WCIYP Motivation week 6

For one of my classes I had to watch a TED talk about “The Golden Circle” by, Simon Sinek, you can watch it here. In this video Simon explains that there are three levels to thinking and doing. The outer layer is what, the middle circle is how, and the inner most circle is why. He explains that many businesses and marketing plans begin at the what and work there way into the why. They start with what they want to do and how they are going to do it, neglecting the why of the whole operation. Worse than neglecting the why, sometimes the focus of the plan is to drive up a profit. The ONLY reason they are doing what they are doing is to make a profit. It may seem like that’s obvious, businesses need profit for survival, but I like to believe that there are some companies that genuinely make good products to better the lives of consumers. So while I’m on my job hunt this is something I am going to keep in mind, what is the true driving force of this company. 

In another class I watched a different TED talk by Dan Pink on Motivational Theories, here and he talked about how money is a fantastic motivator, but only for mechanical tasks. The second a task requires mild cognitive skills, the higher the reward the lower the productivity. This science shows that you cannot expect motivation to be bought. Pink explains that the most productive way to motivate is Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose. 

Simon talks about two different ways to try and sell computers, when you start with the why you can build a deeper trust with the consumer. Keeping this in mind while on a job hunt is important, because you want to work somewhere that values your ideas and does not just see you as a profit machine. There is more to life than making money for someone else. There is more to life than making money for yourself. 

As you begin your job hunt, yes it is important to make sure you have enough money and know the absolute bare minimum for your survival, but what is more important is doing what you love. Taking into consideration what motivation techniques the company you are looking into uses. If it is just reward/punishment style company then you may not be as motivated to add creativity outputs if there is a specific task they want you to accomplish a specific way you will only get your reward 

It is important to know what you love doing and why you are doing what you are doing. If you went to college, did you really spend all that time, money, and energy just to make more money later in life? Or did you pick a major because you were interested in the topic, and wanted to gain a deeper understanding about the field of study. In college I have changed my major 4 times, maybe 5, but that is because I am investing in an education, so I want to get the most out of it and study what I really love. Some of the things I have learned would be for careers that are not to make money, and some of them were majors in fields that have a higher pay, but I wanted to challenge myself. 

I can ramble on for hours about how money cannot buy happiness, but if you mind is made up about the topic I’m not going to waste my time trying to convince you, time is precious and I’m going to focus on spending mine being happy.