A study was conducted in 1998 at Columbia University by a professor
Claudia M Mueller she took a large group of fifth graders
and had them work on numerous puzzles by themselves now these were very
challenging puzzles but regardless of how well each child did he or she was
told that they scored very well that they did better than most of the other
kids afterwards half of these students were told that they scored high because
they worked hard while the other half were told that it was all because they
were smart and gifted then they presented each student with three more
types of puzzles to work on easy ones medium difficulty ones and extremely
challenging ones and what they found was very interesting the students who were
told that they did well because they were smart spent the majority of their
time on the easy puzzles they spent almost no time on the extremely
challenging puzzles and spent much less time overall trying to solve any of the
puzzles which was a sign of lower levels of motivation and to top it all off when
asked whether or not they enjoyed the experiment they said that it wasn't that
fun for them on the other hand the students who were told that they did
well because they worked hard spent the majority of their time focused on the
harder puzzles they also spent a lot more time overall attempting to solve
any of the puzzles which was a sign of an increase in levels of motivation and
to top it all off after the experiment they said that they actually enjoyed the
entire experience so what can we learn from this study well there's a concept
called the locus of control which is essentially the degree to which you
believe you have control over your life the kids who were told that they did
well because they were smart and gifted were led to believe in what's called an
external locus of control they were led to believe that factors
outside of what they could control where the reason they did well right you can't
control whether or not you're born smart on the other hand the kids were told
they did well because they worked hard started to believe in what's called an
internal locus of control they believed that it was factors they
controlled that led to their outcomes it was their hard work and their extra
effort that allowed them to do well on the puzzles right because how much work
you put into something is something that you have
complete control over now studies on the locus of control like this one have
found time and time again that having an internal locus of control is the key to
staying motivated you must feel like you have control over your life and that you
are responsible for the things that happen to you if you want to feel
motivated all of the time I saw this happen with my own eyes back in the day
when I was in charge of a sales team this wasn't retail sales or car sales
this was old-school door-to-door sales which has one of the highest turnover
rates most people only last a week before quitting see you need to be an
extremely motivated individual to be able to face hundreds and hundreds of
rejections every single day before someone even considers buying something
from you now over time I was able to develop a keen eye for who would
actually last who I should spend more time and energy training all I had to do
was ask a simple question when a new salesperson on my team was confronted
with their first bad day a day in which they made no sales I would ask him why
do you think you made no sales today and I would see how they would respond if
they blame things like the weather the fact that it's a weekend and nobody
wants to be bothered on the weekends or because it was the neighborhood I would
instantly know that they wouldn't last because they had an external locus of
control they believed that the reason they couldn't make any sales was because
of factors outside of their control and because of this they spent less time
knocking on doors which was ultimately the real reason why they weren't making
any sales that's the curse of having an external locus of control when you feel
like nothing you do matters you stop working you stop trying
cuz what's the point of trying when the worlds conspiring against you right so
how do we adopt an internal locus of control so that we can start feeling
motivated all of the time well they found that the best way to do so is by
simply solving problems in your own life and then taking some time in
appreciating the fact that it was your actions that solve this problem I'll
give you an example just to make things more clear let's say you're someone who
struggles with falling asleep so you go do some research and you find out if you
get some more sunlight in the morning if you only use your bed for sleeping and
if you install a blue light filter on your phone
that should drastically increase your to sleep faster when bedtime comes
around you do all of those things and lo and behold you find yourself sleeping 15
minutes faster than before when you notice this improvement you need to say
to yourself wow it was because of the changes I made because of the effort I
put in that I am now able to sleep better it's that simple build up that
belief that you are in control of your destiny that you have an internal locus
of control and you will never have issues with motivation in your life
again this episode's brought so you have to help the guys at Skillshare
Skillshare is an online learning community for creators with more than
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free trial after which it will only cost $10 a month to remain a member I suggest
you guys to check out the productivity today course which essentially teaches
you ways to increase and improve your attention span which we all know needs
to be worked on taking this course will allow you to focus and get more things
done which is a great way to develop that internal locus of control so you
will feel even more motivated in the future so I definitely recommend you
guys to check it out besides that guys stay tuned
you