Intrinsic Motivation

In the science of human behavior, reward systems are often explored.

There have been countless studies done on the effects of extrinsic (external) vs. intrinsic (internal) motivation. It’s widely understood that intrinsic motivation, (doing something for the pure love of it) is much more powerful and sustainable than extrinsic (doing something only because you’ll get rewarded as a result).

What drives us?

The really interesting fact, however, is that an extrinsic reward system actually works to extinguish internal motivation with time. For instance, a child loves to color, but as soon as you start paying the child one sticker star for every drawing he produces, his production goes down as does his interest. To stoke that fire within, the energy has to come from the kid’s heart. Not the pay check. A pay check is a nice benefit, but if it’s our only motivation for getting to work every morning, our interest will inevitably diminish, no matter how many zeroes are on that check.

You can take this principle and apply it to any area of life. For instance, bloggers often struggle with the question of “what do my readers want to hear?” rather than letting the more sustainable question guide them, which is, “what feels energizing for me to say today?” Many writers go through this, as do creatives in general. You can tell when the unbalance settles in because suddenly the thought of the work becomes a burden. As soon as the feeling of expectation overrides the heart, the intrinsic motivation goes kaput. (Such as expecting your book to be a New York Time’s bestseller. Nothing triggers writer’s block better than that.)