Having intrinsic motivation in any of our endeavors is a powerful tool. What is this intrinsic thing you speak of? Is it from a Sci-Fi film?! Well, it could be if writers are insanely creative!
Let’s break it down shall we, so we are all on the same page.
intrinsic: belonging to something naturally.
motivation: having a reason to do something.
Do you have deeply rooted interests that are internally rewarding? Some of us have hobbies, passions, causes, and other types of things we do that make our souls happy. You know what I’m talking about, that feeling of overwhelming joy when doing said interest. Having intrinsic motivation in things we do regularly goes a long way for our overall happiness and enjoyment in life. We need to recognize these things so that we can do more of them. I enjoy doing things for others, it makes my soul happy.
Personally, I find being creative very rewarding internally. I thoroughly enjoy creating things from scratch, start to finish. Seeing the progress along the way and experiencing the end results is pretty cool. When I was younger I always got excited about new ideas I would come up with and I would go full steam ahead on them. Though at that point in my life I wasn’t very good at finishing them. The thought of it is odd to me now because I know I really enjoyed those things, so why not complete them. Well, the answer for that was in a previous post.
These days I have learned so much and grown internally that I am able to recognize the things that make me happy and stay the course more. Having a variety of these things in my life is becoming key to being happy. I am no longer in search of happiness because I believe that if my mind would continue thinking I wasn’t happy, then of course I would have stayed that way.
I now go with the flow of the things that I enjoy and let happiness flourish organically. It’s the byproduct! I am back doing art, writing, learning, photography, and other cool stuff. These are all a part of intrinsic motivation for me. I am naturally gravitating towards these pieces of joy. The reward for me is all strictly internal.
Many people have expressed that I should sell the things I create more and more recently. I do sell things that I do, but not all the different types of things I create. I have some concerns about capitalizing on my creations though.
You hear stories of people that naturally migrated into roles of doing the passions they once had, now on a full-time basis. Shortly after they became discontent with what they did because they had to. Let’s say you enjoy racing cars for fun, but now you got a big sponsorship and you must be at your best all the time. You could see how over time you could potentially lose the internal fulfillment now that there is an external reward.
Conclusion
Intrinsic motivation should be nurtured, but I don’t think it should be exploited by external factors. Keep doing the things that make you happy, but find a good balance so that you don’t lose the joy of it.
