i’ve always thought that it’s really simple. there’s extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation

extrinsic motivation is when somebody stands next to you and beats you with a stick when you do something that they don’t like. the result is i will do the minimum slop required to fit their criteria, like when i’m asked to do the dishes, i’ll just make them look clean without actually scrubbing them.

intrinsic motivation is when i see the meaningfulness of an action, at which point my body starts acting towards that goal automatically.