Now, administering third-eyed drops.

Welcome back, dearest wonder-dippers. Michael, fill up here.

And there's a concept that I'm certain I have to have brushed up against

before within the scope of these wonder dips.

The concept of intrinsic motivators versus external motivators.

Pretty self-explanatory, but an external motivator is an achievement that's out there

that glimmering reward off in the distance.

You know, that job, that house, that status, that car, that gold medal

in the Pokemon card tournament or whatever.

On the other hand, intrinsic motivators are all about subjective drivers,

meaning do you feel personally motivated by whatever you're doing?

Does this activity satisfy you? Does it make you feel fulfilled?

Important. Does it feel like it's feeding your spirit in general?

And although you can probably tell I'm already setting it up to lean toward one

and not the other, it's not necessarily that one type of motivator is simply good or bad.

But I would argue that most of us are inside out and that we've somehow been coerced

or programmed culturally or maybe even came out of the box prone to thinking

that we don't deserve those good intrinsically motivating feels

unless we get the external win first.

Think about how fucked up that is.

We're essentially holding our own subjective well-being hostage for a hypothetical goal or outcome.

That's really the cost of focusing too much on external motivators.

...