I just came across Daniel Pink and his studies about flow. For those who aren't familiar with the term 'Flow': It's state in which you create at a high level almost effortlessly and you enjoy it meanwhile. A major key to accessing this almost magical state are the things that motivate you.
Pink found out that extrinsic motivators like money only give you a short-term boost and has its limitations. In many cases a high extrinsic motivator resulted even in lower quality performances than when incentivized by medium or low extrinsic motivators.
The most common extrinsic motivator is money. Once the supply for money covers your basic needs and a certain degree of freedom it stops motivating you. What brings you to the next level of performance and quality of life is the discovery of your intrinsic motivators. In other words: What fills you with aliveness, joy, peace or any other emotion you like to experience.
The greatest amount of joy is experienced when the three aspects of gratitude, growth and contribution are combined.
You want to be grateful for what you have and meanwhile you want to experience other's gratitude. This rewarding feeling of acknowledgment.
You want to grow. At times you're perfectly fine with where you are without new lessons to be learned, new epiphanies. However, after a certain period it gets boring. People have the inner desire to make progress in some direction, unless, of course, you're stuck in a state of fear of the unknown. But once you act out of love instead of fear, you will want to grow personally.
You also want to give. When you can get yourself something nice, it might make you happy for a while. But if you can contribute to other people's happiness you reach an entire new level of joy, happiness and satisfaction.
It's all quite theoretical. And it's a good start. But don't stop there.
Ask yourself: In which ways can I express gratitude?
In which ways and directions can I grow?
In which ways can I contribute?