NCCEP

Capacity Building Workshop

NVP

Novelty, Value and Passion

The three keys to a fulfilling life.

 

 

As a life skills educator, I’m always dealing with Intrinsic vs Extrinsic motivation. Parents want to know how to motivate their kids, teachers want to know how to engage their students, executive leaders want to know how to drive results and youth just want to know how to build a life that is going to be enjoyable.

 

By my definition, intrinsic motivation is simple…you are motivated by your own values, your own beliefs, by your own desires and by your own experiences. You are in control of your own little world.

 

Extrinsic motivation is when you are motivated by external factors. You may be influenced by others, by conditions of your current environment, by others experiences and by the desire to portray yourself in a certain way.

 

Neither is good or bad and we all get swayed by both of these types of motivators every day, in every decision that we make.

 

In my experience, intrinsically motivated people win. They win the more important, more long-term battles. They keep relationships of value, they are happier and they are far more dependable.

 

But it’s not enough to just say that…”be intrinsically motivated and you’ll be a winner”. That’s what a lame motivational speaker would sell you for about 10k a keynote. We can do better than that. Let’s look at the WHY and the HOW of it.

 

First, let’s look to the rulers of the extrinsic empire, the people who sell you all that externally beautifying stuff. Sales, branding, media and marketing organizations know the sweet science of tapping into your motivation. They know how to make you lust for something so badly that you will spend time, money and energy just get it into your life. These talented extractors of income know how to prey on the weak minded, but deep seeded motivators within your brain.

 

At the core of your brain is the most ancient relic of our caveman heritage…flashbulbs pop on circus Willey as he pulls the curtain on…The Reptilian Brain. This is the animal within us all. The core of instinct, the safety net, the hub of our fight or flight decisions and it is remarkably easy to trigger. All you have to do is watch TV for 10-15 minutes and you will see the magic unfold. Count how many images, words and scenarios tap into our most basic instincts to survive…eat (food ads), be safe/healthy (medications, home security), be attractive enough to reproduce (exercise equipment, diet fads, sexy cars) and be able to perform (Viagara, Cialis). Its all there, every few minutes…and your core brain loves it. It’s a multimedia feast for your least developed, but most impulsive brain.

 

There are 3 key factors that the media and those trying to sell you something know to focus on. They are the 3 motivators that emerge from that Reptilian brain:

 

1. Greed

This is the hunter and gatherer element in us all. We are predators by design and we seek to conquer and accumulate. This is the part of you that says, “I gotta have it”.  You need the best, the most, the flashiest…because there is a part of you that believes that it makes you better than somebody else. Good real-world example: iPhone owners, not all, but a good amount, carry their phones like trophies. Half of them don’t even know how to use them but they know they are a status symbol and Apple preys on them all day by updating their models every six months. And of course…they gotta have the flashiest one to stay on top of the hill and roar. Most iPhone owners have at least 2 of the past models sitting in a drawer in their house. They still work but they aren’t the best any more. That’s why Apple cuts corners and doesn’t need to design one with a replaceable battery because they know you’re just going to buy the new one anyway and toss the old one aside. Disposable technology, bad for the environment, built for suckers.

 

2. Fear of Loss

This preys on the pack mentality. We are social creatures like herds on the plains of Africa and we don’t want to be left behind. We all know what happens to the little calf that strays…CHOMP! So ads run language like, “this weekend only”, “48 hour sale”, “end of season clearance”. This makes you think, “I might miss out and be made fun of, or appear stupid to have missed the opportunity”. So, we rush to purchase something we may not even need.

 

Good real-world example: The IKEA Once A Year Sale. It does indeed only happen once a year. In that two week period IKEA sales increase as much as 29%. Does that mean that 29% more people all of a sudden need a Torstorp or a Fluevallen? I doubt it.  But they sell a ton more of them in that two week period. Additionally, their stats also show that profit per item is increased during that sale period as more people spring for the assembly fee because they saved a bit more on the product itself. Good for IKEA. But guess what, that same product is there, on the same shelf the rest of the year. The price may have minor changes, but they got you in the door by preying on your fear of missing out.

 

 

3. Association

We are competitive at the instinctual level. We used to compete for territory, food, shelter and mates. Now, that primal fear is about keeping up with the Joneses.  I want to be part of the cool kids…so I need to have this, do this, go there, wear that…or I won’t fit in. The association dynamic drives decisions that are influenced by your desire to please or to be like others.

