The positive or negative needs, goals, desires and forces that impel an individual toward or away from certain actions, activities, objects or conditions. The inner needs and wants of an individual what affects behavior.
We are all affected by the element of motivation, or more often than not, lack of it. There are moments in time when I am motivated in one area but not in another. For instance, at this very moment I am not very motivated at work. This is not to say that my job isn’t motivating because it is, very much so, but at times I find it hard to get out of my own way, even when tasks become urgent.
I’ve found that there are two types of motivation which are defined below:
Intrinsic Motivation
The motivation or desire to do something based on the enjoyment of the behavior itself rather than relying on or requiring external reinforcement.Extrinsic Motivation
The desire or push to perform a certain behavior based on the potential external rewards that may be received as a result.
With these two definitions I find myself in a Catch22. Intrinsic motivation is cultivated though enjoyment of a behaviour rather than an external reward for such behaviour. Sounds simple enough, but how does one make themselves enjoy something enough to find this type of motivation. Do I just wait until something miraculous happens to create enjoyment? Or is it a matter of willpower? If it is the latter, then that would greatly improve my experience with the dentist!
Ok, so if that doesn’t work then we only have extrinsic motivation. The problem that can be found in the very root of the work “ext”rinsic. This type of motivation is cultivated through external rewards. This is fine in principle, but it brings us back to intrinsic motivation. If we aren’t intrinsically motivated for the reward, then extrinsic motivation has no effect.
Any ideas?
