at some point in our lives we've all felt unmotivated maybe you feel that way now or perhaps you feel that way every day and the problem is without motivation it's pretty difficult to get started on pretty much anything as the word motivation derives from the Latin term M which means to move so motivation quite literally means moving towards something and that something is usually a version of your life which is better than the current one so if we know the destination is worth it then why do we still feel unmotivated to get started and take
consistent action to answer this you need to understand the four types of motivation the first two are intrinsic and extrinsic motivation intrinsic motivation is defined as doing an activity which feels inherently interesting enjoyable or satisfying for example if you enjoy playing basketball then you don't need much motivation to get yourself on the court just a message from a friend will be enough to get you to jump out of bed on the other end of the spectrum we have extrinsic motivation this is motivation driven by external rewards such as money Fame grades or anything which will
improve your social status the most common example being doing a job you don't intrinsically enjoy but the extrinsic Factor keep you going in most cases for your entire working life in simple terms you need to pay the bills and that's enough extrinsic motivation to get yourself on an overcrowded train first thing in the morning and stare at a screen for 8 hours a day but intrinsic and extrinsic motivation are closely linked to the third and fourth type of motivation pain and pleasure the pain of being sacked from your job is perhaps why you can't keep
snoozing your alarm in the morning but the pleasure of finishing an entire season of squid games can keep you up till early hours of the morning even when you know you've got to wake up for work in just a few few hours as somehow you'll manage to wake up on time because the pain of not doing so is too high and this is a key point to note pain is usually a more powerful motivator than pleasure this is why we struggle to quit bad habits if the only motivating factor is driven by Pleasure for example
looking or feeling better however as soon as there is a serious health scare most people go cold turkey and turn things around pretty quickly because the pain of suffering is far greater than the pleasure of your bad habits and equally intrinsic motivation is usually more sustainable and long lasting than extrinsic motivation alone the ultimate motivation to act towards your goals comes when you combine all four elements and use them to your advantage for example you find an activity intrinsically rewarding let's say playing the piano you then link some extrinsic motivation like teaching students who are
willing to pay you the pleasure of playing and teaching is already pretty high but this combined with the pain of never being able to express your creative freedom and being stuck in a dead-end job is enough motivation to get you started even if that means you only have one student at the start and your monetary growth is slow because intrinsic motivation will always outweigh extrinsic motivation and if you want it bad enough the pain of not starting will outweigh the pleasure of playing it safe so if you want to start feeling motivated associate massive pain
to not getting started and make the intrinsic activity the goal itself like playing a sport you love the extrinsic reward like losing weight will take care of itself and any progress made will further fuel your motivation making this Loop stronger over time as the Olympian Jim Ryan once said motivation is what gets you started habit is what keeps you going
