What motivates you? Is it money or maybe self respect? This is something that I had not thought a lot about before "Drive". No not the kind of weird movie where Ryan Gosling says a total of 3 lines.
This Drive
Now I know what you are thinking: "I hate reading books for school". Well this is a book that you need to give a chance.
I am not going to go through and sum up the book but rather talk about some things it made me question and examine in myself. The biggest was the same question that I asked you: what motivates me? There are many personal things that I find joy and motivation in life like family, food, movies, and music, but the big thing that motivates me is my love of competition and trying to make sure my work is the best around. There is always better work out there but at the end of the day I love knowing that I put everything into it especially in sports. This concept of intrinsic motivation is huge in Drive. Pink shows studies of how people who are intrinsically motivated will overtime out-perform those who are extrinsically motivated. The NYTimes even wrote an article on intrinsic (internal) motivation titled the "The Secret of Effective Motivation" and how it produces better long term results than extrinsic motivation. This is contradictory to popular thoughts of if we reward people they will perform better.
I am not going to go through and sum up the book but rather talk about some things it made me question and examine in myself. The biggest was the same question that I asked you: what motivates me? There are many personal things that I find joy and motivation in life like family, food, movies, and music, but the big thing that motivates me is my love of competition and trying to make sure my work is the best around. There is always better work out there but at the end of the day I love knowing that I put everything into it especially in sports. This concept of intrinsic motivation is huge in Drive. Pink shows studies of how people who are intrinsically motivated will overtime out-perform those who are extrinsically motivated. The NYTimes even wrote an article on intrinsic (internal) motivation titled the "The Secret of Effective Motivation" and how it produces better long term results than extrinsic motivation. This is contradictory to popular thoughts of if we reward people they will perform better.
"But I love gold and money! I am not going to do something I don't like and not get paid for it"
Well Bilbo that is interesting that you say that. Yes, we all have our extrinsic motivators that get us through some tasks in life. But if these motivators are taken out of the equation, the quality of work is severely depleted.
Well Bilbo that is interesting that you say that. Yes, we all have our extrinsic motivators that get us through some tasks in life. But if these motivators are taken out of the equation, the quality of work is severely depleted.
"Wow that is a really good point...I never thought of that. Well if that is the case how can I become someone who is intrinsically motivated?"
Great question Bilbo and it is probably the biggest thing that I took out of this book. Pink talks about how a Type E (extrinsic motivation) can become a Type I person when they have autonomy over the four essentials: task, time, technique and team. Now we all know that you cannot always control every facet of your life and these essentials. However, it is "our" time and we can make the most out of it using "our" techniques. Because when it is "ours" we can own it be intrinsically motivated to make "ours" the best.
Teachings from this book can be applied to the classroom, office and life in general. While this is an education blog, this book is much bigger than that and should be left for you to decide where you can use it best.
Great question Bilbo and it is probably the biggest thing that I took out of this book. Pink talks about how a Type E (extrinsic motivation) can become a Type I person when they have autonomy over the four essentials: task, time, technique and team. Now we all know that you cannot always control every facet of your life and these essentials. However, it is "our" time and we can make the most out of it using "our" techniques. Because when it is "ours" we can own it be intrinsically motivated to make "ours" the best.
Teachings from this book can be applied to the classroom, office and life in general. While this is an education blog, this book is much bigger than that and should be left for you to decide where you can use it best.
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