Rewards and Retrospect

One of my old football coaches once told us two things we have to do in oder to be successful: polish and shine! Ever since these two content words were said I started thinking about it. Is that really all we have to do – work hard and once we get rewarded look good, shine?

This one is on intrinsic motivation. In 1987 MIT professor Thomas Malone and Mark Lepper of Stanford University have defined intrinsic motivation as “what people will do without external inducement.” Most of us human beings, however, are extrinsically motivated and seek to be rewarded and credited by others, by friends, by their families, by colleagues, et cetera. Once these rewards and credits are absent, though, our motivational basis starts to collapse, we lose our momentum, and do not do our deeds with devotion, with love, with heart anymore. Would it not be great to keep that drive alive, though? Would it not be amazing to have an untouchable motivation that perseveres, regardless of other people’s impact on us; an independent motivational relentless momentum? It is amazing, and it is possible, and it is said to be the secret ingredient of infinite success: intrinsic motivation.

Our motivation has to come from within, not from our surroundings. The things we work on can be a long process, there is a briefing, competing, and after a long while of hard work there is a completion, but only, if we are devoted and dedicated to polish in order to shine. We have to stay motivated all the time, in good days, in bad days, relentlessly, we cannot let our vague motivation let us down. We have to polish steadily, we have to go hard, we have to be prepared, when opportunity is knocking at our door, and there is only one way to keep that motivation at a sublime sacrosanct level: it has to come from within.

If you remember the last thing you gave your everything for, was it not great once you achieved it, once you got rewarded for your hard work? It is great to be rewarded for your work, your deeds, your opus, but if you want to keep the train rolling, that also has to come from within. Reward yourself! Do not wait on being credited by others, credit yourself, reward yourself. Is it not incredibly satisfying to see the result of hard work? There is no reward by others that can come anywhere near the feeling of satisfaction you have once you see your work complete, no money, no award, no nothing can replace inner freedom, inner satisfaction – retrospect, and see. Let this internal enrichment be your motor, your engine, your motivation, motivate yourself! Soon you will be able to see how your life of calm changes to a life with tailwinds.

Don’t make your success, your motivation, and everything related to it a matter depending on others, be your own fountain of motivational drive, of relentless momentum. Credits and rewards by others? – They will come, but by the time they come you will not need them anymore, because you already got rewarded more intense than your fellows can ever reward you: in your heart! Once you are a person of intrinsic motivation, you do not need the rewards by others, but believe me, you will get them, because an inner motivation leads to an inner confidence and satisfaction, and that reverberates, and wether you want it or not, that radiates. If you know how to polish, if you’re willing to work and go hard, you know how to shine, and once you shine be true and happy shining, for it feels great...