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Ask HN: How do you develop internal motivation?

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Ask HN: How do you develop internal motivation?

#1

Post by Xophmeister »

I believe I have a problem with internal motivation, in the sense that I have none, or very little at best. This doesn't lead me to, what one might call, "procrastination". Rather, it just makes me idle; content in doing nothing. I say "content", but obviously I wouldn't be asking this question if I didn't see it as an issue!

However, I don't just sit around doing nothing, a lot of the time. I attribute this to external motivators. This applies, as far as I can see, to almost every aspect of my life. To give an example: I know how to cook, but if I'm cooking for myself, I'll probably be lazy -- I might just eat something straight out of the packet! -- but if I'm cooking for myself and others, I'll go to the trouble of making something good.

I've recognised this in me for some time; the reason I bring it up now is because it's related to procrastination -- which was a hot topic on HN a couple of days ago -- and because I'm interested in doing a PhD. That requires enormous amounts of internal motivation, for several years straight, when there's little-to-no external motivation. I see that this could therefore be my downfall.

How does one develop and maintain internal motivation? What can one do, for example, to renew their enthusiasm if/when it starts to dwindle? Besides "passion" and "enthusiasm", what are other people's internal motivators?

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

#3

Post by gbasin »

You cannot develop internal motivation. In my experience, when you have some vision that you are excited about, motivation is not a problem. That vision can take many forms, but it's often some concrete outcome that you understand how to accomplish, and desire to achieve (for whatever reason).

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

#4

Post by nicoburns »

> I know how to cook, but if I'm cooking for myself, I'll probably be lazy -- I might just eat something straight out of the packet! -- but if I'm cooking for myself and others, I'll go to the trouble of making something good.

You do have internal motivation in this scenario. You are internally motivated to impress and/or do nice things for others.

> I'm interested in doing a PhD. That requires enormous amounts of internal motivation, for several years straight, when there's little-to-no external motivation. I see that this could therefore be my downfall.

Why are you interested in doing a PhD? It sounds like maybe something that you like the idea of, more than something that you actually want to do. Why not focus on the things that you do actually want to do?

> How does one develop and maintain internal motivation? What can one do, for example, to renew their enthusiasm if/when it starts to dwindle?

One of the key things is to maintain good emotional health. So things like sleep, exercise, diet, etc. This won't make you motivated to do things that you're uninterested in, but it may help you to maintain motivation for things that you are.

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

#5

Post by outime »

simonpurdon10 wrote: post #2

You just gotta find something you love. If you're passionate about what you're studying, you'll look forward to doing it. Internal motivation basically = being passionate about something. Everyone's passionate about something.

This is it - simple, not easy. You can lie to yourself for a while but not forever. Motivation comes when you do something you like doing.

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

#6

Post by amateurdev »

simonpurdon10 wrote: post #2

You just gotta find something you love. If you're passionate about what you're studying, you'll look forward to doing it. Internal motivation basically = being passionate about something. Everyone's passionate about something.

Completely agree with this! One thing I like to do is break any task to smaller pieces and then achieve those goals. There are some times when I'm really excited about something and can work days without any distraction (both work and personal projects) and it doesn't feel exhausting at all. On the other hand, when it is something uninteresting, writing even 10 lines of code takes half a day to me. These are the times when I need the micro-goals the most. Just achieving these small milestones itself gets me on a roll to complete the bigger tasks.

One other big thing is making it a schedule. I used to hate working out and cut corners sometimes. But then I decided to go everyday for 1 week, then 2 weeks and checked that day off on the calendar. Looking at all checkmarks made me slightly uncomfortable when I felt like not going one day. Now it just doesn't feel like work waking up at 5am to work out. Its just become a habit. I've kind of removed the emotion of passion or excitement and do it because I have to do it. As dull as it sounds, looking occasionally in the mirror makes me happy to see what I've achieved, but I never think about that when I have to wake up.

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

#7

Post by jakevoytko »

There could be a lot of solutions to your problem, depending on what personally motivates you.

I personally develop internal motivation by putting myself in situations where I structurally do the correct thing. When I was living by myself, I'd cook a ton of healthy food on Sundays. That meant that it was always easier for me to eat healthy than it was to order out. I've also spent a lot of time asking myself what type of work I like to do. I like working on things that help people, and I managed to work at a company where working on the core business feels like the work I want to do.

But I'm not you. You need to look inside first and ask yourself what causes you to act and when you avoid it. Going through this kind of list might help: https://www.indiehackers.com/post/questions-to-ask-yourself-...

It sounds like you might be extrinsically motivated, based on your cooking example. You would need to find ways to continually hold yourself accountable. For instance, joining a Mastermind group (where you meet once a week and give your updates on your progress on something) would give you a reason to try to make progress every week. People who have gone to grad school can comment on any extrinsic motivation you might get from the program - I imagine your advisor would have some thoughts about that, but I don't know how involved advisors are.

Maybe you prefer having a sense of progress. You could split your work into smaller milestones, and then work to achieve each of the milestones.

You could also try the Jerry Seinfeld "Don't break the chain" method - https://www.writersstore.com/dont-break-the-chain-jerry-sein... has more info.

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

#8

Post by exanimo_sai »

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 rider of the elephant looks like he or she is in charge, but when there’s a disagreement between the elephant and the rider, the elephant usually wins.

Chip and Dan Heath's superb book, Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard, builds on this analogy and talks about directing the rider (rational brain: responsible for planning and direction, but can get paralyzed overthinking things) and motivating the elephant (emotional brain: prefers quick gratification over long term, but gets things done). Numerous experiments show that the rider can get exhausted trying to motivate the elephant and needs time to recover. This is why, if you’re trying to eat healthily while on the road, you tend to make bad choices at the end of a long day and opt for that extra glass of beer."

For the second part use mobile apps/smart watch to help you build habits. Being an unashamed apple user I rely on streaks to be my habit builder but there are many similar applicatons out there. Gamify your own life. Because at the end of the day life is a game. And if you want to get to the next level you have to play it.

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

#10

Post by barrkel »

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 diversion) but only at a surface level, like your brain is fidgeting trying to keep your mind off the big bad thing(s).

For something like a PhD, I think it's unusual for internal motivation to last. Most people I know who've completed did it to get it done, rather than relying on internal motivation. They were so sick of the material by the end that enthusiasm had worn away, like a mouthful of food chewed for too long.

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