If your like most people, you’ll have your periods of being highly motivated and others where finding motivation is like looking for a white dog in a blizzard. A current trend in public schools is to motivate kids for good behavior with a rewards system and many parents award an allowance for chores. While rewards can contribute towards motivation, they are not the driving force.
Best selling author, Daniel Pink examines the puzzle of motivation in his outstanding book Drive. So if you’re looking for motivation, whether its to accomplish a goal, take on your competition, improve your work or simply read his book, watch his TED talk for a taste. Learn how to turn on your intrinsic motivation to help you compete at the top level of your game.
“If you want people to perform better, you reward them, right? Bonuses, commissions, their own reality show. Incentivize them. … But that’s not happening here. You’ve got an incentive designed to sharpen thinking and accelerate creativity, and it does just the opposite. It dulls thinking and blocks creativity.”
Pink is a regular contributor to Wired magazine. His book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
