Motivation Myths, Busted: What Actually Gets You Moving

May 19, 2025

Hey Rewire Collective!

Welcome to this week’s newsletter! We’re jumping into all things motivation, and the brain circuitry underlying it, to help us achieve the things we want to.

For More Tips To Make Lasting Change

First things first, let’s break down some different types of motivation. There are several ways of thinking about motivation, so I’ll start with the easiest.

The easiest breaks motivation down into two types: intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation.

Intrinsic motivation is motivation that comes from within yourself. It’s about how you feel, what you believe in, and what you want to do.
Extrinsic motivation comes from the outside world - money, promotions, a number on the scale, etc.

There are actually different brain circuits underlying both of these (1), and they explain why intrinsic motivation is the one that is better for making long-term changes or meeting long-term goals.

Before we crack onto that though, I’d like to introduce another way of thinking about motivation that’s more rooted in 3 overlapping process of motivation (2):

Reward-driven approach (extrinsic): Motivation is triggered by expected rewards. For example, losing 10 kilograms. This relies on the ventral striatum (involved in reward-processing) and is fairly automatic (you exercise more, you see weight loss on the scale, reward!).
Value-based decision-making (both): Involves weighing actions and outcomes, assessing if there’s a best option, which might be about long-term goals. For instance, does working overtime for a promotion support your long-term career or personal values? This uses the striatum and orbitofrontal cortex (action/outcome valuation).
Goal-directed control (intrinsic): Involves planning, monitoring, and self-regulation to pursue long-term goals. This engages the anterior cingulate cortex (attention) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (cognitive control).

These systems interact through the brain’s dopaminergic pathways, shaping how we initiate and sustain motivation.

Now, above I said that intrinsic motivation is better when you want to create sustainable change and motivation (1). But why?

Well, intrinsic motivation is associated with activity of the anterior insular cortex (AIC; part of the limbic system), which is associated with a sense of agency and autonomy (3). Meanwhile, external motivation is associated with posterior parietal regions, which are more about spatial reasoning and planning. It’s important to feel in control and capable, which is what intrinsic motivation does by using the AIC. Tasks that we find interesting also activate the AIC, and tasks that we consider boring don’t (3).

When we are motivated by our own beliefs, values, and interests, the anterior insula is activated, leading to a sense of autonomy and agency. Created with BioRender.com

If you want to do something for yourself, and you find it interesting, it’s more likely to happen!

Let’s look at a well-studied example: weight loss (4).

If your motivation to lose weight comes from meeting a weight goal (external), it’s less successful than motivation to lose weight coming from an internal goal of feeling nourished or feeling strong.

Part of this is to do with the decisions we make to meet our goals (think back to those three processes of reward-associated, value-based, and goal-directed). If we focus on an external value, like weight on a scale, once we achieve that, we get a hit of dopamine and lose motivation to maintain it. We also probably take the quickest route to achieve that goal, like unsustainable diets and exercise regimens. But, if the goal is to feel stronger or nourished, that lasts beyond a number, and promotes behavioural changes that are consistent and maintainable.

How to find intrinsic motivation?

A big theory behind this is self-determination theory (5), which assumes that our need for growth drives behaviour, and that autonomous (or intrinsic) motivation is important. Components of self-determination are autonomy (feeling in control of behaviours and goals), competence (having the skills necessary for achieving goals), and connectedness (experience a sense of belonging or attachment).

Tips 1. Find your core values, your internal goals, what drives you?

This will help you feel connected to your goals and autonomous over which goals you want to achieve. People with self-determination and, therefore, intrinsic motivation, feel more satisfied at work (6).

*When it comes to work, life is hard, I get it. You can’t always feel satisfied at work. Sometimes, you just need money. So, it can be good to have goals that are motivated intrinsically outside of work in these scenarios.*

Tip 2. Identify what goals align with your values, and what steps you can take to make your goals achievable.

This will give you a sense of autonomy and control, which is important for motivation to work. If you know your core values align, but you don’t think you can do it, then you won’t (7).

You need to feel like you can do it! This is also true for children in education. Making kids feel like they are smart enough to success is crucial for them being motivated to put in the work (8).

Tip 3. You need to be self-aware.

This ties in to emotional regulation as well, but in order to understand what goals are achievable, what an achievable timeline is for ourselves, and to identify when our values change, we need self-awareness. It’s also good to be self-aware to identify if we’re procrastinating and why, to help us get on track.

If you’ve been here a while, then it’s probably no surprise to you that meditation, which calms the amygdala, is good for this (9,10).

Tip 4. Community - What people make you feel motivated?

Why? What do they do?

Social determination theory holds community and social connection as the third important link to intrinsic motivation. Studies show we’re more likely to stay in a community if we feel connected with their values (11). Identifying which groups we identify with might help us to understand our values and goals better.

For another tip about setting goals to help maintain this intrinsic motivation on my YouTube channel:

Until Next Week,

Nicole x

P.S. Leave a comment with requests for future newsletter topics!

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