bed every morning really what motivates
you to get on your feet put on your
clothes and brush your teeth at least I
hope you all brush your teeth and go out
and do whatever you need to do for today
maybe it’s your alarm clock maybe it’s
the birds chirping outside maybe it’s
the sunshine resting on your eyes maybe
it’s the parent barging into your room
and yelling at you until the pain is
unbearable
now I look at this question and look at
my life and there are some days in which
I don’t want to wake up I personally
just want to less just stay in bed turn
around
plant my face into my pillow and
hopefully get back into my dream or
nightmare those are good too so but then
there are other days where I notice I’m
right on my feet I’m instantly ready to
go for the day now I look back and say
well I probably had more sleep one of
those but this happens very often and I
go to sleep really at the same time
every single day and the birds weren’t
chirping any louder the Sun wasn’t
shining any brighter and my alarm clock
doesn’t have a mind of its own
the only difference was is that one day
I wanted to and one day I didn’t so what
is that whole deal with motivation
anyway it seems as if we as children
don’t like to be told what to do the
only problem is is that when we’re not
told what to do we do nothing at all and
I’m sure many parents can relate to this
I mean look at it simple tasks such as
doing the laundry or washing the dishes
tasks that would only take them about
five minutes to get done they complain
and whine and say oh that’s too hard I
don’t wanna so I was curious about this
so I went on the internet and did a
little research and then I hit the big
topic of
trinsic and extrinsic motivation
intrinsic meaning you’re doing something
because you want to because you love it
because you’re passionate about it
extrinsic meaning you’re doing it
because something that you want such as
a prize or money so let’s go back and
look at the Revolutionary War so from a
bystander perspective you would say all
right
England bigger army more well-funded
there been a country for a long time
colonists you’re screwed but we all know
how that war ended and the real
difference between the two armies and it
was the key difference that was the
changing factor was that the England
army was fighting for money because
those were mercenaries but for the
colonists they couldn’t afford to pay
the people so instead all their army
comprised of was people doing it because
they wanted to is because they wanted a
better future for the next generation
they were fighting for something bigger
than them and that was freedom but don’t
just take my word for it
take a look at and read sons ooh and the
art of warfare he could predict the
outcome of any war just by looking at
the factors and many often it wasn’t
because of the numbers it was because of
what they were fighting for and why all
right so now assuming that you’re all
still with me we can all agree that
intrinsic motivation seats better
results than extrinsic so now the real
question is how do we achieve or harness
intrinsic motivation so let’s take a
look at Edward DC a man who made the
self determination theory and he writes
a story about a girl and what happened
was she loved playing the violin she was
passionate about it she played it every
single day
and she loved it she would pick the
hardest piece out of her book and
practice it and she would master it one
day her violin teachers
said hey if you play this amount of
hours every day
I’ll give you a little reward and what
do you think happened she got worse
because no longer was she doing because
she loved it she was just loved she was
just playing because she wanted to get
the time in because she wanted the
reward she was choosing the easiest
pieces and playing them over and over
again so the first thing that we can do
is first of all don’t introduce
extrinsic motivation from the beginning
because that just takes away what the
child truly loves if you see them doing
something and they start to fade away
from it don’t get too disappointed and
don’t force it on to them because then
it becomes a chore and then they say oh
well great now I have to force
I’m just being forced to do the one
thing that I was actually happy to do
and no longer are they interested so
that’s the first thing you can do is
don’t introduce a system of reward let
them love it for example in my life
whenever my mom leaves the house she
says Dexter please play the piano while
I’m gone she’ll go for about one hour
and sometimes I do sometimes I don’t but
the days that I do she’ll come back and
say so did you play your piano and I
said yes mom then she says no I don’t
believe you I say what no mom I really
did she says no that can’t be possible
I say well mom and she says look this is
not the point here the point that I’m
trying to make is that it’s not that I
know it’s that you know you should be
happy in living your life knowing that
you played the piano you shouldn’t be
doing gano to satisfy me but to satisfy
yourself wise woman so now taking a
general stance at well babies because
that’s just the most prominent place in
which we can see curiosity just blooming
babies are constantly reaching around
putting things in their mouths you may
say them no wait don’t do that but they
don’t care they want to explore they
always have this yearning to
find out new things this endless
curiosity but as we grow up this goes
away now at first I thought that this
was a simple sign of maturation and as
we grow this naturally happens but there
are still adults and teenagers today
that are passionate about what they want
to do so that can’t be it and the real
problem is that they were already
introduced to extrinsic motivation so
the problem now is how do we fix that
the toothpaste is already out of the
bottle you’ve already tried extrinsic
motivation it’s not working so you got
to try something new you can’t retry the
same thing over and over again so here
is what you can do personally to all
parents sign your child up for
