Time 4 Design
Below is a copy of the 3c Self motivation tutorial from LALATAT. You can complete this on the website https://rap.lalatat.online/page.php Login details are available on Classroom.
3c
Self-Motivation
Mastery
You will know you are at the Expert level in the use of this 21st C Skill when you can get yourself to actively and positively do things that you really don't want to do.
Do you want to succeed at school? If so why? What are your most important reasons?
Put the following twelve ideas into a priority list. Which is first – most important to you, which is second and so on, write one number from 1-12 next to each point.
to get a good job – earn serious money?
to feel satisfied, proud of yourself?
to get into the right university?
to get a feel for your progress to date?
because your parents want you to?
to test yourself and see what you are capable of?
to prove how smart you are?
to gain knowledge and skills that will be useful to you in your life?
to be better able to mix with other smart kids?
to develop your intelligence?
to make your parents proud?
to practice concentration, determination and the exercise of effort?
Your reasons for wanting to succeed have an influence on your motivation, especially when times get tough. Within this list there are two types of factors and each type has a different influence on motivation.
The two types of reasons are:
those that stem from intrinsic motivators
Exercise 1 – Why succeed at school?
and those that stem from extrinsic motivators
Extrinsic motivators are very important particularly in helping us turn ideas and ambitions into goals but research shows that of the two, intrinsic motivators are the more powerful
The reason being that intrinsic motivators are things that are in your control whereas extrinsic motivators are out of your control.
When times get hard, when you get to the point where you feel like you have had enough and you just want to stop it is the intrinsic motivators, a sense of pride, a feeling of capability, that are the most powerful in helping you get over the hump and keep going until the job is finished.
Your external motivators can be useful to help you to dream and create long term plans – but cement in those long term plans with internal motivators to get you through the hard work facing you now.
Success – when you set a goal and you do achieve it.
Failure – when you set a goal and don't achieve it.
Self-motivation is a lot to do with what is called "Attribution". What that means is what do you see as the causes of any success or failure that you have?
Self-motivation is one of the most talked about themes in self-improvement literature, in blogs, videos and podcasts:
Go online and find one video clip of someone who has demonstrated great self-motivation through their own actions. Enter the URL reference here.
Describe what the person in your video clip does to generate self-motivation – what is their strategy?
What could you take from their experience that could help you to be more motivated yourself? Write down here what you have learned from them.
Go online and find one video clip or one podcast of someone talking about how to generate self-motivation. Record the URL reference here.
Exercise 2 – Standing on the shoulders of giants
DONE!
What are their key points of how to generate self-motivation? Write 5 key points here:
Share everything you have found so far with a classmate. Look at what they have found as well. What can you learn from what they have found?
Do some research and find some slogans or quotes or sayings that other people use to get themselves to be more motivated. Write down the two that you like the most here:
Remember the lessons you have learned from others and practise doing the same things when you can. The more you practise self-motivation, the better at it you will become until you get so good at it you can switch it on whenever you need it.
DONE!
Exercise 3 – Causality and attribution
Think of a time when you had a success, any success, any time that you set a goal and achieved it. It can be any sort of success – a time when you got the grade, the mark or the performance that you wanted, a time when your team won a game, or you remembered your lines in the play, or you danced well, sang well, got out of bed on time – any time at all when you achieved the outcome you wanted.
Then think of a time when you had a failure – any failure, any time when you set a goal and didn't achieve it, any time when you didn't achieve the outcome you wanted.
Now write in what you see as the reasons for your success and your failure.
There are two different types of factors you could have written down as the causes of your success and failure:
Those that are in your control. e.g.
Those that are out of your control. e.g.
How much effort you put in?
Your time-management strategies?
Your learning strategies?
Your concentration and focus?
How you deal with any setbacks or failures?
Your teachers
Your school
Your parents
Luck
Weather
Fate
Self-motivation has a lot to do with focusing on the things that are in your control as the reasons for any success or failure. If you make sure you always focus on what is in your control then there is always something you can do in any situation. Something to help create more success for yourself or mitigate any failure.
Practise focusing on the things that are in your control that help you to generate self-motivation and success.
The next exercises will show you how.
DONE!
Do you notice that sometimes you talk to yourself inside your head? That is called your self-talk or your internal dialogue. Everyone talks to themselves, it's normal, and everyone talks to themselves both positively and negatively. The trick with managing your self-talk is to manage your perspective – what aspect of yourself you choose to focus on. Focus on the positives and deal with the negatives while making sure you are always true to yourself – never trying to lie to yourself or fool yourself. Learning to manage what you say to yourself inside your own mind is an important step in generating self-motivation.
