tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/motivation-3398/articlesMotivation – The Conversation2024-03-11T18:34:34Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2192942024-03-11T18:34:34Z2024-03-11T18:34:34ZPaying people to exercise can be motivating, but the financial rewards don’t have to last forever to work<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580781/original/file-20240308-28-6wpn62.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C132%2C4442%2C3032&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Digital solutions like fitness apps have the same stumbling blocks as other exercise programs: it's hard to form healthy habits.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>If physical activity came in a bottle, it would be the most prescribed medicine of all. Just walking 10 more minutes a day may yield <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s12966-020-00978-9">clinically significant</a> outcomes such as improved mental health, less pain and better sleep. It can also help prevent and manage more than <a href="https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2020-102955">100 chronic diseases</a> like cancer, arthritis and diabetes. </p>
<p>And yet, many people do not reap the benefits of just a little more movement — about 10 more walking minutes per day, or an extra 1,000 steps.</p>
<p>There are many digital solutions to help people meet physical activity goals, like fitness apps such as MyFitnessPal and Noom. Unfortunately, the challenges of <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-science-behind-building-healthy-habits-can-help-you-keep-your-new-years-resolution-219947">forming healthy habits</a> remains, and use of fitness apps can fall into a familiar pattern reflecting the <a href="https://theconversation.com/got-health-goals-research-based-tips-for-adopting-and-sticking-to-new-healthy-lifestyle-behaviours-173740">difficulty of meeting new fitness goals</a>.</p>
<p>With apps, it might look something like this: the app is downloaded with the best of intentions and is used for a couple of weeks. Gradually, the app becomes neglected and begins to collect dust on a smartphone screen, and eventually is abandoned or deleted. </p>
<h2>Encouraging activity</h2>
<p>As a physical activity expert, I have made it my life’s work to encourage more people to be more active more often. A hunch eventually led me to explore the idea of actually paying people to exercise as part of my <a href="https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/71601/3/Mitchell_Marc_201511_PhD_thesis.pdf">PhD research</a>. That began in 2010 with a small group of cardiac patients. </p>
<p>Fast forward almost 15 years, and it turns out this idea — paying people to exercise — has legs. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2019-101662">Governments</a> and <a href="https://www.jnj.com/innovation/employee-benefits-that-help-make-johnson-johnson-a-great-company">companies</a> all over the world, for instance, have been paying people to exercise for years. And it works! Sort of. In the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2019-100633">short-term</a>, at least.</p>
<p>Predictably, when delivered on a population scale, paying people to exercise can get quite expensive, which is a critical limitation. I experienced this limitation firsthand while developing the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2019-101662">Carrot Rewards</a> app in partnership with Canadian federal and provincial governments from 2016 to 2019. </p>
<p>In 2019, due to some fiscal constraints, the financial rewards for exercise offered to Canadians for over a year via Carrot Rewards were mostly withdrawn in Ontario (Canada’s largest province) but not in British Columbia and Newfoundland and Labrador (the other two Canadian provinces where the app was available).</p>
<p>This natural variation in financial reward exposure set up an interesting behaviour experiment, which provided the opportunity to answer the question: Can financial rewards be mostly scaled back without negatively impacting physical activity?</p>
<h2>Phasing out financial rewards</h2>
<p>In <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.42663">our large study</a> of 584,760 Carrot Rewards app users, my colleagues and I found that physical activity improvements (about 1,000 steps per day, or 10 more walking minutes) largely remained in Ontario after financial rewards faded away. This was a notable finding, especially since many years of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.125.6.627">psychology research</a> suggested the opposite; that people revert to baseline behaviours, their “old ways,” once financial rewards fade. </p>
<p>One reason for this might be that rewards for daily physical activity achievements were provided for over a year before withdrawal began, which is likely enough time for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2216115120">habit formation</a>. </p>
<p>It may also be because the Carrot Rewards app rewarded the achievement of realistic and adaptive physical activity goals — which increase confidence — with micro-rewards worth only about US$0.05 per day.</p>
<p>Others have found that rewards as small as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2016.12.012">US$0.09 per day</a> have boosted physical activity in more controlled clinical trial settings. </p>
<h2>Applying rewards</h2>
<p>What does this mean for those who have fitness apps collecting dust on their home screens? </p>
<p>In a nutshell, this new research suggests people can potentially take a short dose of financial reward to increase physical activity, and once that activity is established (it usually takes about <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2216115120">six to 12 months</a>), it may be maintained longer-term with much less expensive financial reinforcement. </p>
