Everyone’s different and that includes what motivates us and our perspectives of rewards.

Some
people are more intrinsically motivated by a task while another person sees the same activity
extrinsically.

“Human beings have an innate inner drive to be autonomous, self-determined and connected to
one another. And when that drive is liberated, people achieve more and live richer lives.”-
Beautifully said by Daniel Pink.

So let’s see dive into the concept deeper.

Just look around for a second at work, at school., and even at home, most motivation methods
are based on some variation of the carrot and stick. If you do well, you get a reward. If you don't
do well, you get some sort of a punishment. Most companies, at least the bigger ones operate
based on it. You perform a task faster or better. You get a bonus at the end of the year or a
promotion. If you don't perform according to expectations, you might get them molded or even
fired. And while the carrot and stick does work, it was great for a very different era and totally
different circumstances. It worked quite well in an era of industrialization when it was easy to
measure what gets done and how fast, but this is no longer the case. Plus, the research has shown
that there are far superior methods of getting someone motivated.

So let's dig into the surprising truth of motivation, and a more complete motivational model
suitable for the 21st century.

They're generally two types of motivation, extrinsic or external, more money, a better grade,
more TV time and so on. And while extrinsic motivators do work, they usually do so in the short
term only they can even have a negative holistic effect is people concentrate on the reward. For
example, it decreases their creativity. It also encourages people to cheat and exploit an incentive-
based system, but most of all people get used to experiencing only varies pretty fast. If the
motivator is taken away, the behavior stops on the other side of the coin.

We have the second diamond, one innovation intrinsic, or internal things like satisfaction of a
job. Well done. A sense of accomplishment, purpose, pride, belonging. It is the desire to do
something for the internal satisfaction of it. Just think of a child playing with a toy. They're
usually not paid to do it. Their own curiosity and enjoyment is enough intrinsic motivation.

So let's dig deeper. There are three components to intrinsic motivation.

First is autonomy. Having a choice in what you do and being self-driven. When people are given
freedom over the forties, the results can be phenomenal. Freedom over task, time, technique and
team.

The second component is called mastery, wanting to get more skilled and to be recognized for
your competency. One of the best ways to get better at something is to make use of the principle
called deliberate practice. It starts of by doing challenging tasks, just at the limit of your ability,
but not so hard that you would certainly fail, after that setting clear goals for yourself, sprinkle a
bit of fast feedback on how you're doing and what you can improve it and at the end, mixing the
final ingredient of consistency in all of the above and you have a magnificent dish called
mastery. That will ensure you to keep on getting better and better at your chosen skill. And this is
why regular and meaningful performance reviews are vital in most companies.

They're not too hard, they're not too easy. They're just right to ensure that you're getting better
without getting stressed. And of course you can do your own performance review and set your
own Goldilocks as long as you try to be as objective as possible.

And the third and final component of intrinsic motivation is purpose, having a higher purpose or
very least understanding of the common purpose and the impact your work has, can be quite
motivating on its own. This is why I see so many people trade higher paying jobs for ones that
have a greater impact.

This is how organizations such as doctors without borders exists, where some of the most skilled
and highly paid medical professionals and the been the most remote places in the world. And it's
certainly not for the money is for the purpose it's for the impact their work is going to have when
you set your own or your company's values to deeper ideas, and you clearly explain why
something needs to be done, motivation, blossoms, and there you have it.

The three legs that hold the intrinsic motivations to together, autonomy, mastery, and purpose. If
you can create an environment built around that at work at school, at home, in most of all for
yourself, you'll go much faster, much further, and much easier than you could ever could with
something as outdated as an extreme characteristic methodology.

“When the reward is the activity itself--deepening learning, delighting customers, doing one's
best--there are no shortcuts.”