Here we are midway through the school year. During these shorter winter days, we can all struggle at times with staying energized. As students and teachers who entered classes in the fall fresh and excited, we may now find ourselves struggling to "keep the faith" with whatever it is we're doing. Our goals in regards to progress in game design, as well as other school related expectations, may now seem harder to reach. It's not hard to see how one could lose motivation at this time of the year.
So, how do we stay motivated, and how can we motivate others? This question has been around for years, and there have been many theories and possibilities have been tested.
You could try to hire a motivational speaker:
But ladies & gentlemen, I have to tell you something. Something you probably know, but don't want to believe.
The truth is, you can't really motivate someone else. Not in a lasting, significant way.
You cannot motivate someone else whuh.....
That's right: You can't motivate someone else, but you can motivate yourself. And through your self motivation, it is very possible that you might just inspire others around you to motivate themselves.
I've seen this for years in the world of high school band. If I am not excited about something that we are working on, often the students will reflect this attitude. But, if I am excited (sometimes it takes personal motivation on my part to get there), I put more energy into it. And when I put more energy into something, whether it be a piece of music or a lesson about ActionScript, students around me seem to get inspired and show more excitement themselves.
As a Globaloria educator, I have found that the more I invest myself in self-learning, the more motivated I become to teach the next lesson. It is exciting to share new information. (why do you think gossip shows and magazines are so popular?) And those around us are sure to pick up on this excitement and become more self motivated.
This comes a little "back to the basics", but I believe the best way that I can motivate others is by being prepared and learning the skills myself. In music, this involves studying scores, listening to professional recordings, in some cases communicating with the composer, and researching the story behind the composition. In Globarloria, it is accomplished by taking on personal flash projects, finding tutorials, looking for things to blog about, and keeping up the wiki.
Through this preparation, we make ourselves more confident, proficient, and MOTIVATED. This type of motivation is sure to rub off on others.
For more reading and insightful theories on this, download the free eBook How to Motivate Creative People (Including Yourself) by Mark McGuinness.
Or, you could just hire a motivational speaker....
5 comments:
Jimbo,
This really made sense to me. A light buld came on..or at least a match was struck. But I remembered showing one of my students how to make shape and motion tweens and how excited he got. That was the day he bought in to what we were doing. Thanks, Jim for refreshing this in my mind, so that I might make more attempts like this with other students.
Jim, your comments about motivation through your own accomplishments and work is spot on. Motivation is really contagious.
I have been a teacher for over 20 years. It is programs like this that motivate me to do a better jobs. More teachers need to do similar type of program to get excited about education. The more teachers motivated, the more the students will be motivated. Thanks for always motivating me.
I have to agree my students are much more motivated when I am motivated and excited. My mood or attitude is contagious. I guess I just needed you to point out I need to be motivated for them to be motivated.
Jim; I really appreciate your comments and hope to "motivate" my students to read yours and other Globaloria educator's postings of late. Winter is a very tough time (sometimes I think I need to just hibernate with the bears to avoid the blahs). You words (and others) has helped me understand I am neither crazy or alone in how I feel. You lead by example...you have have motivated me!
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