WATCH: Are Your Goals Good For Your Health?

Today, I’d like to ask you a question are your goals Intrinsic or Extrinsic? And what I mean by that is Intrinsic being something that’s deeply fulfilling for you, for yourself, for your Ideal Self.

Ideal Self

Something that says ‘should’ something, or to do something that you ‘should do’ in order to be able to achieve something or get something. And I’d like to look at the way that this can actually have an effect on your well-being.

Intrinsic Motivation and Intrinsic Goal

Helps you with your personal growth. It’s also something that’s usually linked to Emotional Intimacy of some sort better relatedness, better relationships and some sort of community contribution be that a community of your personal life or your work life or the sector that you’re operating in but some sort of contribution to the community.

Extrinsic

Is more about fame or popularity, “look at me”, “look how great I am” something that’s just for you to look good, or to have an attractive image so that people will like you more. Or financial success so you can have a bunch of stuff, so you can have more material things. That tends to be Extrinsic.

This tends to be Intrinsic and the difference is that this is for your Ideal Self and it’s actually more durable.  Over time so the scientific study shows that people who have Intrinsic motivation tend to keep their motivation over time and it’s driven by dopamine which helps us get up and go, helps us be curious and want to Anticipate a reward.

Where Extrinsic is more of a ‘should’. It’s something that you ‘ought’ to do ‘must’ do ‘should’ do and it actually fluctuates. When you achieve your goal it can drop your motivation completely so your motivation just disappears. It’s driven by adrenaline. It’s like a fear of not achieving so the best you’re going to get to achieve your goal is to feel a sense of relief rather than a feeling necessarily a sense of achievement. It’s Phew! I didn’t get my goal, and what’s also interesting to note is that intrinsic motivation, in all the studies that have been done, is associated with increased well-being whereas extrinsic is associated with decreased well-being. So think very carefully especially over the next few months and maybe even the next 12 months. What are you driven by and whether your goals are Intrinsic or Extrinsic?

Thank you.

With best regards,

David Klaasen

Talent4Performance help business leaders clarify complexity. We inspire people and drive continuous performance improvement, so they can convert thinking into action and results.

©David Klaasen – 2023