The Concepts Of Personal Motives And Incentives - 1590 Words

When I first began this class, I had little idea of what I wanted to improve or motivate myself towards. The concepts of the class were graspable in theory, but in everyday application, I struggled to find the drive to apply these theories to personal motives and incentives. I decided, instead to begin forcing myself into traditionally uncomfortable interactions with strangers by asking what they perceived their motives and incentives as for achieving normal life goals, such as completing a degree and getting a good job. As I went on doing this, however, I eventually realized this was an area of myself I wanted to improve upon: I was motivated to learn why others were driven to do things that I often thought were mundane and,†¦show more content†¦Applying this project to a set of criteria for accomplishment/goals was where it began to get truly difficult. After all, even speaking to two people proved that finding a generalized understanding that could be universally appl ied was impossible. Instead, I needed to set attainable short-term, which I could reach on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. At first, I set miniscule goals, such as simply asking one person a day why they are in college. I quickly realized, however, this was not effective because most people were reluctant to talk to strangers about their true intentions and motives. The final goal I set, which I plan to continue doing, is to first begin with small talk until I feel the person is comfortable, then ask what is truly important to them (because I also found that, for many, school is just something they feel they need to do), and finally, at a later time, record these answers in a journal. Because of the ongoing nature of my goal, it can only be completed if it is either displaced by one I feel is superior, or it is abandoned because of a loss of drive to continue. Applying a psychological model unto myself for this goal seemed easy at first (I had a motivation for understanding my needs as a means of personal happiness), so applying psychological models to other people’s answers was what I had