<p>So practically speaking, if someone is interested in this approach, it would make sense to seek out financial rewards for exercise — as an impetus, a nudge, a spark. </p>
<p>Some governments have financial rewards-based mobile health programs, such as <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-pilot-to-help-people-exercise-more-and-eat-better">England</a> and <a href="https://www.totalwellbeingdiet.com/au/">Australia</a>. Employers may offer financial rewards as part of their extended health benefits, which is common in the <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2013/06/03/2013-12916/incentives-for-nondiscriminatory-wellness-programs-in-group-health-plans#:%7E:text=The%20reward%20for%20a%20health,to%20prevent%20or%20reduce%20tobacco">United States</a> </p>
<p>If neither of those options are available, there are commercially-available financial rewards-based fitness apps like <a href="https://sweatco.in">Sweatcoin</a> or <a href="https://waybetter.com">WayBetter</a>. With Sweatcoin, goal achievements earn coins that can be redeemed for commercial products in Sweatcoin’s online store. With WayBetter, you deposit some of your own money and earn it back plus some if you achieve your goals.</p>
<p>While financial rewards may not work for everyone, our research and that of others is increasingly suggesting they may be one way of stimulating and sustaining a more active lifestyle.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219294/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marc Mitchell provides consulting services for Caterpillar Health Inc. He also receives funding from SSHRC.</span></em></p>Offering financial incentives for exercise may be one way of stimulating, and sustaining, a more active lifestyle. Research suggests that even after rewards stop, exercise gains mostly persist.Marc Mitchell, Associate Professor, School of Kinesiology, Western UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2205112024-01-10T14:16:14Z2024-01-10T14:16:14ZHow to keep a new year’s resolution: ask yourself why you’re doing it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568451/original/file-20240109-25-hkhp4z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=87%2C21%2C6954%2C4032&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/keep-going-cropped-shot-female-fitness-2167544337">PeopleImages.com - Yuri A/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It is easy, in December, when surrounded by chocolate wrappers and leftover Christmas pudding, to decide to change your life when January comes around. It’s quite different when January arrives, bringing with it more darkness, more rain and possible feelings of <a href="https://www.keepingwellblmk.nhs.uk/self-help-resources/winter-pressures/january-blues">low mood</a>. </p>
<p>By now, it may well be that all the good intentions you had when browsing the Boxing Day sales for athleisure and sports equipment, signing up for gym memberships or committing to going <a href="https://veganuary.com/">vegan</a> for a month have started to fall by the wayside. </p>
<p>Our lives don’t magically change on the first of January any more than they do on any other day. Making a change takes work. </p>
<p>The key question to ask yourself when it comes to new year’s resolutions is “why”. Why have you decided to change the things you have, or to do the things you have? What has driven you to it, and why do you want to achieve it? </p>
<p>If the answer is “I don’t know”, or is related to external pressures from other people or society in general (“I feel like everyone else has joined a gym, so I should too”), then chances are the resolutions won’t be sustainable. </p>
<p>Our research, which uses self-determination theory, led us to this conclusion. This theory, grounded in psychology, tells us that motivation is key to continuing with an activity, but that motivation needs to come from within ourselves – to be what is known as autonomous or internalised. </p>
<h2>Find value in what you’re doing</h2>
<p>If you are undertaking something because you think other people want you to, or because you want validation from other people, you are unlikely to keep going. If the activity has value to you or is enjoyable, then you are more likely to persist, even in the face of difficulties and setbacks. </p>
<p>Let’s consider an example. Many of the most common resolutions relate to fitness, which is an area well served by <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/sms.13617?casa_token=p_wPzZAOXecAAAAA:GBmfJO4t0SGSINhN11SC8c3sLBNqdxthrZ3V-Wt8CkVtoWTTcncRwdm7kO2RpbIZqFYbTvrkQQPlJww">self-determination theory research</a>. </p>
<p>Some people might resolve to join a gym or take up running in January because they feel they’ve overindulged over Christmas, or because an offer pinged into their inbox and it seems like everyone is doing it. But they are substantially less likely to keep up the habit than those who make the same resolution because they feel that getting fit is important to them. </p>
<p>This second group of people have found <a href="https://ijbnpa.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1479-5868-9-78">value in fitness</a> which aligns with their own sense of what is important, or right for them, or likely to lead to a positive outcome which they value. People who enjoy fitness are also more likely to keep going with it. If you think about the activities you engage in in your own life, whether or not they are resolutions, this is likely to strike a chord. </p>
<h2>Meeting your goals</h2>
