Growth Mindset: Motivation for the end of the semester

For my growth mindset this week, I decided to watch Dan Pink's TED talk called "The puzzle of motivation." I figured it would be pretty applicable to me because I always find my motivation towards schoolwork much lower during the end of the semester.

The talk was funny and Dan Pink is a great speaker, but the advice was very business-focused. He used a lot of good examples based on research that had been conducted on motivation and performance of certain tasks which were very convincing and insightful. The main point that he tries to make is that if you want people to be creative, don't incentive them with external rewards (like bonuses, vacation, promotions). These rewards seem like they would motivate people, and they do for very clear, easy to follow tasks, but not for tasks that require a lot of critical thinking or creativity.

I found all of this very interesting, and if I were running a business, I would definitely try to apply these principles, but as a student, it wasn't super motivating. Schoolwork sometimes aligns with my personal interests and passions, but not always. Studying for final exams is definitely a soul crusher.

So what if it doesn't apply? What can I learn from this and apply it to my own life?

Another big point that Dan Pink brought up was the idea that workers need autonomy in their lives to have motivation. Well, how could I create that? What if I came up with new ways to study for exams, or studied with new people? I think there are ways to do it, and I've just got to try things out and see what works.

Motivation

image by Flickr user Jeff Djevdet