Motivation can be divided into two parts; external and internal motivation (Frederick Herzberg 1966, Deci & Ryan 2000).

• External motivation derives from factors outside of yourself, like the people around you or rewards you are given. This can for example consist of praise from friends, higher salary, benefits of various kinds, etc.

• Internal motivation comes from within you and may be a sense of feeling at ease with oneself, to be satisfied with the results achieved and/or because you simply love doing a certain activity.

As an artist, you have probably chosen your path based on the latter; you love it and no one can take that away from you. There is however a difference between having a passion, and turning this passion into a business. No matter how much internal motivation you have, you may often need some external pushes to keep you going.

Exercise No. 1 – What are Your Motivators?

[Annex: What are Your Motivators?]

Interesting video on the topic