I am a runner. Actually, it would be more accurate to say that my primary form of exercise is running, and I like the idea of running. I say that because I don’t actually love running while I am running. Running is great when it’s over. I don’t think I have ever experienced a runner’s high, or at least I have never recognized it. I don’t find running easy or distracting. I did not really grow up as a runner; I started running consistently as I approached my 50th birthday. I now run 6km 4 to 5 days a week, about 100km per month, first thing in the morning. All of this said, I am proud of this habit and I will continue running as long as I can.

I know others who run - a lot. I have also read extensively about running. I admire those who run long distances or run very fast. I am neither of those.

What motivates me to run? I run because I feel like I accomplished something first thing in the morning regardless how the rest of the day turns out. I feel good for the rest of the day and I need the exercise. I track my running diligently. I can tell you with great accuracy and detail the nature of every run I have taken in the last 5 years; I have Runkeeper to thank for that! I have goals I set every month, and some of those goals work better than others. Some goals have actually had a negative effect; causing months in which I did not fell motivated to run at all. I have learned to be careful about what goals I set and how I react to them. This post is about motivation, the subtle differences in the types of motivation, and why they matter.

Extrinsic vs Intrinsic Motivation

Motivation is the reason why we get off the couch and do something. It is the “why" in the equation, like why we get up at 5am to go to the gym or push through the late night studying macroeconomics. It may also be the reason we choose not to do something, like not have the extra helping at dinner or picking up that free doughnut in the conference room.

Motivation is generally categorized as either extrinsic or intrinsic. Intrinsic motivation is inherent in the activity; people who love running run because the activity itself gives them satisfaction, or they achieve that elusive (for me) runner’s high. Or perhaps the motivation is the pleasure of doing the activity such as engaging in a hobby, or playing a sport you love. (Ryan & Deci, 2017).  It is not the outcome that motivates, it is the inherent pleasure you derive from the activity. Extrinsic motivation is the satisfaction of an objective as a result of the activity. It is not a part of the activity, it is an outcome of the activity. Receiving a trophy for winning a race, or even a participation medal for competing, are forms extrinsic motivation that are conferred upon you by someone else. The mere act of keeping score is an extrinsic motivator.

Identifying whether a motivation is intrinsic or extrinsic does not refer to who confers a reward. Instead it refers to whether the motivation is inherent to the activity or an outcome of the activity. I find it easier to think about this as how you feel while you are doing the activity. If you feel great doing an activity and that makes you look forward to doing it again, you are intrinsically motivated. I view everything else as extrinsic motivation. In my case I am clearly not intrinsically motivated to run because I do not derive pleasure from the activity itself. I am interested in the outcomes, such as becoming healthier, and achieving goals such running longer distances. These are clearly extrinsic motivations. I intend to discuss extrinsic and intrinsic rewards in more detail in the next post because this often creates confusion and is critical to how we use motivation.

Is one better than the other?

The purpose of this discussion is to see how different types of motivation affect our ability to make an improvement in our lives. It would seem like being intrinsically motivated to perform the tasks we need to perform to achieve the goals we have set would be ideal. We would look forward to the activity because we would be anticipating the sense of well-being that would develop as we performed the activity. We may not require any other motivation. For example, if I actually loved running and achieved a high from running and was intrinsically motivated to push myself to excel, I might increase my pace and add some distance to my morning run. I would not need to keep a diligent record of my run to see what progress I made, or even to record that I actually did get out and run. So in this case I would not need extrinsic motivations to run. I would run for the love of running.

If I am thus intrinsically motivated, I suspect it is even likely that in order to develop the habit to run, is a matter of discovery. How would you know if you loved running if you were not already a runner? Indeed it may even be possible that in order to be intrinsically motivated to run, you must already be, or have been a runner. You cannot anticipate how you will feel running, if you have insufficient experience doing it.

Therefore, if you are already a runner, you will probably have a habit to run. You will run when you get out of bed, or right after work, or in the evening. Whatever, scheduling   trigger works for you.

If you have been a runner but have lapsed, are already aware you love running, possibly what you require is simply a trigger to encourage you to lace up your shoes and go. Perhaps the reason you lapsed is that your degree of motivation was not adequate to ensure you created the trigger opportunity. If you manage the trigger correctly, your intrinsic motivation may be sufficient to create the habit in short order. If your goal is simply to run, this may be adequate.

But is this enough? Is it likely that intrinsic motivation will be all we need to not only do something, but to make an improvement everyday? Are there risks that our habit will be disrupted by some other events in our lives and our intrinsic motivation will be overwhelmed. For example, suppose our current schedule is to rise at 5am, go for our run, then get ready for work, commute 20 minutes to the office to arrive on time. What happens if we change jobs and now the commute is 40 minutes and the start time is 30 minutes earlier? We have lost nearly an hour! You may hang your head and admit to yourself you cannot see yourself rolling out of bed at 4am.

This means we need extrinsic motivations to support our habits, even if we are highly motivated intrinsically!

If you are not a runner today but are considering running as your means to improve your overall health, you probably need to set some goals so you can find opportunities to run consistently enough. For example, your goals may start with just get out of the house, just once! You may get to the end of your run and decide your next goal is to try again tomorrow. In fact that was my very first goal. I did not know if it was a habit I wanted. You may discover you love running and will have little difficulty in developing a habit. Given we want the habit to be sustainable and resilient to change, your goals need to evolve to act as a backstop. Achieving the goals and the associated rewards are your extrinsic motivations.

If you are attempting to resuscitate your running habit after a long layoff, the process is very similar. You may even recognize in retrospect that you relied too heavily on the intrinsic rewards to sustain your habit. While physically you will need to ramp up to “game shape” again, your body will well-remember the love of running. This time you need to be wary that the disruption that caused your layoff in the past needs a set of goals and associated rewards in order to be successful in the long term.

If you are currently a runner, be wary of the possibility of losing the habit. Major life changes can easily disrupt your habit. Treating your habit casually, by not sustaining the goals you set can result in breaking the habit. Once broken it is real work to re-establish your habits.

If you, like me, realize you have no innate love of running, where every hill feels like climbing Everest, extrinsic motivation is all you have. You must learn to set goals and celebrate the achievement of those goals. There are many other ways to manage rewards and make extrinsic motivation more than adequate to sustain you. It is also conceivable that training will increase our level intrinsic motivation over time. They have sustained my running habit for 10 years. I now run very consistently and miss the run when it doesn’t happen. I celebrate every one of those Everests.

I think it highly desirable that we are intrinsically motivated to perform the actions we want to be habits. This will certainly push us to perform at highest levels. But this is not sufficient to sustain the habits against changes in our lives that inevitably disrupt us. To do this we need to create and manage opportunities for extrinsic motivators.

In the next post we will discuss Intrinsic and Extrinsic Rewards, which are the main levers for creating extrinsic motivation

While I have used the example of running extensively in this post, the same arguments apply to any activity we want to be a regular, important part of our lives. Whether it is studying macroeconomics, writing the next great American novel, or publishing posts on this Blog, we need extrinsic motivation to support our intrinsic motivation. We all have many things we love to do. Extrinsic motivation creates our conscious action to make that a habit.