<p>You might have set yourself a <a href="https://selfdeterminationtheory.org/topics/application-goals/">specific goal</a> as a resolution – such as to reach a certain level in a language. Again, your success depends on how important this goal is to you. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Woman taking notes from laptop" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568581/original/file-20240110-29-iei1pf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568581/original/file-20240110-29-iei1pf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568581/original/file-20240110-29-iei1pf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568581/original/file-20240110-29-iei1pf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568581/original/file-20240110-29-iei1pf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568581/original/file-20240110-29-iei1pf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568581/original/file-20240110-29-iei1pf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Why have you decided to learn something new?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/focused-young-african-american-businesswoman-student-1361068373">fizkes/Shutterstock</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Think about <a href="https://web-archive.southampton.ac.uk/www.llas.ac.uk/sites/default/files/nodes/6063/700_reasons.pdf">your reasons</a>. If it is because you think you “should” be able to speak another language, then you might not last that long – especially once the novelty has worn off and the effort required has stepped up. If you’re preparing for a trip, and you think <a href="https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5px045mw">knowing the local language</a> will help you when you are there, then you are more likely to sustain the habit – at least until the trip arrives. </p>
<p>Whether you continue beyond that is another question, as you will have met your original goal. Without another upcoming trip to the same destination, you might find that the habit you’ve created becomes harder to sustain. </p>
<p>So, with all this in mind, what can you do to ensure you keep your new year’s resolution? Well, firstly, try and make it something you enjoy. If you don’t enjoy it before you start, think about what you can do to make it enjoyable. If you’ve resolved to get fit, but the gym is not working for you, try something else – perhaps swimming, running or yoga. </p>
<p>If you want to learn a language, but it’s turning out to be <a href="https://selfdeterminationtheory.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Some-goals-just-feel-easier-Self-concordance-leads-to-goal-progress-through-subjective-ease-not-effor.pdf">hard work</a> rather than fun, try a TV series in your target language (with subtitles) or studying with a friend. </p>
<p>And make sure you’re in it for the right reasons. If you’re only doing something for other people, and not for yourself, then your motivation is likely to be poorer quality and <a href="https://selfdeterminationtheory.org/SDT/documents/2009_VansteenkisteSierensEtAl_JEP.pdf">harder to sustain</a>. A friend may have cajoled you into joining the gym, but if you start to look forward to the camaraderie of a spin class, your motivation will become more internalised. </p>
<p>And one final note. If you decide your new year’s resolution isn’t working, <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4614-6806-6_8">allow yourself flexibility</a>. It’s ok to shift your goals, or put them on hold.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220511/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>If the answer is “I don’t know”, chances are your resolution won’t be sustainable.Abigail Parrish, Lecturer in Languages Education, University of SheffieldKimberley Jane Bartholomew, Associate Professor in Education, University of East AngliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2206202024-01-10T13:29:57Z2024-01-10T13:29:57ZFrom besting Tetris AI to epic speedruns – inside gaming’s most thrilling feats<p>After 13-year-old Willis Gibson became the first human to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/03/arts/tetris-beat-blue-scuti.html">beat the original Nintendo version</a> of Tetris, he dedicated his special win to his father, who passed away in December 2023. </p>
<p>The Oklahoma teen beat the game by defeating level after level until he reached the “kill screen” – that is, the moment when the Tetris artificial intelligence taps out in exhaustion, stopping play because its designers never wrote the code to advance further. Before Gibson, the only other player to overcome the game’s AI was <a href="https://gamerant.com/ai-plays-tetris-so-well-it-breaks-the-game/">another AI</a>. </p>
<p>For any parent who has despaired over their children sinking countless hours into video games, Gibson’s victory over the <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/mathematicians-prove-tetr/">cruel geometry</a> of Tetris stands as a bracing corrective. </p>
<p>Despite the stereotypes, most gamers are anything but lazy. And they’re anything but mindless. </p>
<p>The world’s top players can sometimes serve as reminders of the best in us, with memorable achievements that range from the heroic to the inscrutably weird.</p>
<h2>The perfect run</h2>
<p>“<a href="https://www.thegamer.com/games-with-big-speedrunning-communities/#fallout-new-vegas">Speedrunning</a>” is a popular gaming subculture in which players meticulously optimize routes and exploit glitches to complete, in a matter of minutes, games that normally take hours, from the tightly constrained, run-and-gun action game <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FfD4Ims198">Cuphead</a> to the sprawling role-playing epic <a href="https://esi.si.com/speedrunning/baldurs-gate-3-world-record-speedrun">Baldur’s Gate 3</a>.</p>
