Motivation, Extrinsic vs. Intrinsic: The Key Differences

Understanding the differences between these two forces can help you cultivate self-awareness as well as sustain your motivation and engagement in pursuit of your goals.

Why do we want to achieve? One reason can be found in our motivation which can be divided into two categories: intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.

Intrinsic motivation

This source of motivation is defined as the doing of an activity for its inherent personal satisfaction. And it is characterized by a sense of fulfillment, personal growth, and pleasure from engaging in the activity.

The most powerful intrinsic sources of motivation are:

1/ Autonomy: a psychological need to feel our behavior is self-initiated and self-endorsed. Intrinsic goals are self-chosen because they are inherently satisfying to pursue.

And with those, come a feeling of being in charge of your life, and deciding the life you want to live. That leads to better performance, more persistence, greater drive, and improved level of well-being.

2/ Mastery: feeling competent at what we do. An important part of our identity is our sense that we can do things well that are important to us. That we can improve and grow powerfully contributes to feelings of self-worth and we meet this need we achieve richer, deeper lives.

3/ Relatedness: last one is a basic human need: when met it satisfies our craving to belong, to attach and feel intimacy.

The benefits of intrinsic motivation often result in better performance, greater persistence, increased creativity, fulfillment, and heightened well-being.

One of the drawbacks of intrinsic motivation can be the difficulty to maintain it over a long period of time. As your progression will not be linear, it can become difficult to motivate yourself to do things that you don’t necessarily enjoy or find interesting, resulting in burn out or lost of interest.

Extrinsic motivation 

Extrinsic refers to a behavior that is enacted for some motive outside the activity itself. Oftentimes, it leads you to engage out of obligation, hence engage at less-than-optimal effectiveness.

Here are three major types of extrinsic motivation:

1/ Reward-based describes a motivation resulting from external rewards, tangible or abstract; for instance, getting a medal or a prize.

2/ Power-based is a form of motivation reliant upon the desire to exert control over others, like parents over their child or politics inherent to the sport.

3/ Fear-based describes the desire to avoid an extrinsically negative result, such as a fear to disappoint or fail.

In the benefits of extrinsic motivation, athletes may feel more incentivized to complete tasks and achieve goals, therefore increasing productivity and performance.

However, drawbacks happen when individuals are motivated solely by external rewards, they may become less interested in the task and more focused on the reward. This can lead to decreased creativity, problem-solving ability, and intrinsic motivation.

Conclusion

Although extrinsic motivation can serve as an effective short-term motivator, but in the long run, it may not be as fulfilling or enduring as intrinsic motivation, which is rooted in a deeper, more personal interest and enjoyment.

As Jim Loehr writes in his book The Only Way To Win, “use the forces and stresses of everything you chase extrinsically to help become everything you want and need to become intrinsically.

So, find personal and true meaning behind what you do!