Recently, I was on a road trip with my dad coming back from my very first college visit at California Polytechnic University at San Luis Obispo. It was an enlightening experience but I would go so far as to say that the ride home did more good from my perspective about my future. I was talking about how I want to do great things, and go to a good college, and learn as much as I can to succeed in my future, though my struggle with motivation has kept me from both striving toward and achieving those goals, when my dad supplied me with some very helpful advice about motivation. He told me: the people that you surround yourself with and the company you keep will define you, down to your hobbies, interests, and mindset. This idea intrigued me, as it was the first time I had ever thought of my mindset as dependent on those around me, and how maybe taking more thought about the interests that surround me could help me find my own motivation.
There is a science behind this theory that helps to explain how and why motivation is dependent rather than independent, and it is through the Pygmalion Effect. This is the theory that the expectations for you can have a severe impact on your performance, high expectations breed results that meet them and low expectations will do the same. It works by internalizing a belief that a person can alter their behavior to match. The downside to this theory is that it does the same with low expectations, and can have a negative impact on a person’s performance. The Pygmalion Effect demonstrates the relationship between peers and mindset, and without the right external motivation, achieving internal motivations becomes increasingly harder.
In conclusion, the struggle with motivation can be a long and hard road, but it can be made substantially easier with they right kind of motivation and expectations.