Motivated by “how little they can do”
As a father of a 12 year old, I am currently struggling with this phenomenon:
- My daughter (I love her to bits) spends her days at school trying to figure out how she can do her assignments with the least amount of time and effort.
- Then she comes home and does the minimal required when it comes to her room or any thing else I ask of her.
- At soccer practice she goes through the drills, because she has, to with little or no attempt to do more than required.
I have marvelled at this approach – as it is completely foreign to me. As a kid, I had little skill at anything so I had to work extra hard to even be mediocre at things! I realized at a young age that by learning more, and practicing more, I could compete with others that had more skills.
And as I did this I gained something else – the “need” to do more, to ask more, and to try more. It became ingrained in how I approached everything I did.
I am worried that today’s youth, who seem to be motivated to find the easy solution at all costs, will have that thought-pattern ingrained in their psyche as they grow into adults.
I have been fascinated by this question for some time now – but could not have put it as eloquently as Seth Godin does in his recent post on the topic – “What motivates you to take action?”
