Intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation

Psychologists have determined two types of motivation that explain our behaviours and how we pursue goals: intrinsic (from the inside) and extrinsic (from the outside).

Common intrinsic motivations are:

• Family.
• Health.
• Enjoyment.

In contrast, extrinsic motivations include:

• Money.
• Looks.
• Seeking praise or fame.

When you embark upon a health journey, it’s essential to take some time to reflect and explore the main things that motivate you.

Do you want to improve your energy levels and feel confident in yourself? Or perhaps your family and the people around you encourage you to make healthy changes.

These exciting questions centre around what motivates us, or ‘why do we do what we do?’.

Extrinsic motivation

This occurs when we are motivated to engage in an activity or perform a behaviour to earn a reward or avoid punishment.

We’re not choosing to do the activity because we enjoy it or find it rewarding, but rather because we’ll earn something in return or avoid something unpleasant.

Examples of extrinsic rewards and motivators are things like a monetary bonus or pay rise at work if we hit specific key targets, competing in sporting competitions for trophies, coming into work on time, so we don’t get reprimanded by the manager, or losing weight so we can look better in our clothes.

Intrinsic motivation

This motivation involves engaging in behaviour or activity because we find it personally rewarding. Intrinsic motivation plays off our internal interests and values.

It means we perform these tasks for our own sake and are invested in the process rather than the external reward. The behaviour itself provides us with a reward.

Examples of intrinsic motivators include doing a workout in the morning because it feels good or solving a puzzle. After all, you enjoy the challenge of choosing healthy meals because you enjoy cooking them.

Which motivator is more effective?

What motivates us is a fascinating concept and will be different for everyone.

Intrinsically motivated people find satisfaction from the mental and physical benefits of weight loss (for example, improvements in their mood, energy, and self-esteem) rather than merely looking better or appeasing others.

Often it can be an extrinsic motivator that gets us going in the beginning, such as our doctor telling us we should lose weight for our health or our desire to look good for an event in a few months.

However, research has shown that extrinsic motivation only keeps us motivated in the short term, and we need to shift to intrinsic motivation to achieve long-term results.

How to cultivate intrinsic motivation

This comes down to self-exploration and determining what matters to you. However, without even realising it, we sometimes switch from being extrinsically to intrinsically motivated.

For example, you may start cooking healthy meals to lose weight. But then you find yourself preparing healthy meals because you love discovering new recipes and learning new skills.

You might also enjoy taking lunches to work and sharing your recipes with co-workers.

Suddenly, you’re no longer cooking healthy food to lose weight, but you’re cooking because you enjoy the process.

This is a switch from extrinsic to intrinsic motivation and means you’ll be more likely to continue cooking healthy meals.

Another example is starting to exercise because you were told it’s good for mental and physical well-being.

But as your fitness levels improve, you realise you’re exercising because you love it. The feeling of running outside gives you an energy boost and helps to clear your mind.

You’ll be more likely to keep up with your running, even when the weather turns cold, because you know it makes you feel good (intrinsic motivation).

The key to finding intrinsic motivation is to reflect on the internal benefits of the changes you’re making rather than the external ones.

Next time you do a workout, think about how you feel during and after the training.

Try to focus on this rather than thinking about how many calories you’re burning.

This switch from external to internal motivators will keep you on track with your lifestyle changes for many years.

Practical challenge

This challenge can help you increase intrinsic motivation:

1. Start by creating a table with three columns on a sheet of paper with the headings ‘lifestyle change’, ‘intrinsic’ and ‘extrinsic’.
2. Take a moment to think about a few fundamental changes you have made or would like to make to your lifestyle. For example, cooking more at home, increasing exercise, and reducing processed foods. Write these down underneath the ‘lifestyle change’ column.
3. For each lifestyle change, write down your external or ‘extrinsic’ reasons for making this change. Next, think about how to turn this external reason into an internal or ‘intrinsic’ motivation.

This is an example of what your table might look like:

Lifestyle change	Extrinsic	Intrinsic
Exercise	To lose weight and tone up	To feel mentally refreshed and confident in my body
Cooking more at home	To improve my blood sugar levels and lose weight	To feel proud of myself when I cook a new recipe that myself and my family enjoy
Reducing processed foods	To lose weight and look better in my clothes	To have more energy and feel better about myself

When doing any of the activities above, try to focus on how this makes you feel.

For example, instead of cooking because you know the food is good for you, think about how making a meal for yourself, and your family makes you feel.

Looking back at how your cooking skills have improved, do you feel a sense of achievement? Are you enjoying the taste of new ingredients? Or the challenge of attempting new recipes?

Try to turn your focus to these intrinsic motivators continually. This will help you to see the value of making these changes for yourself.

Take home message