I was reading an article on Psychology Online. It showed an study between differences of internal and external motivation. So you can understand what this terms are, internal motivation means simply “self help motivation“, ways you motivate yourself. On the contrary, external motivation means someone else is trying to motivate you, or something (like money, for example). The report conclusions were the following:

“Although our society is largely extrinsically-motivated by external rewards such as money, fameand power, research has indicated those who are intrinsically-motivated by inner desires for creativity, fulfillment and inner satisfaction are psychologically healthier and happier.”

This is just a recent study. Older studies from real scientists (people who actually make some research, who don’t say everything that comes to their mind… like “gurus”) were focused on the same deal, and had the same results. For more info, read about the theories of motivation here.

Conclusion: the most important motivation… comes from yourself! People can give you money, cars, or diamonds, but what actually keeps you going is your selfmotivation.

So how do you motivate yourself, without all those material things? Danny Cox, author of the book “Seize the Day”, explains the self help motivation guidelines to achieving a great day and staying happier than ever.