Thursday, August 25, 2011

My Motivation History

It has been almost six years since I started going to school here at Chinquapin and to be completely honest, I was doing it for selfish reasons. I wanted to be the one in my elementary school to get ahead and do something that I thought was going to get me into college easier. I was not thinking about wether I liked it or not. I just knew it was something I had to do. The classes I took ranged from integrated science to pre-algebra to art. I will admit that there were some classes that I had absolutely no interest in. I will not revile which classes they were or who the teachers were, but I will say that I would have much rather have done something else that I wanted to do then study for that upcoming exam. Coming back to the present, Susan had us Drive, by Daniel Pink, to read over the summer. In the first chapter of the book, it talked about humans having three types of motivations that make humans do what they want to do: motivation 1.0, motivation 2.0 and motivation 3.0.

Motivation 1.0 is the simplest type of motivation; it is a biological that helps us stay alive. For example: when we are hungry, then we do what we can to calm our hunger. Simple.

Motivation 2.0 is more complex the Motivation 1.0. It is a type of motivation that requires external forces (such as rewards and punishments) to make a person motivated to do something he/she may or may not want to do. Pink uses the carrot and stick example to help us understand. If a horse does a good job, it is rewarded with a carrot. If not, it is hit with a stick. This sounds a lot like school: do the work and get the grade. So has my entire Chinquapin career been a the human example of the carrot and sticks method?

Finally we get to last type of motivation. Motivation 3.0. It comes from within ourselves. It is when we find our deepest passions and try to master it. This is something that I have done on rare occasions and enjoyed deeply.

Which brings me to my last though. What are my passions? Do I have any? Or has my educational career made me completely overlook what my passions are and only focus on the thinks I have to? Only this year will tell.

3 comments:

  1. You my friend most definitely have passion. You have a passion to read for the sake of it, a passion for knowledge, unlike any other I've seen. You out of everyone knows the most about the world because you have taken the time to explore it. I've seen you talk about things that leave me thinking, WOW. And the reason you know things is simply because you go and search for them. If students were more like you than we would be better students. You are a role model that has changed the way we think. We know if we want information, we have to look for it, the same way you always have. On the point of what you are passionate enough to explore for your senior project, I think you and I know very well. What is something that makes us similar? Something that we both struggled with, yet you have been able to be open about it? Don't you want others to have the same comfort you've been able to give me? Think about it.

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  2. I believe everyone has a passion, now do they le themselves free to explore and fully enjoy it may not be the case. To answer your question:"What are my passions? Do I even have any?" I will say this without passion and determination you or anyone in our class for that matter wouldn't be a senior here at Chinquapin. Today at my bus stop, I talked to a 23 yr old woman that use to go to Chinquapin and she thought she didn't have any passions so she dropped out. She even told me herself that she was naive and foolish because now that she is older she knows that her passion was to be a lawyer but because she wasn't pushed nor encouraged by her family members she never fully developed her passion till it was too late. Basically what I am saying is that passion comes from with in you it isn't a skill you learn or acquire. Do some soul-searching and self discovery activities in order for you to discover your passion. Everyone has one you just need to let it find you.

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  3. Eric I'm struggling with the same problem. I don't exactly know what my passion is. I love a lot of different things mainly in the sports area. I can't draw, and my writing isn't all that great so I am not really passionate about art or journalism. You on the other hand have a thing for writing and I believe that you should use that. I believe that's something you are passionate about and you always have something interesting to say. I learn something new from you every single day. To agree with Ana I believe that passion does some from within but I also think that it acquires skills too. You can't just be passion about art and only know how to draw stick figures. You need to have at least some skill to be passionate about it because that's what I think passion comes from: seeing yourself succeed makes you passionate about anything you do. Do what makes you happy and that will most likely be your passion.

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