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Intrinsic motivation sounds so fancy. When I first heard this term I was like whatever, what difference does it make to determine how you are motivated? Ummm… well… actually a lot.
What is Intrinsic Motivation?
This fancy term is a way of describing internal forces that make you want to do something. Or make you want to do it better than before. It’s what motivates you from the inside. External forces have no reign here (Money, people, etc). This is all about what’s inside of you that makes you motivated to achieve your goals.
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Those who have strong intrinsic motivation do the task, activity solely because they love it. This can be reading, writing, playing sports. The list goes on and on and can be any number of things.
How to motivate others
Using intrinsic motivation to motivate others requires you to do some research. You have to figure out what that person loves, why they love it, and how to use that to help you achieve your ultimate goal. After all having employees or team members who love their position will often lead you to better collaboration, more innovative ideas and a better working team.
External Forces
You need to make sure you aren’t putting to much emphasis on these internal sources of motivation, doing so can actually make that item less rewarding. For example if someone loves to read for pure enjoyment and you offer to pay them to read a book for you. They may not get as much enjoyment out of it because there is an external force at play.
Here is a great TED talk about Intrinsic Motivation by Dan Pink
Comment below and let me know what you think – Do you know how you are intrinsicly motivated?
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