I've been having problems with motivation lately. As usual, I did a lot of research and discovered certain things. Okay, let's cut the bullshit get straight into the topic.

The first article that transformed my views - > Motivation is for the weak Go read it first.

The author is mostly right. If some fancy pictures with a quote or a few sentences motivates you then you're in a lot of trouble. Let me explain.

There are two types of motivation: 1) External: Those fancy pictures, motivating quotes and all the other bullshit that emotionally uplift you come under this category. External motivation is like a drug ie., it feels good when you're under it's influence. It doesn't last. It creates more problems than it solves.

I've personally tried to externally motivate myself from the last 8 months. Downloaded a lot of images, quotes and surrounded myself with a lot of pictures of rich houses, cars etc (you get the idea). This made me more focused for a month at most and then suddenly, I just started rolling back into a depression kinda phase. No matter how hard I tried to externally motivate myself, I couldn't do it.

I ended up with more problems than I initially had. So, I started looking for another form of motivation. 2)Internal motivation: When your behavior is not driven by reward, you're internally motivated. Simply put, doing something because you love doing it is internal motivation.

I hit the gym not because I want to look like Arnold (external motivation) but because I love lifting weights (internal motivation). I like the tranquility it provides.

Internal motivation is the key to staying focused because it lasts almost permanently (if you convert your motivation into a habit). To be internally motivated, you must focus on "why you love what you're doing" part.

Enough about the different types of motivation. Now let me answer the basic question you might have.

External motivation is not bad as the author in the article explains. In most cases, it's impossible to get internally motivated without some sort of external motivation. For example, I initially lifted weights because I want to look good(external). Gradually, I loved lifting(internal) and now I do it because I love it.

Simply put, external motivation is important when you're a newbie. It carries you to a point where you must figure out whether you love doing it or not. If you don't love doing something you will never be motivated in the long term.

THE GUIDE: Externally motivate yourself first and then figure out whether you love what you're doing or not. If you do love it, then write it down or remember it. If you don't then move on because you can never do something you don't love in the long term. It decreases your quality of life by making you unhappy.

The reason why you must write it down is because there will be "phases" in your life where you'll be suffering through a lot of shit. Suppose you are an entrepreneur going through a bad phase with your startup. You need something to push yourself forward. If you had written it down "why I love building companies" describing 1)the happiness it provides when you're successful 2) why you enjoy building companies 3) long term happiness you get as a result of hard work 4).... etc then you will be motivated enough to get through the rough phase when your startup is in trouble.

The more emotionally you're connected to what you do, the more you'll love it. Trust me, YOU NEVER NEED external motivation except when you're a newbie to something.

Extra information: There are 7 enemies that kill your natural motivation. I don't want to make this post long so check out this link. It's important to know what kills motivation so that you can avoid making mistakes.

This is my analysis regarding motivation. After understanding all of this, a lot of my habits have been transformed and as a result, my quality of life increased by a lot. I am trader. Two days ago, I took a loss from the market that affected me emotionally. So, I've written down "why I love trading" in circumstances like these and it helps me to stay focused and motivated even when I'm in a loss (a trader has good days and bad days!)

Take this post seriously. Bookmark it if you want. I'm summarizing my 2 months of research into a 15-min read. Understand motivation and try to figure out ways to internally motivate yourself. Remember: internal motivation needs emotion " love". You must love something to be internally motivated. There's no other way.

Good luck.