Motivation and Drive
If you haven’t come across Daniel Pink’s Drive, I urge you to pick it up or download it. (It felt weird writing that, but now that I read all of my books on my iPad, it’s how I get my reading material.) Pink’s book offers a detailed study of what motivates humans. Given that it is the end of the first Trimester, I know there are going to be conversations around the dining room tables of CA families about grades, improvement, and goal-setting.
For parents, this is a great book to read to help you think about what leads to success. For students, Pink outlines a path for your success, but also lays down a challenge for you about how you will structure your life and priorities.
Dan Pink uses social science to try to understand motivation. He argues that traditional rewards that motivate people in the business world, such as financial incentives, do not work when it comes to activities and careers centered on thinking and creativity. This is of particular interest to us at Colorado Academy as we focus on 21st-century skills and a new economy where jobs will heavily rely on thinking and creativity.
Pink outlines three things are effective in motivating higher performance: autonomy, mastery, and purpose. The applications of his ideas to school and academia are obvious and converge with what we try to do here at CA. Below is a link to a TED talk by Pink on this subject. You will find it highly entertaining and informative. As his own description reads, Pink's work might just "shatter paradigms" about what motivates us and will give us knowledge to work smarter and live better. Check it out:
