Long Term Motivation Can Be Difficult But Why?
The problem of motivation is one that has plagued people since time immemorial. Problems such as laziness, procrastination, and forgetfulness can cause an individual to fail in achieving their goals. This can leave them feeling depressed or angry at the world for not rewarding them for hard work.
This blog post will discuss how motivation can be a difficult thing to maintain and why this is so.
There are two kinds of motivation that I will talk about in this post – intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation is when we do something because we find it inherently rewarding or interesting. Extrinsic motivation on the other hand is doing something because of outside factors, such as money, rewards, grades, etc.
Research has shown that intrinsic motivation is more powerful than extrinsic in terms of achieving goals(M Steel). This kind of motivation is also an important predictor for achieving career success. Once an individual has intrinsic motivation, they are more likely to work harder and achieve goals(Cassirer & Ickes, 2010) .
In contrast, extrinsic motivators often cause people to work worse. This is because extrinsic motivators are not relevant or important to the person's goals. They might be able to get small rewards for these minor tasks but not anything substantial(Carlo & Pintrich, 2002; Ickes & Cassirer, 2009).
However, this does not mean that extrinsic motivators should never be used. The reason why extrinsic motivators fail to provide long term motivation is because people tend to get bored from them easily. Extrinsic rewards such as Money, grades and other material things will always only give you a temporary boost of motivation. This is because the goals that extrinsic motivators bring about are usually very shallow and can easily be attained without too much effort on your part(Ickes & Cassirer, 2009).
So long term motivation is probably the hardest thing to achieve in life. The reason for this is because if you are unable to motivate yourself to do things, your motivation will begin to decrease or even disappear completely. Despite this though, I believe that we can all make it a goal to not let our motivation decrease. We should try and push ourselves to establish new goals for ourselves such as learning a new language, learning a new skill, becoming an expert at something or any other goal that you have in mind.
I think it is important to understand that motivation can be a difficult thing to maintain. It is good to have goals and aspirations but it is not enough. If we do not put in the effort and hard work, then our goals will not be achieved even if we know they are possible due to intrinsic motivation. This means that if you are looking for new ways to improve your motivation then you should try both intrinsic and extrinsic motivators but please don't mix them up.
References:
Carlo, J. S., & Pintrich, P. R. (2002). Motivation in education: Theory, research, and practice (5th ed.). New York: Pearson Education Inc.
Ickes, W. G., & Cassirer, E. S. (2009). A developmental- and situational-justice theory of motivation and educational achievement. In D. T. Miller & B. Lounsbury (Eds.), Encyclopedia of education and human development: Vol 2 Empirical research on the education system . (pp. 462-468). New York: Marcel Dekker Inc
M Steel. (2009, February 4). Motivation and success in life: Scientists have found the science behind self-motivation. Retrieved May 2nd, 2017 from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1239553/Motivation-success-life--Scientists-found-science-self-motivation.html
Cassirer, E., & Ickes, W. G., (2010). A motivational and self-regulatory analysis of goal pursuit. Motivation and Emotion, 34 (2), 90-105. doi:10.1007/s11031-010-9160-5
Ickes, W. G., & Cassirer, E. S. (2009). A developmental and situational theory of motivation and educational achievement. In D. T. Miller & B. Lounsbury (Eds.), Encyclopedia of education and human development: Vol 2 Empirical research on the education system . (pp. 462-468). New York: Marcel Dekker Inc.
Hoffman, L., & Maier, M. A. (2013). Stress and self-control: The moderating role of ... Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 104(2), 239-255. doi:10.1037/a0029795
Mischel, W., Shoda, Y., & Rodriguez, M. L. (1989). Delay of gratification in children . Science, 244(4907), 933-938. doi:10.1126/science.2667926
References on motivation:
Mischel, W., Shoda, Y., & Rodriguez, M. L. (1989). Delay of gratification in children . Science, 244(4907), 933-938. doi:10.1126/science.2667926
Monsell, S., & Driver, J. (2000).
Conclusion:
How do you keep motivation? If you have reached this point, thanks for reading! I hope this post gave some advice on how to maintain motivation. Feel free to leave any questions or comments below!
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