Ask HN: Rekindling Intrinsic Motivation
I work at one of a small group of companies that develops a somewhat niche technology that I fell in love with many years ago. For several years, I had a driving intrinsic motivation and truly enjoyed my work. At some point I was “discovered” by a successful manager, who elevated me to a more visible position, and in the intervening years, I also had a lot of success and monetary rewards. But I’ve come to realize that my intrinsic motivation has flipped almost entirely to extrinsic, and I am now acting conservatively in my career and have become too cynical about my work and contributions. I still appreciate the tech itself, but I can’t see it the way I used to. In my early 40’s, I recognize that I’m acting responsibly for myself and my family when I consider my financial benefits and stability. But I deeply miss the intrinsic motivation that went away with a perspective shift. Have any of you been through something similar and shifted your perspective back to what you found to be a more healthy and exciting motivation? I am not just asking about finding something new and interesting here, but rather about countering a more cautious and deadening habit of mind.
1 comments
Maybe you need a side project or a vacation or something like that? Do you have some empty hole that you can fill?
Another way to move forward is to suffer a setback and make the most of it (e.g. for one thing you get that hole to fill.) I had a project run into a serious roadblock and after reversing direction I realized that I'd not only retained all the personal development I'd gotten out of the project but that encountering one set of barriers might have liberated me from another set I'd been struggling with.
Another way to move forward is to suffer a setback and make the most of it (e.g. for one thing you get that hole to fill.) I had a project run into a serious roadblock and after reversing direction I realized that I'd not only retained all the personal development I'd gotten out of the project but that encountering one set of barriers might have liberated me from another set I'd been struggling with.