"Motivation is a powerful thing. It can make you do things that you never thought possible, and it can also cause people to forget about their dreams
“Motivation is a powerful thing. It can make you do things that you never thought possible, and it can also cause people to forget about their dreams when they feel like giving up. Despite how important motivation is in our lives, many of us don’t even know what it means! In this post, we will explore the four types of motivation.”
1. Internal Motivation
This is when you are entirely motivated to do something because of your own personal reasons. An example would be if you wanted to join an athletic team because it was your favorite sport, or if you wanted to volunteer at the animal shelter because you love dogs.
Internal motivation can be a wonderful thing, as it gives people a sense of belonging and excitement. For example, many students who are on athletic teams often have very good grades as well. However, internal motivation isn’t always the best thing because you might not feel the need to do things that aren’t interesting or exciting to you.
Internal Motivation can also be a bad thing if people end up doing things just to please themselves and not anyone else. An example of this would be if someone decided to join the debate team even though they hated public speaking, just because they wanted to win.
1(b). External Motivation
External motivation comes from sources outside of ourselves. For example, our parents might push us to get good grades in school so that we can get into a good college, or our friends might convince us to try out for the soccer team because they think we’ll be great. External motivation is very common, and it often comes in the form of rewards and punishments.
External motivation is a great thing because it gives us a sense of purpose and direction. It also allows us to work towards achievement, like getting good grades so that we can get into college. However, there are also some cons to using external motivation too much. For example, if you only do things because your parents give you rewards for completing tasks then you might not find the activities themselves very interesting or valuable.
External Motivation can often cause problems because you might lose interest in the activity if the reward goes away. For example, children often stop doing their homework when they don’t get a reward for completing it.
2. Influential Motivation
This type of motivation is defined as someone else’s goals becoming your goals. Unlike external motivation where you do things to please others, with the influential motivation you actually want to do the things that someone else wants you to do.
For example, your parents might join a PTA at your school because they really care about helping out others and making sure there’s enough funding for activities, however, this would be considered influential motivation because they’re doing it not just for themselves but for their kids as well. Influential motivation is a great thing because it allows you to work towards goals that are important to others.
For example, if your parents care about the education of other children then they might push you to keep up your grades so that you can be successful. However, there are some cons to influential motivation too. This only works when the person you’re influenced by has similar goals to you, and it can also be dangerous if the person has different motives. For example, someone might try to convince you to do something that’s harmful or illegal because they think it will help them achieve their goals.
3. Intrinsic Motivation
Intrinsic motivation comes from within, and it’s the motivation to do something simply because you enjoy it or find it interesting. A good example of intrinsic motivation would be a student who loves learning and is interested in all subjects, so they study on their own time for fun.
Intrinsic motivation is the best type of motivation because it doesn’t require any external factors like rewards or punishments. Intrinsic motivation is a great thing because it allows you to do things for your own satisfaction. For example, the student mentioned above might get good grades not because they want a reward, but because they enjoy learning and find it challenging and fulfilling.
However, intrinsic motivation does have some downsides too. One downside is that it could cause you to make both good and bad decisions because your motivations are for your own interests. For example, the student might prioritize learning math over studying literature or other subjects they don’t find as interesting because of their intrinsic love of mathematics.
4. Towards Motivation
The final type of motivation is called towards motivation. This type of motivation is defined as working towards achieving a goal or purpose, and it’s often the most obvious form of motivation. However, this doesn’t mean that it’s any less important than the other three types!
Towards motivation is great because it gives you an overall purpose or direction to work towards. For example, you might be motivated to get into a good college so that you can have a successful career, and this would be considered motivation because you’re focusing on achieving a long-term goal.
Conclusion:
So what are the four types of motivation? The key different types of motivation are internal, influential, intrinsic, and towards motivation. However, there are some negative aspects to all types of motivation too, and that’s why it’s important to be able to understand your motivations for doing things.
So what type of motivation is the best? It doesn’t really matter which one you have, because they’re all good in their own way! What matters more than the type of motivation is understanding why you do the things that you do.
