Extrinsic And Intrinsic Motivation - Read My Story, Share Yours And Win 5 SBD's
Motivation is a fire from within. If someone else tries to light that fire under you, chances are it will burn very briefly.
Dr. Stephen R. Covey
In my entire life, I have searched for some motivational sources, yes, I had been around people who always tried to demotivate me by calling my plans/actions stupid and crazy. Being an immature and a hyper person till 25, I, instead of taking out some positive things out of this criticism always argued and called their actions stupid. However, with the passage of time, I realized that this is not the right way to handle this situation and changed the direction a bit. Now, instead of getting angry and storing different kinds of negative thoughts in my mind, I try to prove that person wrong through my actions and execution of my plans. The recent example is of working on Steemit, as soon as I joined this wonderful platform, I started advertising it and told my friends about it who have some nice paying jobs. They all laughed at me by saying that this isn’t possible. Some believed what I told them about this platform and signed up immediately. Now, when I cashed out some SBD’s which were more than their one month salary, I feel relaxed and comfortable!
Anyways, let’s get back to the point. So what I have learned so far by reading different blogs (Yes, I bought a book 3 months ago for PKR 160 ($1.6) and never read a single page) that there are two types of motivation. Extrinsic, motivation that is derived from outside source such as a friend, relatives, colleagues etc. and Intrinsic, motivation that comes from within ourselves, a person living inside you.
Let’s make it simple and call them internal and external motivation. Have you ever had this experience of motivating yourself or someone else motivating you? I recently got motivated by just playing a simple 8 ball pool game (Internal) but I remember how I motivated myself as a result of a taunt I received from one of my class fellows.
External (Extrinsic) Motivation
So let me make this story short, I wasn’t a good student till grade 5. I was like a say-no-to-study child and used to play cricket and table tennis 7 days a week.
Me, playing TT at office!
Being a careless child, I even wasted my 2 years, applied to almost 13 schools and everyone rejected based on my previous reports and test results. I was happy but parents weren’t and luckily, they found a school who agreed to give me an admission. It was a new school so I didn’t have a single friend. As soon as I joined, first term exams were going to be held and I had only 14 days to prepare. As usual, I didn’t pay any attention to the study thing and focused on becoming a good cricket and TT player. I somehow achieved this objective but after two or three weeks, I received my result sheet and got 54% with a D grade I guess. I was happy, yes, I passed in every subject but when I saw the grades of some other class mates, they were like 99%, 98%, 91%, the second lowest grade was of a fellow named Raheel, he got 85% :|
Honestly, I didn’t care about the grades of others and went to my coach for some bowling suggestions. There, one of class fellows, Bilal Haider with his gang came to me. He scored 86% and asked for mine. I gave the answer and they all laughed at me
Hehehehehehehe, like WTF, only 54%, what you are going to do with these grades? You can surely get a security guard job after scoring low grades.Stuff like that!
A person inside me just grabbed me by the collar and asked me to challenge him immediately. I did the same and said
I’ll be the topper in the next term, just wait and watch!
And as soon as these words slipped from my tongue, people around me including my coach laughed out loudly. I was alone there, so I thought to leave and then, started working hard, hard and so hard. Even my parents started worrying about me that what happened to their child, I started studying 10 hours a day excluding school hours and long story short, I won. Got first position in the second term and my result was enough to prove that gang of bastards that I could do anything I wanted to. We all then became friends and everything in school was closed with a happy ending.
Internal (Intrinsic) Motivation
I have been working on some coding stuff, decided to dive into another world 6 months ago and currently I am learning PHP. Those who are from this world know how it sometimes gets difficult to find a bug in a program, playing with loops, functions and things like that. So this Sunday, I was trying to make a simple drop down menu of last 50 years and probably if I am not wrong, I spent 5 hours trying to make it and yes, I failed. I had to search the internet to know exactly where I was making a mistake. With a lot of frustration, I started thinking and evaluating myself.
Will I ever be able to write a simple program?
You just love this field, you don’t have an IT background, maybe you should leave it.
Random Thoughts!
So along with this depression, I started playing 8 Ball Pool, the only game I have been playing consistently since 2012. Lost around 8 games in a row and frustration overloaded.
Suddenly, another thought came in my mind, how I started playing this game, how I learned each and every shot to play, how to rotate the ball correctly, how I used to play small 50 coin and 100 coin games and now the situation is completely different, I play a minimum of 10 million game!
Level – 157
Coins – 178 932 889
Total Earnings till today – 5.9 Billion
Winning Percentage – 53.6%
So if I can learn a game from scratch and become a pool emperor, I can certainly learn this coding thing by putting the same effort in the same number of years, so don’t give up. That’s how I motivated myself and its working fine! Though the progress is slow but yes, there is a progress and things will get better in the future!
Contest
I would love to hear your stories, how you get motivated, what sources give you the maximum power of motivation and how do you feel after that? You can post your stories in the comment section and the winner will get 5 SBD’s from my account soon after the expiry of this post!
Rules
No rules, you aren’t required to upvote or resteem this post, just share your thoughts and I am right here waiting to read your story!
Love!
I motivate myself with blogs, not books nowadays. Because I'm in a platform like that and I read such good stories like yours. And also I read blogs in my mother tongue, Turkish :) I read them and motivate myself like "If they can do that, so can I. Why not?"
