How To Stay Motivated – The Locus Rule

By Rolf Joho December 28, 2024 Internet InfoMedia 0 Comments

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
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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
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stay tuned you