Leading A Life Without External Motivation

Today, both, you and I, woke up with a schedule to follow. But how many of us felt motivated enough to pursue something that makes our eyes sparkle? Sadly, 150 thousand people aren’t fortunate enough to see the sunrise every day. That should be enough reason for us to make the best out of every single moment we have. We all face a period in life where we just don’t feel happy about our jobs or spouses.

In such situations, we look for motivation. Maybe a vacation would cheer us up, but that isn’t the solution. Going for a movie or receiving a hike will make you feel good for some time. But, they are all temporary, and I don’t think outsourcing our happiness is a good idea. We need a concrete answer to this existential crisis. Read this article for knowing the secret to living a life without any external motivation.

How External Motivation Affects Our Experience Of Life

External or extrinsic motivation is based on two simple terms: either get something you want or save yourself from something you don’t. Fundamentally, it is the old school reward and punishes mentality for getting things done. If you are a competitive bodybuilder, exercising to get your best physique before the contest is an externally motivated action. Similarly, completing your assignments at university or going for extra classes to complete attendance criteria are all examples of extrinsic motivation. 

The problem with these types of goals is that they don’t serve a purpose large enough to feel satisfied. I mean like you can never be happy with your smartphone if you want it to be the latest one. They will bring a new device every few months and you will end up running to stores frequently. This means that we turn into slaves and other people will control how happy we are.

A majority of people live their lives to impress others. Social media is the best example of this hypocrite lifestyle. If you want to look cool, posting daily selfies with a $5 coffee, having a beach body, eating cakes, and spending money is the standard operating procedure. But, all these hoaxes are devastating to our generation. You can’t stay sane if you exist only to please individuals whom you haven’t met in your life. Instagram recently announced its initiative to remove the option to ‘like.’ They want us to post more frequently and without feeling any pressure. That’s the seriousness of outsourcing happiness.

I think that creating a benchmark for ourselves, which isn’t set by us, is really unwise. That kills our willingness to render complete involvement, and we tend to dream about ‘retirement.’ No kid on the planet plans to retire from building sandcastles. But, every dad plans their retirement at least 20 years before the due time. Our experience of life can only be worthy if we feel that results won’t affect our contentment at the end of the day. We end becoming procrastinators and feel even more miserable. 

Procrastination Is Your Worst Enemy

Let me share a personal story. As a kid, I hated eating vegetables like most other fellows. My mother tried to convince me a lot by I just didn’t agree. At last, she made me eat veggies by denying anything else before I finished my meal. This was an awful experience where I’d allocate hours just to finish around one cup of curry. That is procrastination. Fast forward to today, I eat veggies happily as I am on a weight loss plan. One thing I learned is that we only procrastinate things that we don’t like. Today, mom doesn’t need to force me around as I am willing to take care of my health consciously. 

If you feel that there is some amount of motivation required to do any of your work, you need to ask yourself a question: Do I like to do it genuinely? Because most people don’t like whatever stuff they are doing, they actually like the ‘idea of liking’.

Create Long-Term Visions 

One of the ways to bypass extrinsic dilemmas is to create a long-term goal for yourself. Look for problems that affect a large number of people. Touching the maximum number of lives is the key to staying motivated as your failure to show up can make a lot of lives unpleasant. This very thought has proven to be the largest driver of the valour of soldiers in the past. If those Bravehearts failed, the entire civilizations standing behind them would perish. You can think of Prince Hector from the movie Troy. He stood up for his country and defended it and he even paid the price of his family’s mistakes. He always tried to protect his country because he connected himself to his entire nation.

When we are aware of the importance of our contributions, there is no such thing as getting a reward or getting punished. It also decimates the concepts of courage and cowardice. Long-term visions are expressions of our burning desire to see something get accomplished. They will also instill a sense of genuine involvement, which translates to relentless efforts. Socrates had rightly said that if you don’t want success as badly as air while drowning, you won’t get it. 

Serving inclusive purposes fuels your will because the amount of happiness you get is not a product of personal gains. It is a result of the collective happiness of innumerous people and the future generations who will benefit from your actions. You can feel the difference, like receiving a return with compound interest and simple interest. 

Vital Elements Of Curating Intrinsic Motivation

Curating intrinsic motivation relies on a few basic principles of life that are inclined towards internal gratification of desires rather than external reward systems. Below is a list of elements of actions that don’t require external motivation or incentives:

• Intended to get solutions instead of gains
• Relies on teamwork
• Efforts that are directed towards continuous processes like human upliftment
• Results are usually not tangible to the contributors personally
• Treating contributions as personal responsibilities
• Safeguarding collective interests
• Oriented towards abstract notions of conducting life
• Where the activity is more fulfilling than the expected results.

Remember while inspiration and motivation are incredibly impactful, especially in helping you to begin the process of goal-setting, they alone cannot make much of an impact. People who have deadlines hovering over their heads and perhaps their payslips will complete their work no matter how unenthusiastic they feel. A lion who’s hungry will not care for the level of fatigue until he hunts down a deer to eat. 

Commitment Eliminates Any Extrinsic Intervention

As Jim Rohn once said,

 Motivation is what gets you started. Commitment is what keeps you going.

Committed individuals always show up, always pour in efforts, and never give up. If you commit yourself towards your job, even if it is to flip burgers, you will witness an immense change in your morale. It’s only when you do not have much involvement, that you need an incentive. Becoming committed to the act and willingness to excel in conducting ourselves will nullify any fear or fascination for a reward. Distractions or prizes can not affect you when the more substantial picture matters more than petty, timebound relaxations. It feels liberating, and nothing outside your being can intervene. 

You see that the root of looking for motivation is to feel the value of the things you are pursuing. When you convince yourself that you want to do something no matter what, there is no question of adding superficial value to it. You already agree that yes, this is worth all the things I am going through. Hearing motivational speeches or fearing penalties is as good as hiring somebody else to die and go to heaven to see if it’s perfect there. There’s no way anyone can convince you as long as you don’t die and get there. Plain and simple as that.

Summing Up

I feel that the most functional tool that will help you live a meaningful life is discipline. Will Smith rightly said that self-discipline is self-love. Start loving your life as a conscious decision towards your vision. However, you can still consider the rewards and failures as tools of calibrating your efforts. They can help you restructure your methods of engagement. But sticking to your intentions is the key to separating yourself from the futile rat race. So, if you want to live a life that doesn’t require external motivation, certify it yourself that whatever you are pursuing is worth it.