Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation:
The Two Factor Theory for Your Road to Success

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In pursuing the road to success that each of us have in our life, constant motivation is needed so that we can keep putting on consistent effort every day which is the requirement if we want to achieve our life goals. The drive that keeps us to move forward in the road to success can actually be divided to intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. This is the two factor theory which is said to be the thing that are important in pushing us for our work every day.

The dream that we have in our life is something worth pursuing, right?

That is why each of us try the hardest that we can so that dream can be realized in our life.

But usually the road to success to achieve that goal of ours is not as smooth as we want it to be. There are often some hurdles that we must pass before eventually we can see and get into the end of the road.

And that is when the intrinsic and extrinsic motivation come to play to be the drive that keep us going on the road to success. This so called two factor theory can be the decider whether we try to do consistent work every day so that we can achieve the success that is wanted.

What is the definition of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation which is the main part of two factor theory anyway? Well we will try to look at them at this part of the article below.

Definition of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation, The Two Factor Theory

The first part of the two factor theory is the intrinsic motivation. We can define this part of the two factor theory as the push which comes from our feeling and thinking within to do something. Examples given are the feeling of enjoyment that we have when doing something which can be considered as the thing that we love to do. Other examples is our needs to learn, improve performance, feels appreciated, etc. The main theme is the internal force which comes from our feeling in relation to putting in the effort.

Read also: Self Motivation: Success is a Personal Responsibility

The part of the two factor theory which is extrinsic motivation is, as you can perhaps guess, the drive which is caused by something outside from ourselves, usually in the form of reward or punishment as the cause of doing our activity. For example, when we do some projects during our time as an employee for a company, we might be encouraged in doing our hardest to get the best result for it because we can get monetary bonus if the project goes well but we might also feel pushed to do well because the project is quite crucial to the company and there might be a bad evaluation for us as an employee if we didn’t perform in this. This kind of things can also be the important drive for us to put on the effort in doing our work.

This is the two factor theory, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation which is said to be the main reasons we do our work.

Looking at the definition of these intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, we often hear that it is very important to try to keep our motivation intrinsic and not be motivated by the extrinsic part of the two factor theory. It is said that by doing that, the performance of work can be the highest because we enjoy what we do in terms of the effort that we put in to the work to achieve success. It is a bit like passion in work, looking at it that way, for this part of the two factor theory.

But looking at our daily life, we should acknowledge the second part of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation is actually important too as some (or probably most) of the drive of our work are because of that part of the two factor theory too.

The Important Drive(s) in Our Journey on The Road to Success

As we keep moving forward on the road to success, we actually tend to get more and more tired as the journey goes on although we are pretty pumped up at the start.

Questions we often ask in the middle of the road to success usually: When will we ever get there? Do the path that we take is right to take us to the end of this road to success? If yes, why haven’t we achieved our success?

Well, that is when your determination comes to play. If it is strong enough, then you will hold on until the success comes. Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation are actually the ones that keep our determination lit up.

I think what when it comes to these two, we need to have the balance between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. We sure need to want something outside of ourselves so that we can keep our push in the road to success. It also has to be strong enough, that desire, so that we can maintain our move. For example, if you are an entrepreneur who just starting out, there can be motivation of success in some kind of monetary reward that you seek out as your motivation. Something like that is needed to achieve their dream and keep your determination. I think that is okay as long as that is a great enough why for you and it can keep your determination strong to go all the way to the one that is actually what you define as your success. As long as it is something legal and does not harm yourself or other people around you, you can be determined to keep on pushing forward your success using that kind of extrinsic motivation.

But that is often not enough. In the long run, you also must have some kind of intrinsic motivation on your road to success. When you do something on your road to success, the need of feeling to learn and improve on what you do by keep doing it every day is also important as you can get bored if do not have that along the way. As a human, we are also a social creature that need our relationship with others. Thus, you can also have the feeling of don’t want to fall behind with the rest of your friends who work too or want to be appreciated by others. That can be part of a great motivation too to achieve our success.

All of us have the intrinsic and extrinsic motivation as described in the two factor theory on why we pursue our road to success. All that we need to inspect: Is this reason worth it for us? Is this drive great enough to keep our determination to put the effort until we reach the end of the road to success?

Because we cannot achieve success if the intrinsic and extrinsic motivation are not that great or meaningful for us and our life.

And thus, what are your intrinsic and extrinsic motivation on your road to success?

Are they strong enough for you to put on consistent effort to accomplish them?

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