Time Management 141 - How to Pro

Hello everyone, this is Helen Huang @ Organizing, based in Beijing, China.In order to better learn and practice the YiXiaoNeng Time Management System, after finished publishing 100 Chinese articles, I decided to continue writing and publishing a daily English article in another 100 days based on the "YeWuBin Time Management 100 Episodes" audio program. Today is the 141st day.

Today's topic is: How to Prolong Your Motivation

In the last few lessons, I talked about how to learn:

    1) In order to retain the information we learn, we must study actively;

    2) It is only through repeated learning that we can retain information, or in other words, internalize that information;

    3) Also, remember that we can maximize our retention by studying the same material at fixed intervals which are outlined by Ebbinghaus' memory curve or what is also called the Forgetting Curve;

    4) I also talked about "geniuses".  These people who have achieved great success in their life, not only have a gift, but have exerted great effort to achieve success in their lives. This effort is not simple repetition, but rather they deliberately focus on their weaknesses in order to strengthen the weakest part of their knowledge and skill;

Therefore,success is a quite difficult thing to achieve. The road to success is not crowded, because few people start down the road and fewer people persist on it.

Why is this?To answer this crucial question, we need to discuss a very important topic: motivation.

When we set out to complete a task, we need motivation.  If we are not motivated, then our energy comes from something else -- impulse.Impulses, by definition, are temporary.  Since impulse does not last until the task is complete, it results in brief and incomplete periods of enthusiasm.

There are three levels of motivation.

    1) It is our human nature to want to control our lives and our destiny.When we have complete control over our decisions, actions and feelings, we can enterthe third level of "motivation"which is calledinternal motivation.

    2) If we don't have the strength to control our actions, we stay inthe second level of motivation, calledexternal motivation. There are many external drives like seeking rewards, such as money or fame or avoiding punishment, such as pain ......

    3) If we don't a have reward and punishment mechanism, then we stayin the first level of motivation, calledbiological impulse.

Which level do you think is more helpful, more continuous and more lasting for us?

We just talked about temporary bursts of enthusiasm, which fade long before you reach your goal.  These are the biological impulses found in the first level of motivation.

Motivation from seeking rewards or avoiding punishment usually means we will find the shortest and easiest path to success, even if it means avoiding the process of correcting mistakes and developing skills.  This type of temporary success is a shortcut that is not long lasting and should be avoided if we want meaningful and lasting success.This is the second level of external motivation.

We need to acquire our motivation from the third level: internal motivation or motivation from internal drives.So what is the difference between internal drives and external impulses? Let me tell you a story that will illustrate these differences:

An old man, living in a rural village, was drying un-husked rice in a vacant area, where a group of small kids were playing.The kids were having a great time, running back and forth happily. But the old man was in a bad mood, because the kids were scattering his rice all over the place and creating a mess.

What could the old man do to drive away these kids? Scolding or beating them was not a good option, because kids would come back after he left!

So the old man thought of something clever.  He called over the leader of the group of kids and said to him: "You kids are wonderful! If you come back tomorrow to play here, I will give you 10 dollar.  And for each day that you come back, I will give you another 10 dollar.So the kid agreed and he received 10 dollar for leading his group of kids to play there that day.

On the second day, the old man said to the leader of this group: "I'm sorry, but today I can only give you 5 dollar."The kid thought the old man was a bit mean, but eventually decided that 5 dollar was okay. After all, it is better to have 5 dollar than no money at all.  So he continued to lead the kids to the same location that they had been playing all along.

On the third day, the old man said to the kid: "I can only give you 1 dollar."The kid said: "You are so mean! We will not play here anymore!" Then the leader of the kids called up his friends and left, never coming back again.

And that's how the old man successfully drove away those kids.So what happened?

At the beginning, the kids were motivated to play there because they wanted to have fun.  Their motivations were internal and natural.But the old man replaced the kids' desire to play with a desire to earn money.  This replaced their internal drive with an external drive. Then he diminished the external reward over time until it all disappeared. When the kids' internal drive was replaced by external motivation, it dropped their motivation from the intrinsic third level to the extrinsic second level, and then he reduced the reward. When the reward evaporated, the kids decided to leave.

The takeaway is this: an internal drives have a much stronger influence on a person's actions. On the other hand, external drives are always decreasing over time.  Lastly, biological impulses are merely temporary and unreliable.The principle comes from a book called "Driving Force" by American author Daniel Pink. If you want to learn more, you should read it.

So now you understand the differences between internal and external motivation. Which forces are at work in your life?One can only do something after finding the motivation to do so. The proper form of motivation can help us persist even when we feel irritation, exhaustion or a decrease in our willpower to continue.

In our next lesson, we will continue to discuss motivation, including finding internal drives that will help us overcome forces that seek to prevent us from achieving our goals in life.

That's all for the sharing today! Thank you being with me together today. Have a wonderful day!