Writer's know motivation secret is no secret. Not really!

According to the NYT Sunday Review article (7/4/14) entitled, "The Secret of Effective Motivation," there are two main types of motives-internal and instrumental. Well, what we might call intrinsic, that is to say, originating from an authentic desire to perform a task-write a short story, poem, novel, essay-just for the sake of the doing, and well, extrinsic, meaning, for the money!

The study is curious because they found that among these West Point cadets those who performed tasks internally only and not both internally and instrumentally, were the most effective and satisfied.  No secret here for writers, artists, musicians, dancers etc.

Sure we like praise. We love to bask in the rare sunny day that is a publication or award or even an "atta boy or girl!"  But that is NOT why we do what we do.

Why we write is anyone's guess, but I'd venture to say that it has something to do with the same internal mechanisms at work that we use for things like breathing, seeing, loving and living. We MUST write. Its who we are and what we do when we are being who we are. Period.

Still, it is interesting to read articles like this to see the truth of the ages validated. That when you do what you love, your doing is more effective and satisfactory.

So back to writing!

:)