Keep It Simple — Issue #41

The Truth About Motivation

Coding is Hard.

Anything worth it is hard.

You might love the idea of doing hard things, but you should ask yourself why you want to do it.

Do you find it fun?
Do you want the money?
Do you want your parents' approval?

It might all seem the same, but motivations make all the difference in how your accomplishments feel.

For most of my life, I chased opportunities for the wrong reasons. The common reasons people would expect you to pursue anything. However, I had a change of heart.

The wrong motivations become handcuffs. Most people spend their lives in fear and don't realize it until they are a moment from death and nothing else matters except how they feel about their life.

This newsletter is about understanding what motivation is about. It all starts with understanding what "fear" actually is...

Extrinsic Motivation

This is the common motivation most people choose in life.

In general – it is based on fear.

• Status
• Money
• Awards
• Revenge
• Approval

It's the reason most people do what they do.

They ask the question "What will this get me?"

This type of motivation works, but it has a long-term problem...

Everything in life normalizes.

Being broke is a millionaire's nightmare but to a broke person, it is normal.
Being a millionaire is a broke person's dream but to a millionaire, it is normal.

No matter what you accomplish it normalizes to you over time.

The issue with extrinsic motivation is you get used to it.

Six-figure salary? You get used to it.
6 Lamborghinis in the garage? You get used to it.
Men and women dying to meet you want you because of your status? You get used to it.

This is something I've realized over and over in life. Extrinsic motivation makes life an unfortunate series of going after "the next thing".

Long term? You burn out.

I wanted to go to the gym for 10 years straight before I actually started going consistently.
I was a chubby kid who wanted muscles, to look good, and for girls to like me.

But after 10 years of wanting it only one thing got me going consistently:

I started going because it felt good to go.

Intrinsic Motivation

I get raised eyebrows from my manager when they ask about promotions and all I care to talk about is making sure I am working on work that I find meaningful. Everybody else seems so focused on their "career goals". After all, everybody else is doing it.

I'm not sure when I got disenchanted with a "traditional career" but at some point I did.
​
Over time I started to realize that corporate "career goals" translate to:
​Chasing a bigger paycheck, a bigger house, higher status, and more responsibilities.

And it all has to be approved by somebody else.

In other words, you are chasing extrinsic motivation.

When I started learning programming it was never about making money.
I was creating little server plugins for Minecraft and fell in love with the process.

It was only when it came time for me to go off and support myself that I evaluated the things I like to do and asked myself "Which one makes the most money"?

If I would have learned programming only to make money – it would have sucked. I either would have given up before I got there or the process would have been painful.

Extrinsic motivation is enduring internal pain for a clear and guaranteed external reward.
Intrinsic motivation is about finding internal abundance with no guarantee of external reward.

Most people avoid intrinsic motivation because without a clear reward, they find it risky. But that is the whole point.

Intrinsic motivation is that it is based on faith.

When you are going after something because your gut tells you that you like it, or that it feels right, that is faith.

The idea of faith is strongly associated with religion, but regardless of where you place your faith, it is all the same thing. You are doing something because you believe in it.

There is no guarantee of validation, there are no guaranteed paychecks, there are no trophies, and there is no status to gain. There is no proof that you are doing the "right" thing but you do it anyway.

Earlier I said the only thing that got me in the gym was that I kept going because it felt good to go.

I had no 6-packs 2 weeks in.
I had no "gains" in the first week.
I had no girls noticing the changes.

Something switched when I started going to the gym because I believed it was the right thing to do.

That motivation has lasted me 5 years straight, and I still love going.

I had no proof or reasoning, but I believed it was the right thing to do.

While hundreds of externally motivated things in my life have come and gone? exercise has remained.

It's hard to fall out of love when you don't have a reason.

So What?

If you get one thing from this newsletter?

Believe in something.

If you spend your whole life looking for proof, looking for validation, and looking for that next level you will come up short.

You will spend your life running a race with your head cocked to the side, looking for the loudest applause, and trying to make the crowd cheer louder. Then at the end of the race, when the crowd no longer matters, you straighten your neck, look forward, and feel your heart in your throat.

You're at the wrong finish line.

In a world where everybody is telling you what to believe in, all your power lies in recognizing your own beliefs.

It doesn't have to make sense to anybody but you.

Just pick something to believe in.

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Thank you for reading this week's newsletter.
I appreciate all of you who read to the end.

How I can help you:

​Book A Coaching Call ☎️​
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Until next week 👋