Increase Your Drive

Many people use the terms motivation and drive interchangeably. While they are very similar they do actually mean two different things. The dictionary defines motivation as a “general desire or willingness” whereas drive is defined as an innate urge to meet a need. There are two types of motivation extrinsic and intrinsic, drive falls into the latter category. Extrinsic or external motivation comes from an external reward and/or punishment state. The thing that pushes you to initiate a task or keep going is an external factor. This can be a reward that you want to attain like getting paid for completing a job. It can also be motivation to avoid a certain punishment such as doing just enough to not get fired from your job. Intrinsic motivation on the other hand comes from an internal reward structure. That doesn’t mean rewarding yourself with ice cream for going to the gym, that’s still external. It means that just finishing the task or accomplishing the goal is the reward. Exercise for weight loss is extrinsic motivation whereas exercise because it makes you feel good afterwards is intrinsic motivation. Drive is a goal oriented form of intrinsic motivation. It is intrinsic motivation with a purpose. It is planned out and designed to get you from where you are to achieving your goals. Having internal drive is a skill that some people have cultivated. It may look like they are just intrinsically motivated naturally and have never had to work on it or faced lack of motivation. It’s like any other skill, though, some people will start with more ability or in this case drive than others, but if you put forth the effort you can build up the skill to match even the most motivated person you know. Each one of these individually will help you to improve your intrinsic motivation. When combined they will create a change in your life that will give you the push and power to get moving and keep moving. Episode Breakdown Understand your form of intrinsic motivation and drive. Intrinsic motivation, especially drive, comes at the cross-section of purpose, autonomy, and mastery. Each of these alone can increase motivation, but by their powers combined you will have an internal drive not reliant on outside stimulation. To increase your drive you have to learn how each of these affects it as well as how to improve each area for yourself. Purpose embodies our need as humans to be a part of something bigger than ourselves. It focuses on asking the why behind what you are doing. Purpose is the starting point of motivation that creates the context for the following two, autonomy and mastery. Autonomy is the combination of having choice and being accountable for the consequences of that choice. It is a need to be able to make the decisions that influence our lives. Many forms of Agile, when done properly, promote various levels of autonomy in allowing developers to choose their own tasks and how they accomplish those tasks. Mastery occurs when we push ourselves just beyond our comfort and abilities. It is the need to improve our skills in an area where we find purpose or that leads toward our goals. Mastery involves failure, you will fail when pushing yourself but that is how you learn and grow. Motivation increases when around those who are intrinsically motivated. Humans are tribal creatures and unique in that we are able to pick our own tribes. Even the most shy, introverted developers need people around them, if anything because they can’t do all the work alone. You can choose to be around people who sludge through their lives barely getting anything done or you can choose to be around those whose drive pushes themselves to constantly be doing more. Being in a community of motivated, driven individuals provides a backdrop and examples of how to be a motivated individual.