extracurricular activities just as many
as possible now don’t just say surprise
I signed you up for 10 summer school
classes goodbye no give them the summer
school classes point to them all and say
all right you’re going to have to do one
of these choose the one that you want to
do expose them to all of these options
but do not force them into it because
you don’t want to make them hate with
their they could possibly love you want
to get them exposed to as many options
as possible but if they don’t choose to
continue it don’t be disappointed
because that’s this natural so long as
they have the experience in their head
that is all that matters so
looking at an intrinsic versus extrinsic
result the real thing is that extrinsic
is all end result it’s not talking about
the pathway to achieve what you want
it’s just like money the issue with this
is that if we looked at life always at
the end result we would achieve nothing
at all for example I go up to a child
and he says oh my gosh at the end of our
life we’re just going to die anyway
there’s no point to do anything the
whole meaning of life is gone we should
just not do anything and sit at home and
I just look at them saying all I did was
ask you if you did your math homework
so now we can move on to the whole issue
of this
when because really there are things in
life that you’re going to have to do
whether you like it or not so one of the
things that you may or may not to do is
homework okay so I took a survey of my
teachers and asked them so how do you
personally motivate your children to do
things and they say well there’s gold
stars there’s a little Jolly Rancher you
can give them and it gave all these
extrinsic motivations however they all
admitted that these things don’t always
work but what they all had in common was
an intrinsic motivation they said that
the student had to be self-motivated to
do it because teachers need may
encourage it but the students must be
wanting to do it so now I asked all
teachers what is your buy-in or how do
you introduce the class to your students
because really if you walk into a
classroom say open up your textbook
two-page so-and-so and read so-and-so
and then sit down they aren’t going to
be interested in the lesson or most
often going to fool around now before
you all go home just draw a bunch of
posters and come to school protesting
teachers it’s all your fault what have
you done to our students this is tragic
they are failing or we’re doing so bad
in education why no let’s please please
don’t do that I’m just saying that
teachers you can help they can encourage
your students but students you all can’t
reject all of this when your teachers
are finally being open-minded in trying
to make the lesson fun don’t just say oh
well there he or she goes again try to
be more open-minded and accept this help
so I mentioned how in life we’re going
to have to do things that we won’t want
to do and that’s just the fact of life
but I also told you to all find
something that you’re passionate about
so the real question is now how do you
find joy in something that you have to
do and here’s just one little minor
example and that’s when my mom tells me
go do the laundry and I say alright I go
over I separate my darks from my lights
put them in the washer put them in the
dryer alternate and then I go to the
couch and I fold them all and looking
out at all the clean clothes laying
beautifully on my couch
I think dang I got clean underwear for
tomorrow and that feels great and it may
be just a minor thing but it gave me
this feeling of accomplishment and to
top it off my parents weren’t mad so my
day was already ten thousand times
better than it usually is so here is the
real benefit from intrinsic motivation
because you can achieve the thing that
you can’t achieve without doing anything
else and that’s through hard work the
sense of dignity pride and achievement
you can’t get this through handouts you
can only achieve this through really
working hard on something and when we do
things like this Robert Henry describes
us as more than ordinary moments of
existence because if there are many
feelings that can be achieved in many
ways such as happiness people may say
money doesn’t bring you happiness but if
I were to buy just get a Bugatti I’d be
pretty happy with that Bugatti but
there’s only one way to achievement
because you want to look back at your
day not thinking well i sat eight hours
in front of the television didn’t finish
my homework and my parents hate me
that’s not healthy you want to look back
at your day saying wow I have great
grades all of my homework are done my
parents are actually satisfied with what
I’ve done and I feel great about that
and really that’s what we should all be
aiming for the feeling of satisfaction
the satisfaction that you’re living a
life that you want so I want everyone to
at least take something away from this –
all teachers try to make a introduce
your lesson great to your students
I understand if you may be having a long
day or a frustrating class but always
try to make the lesson interesting to
all parents if you see your child doing
something they absolutely love and
you’re proud of that but sometimes you
feel like they’re seeping away just
mention to that to them and say you know
I’ve noticed that you’re kind of lacking
in this but never force them back into
it because that robs them of what they
love and if you’ve already used in
extrinsic motivation then it’s time to
try something new sign them up for any
extracurricular activities possible so
that they’re exposed to these
experiences and finally to all the
students out there the next time your
parent comes up and says hey what do you
want to sign up for or your teachers are
making the class encouraging don’t just
block them out don’t say no no no I
don’t want this mom please stop you need
to be open-minded accept that they’re
trying to help you out so that you can
finally find something that you’re
passionate about and you can go
throughout your life loving what you’ve
done thank you [Applause]