Extrinsic Motivation: Why You Make Terrible Life Choices - Nir & Far

Self-determination theory (SDT) among the most widely accepted theories of human motivation and flourishing. It has emerged as the leading psychological approach for understanding how intrinsic and extrinsic motivation work on the humans. As part of their theory, intrinsic motivation comes from the desire to feel competency, autonomy, and relatedness. According to SDT, anything done purely out of extrinsic motivation will fail to meet these needs and hinder performance over the long-term.

The answer lies in finding a way to “play anything.” Play doesn’t have to be fun. Finding a way to play a task is how you find the intrinsic motivation to keep you going and gets you hooked until you are done with the task.

Two ways to learn how to play anything:

1. Focus more and find the variability and surprise in what you’re doing
2. Adding constraints to make the task more interesting and meaningful. Every game has rules, and sometimes adding the rules yourself makes the task into more of a game