Extrinisic VS Intrinsic Motivation

When I was about 15-16 years old and extremely self conscious, I taped this picture (taken out of the garbage, where it belongs, for this picture) of some fat ladies I found on the internet inside my family’s snack cabinet.

I thought that doing this would prevent me from emotional eating foods that I thought were “bad” for me (silly me). [Read this post for more on “clean” vs “dirty” or in other words “good” vs “bad” foods.] Well guess what, I still found myself standing in front of the snack cabinet, mindlessly eating whatever fancied my emotions at the moment, MULTIPLE TIMES, over many years. I realized that this stupid picture didn’t work not long after I put it up. For some reason, I just finally ripped the picture down today. The tactic of posting this picture for extrinsic motivation only lasted for so long. My own intrinsic motivation is what led me this far years later, finally able to detach my emotional yearning for food from actual feelings of physical hunger. That’s what inspired the rest of this post.

Extrinsic VS intrinsic motivation

Extrinsic motivation (think external)

Intrinsic motivation (think internal)

Think of what you’re doing right now. It can be working, eating, exercising, picking your nose; literally anything. This isn’t limited to health & fitness.

Are you doing it because you are intrinsically motivated? I.e. you actually enjoy or find it interesting. Or are you doing it because you’re extrinsically motivated? I.e. you’re seeking external rewards or the avoidance of negative consequences.

Extrinsic motivation is good initially, but without any intrinsic motivation, whatever you’re seeking will most likely be challenging to sustain as extrinsic motivation wavers. If something REALLY mattered to you, would you put all of your trust in someone else to get it done, or would you suck it up get it done yourself? There’s a difference between seeking help of others to make the outcome the best it could be VS surrendering & leaving the outcome completely up to someone or something outside of yourself.

Moral of the story: know your why & make your actions align with it. Are you hitting up the gym because your doctor told you that you need to lose some weight, or because you want to look like so & so on Instagram? OR are you going for a walk somewhere in nature because you truly enjoy it, regardless of it’s added health benefits?

Find a healthy habit that you enjoy doing & go do more of that. If you can’t think of 1 thing, that’s okay too. If you want to make changes but rely solely on extrinsic motivation, it might be time seek that motivation from a trusted source such as a coach who can motivate & guide you in the right direction.