Habit Rehab

To Make a New Habit Stick, You Need to Find the Right Motivation

This is part of a five-day Habit Rehab to help you start the year off right

Illustrations: Kieran Blakey

Day 5:

Motivation is an essential ingredient if you’re trying to form a new habit. But not all forms of motivation are created equal. “We talk about intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, and intrinsic seem to be best,” says Phillippa Lally, a psychologist and senior research fellow at University College London.

In a nutshell, intrinsic motivations are those features of a new behavior that make it appealing to you in and of itself. If you love the idea of being able to play the piano or speak French because practicing and perfecting those skills would give you pleasure, those are examples of intrinsic motivations.