It means having a choice in what you do and being-self driven.
People are naturally wired to be-self driven. When they have the freedom to pick what they work on (tasks), when they work on it (time), how they attain it (technique) and who they work with (team), they perform much better due to the sense of autonomy.

Autonomy

Purpose leverage the human desire of being part of something bigger .
We reach purpose while:
<ul>
<li>Doing something that matters</li>
<li>Doing it well</li>
<li>Doing it in the service of a cause larger than ourselves.</li>
</ul>

Purpose: Being Part Of Something Bigger

<ul>
<li>Autonomy: this is the desire to direct our own lives</li>
<li>Mastery: this is the impulse to get better and better at something that matters</li>
<li>Purpose: this is the longing to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves.</li>
</ul>

The 3 Components of Intrinsic Motivation

<ol>
<li>Motivation 1.0 - The survival instict: In this situation, the primary things that keep us alive (food, water, shelter) control our actions.</li>
<li>Motivation 2.0 - The stick and the carrot: This system assume workers will have no desire to work unless they are offered an extrinsic reward ( this can mean a punishment too).</li>
<li>Motivation 3.0 - Intrinsic reward: The internal satisfaction we feel from accomplishing something is far more rewarding than stick and carrot motivation.</li>
</ol>

3 Types Of Motivation

<ul>
<li>Extrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivators (a raise, a promotion, a bonus) do work they are usually doing so in the short-term only. If the motivator is taken away, the behavior stops.</li>
<li>Intrinsic motivation. It is the desire to do something for the internal satisfaction of it. It’s the joy we get from accomplishing something useful, the satisfaction of a job well done, a sense of purpose, pride, belonging.</li>
</ul>

Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation

<ul>
<li>They can extinguish intrinsic motivation.</li>
<li>They can diminish performance.</li>
<li>They can crush creativity.</li>
<li>They can crowd out good behavior.</li>
<li>They can encourage cheating, shortcuts, and unethical behavior.</li>
<li>They can become addictive.</li>
<li>They can foster short-term thinking.</li>
</ul>
The carrot and stick method does work, but it was created for a very different era and totally different circumstances.

Carrots and Sticks: The Seven Deadly Flaws

The assumption of Mastery is that people wish to get better at what they do as long as they care about it. 
<ul>
<li> Engagement in the task one is pursuing is key to mastery.</li>
<li>To be engaged, you need to reach the state of flow, where goals are clear and feedback is immediate.</li>
<li>For flow, the challenge of a task must be just slightly above your level of competence.</li>
<li>Set “learning goals” instead of “performance goals”.</li>
</ul>

Mastery

<ul>
<li>Type X (Extrinsic): They are driven by external factors such as fame, status, money etc. They can often be highly successful but also troubled by an insatiable appetite for MORE.</li>
<li>Type I (Intrinsic): Their motivation comes from within – to accomplish something meaningful. Success is measured by the task itself and not by a reward. Type I’s will usually outperform a Type X in the long run.</li>
</ul>

The Two Types Of People: Type X And Type I

Rewards usually offer a short-term boost. But the effect wears off, and the negative consequence of them remain: they reduce a person’s longer-term motivation to continue the project.
When money is used as an external reward for some activity, the subjects lose intrinsic interest for the activity.

External Rewards

Forget everything you thought you knew about how to motivate people - at work, at school, at home. It's wrong. As Daniel H. Pink explains in his new and paradigm-shattering book DRIVE: THE SURPRISING TRUTH ABOUT WHAT MOTIVATES US, the secret to high performance and satisfaction in today's world is the deeply human need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by ourselves and our world. Drawing on four decades of scientific research on human motivation, Pink exposes the mismatch between what science knows and what business does - and how that affects every aspect of our lives. He demonstrates that while the old-fashioned carrot-and-stick approach worked successfully in the 20th century, it's precisely the wrong way to motivate people for today's challenges. In DRIVE, he reveals the three elements of true motivation: AUTONOMY - the desire to direct our own lives; MASTERY - the urge to get better and better at something that matters; PURPOSE - the yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves. Along the way, he takes us to companies that are enlisting new approaches to motivation and introduces us to the scientists and entrepreneurs who are pointing a bold way forward. DRIVE is bursting with big ideas - the rare book that will change how you think and transform how you live.

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Daniel Pink on Incentives and the Two Types of Motivation

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