Aspiration and motivation: why would one wish to become better?

In my previous post, I discussed that the main problem that prevents people from achieving top performance (or even close to top performance) with experience is that most people improve until they are ‘good enough’. In fact, even top performers have that to some extent in most of their activities: Einstein may have been a great theoretical physicist, but he was definitely not a top performer as a public speaker, father, husband, marathon runner, or singer. Becoming great in something is not easy; it requires time spent reading, listening and experimenting, time that you cannot spend on TV or friends, it requires money otherwise spent on one’s home or hobbies, and it requires socially scary things like contacting top performers for advice or mentoring. And these costs and efforts need to be borne continously for a decade or more! Motivation therefore seems to be a major problem/challenge for talent development. So let’s study it some more…

As the ten year rule states, people need to invest lots of time before they can become really good in something. And this does not mean merely ‘being active’ in a field, it means they have to concentrate on improving (also called ‘deliberate practice‘), and pour lots of mental effort, time and possibly even some money into it. Most people don’t, because they don’t find it worth the effort, or have other goals that they find more important.

Still, “motivation” is a very slippery concept. Despite centuries of being studied eagerly by politicians, marketers, salespersons and other interested persons, and even scientists joining the fray a few decades ago, we are still not even close to being able to predict with reasonable accuracy, for example, who of a class of 50 chemistry students will drop out in the first year, who will finish and then will go to become teachers, or who will become PhD-students or will even make the effort to become professors. We have learned some things, though, which can explain at least a few phenomena, and can offer ways to enhance at least your own motivation.

“Aspiration” may be more important than motivation. For example, while expert musicians were about equally ‘motivated’ as amateurs, their aspirations are a lot higher. Remember that I said that people improved until they felt they were ‘good enough’. Therefore one’s definition of ‘good enough’ is very important. Of course, one’s aspirations are influenced by one’s environment (parents etc.), but it is perfectly possible to set one’s own aspirations in a favorite field to something like “I want to be a master of …”. Even if you are not terribly motivated, your brain will still seek ways to improve then.
A related factor is ‘identity’. People actually have two decision mechanisms in their head, one like a banker, the other like a priest. For example, when people are put in a brain scanner, and are asked to sign statements that are the opposite of their normal opinion in exchange for money, different areas in the brain are activated for trivial values, like ‘I am a tea drinker’, than for sacred values, like ‘I am in favor of gay marriage’. In fact, for trivial values, cost-benefit-related brain areas were activated, for sacred values, the brain areas were activated that distinguish (moral) right from wrong. Sacred values may have their limits (I don’t think they arouse the attention and energy expenditures that cost-benefit brain areas bring), but they definitely may have value for getting up on time, sticking to one’s training when the going is (temporarily) tough, saying ‘no’ to distracting social invitations, or doing something that is unpleasant or scary but is in line with who you want to be.
Goals can also be more motivating/inspiring if they are challenging. There is a kind of sweet spot between ‘too easy’ and ‘I’ll never make that’. Personally, I occasionally set goals which have a chance of like 80% of success (like doing something so fast or so good), instead of 100% or 10%. Your own ‘inspiring percentage’ may be higher or lower, though.
As Daniel Pink puts in his book ‘Drive‘, and Martin Seligman in his book ‘Flourish‘, we get motivated (or less demotivated) if we have autonomy in a task (when we do it, where we do it, how we do it, with whom we do it, and possibly also what we do), feel mastery (getting better at an activity we value), and feel purpose/meaning. Seligman also lists good relationships with others, and achievement, though these may not always be very handy immediate goals, as you cannot really control how others think of you, or control achievement (as that is usually based on competition with others, whom you also cannot control, in contrast to purpose and mastery). Motivation for food/shelter/sex etc. is of course also interesting, but may not have too much to do with scientific achievement.
Interest in a field can occur when a person him/herself has experienced a problem. For example, surprisingly many people seeking a different career and consulting a coach get the ambition to become a coach themselves (instead of, for example, a farmer, computer programmer, or waiter). Also known as the ‘wounded healer’ effect. [what you would conclude about my motivation to write this blog is up to you, of course 😉 ]
Interest can increase the more you know about a field, as the Dutch saying goes “unknown makes unloved”. As long as you (mostly) voluntarily learn about the field, the more you will generally like it. This may also be one reason why many professors are so hyper-specialized. In many cases, as explained by Ruth Colvin Clark in her book “Developing Expertise”, the development of this knowledge goes from situational interest (an inspiring teacher or book) to ‘personal interest’, where the person knows so much that motivation is more or less self-sustaining.
Motivation is enhanced by what other people like or praise. This works not only when you yourself are being praised or admired for something, but also indirectly, if you see someone else- someone who you see as somewhat similar like yourself, just a bit older/experienced getting praised. With the huge media attention in the Netherland for soccer, it is no wonder that many Dutch boys want to become professional soccer players, and after the success of the South Korean golfer Se-Ri Pak many other South Korean women (but not men – identifying with someone is important!) took up golf, and quite successfully too.
Motivation also depends on ‘rational’ factors like the availability of competing activities and goals, expected value of success, expected chance of success, time necessary for the goal to be reached (an interesting book in this regard is that of Dr. Piers Steel, “The Procrastination equation“), but also emotional factors, like how vivid in pictures or words you paint the story of the benefits. Story! Simplicity! Concreteness! Emotional! Books about making a message stick with other people, like the Heath Brother’s book “Made to Stick” are equally valid when motivating or demotivating yourself.
Also note that in the ideal case, the activity needs to be kept fun. People have multiple needs and interests, and like it is natural to occasionally eat and then do other things than eating, and sleep and then do other things than sleeping, so it is natural (and healthy) to do something as long as you enjoy it, and not force yourself to exhaustion or bitterness by working long and hard to achieve something else (fame, riches, promotions, praise). Working too hard/being too ambitious or hard for yourself, or depending on validation by or admiration of others, may give you some successes, but will often hurt you in the long-term, which not only happened to Se-Ri Pak who was hospitalized with exhaustion, or Michael Jackson who, despite vast fame and fortune, could not find happiness or peace of mind without ‘chemical help’.
Most people naturally dislike effort (which is reasonable), but when we make an effort, we usually feel better afterwards – most people would feel better after learning Spanish for an hour than watching TV for an hour. And this effect may even be stronger if effort is rewarded, so-called “learned industriousness“

