Motivation Can Be Learned!
Today we want to talk about something everyone needs: motivation. At Myriad, we believe that’s something which can be learned and practiced. Here’s our quick guide to how that works, and how and why we work to teach it to our students!
Two Kinds of Motivation
There are two basic kinds of motivation: intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic means doing something because you want to. Like making chocolate chip cookies because they’re your favorite food. Extrinsic, on the other hand, means doing something because you’re compelled to by outside forces. Like doing the dishes because your parents told you to. Extrinsic motivation can be important and useful, but intrinsic is more powerful, because it’s linked to your own wants, needs, and interests.
Learning Motivation
Intrinsic motivation is great, but young musicians and dancers often need help maintaining it. And that’s okay! Building it can take time. But with the right help, it can become unstoppable. Here at Myriad, our teachers have methods in place to keep our students engaged, encourage them through challenges, and help them reach the point where their passion for music and/or dance provides them with endless intrinsic motivation.
Practicing at Home
Practicing and developing motivation at home can be as simple as maintaining consistent discipline for an extended period of time . For example, practicing music at the same time every day. But there’s also a lot of great resources out there to help both adults and children learn more about the subject. As an added bonus, we’ve found that reading and learning about motivation often works as a pretty good motivator! One of our favorite resources has been Jon Gordon’s book “The Energy Bus” (and the illustrated version for kids!). In it, he talks about principles like “fueling your ride with positive energy”. Finding ways to make working towards goals fun, rewarding, and overall enjoyable makes the journey to achieving goals both easier and more rewarding.
Myriad’s directors and teachers are always working to improve our pedagogy, so we can develop creative and exciting ways to foster intrinsic motivation in our students. We love being able to share our passion for music and dance. And we make sure we use that to fuel all of our classes and private lessons. That’s what makes intrinsic motivation so powerful. You’re always happy to do things you love! And that’s the kind of motivation we want to help all our students achieve.