Exercise 4 – Manage self-talk
Try these strategies, repeat them, practise them until they become habits:
Notice any self-sabotage and don't let it occupy your thoughts, practise changing your perspective, your focus, by changing your language – what you say to yourself:
Instead of focusing on past mistakes or possible future mistakes – focus on what is happening right now, in the present.
What could you say to yourself to get you to focus on the present, on what is happening at this moment?
Instead of focusing on weaknesses – what you are not so good at – focus on your strengths instead, the things you feel you are good at:
Write down one thing that you do well:
Write down one thing that you know a lot about:
Instead of focusing on outcome or end result – focus on the process you are engaged with instead and make sure you are using the most effective processes to achieve that outcome:
Focusing on things you can't control like the weather or luck or fate or teachers – focus on the things you can control:
What are some of the things that you can control that have an effect on your learning and understanding at school?
Focusing on perfection. Nothing is ever perfect – focus on doing the best you can
What could you say to yourself to get yourself to do the very best you can?
Notice any negative thoughts, interrupt them and deliberately change them;
First notice any negative thoughts:
Write down two negative things that you sometimes say to yourself. eg. I am no good at this, I can't do this.
As soon as you notice those thoughts, interrupt them – in your mind, in a loud (internal) voice say STOP! You might also like to imagine a big red STOP sign in your mind – sounds silly but it does help.
Then replace those thoughts by saying to yourself deliberately something like "I can handle this today", "I can get through this today", "I can do this today", "I am bigger than this", "I am stronger than this" – focus on the possible.
Choose one thing to say to yourself and write it here or make up one of your own.
Practise doing this over and over until it becomes second nature and you do it automatically.
Use visualization to focus your thoughts on the process, on the present.
Before you start a piece of work or a test or a performance, imagine yourself in the process, doing it and doing it well.
Imagine yourself maximizing your effort, pushing yourself to your best performance, using the best strategies, the smartest techniques.
Talk to yourself about what you are going to focus on when you are doing it, your concentration, your focus, your technique, and how you are going to do it well.
Avoid creating any negative prophesy. Think of anything that you have ever said to yourself about yourself that involves the words "I can't" – like "I can't sing", "I can't draw", "I can't do maths", and notice how that language creates a negative prediction of your own future. When you say "I can't" what you mean is "this thing is impossible for me", "I don't have the ability", "I never ever will". But you don't know that for sure, do you? Maybe sometime in your life you might learn how to do that thing, you might have a go at it, you might succeed at that thing – surely it is possible? To make sure you hold that possibility open what you need to do is to:
Turn every "I can't" into an "I haven't yet" – because that is the simple truth isn't it?
If you turn every "I can't" in your life into an "I haven't yet" in your own mind, everything becomes possible for you.
Positive thinking doesn't mean fooling yourself, it doesn't mean being unrealistic, it just means adjusting your perspective so that you build a habit of focusing on the positive aspects of your life and the life around you.
Write down a list of successes you have had in your life – any times at all that you have achieved what you have wanted to achieve – big successes or small successes.
Write down a second list, this time of all the positive features of your daily life, the things that many people in the world don't have that you maybe tend to take for granted – things that you could be grateful for – things like having a roof over your head at night, food on the table, people who care for you, a good education, etc.
Copy these two lists out on nice paper and pin them on a wall somewhere, maybe in your bedroom. Read over them every day and see if you can add to each one frequently.
Commit random acts of spontaneous kindness – help someone out who is less fortunate than you, or someone who is having difficulty with something.
Think of one person you could help in some way. Describe what you could do for them:
Exercise 5 – Practise positive thinking
DONE!
Challenge yourself always to take the action you need to take to achieve your goals.
Name three goals you have for this year and describe one thing you are doing presently to help you achieve each one.
Celebrate all your successes and any good luck.
How do you most like to celebrate? Name three things that you like to give yourself as rewards:
Continuously make and update positive future plans.
Name one thing that you would most like to be doing in 5 years time:
Name one thing that you would most like to be doing in 10 years time:
Name one thing that you would most like to be doing in 20 years time:
Encourage your friends and others around you to be more positive and to help others.
Think of someone you know who could do with some encouragement to see the world in a more positive light. Don't name them but write down what you could do to help them to think more positively.
DONE!