Last week, I introduced Daniel Pinks's first element to his motivation framework; Autonomy. This alone is a key motivator. But, there is more!
You would not be surprised to know that 50% of employees are not engaged at work in the US. To live a Charged Life, we desire full engagement, joy, and confidence—so many people just on cruise control. There have been many more deeply engaged people in the US than in other countries in the past.
At the heart of this, I suspect that we enjoy broad freedoms giving us a general foundation of autonomy. But still, why so few?
Our education systems were born from the industrial revolution. Like an old-style factory floor, our schools have bells and assembly lines where every child, supposedly, gets the same.
Many years ago, I saw a PBS documentary discussing modern education. In it was discussed the 7 Intelligences we all have; Relating to Others, The Body, Understanding Self, Visual/Spatial, Verbal/Linguistic, Musical, Logical/Mathematical. It's not until children reach middle school, and more so, high-school, they are encouraged to pursue their specific paths in earnest. What if we were able to understand the distribution of each childs intelligences at an early age? Many studies show that when someone is engaged in something that interests them deeply and has a natural ability, then the balance of their learning rises in concert. If we customized education at an early age to the child's particular natural intelligence distribution, then that child would develop a love of learning everything.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (chick-sent-me-high) wrote in his seminal work "Flow" that when we are engaged in those things we are most inclined to be interested in, we enjoy an "autotelic experience." In this state, the goal is self-fulfilling, and the activity is its own reward. When I write these posts, it is an autotelic experience for me, for example.
When we are in Flow or in "The Zone," time passes unencumbered. We lose track of our cares and worries. We are fixated and in a trance emanating from the process. If we are doing something that exceeds our capabilities, we suffer from anxiety. When we do something that is far below our abilities, we suffer boredom. When we are Goldilocks, and the activity is just right, we experience Flow. When in Flow, are on the path to Mastery.
Mastery, first and foremost, is a mindset. As Carol Dweck has written, our mindset is fixed when we delude ourselves that we cannot grow, or that we should not. Understanding how to adopt a growth mindset comes natural to masters who have found what puts them in The Zone.
Second, Mastery is a Pain. There is difficulty in every path of growth; practicing scales, engaging in calisthenics, editing, and balancing the books. In Michael Gerber's book, The E-Myth Revisited, he describes why so many small businesses fail; the owner focuses on what they love to do and neglect what they hate to do. Understand this, and you will better be able to overcome those inevitable pains on the way to mastery.
Third, Mastery is asymptotic. Understand this, and you better be able to dedicate the rest of your life to a particular pursuit. We approach absolute mastery but never achieve it. Is this frustration? Someone with a fixed mindset would say so. Someone with a growth mindset would gleefully realize that there will always be something new to learn.
What then, once we have autonomy and we are targeted toward mastery? Our Purpose frames our next and highest level of motivation. See you next week.
Be well, dear reader.