<p>In top-level competition, speedrunners strive to match the time of what’s referred to as a “TAS,” or “tool-assisted speed run.” To figure out the TAS time, players use game emulators to choreograph a theoretically perfect playthrough, advancing the game one frame at a time to determine the fastest possible time. </p>
<p>Success requires punishing precision, flawless execution and years of training.</p>
<p>The major speedrunning milestones are, like Olympic races, marked by mere fractions of a second. The urge to speedrun likely sprouts from an innate human longing for perfection – and a uniquely 21st century compulsion to best the robots.</p>
<p>A Twitch streamer who goes by the username Niftski is currently the human who has come closest to achieving this androidlike perfection. His 4-minute, 54.631-second <a href="https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2023/09/record-breaking-super-mario-bros-speedrun-approaches-robotic-perfection/?comments=1&comments-page=1">world-record speedrun</a> of Super Mario Bros. – achieved in September 2023 – is just 0.35 seconds shy of a flawless TAS. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Khu9BB2g4Ks">Watching Niftski’s now-famous run</a> is a dissonant experience. Goofy, retro, 8-bit Mario jumps imperturbably over goombas and koopa troopas with the iconic, cheerful “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37-paiEz0mQ">boink</a>” sound of his hop. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, Niftski pants as his anxiety builds, his heart rate – tracked on screen during the livestream – peaking at 188 beats per minute.</p>
<p>When Mario bounces over the final big turtle at the finish line – “boink” – Niftski erupts into screams of shock and repeated cries of “Oh my God!” </p>
<p>He hyperventilates, struggles for oxygen and finally sobs from exhaustion and joy.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Khu9BB2g4Ks?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Twitch streamer Niftski’s record speedrun of Super Mario Bros. missed perfection by 0.35 seconds.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The largest world and its longest pig ride</h2>
<p>This list couldn’t be complete without an achievement from Minecraft, the revolutionary video game that has become the <a href="https://www.ign.com/articles/best-selling-video-games-of-all-time-grand-theft-auto-minecraft-tetris">second-best-selling title in history</a>, with over 300 million copies sold – second only to Tetris’ 520 million units. </p>
<p>Minecraft populates the video game libraries of grade-schoolers and has been used as an educational tool in <a href="https://education.minecraft.net/en-us/blog/university-students-learn-to-communicate--create--and-collaborate-with-3d-gaming-software">university classrooms</a>. Even the <a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/events/masterpieces-minecraft">British Museum</a> has held an exhibition devoted to the game.</p>
<p>Minecraft is known as a sandbox game, which means that gamers can create and explore their own virtual worlds, limited only by their imagination and a few simple tools and resources – like buckets and sand, or, in the case of Minecraft, pickaxes and stone. </p>
<p>So what can you do in the Minecraft playground? </p>
<p>Well, you can ride on a pig. The Guinness Book of World Records marks the farthest distance at <a href="https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2015/10/stephen-daultrey-our-gamers-edition-editor-shares-his-favourite-records-from-th-400538">414 miles</a>. Or you can collect sunflowers. The world record for that is <a href="https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/590304-most-sunflowers-picked-in-one-minute-in-the-sunflower-field-in-minecraft-conso#:%7E:text=The%20most%20sunflowers%20picked%20in,Records%20event%20at%20WAFI%20Mall.">89 in one minute</a>. Or you can dig a tunnel – but you’ll need to make it <a href="https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/627501-longest-minecraft-tunnel-made-in-survival-mode#:%7E:text=The%20longest%20Minecraft%20tunnel%20made,China%2C%20on%201%20February%202023.">100,001 blocks long</a> to edge out the current record. </p>
<p>My personal favorite is a collective, ongoing effort: a sprawling, global collaboration to <a href="https://buildtheearth.net/">recreate the world on a 1:1 scale</a> using Minecraft blocks, with blocks counting as one cubic meter. </p>
<p>At their best, sandbox games like Minecraft can bring people closer to the joyful and healthily pointless play of childhood – a restorative escape from the anxious, utility-driven planning that dominates so much of adulthood.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Popular YouTuber MrBeast contributes to ‘Build the Earth’ by constructing a Minecraft replica of Raleigh, N.C.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The galaxy’s greatest collaboration</h2>
<p>The Halo 3 gaming community participated in a bloodier version of the collective effort of Minecraft players. </p>
<p>The game, which pits humans against an alien alliance known as the Covenant, was released in 2007 to much fanfare.</p>
<p>Whether they were playing the single-player campaign mode or the online multiplayer mode, gamers around the world started seeing themselves as imaginary participants in a global cause to save humanity – in what came to be known as the “Great War.”</p>
<p>They organized round-the-clock campaign shifts, while sharing strategies in nearly 6,000 Halo wiki articles and 21 million online discussion posts. </p>
<p>Halo developer Bungie started tracking total alien deaths by all players, with the <a href="https://www.ign.com/articles/2009/04/14/halo-3-hits-10-billion-kills">10 billion milestone</a> reached in April 2009.</p>