So we know a lot about motivation – at least from a scientific point of view. We can even increase it with the right interventions (some tips below). However, it may also be clear from the above why motivation to become a top performer is so rare: bosses and teachers might ideally want to inspire us, but practical necessities, from standardized tests to demanding customers, may make them unwilling to give us much autonomy in which tasks we do and when we do them, making us work much longer on things than our natural interest can sustain, thereby weakening our interest and motivation. Hobbies, while offering the autonomy we lack elsewhere, often go without social reinforcement or without a believable vision that extra effort is worthwhile – after all, even if you like playing soccer, chances that you’ll ever become a professional are slim. In practice, we may lack role models, coaches and fans. We may also have multiple interests, which compete for our time and attention, further diluting our effort. Also, the length of time required to reach top expertise is also a risk factor; Benjamin Bloom, in his book on developing talent in young people, reported that even the talents he investigated had often encountered obstacles, and if some of their transitions (to different teachers or environments) had been sooner or later, they would have dropped out. While one should not underestimate the influence of individual passion, talents and persistence, Bloom summarized that when he had started the study, he expected to find extraordinary children in normal environments, but found that most top performers actually turned out to have been pretty normal children in pretty extraordinary environments. This definitely is also valid outside Bloom’s studies: consider for example the cases of Mozart, Tiger Woods, Andre Agassi, Michael Jackson, or the Polgar sisters, all of which had extremely driven parents (usually the father), though of course in may cases the home environment is slightly less extreme.

Based on the above, you may understand that in normal circumstances, it is hard to excel in something; it is almost as if society at large conspires to keep people mediocre! That being said, since ‘every little bit helps’, some tips if you want to try enhance your motivation/passion for something.

Keep the activity fun as much as possible, especially in the beginning. Even if a book, video or teacher is “recommended” or “certified” or (created by) an expert, if you don’t have fun learning from her/him/it, find another book, video or teacher. The ‘professional’ materials and teachers are for later, when your motivation can stand them.
Try to increase your knowledge about the subject, via books, videos, blogs, magazines, teachers, or whatever. Possibly also make notes about/pay attention to what you have learned/which progress you made. Having a kind of journal where you can see your level 1, 2 or 3 months ago can help you realize that you actually made some progress.
Don’t overwork yourself – don’t push yourself to spend more time on the activity than you like; if things work out, your capacity and eagerness for hard work will naturally increase over time.
Set high standards for yourself (‘I want to be a master’) or such, and try tasks that are challenging to you, that have a chance of failure.
For the ‘logistical decisions’ (like going to sit down and practice) your identity or values may be helpful, like ‘since I want to contribute to the world, I start every day by studying 30 minutes’, or ‘I am someone who values practice’
If you make an effort, reward yourself for it. This does not necessarily have to with splurging, just reminding yourself why you have made the effort and that you are proud of yourself can help (as described in Kelly McGonigal’s book ‘The Willpower Instinct‘. You can teach yourself industriousness!
Find fans and fellow-enthusiasts, possibly even role models. People whom you (for whatever reason) like or can identify with can be especially helpful. Anyway, social validation and encouragement can be of great help, so take some time to find fellow-enthusiasts. It’s worth it!

Now, some people could say: ‘lack of motivation may be understandable for school teachers and computer programmers and such, who simply need a job in order to eat, but surely, if you look at sports, academia, or other highly competitive fields, people need to be extraordinarily motivated to even be a professional, can you really say that the less successful people are simply less motivated instead of less talented? The answer seems to be rather subtle. But before I’ll go into that, it may be worthwhile to answer the question that seems more relevant for the 99.5% of people comprising the rest of humanity: how to find something worth to be motivated for? How to find my passion?