Let's explore how a sense of competence can affect your sense of motivation.
Below is a video of Matt's daughter, Lia reciting the days of the week. Watch how fast she does it. Notice how she clearly enunciates each day. She goes through them in order, starting with Sunday. Can you match her pace? Can you go faster than her? If English is not your primary language, feel free to do this exercise in your own language.
Good. Pretty easy, right? Now, let's make this exercise more difficult. Watch Lia again in the video below. This time she recites the days of the week in alphabetical order. She is not reading them from a list. Nor, is she using a teleprompter, or any other trick. Note the speed. Can you do it alphabetically? Can you match her speed again? Use whatever language you would like.
Much harder, huh? Given this is a safe, and fun game, I bet it wasn't very frustrating. But, let's imagine that the stakes were higher. If you couldn't keep up with Lia, you might lose your job, or your house, or something of great meaning. What if the consequence of not reciting the days of the week as fast as Lia in alphabetical order were quite grave? How would you feel then? Play the video again and see if you can beat her.
Let's make it even more difficult. Watch this last video where Lia recites the days of the week in order by word size. In other words the fewer letter days go first and the longer letter days go later. If there is a tie, she reverts to alphabetical as the tie break. Note her speed again. Pretty similar to the first two. Can you match her? Can you beat her. Imagine again that the stakes are high and if you can win, you get a great reward-- a million dollars. How do you feel?
Using the comments section below, describe how you felt going through this exercise. Try and describe your sense of motivation? Try and describe how competent you felt and how when your sense of competence dropped, your sense of motivation responded. What do you think? How does this relate to your work and to your team members?