Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation: My Personal Experience

I really enjoyed the lecture slides on both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in humans. As stated in the slides, extrinsic motivation is behavior coerced by external sources, while intrinsic motivation is behavior not coerced by external sources. I could highly relate to these two types of motivation. My personal experience with these two types of motivation are found in my relatively new lifestyle. Over two years ago, I was trashing my body with drugs and alcohol. Today, I have over two years sober and have a beautiful life that I would not change. For the initial stages of my recovery, I was not doing it for myself. I was getting sober for other people and for other reasons. I had a motivation to make the change, that intrinsic motivation, but the change was more focused on extrinsic outcomes. After a couple of months, that initial intrinsic motivation grew incredibly and two years later I can say that that extrinsic motivation grew entirely into intrinsic motivation. Today, I am sober because I am truly satisfied with what I have become. In addition, I can relate these two types of motivation with my healthy eating habits and workout routine. I work out every day, whether it is a good cardio session or a weightlifting routine. Combined with that, I maintain a very healthy eating routine, full of protein packed foods, whole grains, and lots of veggies! At the beginning, I was extrinsically motivated to start this healthy routine by searching for the approval of others, compliments, and even attaining the ‘revenge’ body to get back at the ex’s. Yet by the time I accomplished all those external praises, I found that I know valued the outcomes of a healthy lifestyle from within. I found improvement and growth as an incredible opportunity. I developed passion and enjoyment from living this lifestyle, and over all my self-expression.  These are concepts that I never reflected on before, until I was presented with this new knowledge. In both these experiences, it was external motivation that catalyzed the change, yet it is the internal desire that keeps the continuous growth.