Dan Pink shares motivation advice also from Bob the builder.
People are happier and intrinsically motivated in the work place
if they are given autonomy, have mastery and find purpose in their work. Bob
the builder tells us that self-posed questions about a future behavior- ' Can we fix it ' may inspire thoughts about autonomous or
intrinsically motivated reasons to pursue a goal, leading a person to form
corresponding intentions and ultimately perform the behavior. People are more
likely to engage in a behavior when they have IM – intrinsic motivation,
feeling personally responsible for the action, than when they have extrinsic
motivation.
Research by University of Illinois Professor Dolores Albarracin and her team has shown
that those who ask themselves whether they will perform a task generally
do better than those who tell themselves that they will.
Participants in a study were told to either spend a minute wondering ' whether 'they would complete a task or telling
themselves' they would'. The participants showed more success on an anagram
task (rearranging words to create different words) when they asked themselves
'whether ' they would complete it than
when they told themselves 'they would.'
In another experiment, students were asked to write either “I
Will” or “Will I,” and then work on an task. Participants did better when they
wrote, “Will I” even though they had no idea that the word writing related to
the anagram task. A final experiment added the dimension of having
participants complete a test designed to gauge motivation levels. Again,
the participants who wrote ' Will I ' , and then proceeded to report their
intentions to exercise scored significantly higher on the motivation test.
In other words, by asking themselves a question – interrogative
self –talk , people were more likely to build their own motivation than if they
simply told themselves – declarative self –talk , they’d get it done.
Questions like ' will I ' or 'can I ' open up the brain and
stimulate thinking on how we would go about a task. Telling our selves ' I will
' or 'I can do it ' may make usu feel good and affirm our abilities, but it
shuts down the thinking brain leaving the emotional brain in control. Telling
our selves ' I will ' or 'I can do it ' sounds autonomous , but in reality we
are just pressurizing ourselves from the inside.
Try it out and see how '
Will I' and ' I will' have different effects on the brain – opening up or
shutting down the brain.
The research is significant because it discounts all the talk , that
what kids need is self-discipline, self control grit, and be ambitious and
motivated to succeed and achieve.
It supports findings of the marsh mellow test where kids were
asked to delay gratification and show self control. The kids who did well were
able to distract themselves from the marsh mellow and sit out the time.
It is quite possible kids asked themselves ' can I do it ' and
then started thinking about ways to go about it. Those kids who pumped
themselves up with ' I can do it ' shut down their thinking brains and in a
short time were struggling not to eat the marsh mellow .
Self-talk that focuses on the questions instead of presupposing
answers, allows our minds to build motivation around the questions and be
creative.
Parents and Teachers should forget about the motivational 'hype' and inspirational posters like ' You can do it ' in trying to motivate kids , but rather just help kids frame their own questions which will help them motivate themselves.
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