Intrinsic Motivation Is Developed Little by Little

There’s a big myth about gifted people: their intrinsic motivation is higher than the average. Some people may have lucked out in the genetic department. But most people who have successfully developed their intrinsic motivation have done it little by little — proactively and diligently.

Life is all about planning.

There are two key ingredients to intrinsic motivation: an optimistic mindset and success.

Having an optimistic mindset means these two things:

Trust your outlook and judgment in everything

Reframe hurdles to maintain an optimistic point of view

When you trust your outlook and judgment, even if you’re wrong, at least you’re maintaining an optimistic mindset. Taking responsibility for your large and small actions leads to a sense of confidence. It is in this type of confidence that an optimistic mindset can be maintained.

When you encounter hurdles, it’s tempting to doubt your judgment. It’s tempting to blame the environment. But none of these things change the outcome of the hurdles. Instead, this attitude helps to sap away your optimistic mindset — the key ingredient needed to produce intrinsic motivation.

The key here is to reframe your hurdles. You need to put these hurdles in the perspective of the whole journey. You don’t have to lie to yourself and reframe them into positive events but you can lessen the emotional effects by realizing that the effects are temporary.

This means that when you start to take action towards climbing out of the hurdles, your hurdles will start to look different.

With time, your hurdles might turn into goals and opportunities for success. Your hurdles might also become turning points. These turning points are where life-changing opportunities lie.

Having success means these two things

Break down your route into bite-sized pieces

Measure and set yourself for incremental success that does not inflate your ego

You often hear the phrase that success begets success. It’s true. Success increases exponentially. Why? With each success comes with increased confidence that refills your well of intrinsic motivation. From that intrinsic motion, additional intrinsic motivation is generated. The result is that you multiply your motivation exponentially.

Motivation Exponential Increase — by Jun Wu

To ensure that you have many successes along the way, you have to break down your steps into bite-sized pieces. If you break down the steps into small enough pieces, you’re setting yourself up for success. Nothing is impossible if you just give yourself a chance to take it in small enough steps.

Another important aspect of breaking down steps into small enough steps is your ego. When the wins along the way are large they can inflate your ego. When you walk around with an inflated ego, every win that does not match this previous big win feels like a loss. Your success stops feeling like successes. The optimism you’ve built up starts to deplete.

This is when the bleeding happens. Instead of producing intrinsic motivation, your inflated ego is essentially a hole in the bottom of the tank where intrinsic motivation escapes.

If you don’t take care of this inflated ego, it will increase. When it increases, it’s as if the hole on the bottom of the tank is getting larger. When enough of your intrinsic motivation escapes, then you will start to fall.