Internal vs. External Motivation
Mykim Tran, PhD
Humanistic Psychologist | I Help Individuals Develop Authentic Lifestyles | Keynote Speaker | Inspirational Leader | Author
Life success depends on your motivation level. The right motivation will push you to do whatever is necessary to succeed, such as overcoming challenges. You will also enjoy your tasks and life more with the right motivation. There are two common types of motivation: internal and external. You want to focus more on your internal than external motivation because it will increase your persistence and consistency in moving forward until you succeed.
Internal motivation
Internal motivation refers to positive emotions such as joy, happiness, meaning, purpose, and fulfillment. It can also be self-confidence, self-esteem, self-worth, self-respect, kindness, compassion, appreciation, and inner peace. Knowledge, skills, and personal growth are also considered internal motivation. Internal motivation is also about focusing on the journey to achieving your goals.
External motivation
External motivation is anything from the outside, such as money, nice cars, houses, and clothes. Impressing others, outcomes, and destinations are also considered external motivation. Eating good food or wanting to go on vacation are external motivations.
According to psychology, external motivation can also be called gratification. This means that whenever you feel good because of something from the outside, you are experiencing gratification, not happiness. I'm not saying it isn't good to get those external things, but you must understand that those things bring you gratification, not happiness.
Internal vs. External Motivation
Writing a book: External motivation is the book, the physical outcome. In contrast, internal motivation is when you focus on the process benefits of getting your book published. For instance, you enjoy writing and formatting your book because of the increased knowledge and creativity you will gain. The more you focus on the internal benefits, the more motivation you will have to put in your best effort to succeed. The book is just the by-product of your learning and effort.
A promotion: If you focus on getting the promotion by taking shortcuts and not taking the time to learn successfully, then you are relying on external motivation to achieve your goal. You want to receive the outcome as fast as possible. Getting a better job, title, and more money are things outside of you. However, if you are more invested in learning to earn your promotion successfully, your focus is more on internal motivation.
Diploma: If you rush through school to get a diploma and not learn successfully, your focus is more on external motivation. A diploma is just a piece of paper that is outside of you. The good feeling that you experience when you receive your degree is gratification. There are many people who feel that their degree(s) are useless because they did not learn how to apply their knowledge successfully. If you feel like your degree is useless, perhaps you have focused more on external than internal motivation to achieve your degree.
Furthermore, you tend to have a higher chance of creating doubts when focusing on the result. You might be afraid that you might not get the result you want. No matter what you want to achieve, there is a chance that you could fail because there is no guarantee in life. The more you focus on that failure, the lower your motivation level. ?
However, if you go to school because you genuinely want to learn new knowledge to improve yourself and others, that aligns more with internal motivation. You will spend more time learning and not taking shortcuts. You also try to keep your stress level low to learn and absorb information successfully. Otherwise, stress will make it difficult for you to learn and retain information.
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