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Ask HN: How do you develop internal motivation?

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Re: Ask HN: How do you develop internal motivation?

#61

Post by johnmarcus »

barrkel wrote: post #10

Make sure you get enough sleep. I don't know of a single bigger correlate to lack of motivation than lack of sleep. When you do feel motivation and work on something for some time, leave something undone at the end to pick up on. Something small to get the ball rolling. Look after the big issues in your life. If there's something looming or lurking, you may procrastinate (which might look like enthusiasm for a divers…

This, 1000%. Bad sleep hygiene is behind almost every bad mood or behavior I have ever experienced.

Re: Ask HN: How do you develop internal motivation?

#62

Post by ankothari »

idoby wrote: post #36

I find that internal motivation is mostly a myth, that is, the part where people expect to just have infinite drive out of nowhere. The cooking analogy is good but here's an IMO better one - would you make a movie if you knew for certain nobody would ever watch it? I wouldn't. You want to get a PhD - why? Is the PhD a mountain to climb or is it a pair of boots that will let you scale a mountain? Both answers are legi…

Absolutely correct

Re: Ask HN: How do you develop internal motivation?

#63

Post by lcall »

To me by far the best thing is to have an enduring, joyful, worthwhile, good purpose in life, that drives everything else (including maintaining one's health, balance etc), about which I have written a lot at my simple site (no JS etc): http://lukecall.net for example http://lukecall.net/e-9223372036854588981.html

Also, some related prior discussions. Note that this is an attempt at collecting useful comments that could relate, NOT at an insinuation that the OP is lazy, a procrastinator, or other. But some comments were good, like finding balance, direction, etc.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23072333 ("Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help (gist.github.com)")

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22919697 ("ask hn: how do i overcome mental laziness?")

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22124489 ("Procrastination is about managing emotions, not time (bbc.com")

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22096571 ("Ask HN: I don't want to be a worker any more I want to be a professional")

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20930439 ("how do you keep your programming motivation up?")

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18903886 "Ask HN: How do you motivate yourself to keep working on a project? "

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19777976 "ask hn: how do you stay disciplined in the long run?"

(And I have, actually, put a lot at my web site, like, for finding a family-like community almost wherever you go, search this page for "no one has to be alone": http://lukecall.net/e-9223372036854581716.html .)

For what it may be worth.

Re: Ask HN: How do you develop internal motivation?

#64

Post by chanmad29 »

exanimo_sai wrote: post #8

There is a way to develop internal motivation - in my opinion it is one part the realisation that you want to be motivated and the other part putting in the hard yards to build habits. For the first part I always refer to the concept of the elephant driver as a reminder. "NYU psychologist Jonathan Haidt uses a lovely analogy to explain both: the emotional side is the elephant, the rational side is the rider. The ride…

Lots of good pointers here. The elephant analogy blew my mind! Somebody on the internet said life is pointless if we do not set ourselves these goals to aim for. It is down to us on how well defined these goals are and how we track our progress against them. Too ambitious or vague, and we've set ourselves up for failure.

Re: Ask HN: How do you develop internal motivation?

#65

Post by Scaevus »

I am lazy person and that's actually my internal motivation. I want to complete things as quickly as possible so that I have plenty of time to procrastinate before I start the next task.

But one thing that is crucial is to do what you love and what you are good at. Then you feel empowered and motivated to complete the task.

Also, as others have noted, sleep seems to be highly important and in that sense, besides a healthy amount of night sleep, I find power naps really helping me to get through the day.

Re: Ask HN: How do you develop internal motivation?

#67

Post by _bxg1 »

What I find is that my psyche is generally in one of two states: being short on energy and therefore needing to rest and recuperate (mentally, or emotionally, not necessarily physically), or having extra energy and therefore feeling motivated to spend it on things that are fun or interesting. If you're lacking motivation, it may just be that you need a break (including from the part of you that thinks you should feel more motivated). Motivation will present itself when it's ready.

Re: Ask HN: How do you develop internal motivation?

#68

Post by muzani »

idoby wrote: post #36

I find that internal motivation is mostly a myth, that is, the part where people expect to just have infinite drive out of nowhere. The cooking analogy is good but here's an IMO better one - would you make a movie if you knew for certain nobody would ever watch it? I wouldn't. You want to get a PhD - why? Is the PhD a mountain to climb or is it a pair of boots that will let you scale a mountain? Both answers are legi…

Internal motivation feels a little like fascination.

I do a lot of things that nobody will notice, that give me nothing, because there's an element of experimentation to it. To use the cooking analogy, it's like trying to replace butter in a recipe with margarine, making a french omelet as soft as possible, or pulling a perfect espresso.

I wouldn't say these things are enjoyable in themselves, but they scratch a curiosity.

One trick is to have different steps to try to follow. For example, I was very motivated to do a startup, because there were step by step instructions on what to do, and doing these steps consistently would result in becoming a billionaire.

It's an absurd idea and it didn't work, but it went much, much further than I expected, and it was fascinating to see how far it could go. Same with blackjack/poker - it's grindy and repetitive, but it's motivating to see whether the theory checks out.

Re: Ask HN: How do you develop internal motivation?

#69

Post by idoby »

muzani wrote: post #68
idoby wrote: post #36

I find that internal motivation is mostly a myth, that is, the part where people expect to just have infinite drive out of nowhere. The cooking analogy is good but here's an IMO better one - would you make a movie if you knew for certain nobody would ever watch it? I wouldn't. You want to get a PhD - why? Is the PhD a mountain to climb or is it a pair of boots that will let you scale a mountain? Both answers are legi…

Internal motivation feels a little like fascination. I do a lot of things that nobody will notice, that give me nothing, because there's an element of experimentation to it. To use the cooking analogy, it's like trying to replace butter in a recipe with margarine, making a french omelet as soft as possible, or pulling a perfect espresso. I wouldn't say these things are enjoyable in themselves, but they scratch a curi…

Then you were motivated by curiosity, which is great, but what if you weren't curious about the perfect espresso and knew that nobody would drink it. In this case, why make an espresso? You'd probably prefer to spend your time doing something else, right?

Re: Ask HN: How do you develop internal motivation?

#70

Post by [deleted] »

idoby wrote: post #36

I find that internal motivation is mostly a myth, that is, the part where people expect to just have infinite drive out of nowhere. The cooking analogy is good but here's an IMO better one - would you make a movie if you knew for certain nobody would ever watch it? I wouldn't. You want to get a PhD - why? Is the PhD a mountain to climb or is it a pair of boots that will let you scale a mountain? Both answers are legi…

[deleted]
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