 

Good real-world example: Facebook is king. They took social media to a whole new level. Once considered a space for slacker teens and college kids, the peer pressure of it has made it a place to showcase your brand and its appeal to the up and comers. Ad revenue on Facebook is way up because the social dynamic of it is driving exponential growth. Millions of people join every month because “everybody else is doing it”.

 

These 3 factors are primal. They tap into our most ancient brain…our least intelligent, least independent, most emotionally affected brain. These tap into instinct not intelligence. Good for fight or flight moments but less effective in long-term rational decision making. Bottom line, if these motivate us, we are more likely to make bad long-term decisions.

 

So what is the better way to make decisions?

 

Intrinsically motivated people make better decisions because they focus on 3 different factors. These are the motivating factors for the strongly developed and more discerning:

 

1. Novelty

Is it new or different? Does it offer something that I don’t already have? Does it enable me to DO something better, faster or more than I could before?

Intrinsically motivated people love new. They like to try new things, go new places and get involved in varied experiences that put them outside of their comfort zone. Re-packaging something old doesn’t cut it for them. They want at least some new features, some new capabilities. Because of their thirst for new, these people lead the pack in trying new things. They are the early-adopters, the pilots of new tech, the accidental fashionistas, the tastemakers, the learners, the travellers and often the most interesting person at the table.

 

Good real-world example: George Lucas created a whole new world with his Star Wars films. It was a massive risk to do something that had so little familiarity in it. It had the potential to make people feel completely disconnected…immersed in an alien world. Instead, the fact that it was so imaginatively and wildly different became its biggest strength. It transported people into a whole new realm of possibility. It created a culture and became a benchmark in film and entertainment…because it was NEW and DIFFERENT.

 

 

2. Value

This isn’t just about getting bang for your buck. Intrinsically motivated people seek value. They want products and experiences that add value to their lives and/or give them the ability to add more value to others lives. They want to learn something not just to help them make money, but to help them make a difference. These are the folks who go to college to learn medicine so they can cure river blindness in southern Africa…not just so they can buy a Porsche. They learn finance so they can create micro-funds for social ventures in India…not so they can run a Ponzi scheme or tax shelter for the rich.

 

They feel valuable through contribution. They feel significant through achievement of value-based goals.

 

Good real-world example: Last year I had a student whose motivation for getting into college was so that he could learn and practice medicine. Doesn’t sound like anything special yet…but his reason was special. He had held his father’s hand during two near-fatal heart failures, the result of an unexplainable condition that baffled doctors. His value was solving problems. His contribution was to learn how to solve the problem that his father had. In doing so, he will save the lives of many others. That’s a value driven, intrinsically motivated young man. He will get the value of an education, the value of saving his father…and he will give the value of helping others in the process. VALUE is created all around him.

 

3. Passion

Intrinsically motivated people are often infectiously passionate about their pursuits. They are always doing something and are attacking it with the energy of 100 mortals. They are compelling forces whose energy attracts others. They can talk for hours about something or they can hit the switch and give you a 20 second elevator pitch that will have you reaching for your checkbook. They do what they love. They express love for their work. They risk failure. They are easy to hurt because they expose themselves so much but they wouldn’t have it any other way. We are all attracted to these magnets of purpose and passion.

 

Good real-world example: Bill Gates is a boring computer geek. When he was the leader of Microsoft he rarely said anything noteworthy and only made it into the headlines when the annual report of the world’s richest people came out. And because he was so not compelling, people loved to hate the guy. He made no connection to the rest of us. He seemingly devised a way to take all our money and retire to a world we would never see or understand. He became misunderstood, envied, then despised…to the point where there was actually an organization whose sole purpose was to literally smear him with pies at his public appearances…so strange. Then Bill steps down from Microsoft and starts, with his wife, the Gates Foundation.

Bill comes alive with a passion we had never seen from him. He uses his massive fortune, his network, his tech resources and his geeky intelligence to tackle health, education and social justice issues around the world. His foundation becomes the world’s largest single donor in Africa…out-donating the entire U.S. government on health-related aid to foreign countries. Now we see him on TED talks and the guy is happy, funny and dare I say…likeable on an epic scale. He found his PASSION and it wasn’t technology…it was helping people.

 

These 3 intrinsic motivators do more than just raise motivation, they drive brain development. These motivators are the architects of new connections and make life literally exciting, full of learning.

 

If you want a better life, robust experiences and interesting relationships, focus on Novelty, Value and Passion.

 

 

 

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