Why motivation dont work

Every other day, there is a new trending motivation video on YouTube or that new technique to be more productive is trending on social media. That one single thing you have to do or look forward to. Do this, and you will get motivated. But still people seem to get more and more unmotivated, always fighting against procrastination.

Why the hell

To be honest, i was always the king of procrastination. In my childhood people around me were trying to motivate me or give me techniques to do better. But the problem was, i am a why guy. I always ask „why“. Why should i reach a certain goal while going through hell beating myself into the finish line. And than? Time was wasted to reach a single point, a status, a society approved goal, a „you have to do this because thats why“.

People who gave me this advices always been the same. Sure they were successful in some way. But i never found more unhappier people than those who push themselves from one dream to the other. There is always something they are looking forward to. Never settle down, never pause, never living. Those sad persons want to give me tipps how to live my life. And then, I still have the nerve to ask them why they are doing this. Short answer? They don’t know or their motivation is an external goal. This ist called extrinsic motivation.

Extrinsic motivation

Extrinsic motivation is focused on a result (short or long term) and external things like money or status. Everything what is driving that motivation is coming from the outside. 99 % of motivation today and all these fancy techniques are just like that.

Interestingly, extrinsic motivation was invented to drive unmotivated people. And guess what, we still do this and mask it as new fancy methods for reaching our dreams. We don’t ask ourselves why we are unmotivated. We are simply looking for ways to hide this problem and still perform through certain methods. But their is a better form of motivation.

Intrinsic motivation

Intrinsic motivation is motivation that arises from a task itself, for example because it is meaningful to others or brings us joy while we are doing things. Sounds awesome right? Individuals who behave from intrinsic motivation are way more satisfied than extrinsically motivated individuals.

This is the real secret of life — to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play.

Alan Watts

I don’t know how many blogs i started in my life, how many side projects i tried, how many times i was motivating myself just because of external things like status, a long term goal or social acceptance. Until i realized that i had to ask myself why. I searched for things i really enjoyed but other people would see as work. I found that i really enjoy learning about new things every day. What’s is your joy? What is your play?