We all have an internal or external locus of control and what that means is: it’s how we see the world whether we believe that we have the ability to assert ourselves and control our destinies, or whether we believe that the things that happen around us determine whether we’re successful or not. People who look for ways to prove to themselves that they’re in control (whether they’re in control of their own life or whether they’re in control of their own decisions), those are the people who manage to motivate to exercise more and to keep up relationships with friends and to partake in the community. When people feel the subversive instinct, when they feel this need to take control and assert themselves that’s when they learn how to generate self-motivation: That feeling that you’re on the freeway and you’re stuck in a traffic jam and you want to just take that exit because it feels so good to be in control, that’s where motivation comes from. So anyone can learn a bias towards action. In fact it’s something that we can learn at any stage in life.
‘Want More Motivation? Take This Counterintuitive Lesson from the Marines.’ by Charles Duhigg (Big Think)