Extrinsic Motivations

Let me define two types of motivations.

Intrinsic: Motivated and inspired by the properties of a particular activity and not by any external rewards you might receive for engaging in that activity.

Extrinsic: Motivated by an external reward, an incentive that is out there. It could be money, social networking, and more.

Consuming enormous amount of content around productivity, I've got to learn that the chances of enjoying and to succeed at a fairly challenging task is to have intrinsic motivation towards it.

With that being said, here's another thought:

It's fairly evident that there are times when the activities you are interesting in doing are not that much in demand and hence, lesser chances of getting paid through it. In such situations, a person is forced to do something else he may or may not be interested in. Well, money's important too and you have to prioritize the demands of market in order to buy food.

It's great to have an overlap of what people demand and what you want to contribute to that market. On an individual level, it's absolutely amazing to be working on something you enjoy and end up getting paid for it.

But like I said, it's not always possible, is it?

In those cases, extrinsic motivations help such as money being the most obvious one in the modern economic system.

What I'm going to share now comes from a place of self-reflection and thinking about my own self...

I love to take on new challenges but again, I am too motivated by external rewards. Even though I might not be in love with the daily work and operations about a specific activity, I still choose to do it with external rewards in place.

Is it even possible to always have intrinsic motivation? I do not think so.

Is it bad to do things with extrinsic motivations?

I do not think so. It's totally fine to be motivated by money and other factors but what I have learnt is that it may not sustain for too long as the reliance over an external factor is the only thing that is keeping you up doing that activity. You do not control that factor unlike in the case of intrinsic motivation whereas you control your own thoughts and it's the 'self' that motivates you to continue doing it. It's not going anywhere.

If you think I've written so many words at once and it's getting overwhelming to understand today's idea, here's a sum up:

Engaging in an activity because of extrinsic motivation is okay but know that it may not sustain. Keeping yourself in a delusion by saying "I can continue to do it" could prove to be a mistake and you're setting up unrealistic expectations from yourself.

Know thyself. Be okay with your shortcomings. Just awareness of the fact that you may not sustain doing it when it's an external reward motivating you is enough to make sure you're making this your strength instead of letting it become a weakness.

You get better when you know your shortcomings and you accept that.