Also my biggest dream is to travel around the world, to meet different people, to know many different cultures. This is very strong motivation; to dream.
My external motivation is my family, girlfriend and real friends. When I say something negative (not frequently), they motivate me just in 5 minute. Because I trust them and they trust me. And they know me.
My motivation is like that and everyone says I'm very positive person. The life is short!. You and me are lucky because we are aware of that situation. I am trying to motivate people and I want them to be aware of that: "Life is short, just love and laugh."
Have a nice day and laugh :)
I have the same dream, especially to visit your country and meet some lovely people living there!
And you are right, this life is too short, we shouldn't waste our time thinking about some negative stuff.
Thank you for reading and commenting :)
#Entry1
@ghulammujtaba
If you come to Turkey, I can be your Istanbul tour guide :) For Turkish people, hospitality is very important, you may hear. And also don't forget; We will live our dreams ;)
hey bro @ghulammujtaba when will you finish the contest? Thank you :)
Sure sure, I have a plan to visit Turkey this year, depends on my Steemit earnings.
As soon as this post expires, like after 4 days.
In the story you quoted about how you found extrinsic motivation from the gang of boys in your class to prove your worth, also shows how driven you were and kept yourself focused and motivated until you achieved what you set out to, and sounds like a great example of intrinsic motivation as well to me. Getting triggered by something outside of us to start working towards a goal is just one part, the other and I believe more important part is to keeping ourselves focused, not losing sight of the goal and constantly keeping working towards it. This is where some of us I feel are less privileged, including myself :D
For me, staying focused has always been a challenge. I'll briefly explain how my cycle of motivation usually goes; I find motivation in something, mostly extrinsic, I start working for it, I feel very ambitious about it and get a lot of expectations attached about my ability to do it, I expect the best from myself, the task starts getting either boring or harder, I start fearing that I might not be able to do it, I can't afford to not be good enough at it, I come up with good excuses or rationalizations to quit doing it, and soon enough I give up. (And all of this has always been an unconscious process for me, until recently when I got aware of it. Psychology helped a lot).
I'm not sure whether this is how motivation or self doubt works for others or not, but for me its very incapacitating. So to move forward, and to keep myself motivated, requires my inner most strength and a lot, A LOT of positive self talk, and constant reminders of the fact that I should not expect myself to be perfect, that it's okay to sometimes not be good enough or even fail, and that none of this is worth stop trying!
My friends, my people, and their validation and support also helps me stay focused and motivated :)
This, we have to discuss in person :)
Wonderful, thanks for your comment.
#Entry3
Thanks, and we will :)
I think what motivates me to do something is a mixture of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. My goal right now is to work hard so I can support my family in every way I can and slowly create a money making machine so I can escape constant financial pressures. What drives me towards it is my son's smile and my husband's aim to grow together bigger and better with time. When he says, 'I want to free you of all your worries so you can only enjoy life, shop because you love to shop and do whatever you want and only I have to worry about stuff', it makes my heart swell with happiness and makes me motivated to do all in my power to help him out. So my extrinsic motivational factors bring up an urge to be better and to be a constant support to my loved ones and bring about my intrinsic motivation.
You'll be able to make your money making machine very soon, Sharoon, your dedication, consistency and hard work will definitely reward you in the longer run!
Awww, that's cute and lovely! I pray that Yasir bhai gets everything he wants and in return, you will not have to worry about the money stuff.
Thanks for your comment :)
#Entry4
Thank you for the lovely words. :D
I find that to be truly motivated the source must be intrinsic. Extrinsic motivation, the carrot and sticj kind, will only last for so long. Just until the punishment fades from memory, or the reward is already given. But intrinsic motivation is the kind that comes from our passions and loves, and its power is unlimited. It can keep us going through adversity, exhaustion, and even through circumstances that might cause the loss of hope in others.
In other words, find what inspires you, what ignites your passion, what causes you to love deeply. Once you find that you'll have no lack of motivation.
You have a point, @moneyinfant and it's true to some extent.
Thank you so much for promoting this contest, I receive your posts's notifications on regular basis.
#Entry5
In a way, I'm not that motivated. I just relax, meditate and pray and somehow things get done. Dishes get washed, the dog takes me for a walk, etc., lol.
I putter around and 'play' software developer sometimes, I know what you mean by bugs in PHP.
Sometimes I find things that are interesting, for example Steem for ten cents. I feel very blessed to have the time to follow my interests and let them develop in a way that is natural and not be subject to much external motivation at this point in my life.
I think my biggest internal motivation is to live life fully in each moment.
Hehehe, this line made me laugh for several minutes!
Lovely! That's what we all should be doing, live every moment of our lives!
Thank you for reading commenting and upvoting :)
#Entry2
Yah sure I would like to participate it
How and When?!
Han jee ab kya hua? Kar le gi jab karna hoga :P
Lol, aap bhi debit ko credit zaror deti hey, hisaab ki pakki hain aap :P
Hahahahaha bilkul :P
Interesting post
Interesting reply!!
Sahi tou keh raha hai bechara. Bachey k peechay par gaye hain aap :P
the devil strikes again Buhahaha
Lol, bohat zalim hey aap :D