Free range

Ways to improve your performance:

Compete for a prize

Earn points

Please a demanding boss

Make someone else's imminent deadline

Face sudden death elimination in the playoffs

Wear a heart monitor and track performance publicly

Go head-to-head against a determined foe

The thing is, all of these external stimuli are there to raise your game and push you ever harder. They are fences to be leaped, opponents to be defeated.

The alternative is to compete against nothing but yourself. To excel merely because the act of excelling without boundaries or incentives thrills you.

And the good news is that once you find that, you'll always have it.