Do External Rewards work?
There is an ongoing debate… as to whether extrinsic or intrinsic rewards are best. Let’s take a closer look.
Extrinsic Motivation
- Participating in a sport to win awards (ME)
- Cleaning your room to avoid being reprimanded by your parents
- Competing in a contest to win a scholarship (ME)
- Studying because you want to get a good grade (ME) or avoid a failing grade
- Working hard to close as many deals as possible to earn the highest commission (ME)
Intrinsic Motivation
- Participating in a sport because you find the activity enjoyable
- Cleaning your room because you like tidying up (ME)
- Solving a word puzzle because you find the challenge fun and exciting
- Studying a subject you find fascinating
- Closing as many deals as possible to help the greatest number of people with their challenges
It appears that intrinsic rewards lean mostly positive; while extrinsic motivators can be either positive (the carrot) or negative (the stick).
As with other things in life, we all come to our particular situation with differences in genetics, personality, backgrounds, upbringings, world experiences and much more. I believe these also play a role in our responses to different types of rewards.
My very personal and one-person survey reveals that I respond best to POSITIVE-TYPES OF EXTRINSIC REWARDS.
And so, knowing myself and that I get excited, energized and fiercely determined when I see the reward of a finish line and a “YOU DID IT” recognition of some sort, I will set about creating a positive external reward system for myself.
I’ll share what I come up with in an upcoming post and if you find yourself in a similar camp, I’ll be happy to pass it along to you!
Cheers to all you other positively externally motivated individuals!!!
*NaNoWriMo is an annual event that challenges you to write a novel of 50,000 words in one month! Crazy right? Not everyone uses the challenge to write a novel – we are called NaNoRebels. For example, I challenged myself to write one blog post every day for a month and that is what you are seeing in these NaNoWriMo posts!!!