I is for Intrinsic Motivation!

We all have the desire to feel that we are in control of our lives, that we are improving ourselves, and that we have a purpose in the world. 

Finding the hook that motivates you in life can feel difficult. You sometimes aren't sure what you want from life, and struggle to find the drive to move forward.

When we think of motivation, we often limit our thinking to the extrinsic motivators: the rewards and punishments that we get. At school, many people try hard in exams to satisfy their parents, because they get rewarded for doing well, and get punished for doing badly. In work, we usually do our job because of the financial reward.

There is another form of motivation that we rarely consider: intrinsic motivation. 

This is the motivation that comes from within, which drives us to do things not for other people, or for rewards or to avoid punishment, but we do it for ourselves, to make us feel good about ourselves and because we genuinely want to get better at something.

That isn't to say that extrinsic motivation isn't useful, there are many situations where it is effective and necessary, but having intrinsic motivation drives us much further when it comes to creative thinking, problem solving and self improvement. When we have intrinsic motivation to do something, we are more persistent, enthusiastic, driven, excited and confident, because the task actually means something to us, and isn't just a means to an end.

Examples of activities that can help build our intrinsic motivation include fishing, reading, playing an instrument, drawing, blogging, playing sports, gaming and writing. We don't get any external reward or punishment for doing them, we do these things for ourselves because we find them enjoyable and exciting, and have a desire to improve our abilities while doing them.

Different people are passionate about different things, so below we have listed some activities for you to try to help find the right intrinsic motivation activity for you!

Exercises and activities to try:

List your passions - Have a go at writing a list of all the things that you like in life, that you are interested in, that you have a passion for. Listing everything that you are passionate and seeing it on a page can help you see links between the things you are passionate about, and may help generate ideas for an activity to try. 

Maybe some of the things you like are photography, make up, fashion, writing, and being creative. You could start writing a personal fashion blog! Or you might be into drawing, writing and reading comics. You could have a go at writing and illustrating your own comic! These are simple examples, but by doing this activity yourself you may discover a theme in your interest that you didn't realise before, and this could lead you to find the right activity to build your motivation!

Pursue new opportunities -  Sometimes we don't actually know that we are passionate about something until we try it for the first time, or sometimes we have something that we would love to try and we just feel a bit scared to try. Pushing ourselves to try new things is the best possible way to build our motivation, all it takes is a little step outside our comfort zone!

Have a look at your local arts centre or college and see if they have any courses or activities that might interest you, or look for some free online short courses to try. See if there are any local clubs or community groups near you that you could take part in. Going out and trying something new, even just once, will help to build that motivation and make us more willing to try other things!