Being motivated doesn’t mean you’re overly excited and stay so focused and on task to the point that you’re committed 24/7 to a project. But, it does mean that you’ll complete all assigned tasks even when they are difficult, time consuming or seem boring.

In its simplest definition, motivation is the direct activation of a goal-orientated behavior. An excellent example is when an actor asks the director, “What’s my motivation?” What the actor is really asking is, “What intrinsic or extrinsic factors do I need to understand to make my character behave in this manner?”

Intrinsic Motivation
This type refers to a motivation that is driven by a strong personal interest or satisfaction in the task itself, and exists within the individual rather than being influenced by their environment or external (extrinsic) pressures.

Some marathon runners will compete for years without winning a single event. So, what keeps their intrinsic motivation going? Many runners will tell you that the satisfaction is in competing against themselves — not the other runners or a reward at the finish line. Sure, they’d like to win the race but it’s the feeling they get inside when running that satisfies their intrinsic motivation.

Intrinsic motivation doesn’t mean that an individual will not seek some form of reward. It simply means external (extrinsic) rewards are not enough on their own to keep a person motivated.

Extrinsic Motivation
This type refers to a motivation that comes from outside the individual. Common positive extrinsic motivators are good grades in school or fiscal rewards. Common negative extrinsic motivators come in the form of coercion and threat of punishment (e.g., loss of employment). These rewards (both positive and negative) provide either pleasure or satisfaction that the task itself probably can’t provide.

An extrinsically motivated individual will continue to work on a task even when completely disinterested because of the anticipated satisfaction they will get from some reward. The reward isn’t required to be something major, such as graduating from law school, and can be as simple as a “thank you” from a supervisor.

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