Key Lesson
Key Lesson: Autonomy, the desire to direct our own lives, is a key driver of motivation.
— from Goals, Action & Defining Success (Goal/Action/Success/Motivation) · Drive by Daniel H Pink
In the book
It is not, in the end, the carrots and sticks; external rewards reliably undermine the deeper kind of drive, especially for anything creative. The lasting fuel is three things: autonomy — the freedom to direct your own work; mastery — the deep human drive to get better and better at something that matters; and purpose — the sense of serving something larger than yourself. Learn to tell your intrinsic motives from your extrinsic ones, and lean, wherever you can, on the intrinsic. […] Then act — now. Nothing happens until you move; build it one day at a time; and break procrastination by amplifying the cost of not acting. Feed the right fuel. Lean on autonomy, mastery, and purpose; do what you genuinely enjoy; and check that the drive is honestly your own. Measure by greatness, not the scoreboard; accept your own imperfection; and do your maximum, not perfection. — Goals, Action & Defining Success (Goal/Action/Success/Motivation)