How to raise children that have motivation from within. This is from some reading that I have done. Don't praise them for inhernt quaities but for the process. Don't praise them for being smart, creative, ect. Praise them for doing, for working hard, for thinking it through. Whatever process you can identify. Make sure that your children fail on a regular basis. It is very important for children to encounter things hard for them to achieve but, not so difficult to be impossible.