Intrinsic vs Extrinsic Motivation - Positve vs Negative Motivation

[The Renaissance Man]

I struggle to understand how I can truly be intrinsically motivated by stuff I already have. Or positively motivated, if you want.

The main example for me is health. I'm in my 20s, I work out, I eat healthy, but that's because I'm an athlete, so I'm positively motivated by that athletic performance.

When we're talking about stuff like skin care of brushing my teeth regularly, I struggle, unless I seriously remind myself of the damage I will have to deal with. Being in my 20s I don't have wrinkles nor I have teeth problems, so I just can't learn to be positively motivated in these aspects.

 

Question

So, is it possible to be positively motivated towards something you already have, and that you're just going to maintain if you do everything right?

Is negative motivation, reminding yourself about the long-term downsides necessary forever?

 

I have succeeded in creating strong habits where I previously struggled a lot, so it's not like I'm a total victim of this mechanism. The biggest one was procrastination.

What has helped me there was probably just the repetition. Forcing the behavior over and over reduced the conscious effort, and now I can just work by myself 7 hours a day total, with breaks not included. I thought that was impossible 3 years ago.

 

My conclusion & hypothesis

Even if I struggle to practically understand how to replicate this predictably, I think it may be possible to be intrinsically motivated by stuff you already have and can just maintain and not improve.

For health, it could be a mix of self-love and creating an identity of somebody who takes care of himself and strives to be the best as a massive priority, just because it's right, and not because of the damage you're doing to yourself long-term.

For other scenarios, it would probably be the same. The positive motivation would be to be aligned to your top noble values, without needing a specific prize.

Am I on the right track? What's your experience?

[sholomar]

Picking something and getting really good at it would be positive motivation, as opposed to "dabbling" where you kind of take an interest in a variety of things but never get good at any one of them.... taking that DLSR camera you bought and becoming a content creator, or using that flight simulator game to actually start flying and become a commercial pilot (something I wish I would have done, to go back in time. Sigh.) .. something that gives you a sense of achievement for having grown to the point where you can monetize your efforts.

I would say as a young person you should find something you love, get really good at it, to the point where you can monetize your efforts. Some youtube examples..

Willjum... makes Rust videos

Camomo ... makes Rust Anti-Cheater Videos

Reed Timmer ... chases tornadoes, including live streams... he's done this for a long time.

Marcus Veltri ... plays piano extremely well

The Doo ... plays guitar extremely well

Rob Landes ... plays violin extremely well

ANATOLY.. a powerlifter who makes youtube content.

Maximili ... does voices, goes on Omegle, streams GTA. I thought he took over the voicing for a couple of family guy characters but may have mistaken, but he can do the voice of Mort and Herbert extremely well.

Time plus repetition equals habits. Grinding away the hours of practice leads to skill mastery in time. Skill development tends not to be a straight line, but takes sometimes unexpected jumps. See the book "Atomic Habits"  Put another way, it's better to be a content producer than a content consumer. A producer will generally have a more fulfilled life than a consumer. If you give more than you take, your fulfillment level generally rises.

As humans we tend to not want to make big life changes until our bad habits cause us so much pain they almost force change on us. Preferably it's best to not reach that point. Negative motivation leads to positive motivation.

 

Edited August 25, 2023 by sholomar

[Rigel]

You don't need to think about the damage that not caring about your health will do in 10years. Notice how unhealthy behaviours make you feel right as you do them & right after.

Notice how disgusting & unhealthy it feels to have dirty teeth. You don't need to fear loosing them in the future to appreciate clean teeth.

As you pointed out, I think being clear about your values is crucial. If you are 100% clear that you value your health, brushing your teeth & eating real food is a no-brainer. There's no debate or hesitation to be had. Like do you value your health or not? Decisiveness is the key. Like do you value your health or not!? 

Edited August 25, 2023 by Rigel

[Danioover9000]

@The Renaissance Man

2 hours ago, The Renaissance Man said:

I struggle to understand how I can truly be intrinsically motivated by stuff I already have. Or positively motivated, if you want.

The main example for me is health. I'm in my 20s, I work out, I eat healthy, but that's because I'm an athlete, so I'm positively motivated by that athletic performance.

When we're talking about stuff like skin care of brushing my teeth regularly, I struggle, unless I seriously remind myself of the damage I will have to deal with. Being in my 20s I don't have wrinkles nor I have teeth problems, so I just can't learn to be positively motivated in these aspects.

 

Question

So, is it possible to be positively motivated towards something you already have, and that you're just going to maintain if you do everything right?

Is negative motivation, reminding yourself about the long-term downsides necessary forever?

 

I have succeeded in creating strong habits where I previously struggled a lot, so it's not like I'm a total victim of this mechanism. The biggest one was procrastination.

What has helped me there was probably just the repetition. Forcing the behavior over and over reduced the conscious effort, and now I can just work by myself 7 hours a day total, with breaks not included. I thought that was impossible 3 years ago.

 

My conclusion & hypothesis

Even if I struggle to practically understand how to replicate this predictably, I think it may be possible to be intrinsically motivated by stuff you already have and can just maintain and not improve.

For health, it could be a mix of self-love and creating an identity of somebody who takes care of himself and strives to be the best as a massive priority, just because it's right, and not because of the damage you're doing to yourself long-term.

For other scenarios, it would probably be the same. The positive motivation would be to be aligned to your top noble values, without needing a specific prize.

Am I on the right track? What's your experience?

   Very simple, explained in this context:

External motivation from the external world: You see the sexy parts to a person, something about that physical thing attracts you, you feel aroused and want to touch that, motivated by sexy time in the bed. That is extrinsic motivation, through sensory experiences.

External motivation from internal reality or internal world: You had a sexy dream, a memory/imagination of sexy, and that immaterial thing aroused you, now you motivated to get that in your external world, get the ideal outcome.

Internal motivation from external world: You've had multiple dating and relationships experiences, to the point you can recall a state or emotions, and can generate those feelings almost independent from your sex partner. You now are inspired to take your inner world seriously, and no longer rely on many dates and sexy times to feel that orgasmic experience, you finally discovered you can orgasm in your mind.

Internal motivation from internal world: You've always had a sexy partner, an ideal body you do sexy time on, but in your mind, so much so that you feel little obligation to pursue sexy time out there, when you've had so many experiences generating that orgasm at will. Here, sexy times start to be less appealing and sought after in the external world, and you more and more explore your own micro universe of sexy time in your mind.

[Luca001]

Self discipline rarely works in the long term.You can't achieve something you don't desire.

Given that,start by recognizing what benefits that habit would produce. 

See the resistance between the you of today and the you whom holds in his identity the energy given by that habit.

Shift from desire to embodiment, feel as if you are the one who already acts that way.

Wake up, you are him,so you naturally do that. Because it's now your identity there is no resistance to act accordingly.

Long answer short, if you don't start by desiring it either you force it and hope it will become something you enjoy or you can't.

[The Renaissance Man]

Thanks everybody for your answers.