Personal Development for Smart People Forums - View Single Post - Outer Motivation? Inner Motivation? My brain hurts! :(

Keith · 03-13-2008, 10:00 AM

There seem to be two schools of thought on this whole 'getting stuff done' thing.

School 1 says: Be disciplined. Organise yourself. Use systems that structure your life. Do what you need to to reach your goals. I call this the 'outer school'.

School 2 says: Motivation should be intrinsic. If you need to force yourself to do something then you're doing it wrong. Get in touch with your true core and everything flows from there. I call this the 'inner school'.

Obviously the two are incompatible, so which is right. I've had poor results with the outer school approach, but others have had superb results. Conversely, I've always been a bit fuzzy on how to get in touch with my true core so that path's been a washout so far, too.

Any recommendations? At the moment, whichever path I start down, I feel like I must be doing it wrong.

Thanks.

03-13-2008, 10:00 AM	#1 (permalink)
Keith Family Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Australia Posts: 1,139	Outer Motivation? Inner Motivation? My brain hurts! :( There seem to be two schools of thought on this whole 'getting stuff done' thing. School 1 says: Be disciplined. Organise yourself. Use systems that structure your life. Do what you need to to reach your goals. I call this the 'outer school'. School 2 says: Motivation should be intrinsic. If you need to force yourself to do something then you're doing it wrong. Get in touch with your true core and everything flows from there. I call this the 'inner school'. Obviously the two are incompatible, so which is right. I've had poor results with the outer school approach, but others have had superb results. Conversely, I've always been a bit fuzzy on how to get in touch with my true core so that path's been a washout so far, too. Any recommendations? At the moment, whichever path I start down, I feel like I must be doing it wrong. Thanks.