Top Mistake #5 is blaming failures on lack of motivation. The tech lab’s solution? Make the behavior easier to do.
My solution? Make the behavior challenging and meaningful. And while you’re at it, think seriously about what ‘failure’ means to you.
Ever watch world-class athletes? Or gotten so engaged in something that you’ve lost all track of time? Then you’re familiar with what psychologists call being in flow and what athletes call being in the zone.
It’s a powerful feeling. It arises when we’re working at the edge of our skill level at a challenge that we find meaningful. It’s also essential for our sense of well-being. Recent research studies show that when people are deprived of opportunities to do what they love, they start showing signs of what’s called mental “illness.” There’s nothing wrong with them except they don’t have opportunities to do what they love on a regular basis … so it makes them a little crazy.
Making behaviors easier doesn’t fuel motivation. Connecting behaviors to something meaningful does. It ignites our intrinsic motivation, which is internally driven [rather than extrinsic, which is driven by outside forces like bosses or significant others].
If you’re in a leadership role and want to get people really fired up about what they’re doing, look at the most powerful motivational model we have today, one that puts people in a state of flow and drives them to work harder and harder at really tough tasks: online gaming.
I know, it sounds ridiculous. But Jane McGonigal, author of Reality is Broken, makes a powerful case for the intrinsic motivational power of online gaming. Just like Dan Pink makes a powerful case for the intrinsic motivating power of any activity that fuels our sense of autonomy, mastery, and purpose.
We don’t need behaviors that are easier. We need behaviors that put us at the edge of our skill level at something we love and enjoy. If you lead others, make this cardinal rule #1. [Cardinal rule #2 is to help them make progress on things they love and enjoy, but that’s another entry….]
Then there’s the other piece: what “failure” means. For me, failure is when you quit pursuing something that matters to you. So long as you’re pursuing it–no matter how many times you don’t get the results you want–you’re not failing, you’re just moving closer to mastery.