{"id":46226,"date":"2021-08-24T19:45:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-24T23:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=46226"},"modified":"2021-08-25T12:31:25","modified_gmt":"2021-08-25T16:31:25","slug":"extrinsically-motivated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/extrinsically-motivated\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Extrinsically Motivated People Get Depressed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What does it mean to be extrinsically motivated? Why are materialistic people vulnerable to depression?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You are an extrinsically motivated person if your sense of fulfillment in life comes from reaching external milestones like acquiring material things, climbing the corporate leader, social recognition, and so on. An overreliance on extrinsic motivation can lead to depression because the joy you get from material things is always short-lived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read on to learn more about the dangers of being extrinsically motivated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>The Pitfalls Faced By Extrinsically Motivated People<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>How much you <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-enjoy-work\/\">enjoy your work<\/a> life also depends on whether you\u2019re intrinsically or extrinsically motivated to do the work itself. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/intrinsic-motivation-psychology\/\">Intrinsic motivation<\/a> <\/strong>is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/what-drives-you\/\">what drives you<\/a> to do things purely for the joy of them. If you love running and spend all your free time doing it, you\u2019re acting on intrinsic motivation. On the other hand, <strong>extrinsic motivation<\/strong> is a means to an end: If you <em>hate<\/em> running but keep doing it because you\u2019re trying to lose weight, that\u2019s extrinsic motivation. You\u2019re not doing it for the joy of the activity itself\u2014you\u2019re doing it for the payoff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Today\u2019s culture emphasizes extrinsic motivation because we base our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-measure-success\/\">definition of success<\/a> on external milestones\u2014like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-climb-the-corporate-ladder\/\">climbing the corporate ladder<\/a>, getting married, buying a house, and so on. The logic is that meeting those milestones is the only way to be successful, and being successful is the only way to be happy. You may not love the actual day-to-day routine of your job, but you stick with it because it pays well, carries a fancy title, and makes it possible to buy that nice house. The job itself is just the means to achieve that goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Extrinsic motivation isn\u2019t necessarily a bad thing\u2014you\u2019re probably not intrinsically motivated to go to the dentist for yearly checkups, but it\u2019s still a good thing to do. But when the majority of your time is spent pursuing extrinsic motives, it\u2019s a recipe for misery. Studies show that <strong>achieving intrinsic goals increases happiness, but achieving extrinsic goals doesn\u2019t<\/strong><strong><em>.<\/em><\/strong><strong> <\/strong>Whether it\u2019s a promotion, a bigger house, the newest gadgets\u2014they might give you a fleeting burst of joy, but it wears off quickly, and doesn\u2019t make you happier overall. In fact, over time, it does the opposite: Dozens of studies from all over the world show that<strong> the more extrinsically motivated you are, the more likely you are to develop <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/low-mood-and-anxiety\/\">depression and anxiety<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Materialism Leads to Depression<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Extrinsic motivation often manifests as materialism because modern society uses money and material objects as status indicators. If your extrinsic goal is to be seen as successful, you\u2019re more likely to focus on having expensive clothes or a fancy car because most people associate wealth with success. Hari calls these superficial, materialistic extrinsic values \u201cjunk values\u201d\u2014like \u201cjunk food,\u201d they may be satisfying in the moment, but too much of them can make you sick. Over time, these junk values lead to depression for four main reasons:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>1) Extrinsically motivated, materialistic people have shorter, lower-quality <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/realationships-with-others\/\">relationships with others<\/a><\/strong>. We\u2019ve seen how important authentic connections are for preventing depression, but if you\u2019re laser-focused on climbing the corporate ladder so you can afford to live a lavish lifestyle, you\u2019re more likely to seek out connections with people because of what they can do for you, not who they are. On top of that, if your relationships are based on status symbols and perceived wealth, they\u2019re more likely to crumble if that wealth someday disappears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>2) People experience fewer flow states when they\u2019re focused on materialistic, extrinsic goals.<\/strong> Flow states are times when you\u2019re so absorbed in an activity that you lose all sense of time. In flow, you lose yourself in the joy of what you\u2019re doing instead of focusing on ego-driven questions about what other people will think or how much money you\u2019ll make for doing it. Studies show that getting into a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/flow-state-complete-guide\/\">flow state<\/a> frequently is an important part of overall happiness\u2014but it\u2019s almost impossible to be in flow when you spend most of your time focused on making enough money to buy the next exciting gadget or expensive sneakers. Constantly feeling the pull of \u201cstuff\u201d makes it difficult to fully sink into an activity purely for the joy of it.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>3) Extrinsically motivated, materialistic people have a less secure <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/sense-of-self-worth\/\">sense of self-worth<\/a><\/strong>. If you\u2019re driven by money or status, you\u2019ll always be worrying about what other people think of you and calculating whether you\u2019re impressive enough to earn external rewards. Over time, constantly questioning whether you\u2019re \u201cgood enough\u201d chips away at your self-esteem.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>4) Junk values don\u2019t meet our fundamental social needs.<\/strong> When you spend all your time chasing the status and material stuff you <em>think <\/em>you need to be happy, you inevitably neglect your <em>real<\/em> need for connection. For example, if you work late because you think the resulting money and status will make you happy, you\u2019ll be disappointed. But if you go home and genuinely connect with your loved ones during that time instead, you\u2019ll actually <em>achieve<\/em> that happiness.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite these harmful effects of junk values, it\u2019s easy to get distracted by them because we\u2019re all steeped in materialism from a young age. Studies show that <strong>kids as young as three can recognize one hundred brand logos<\/strong>. A separate study showed that after watching just two commercials for a certain toy, most four- and five-year-olds would rather play with a \u201cmean boy\u201d who owns that toy than with a \u201creally nice boy\u201d who doesn\u2019t own the toy. Conversely, most kids who weren\u2019t exposed to the two commercials chose to play with the nice boy, even though he didn\u2019t own the toy. Essentially, it only took two commercials to persuade kids to choose a material object over a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-human-connection\/\">human connection<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This effect doesn\u2019t lose power as kids grow up\u2014in fact, it gets even stronger. Advertisers prey on typical teenage insecurities to sell everything from clothing to cologne. The link between a certain product and increased social status then spills over into kids\u2019 social circles and reinforces the message even further\u2014if the ad itself didn\u2019t sell them on the product, the fact that all the cool kids are buying it might do the trick.&nbsp;Thankfully, the social environment can also be a <em>good<\/em> influence:<strong> If the people in your social circle have healthy, anti-materialist values, you\u2019re more likely to focus on those healthy values too.<\/strong> However, there\u2019s a limit to how much any individual can escape the materialist vortex\u2014it will take policy changes at the societal level to truly put an end to the problem (like advertising bans, which we\u2019ll explore in more detail in Chapter 9).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What does it mean to be extrinsically motivated? Why are materialistic people vulnerable to depression? You are an extrinsically motivated person if your sense of fulfillment in life comes from reaching external milestones like acquiring material things, climbing the corporate leader, social recognition, and so on. An overreliance on extrinsic motivation can lead to depression because the joy you get from material things is always short-lived. Read on to learn more about the dangers of being extrinsically motivated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":46228,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,31],"tags":[464],"class_list":["post-46226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","category-money","tag-lost-connections","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Why Extrinsically Motivated People Get Depressed - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Why are extrinsically motivated people more vulnerable to depression? 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