather than just enjoying it. I’ve noticed this when I had to do things for school that I would otherwise enjoy. Once someone told me I had to do it to get good grades, I didn’t find it enjoyable at all.

What you can do today

Think of something you want to accomplish. Can it be broken into smaller tasks, one of which can be done in the next half hour? This task could for example be research, organizing, planning, or a small practical job. Choose a task, and go work for 30 minutes to accomplish it. You might not finish the task, but you’ll have started. Now that you know you can start something, you’ll be more likely to want to do it again.

“But I don’t want to,” you might say. Nobody said motivation came easily. You’ll have to work for it. It’s worth it, though, because that initial motivation can snowball, and soon you might find it hard to stop working. I don’t know about you, but I think that’s a pretty nice problem to have.

Sources

1: Schunk, D. H., Meece, J. L., & Pintrich, P. R. (2014). Motivation in education: Theory, research, and applications. Boston: Pearson

2: Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: the exercise of control, New York: W.H. Freeman