Are you really motivated?

Photo CC by jModus

Everything that you do is motivated by something. You pay taxes because you don’t want to be fined by the government. You eat because your body needs fuel. You go to the store because your spouse or parent wants you to. You learn a foreign language because you really want to be bilingual. But is all motivation equal?

Two Types of Motivation

Motivation comes in two types, external and internal. External motivation happens when you do something for someone else. This can include your friends, your family, your country, or anyone. Internal Motivation happens when you want to do something for yourself. You could be fulfilling a desire, exercising your mind, just enjoying yourself, or any other reason that you want to do something for you.

When creating your projects and tasks lists, looking at your motivation can be an important part of the planning process because there is one truth about motivation: External Motivation isn’t actually that motivating. Take a look at the following example to see what I mean.

Joe and Sally – College students

Joe and Sally are taking a class together. Both of them have the same major and need to take the same set of core classes to graduate. They both have similar backgrounds and intelligence. However, Joe is doing very well in the course and will likely get an A. Sally on the other hand is doing poorly and will be lucky to get a C.

What is the difference? Joe is motivated by a deep interest in the material while Sally just sees the class as something that she needs to get through to get the degree that her mother is pushing her to get. Joe is intrinsically motivated while Sally is not.

Bob and Tom

The Joe and Sally example is pretty black and white, but it isn’t always that way. Some tasks that may seem like they are intrinsically motivated at first glance are actually externally motivated. Bob is a writer but can never seem to get a book published even though he really wants to. The trouble isn’t his ability to write. The trouble is that he hates pitching his work to publishers, so he keeps procrastinating on doing so. He is intrinsically motivated to write but pitching his writing is something that is required by the publishing industry. Although the action is indirectly motivated by an intrinsic desire, the step that is causing Bob problems is external.

The opposite can also be true. Tom’s boss gives him an assignment that will require him to put in some extra work that week. Tom looks forward to this work, not because he particularly likes what he does, but because he is saving up to buy the house that he has always dreamed of and the work that he does is what is going to make that dream happen. Although the task is external, Tom’s motivation for doing it is still internal.

It’s All How You See It

Look at your current tasks. Which of them are you truly motivated and excited about doing? These are the things that are probably internally motivated. See if you can identify your motivation for each of these tasks. Then look at the other tasks on your list and see if you can pinpoint your motivation for those as well. Why are you avoiding any task that you are currently avoiding? It can help if you try to tie all of your tasks to some sort of internal motivation, even if the actually motivation is external.