<p>Game designer Jane McGonigal <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIhruoUvf80">recalls with awe</a> the community effort that went into that Great War, citing it as a transcendent example of the fundamental human desire to work together and to become a part of something bigger than the self. </p>
<p>Bungie maintained a collective history of the Great War in the form of “personal service records” that memorialized each player’s contributions – medals, battle statistics, campaign maps and more. </p>
<p>The archive beggars comprehension: According to Bungie, its servers handled 1.4 petabytes of data requests by players in one nine-month stretch. McGonigal notes, by way of comparison, that everything ever written by humans in all of recorded history amounts to <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/305501/reality-is-broken-by-jane-mcgonigal/">50 petabytes of data</a>.</p>
<h2>Gamification versus gameful design</h2>
<p>If you’re mystified by the behavior of these gamers, you’re not alone. </p>
<p>Over the past decade, researchers across a range of fields have marveled at the dedication of gamers like Gibson and Niftski, who commit themselves without complaint to what some might see as punishing, pointless and physically grueling labor.</p>
<p>How could this level of dedication be applied to more “productive” endeavors, they wondered, like <a href="https://academictech.uchicago.edu/2021/11/23/introduction-to-the-use-of-gamification-in-higher-education-part-1/">education</a>, <a href="https://www.kofax.com/learn/blog/the-uses-and-benefits-of-gamification-in-tax">taxes</a> or <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-07626-3_70">exercise</a>?</p>
<p>From this research, <a href="https://gamification-europe.com/">an industry centered on the “gamification”</a> of work, life and learning emerged. It giddily promised to change people’s behaviors through the use of extrinsic motivators borrowed from the gaming community: badges, achievements, community scorekeeping. </p>
<p>The concept caught fire, spreading everywhere from <a href="https://ojs.southfloridapublishing.com/ojs/index.php/jdev/article/view/150">early childhood education</a> to the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2023/03/29/features-and-steps-for-gamification-in-the-food-retail-industry/?sh=381f32593956">fast-food industry</a>.</p>
<p>Many game designers have <a href="https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/persuasive-games-exploitationware">reacted to this trend</a> like Robert Oppenheimer at the close of the eponymous movie – aghast that their beautiful work was used, for instance, to <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/90260703/the-dark-side-of-gamifying-work">pressure Disneyland Resort</a> laborers to load laundry and press linens at anxiously hectic speeds.</p>
<p>Arguing that the gamification trend misses entirely the magic of gaming, game designers have instead started promoting the concept of “<a href="https://www.wssu.edu/profiles/dichevc/cit-2014-dichev.pdf">gameful design</a>.” Where gamification focuses on useful outcomes, gameful design focuses on fulfilling experiences.</p>
<p>Gameful design prioritizes intrinsic motivation over extrinsic incentives. It embraces design elements that promote social connection, creativity, a sense of <a href="https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/community-health/patient-care/self-determination-theory.aspx">autonomy</a> – and, ultimately, <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/mihaly_csikszentmihalyi_flow_the_secret_to_happiness?language=en">the sheer joy of mastery</a>.</p>
<p>When I think of Niftski’s meltdown after his record speedrun – and Gibson’s, who also began hyperventilating in shock and almost passed out – I think of my own children. </p>
<p>I wish for them such moments of ecstatic, prideful accomplishment in a world that sometimes seems starved of joy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220620/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Dawes does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Whether they’re heroic or inscrutably weird, video game records reveal a lot about play, cooperation and the drive for perfection.James Dawes, Professor of English, Macalester CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2203422024-01-08T16:56:38Z2024-01-08T16:56:38ZWhy you shouldn’t let guilt motivate you to exercise<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568181/original/file-20240108-17-rohiaz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C17%2C5934%2C3944&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Using guilt and self-pressure may make you less likely to work out overall.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/frustrated-female-runner-sitting-down-hand-1065048539">KieferPix/ Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The hardest part of consistently exercising is finding the motivation to do it. But using the wrong type of motivation for your workouts could militate against you – and could even have consequences for your mental health. </p>
<p>Our research, which <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02640414.2022.2042124">investigated the motivations</a> of 650 frequent exercisers, found that people who believed things like “I am a loser if I do not succeed in things that matter to me” and “I have to be viewed favourably by people that matter to me” were more likely to use self-pressure and wanting to avoid guilt as motivation to exercise. </p>
<p>Not only was this group more likely to not want to exercise at all, we also found that those who used guilt and self-pressure as motivation were at greater risk of experiencing poor mental health.</p>
<p>The tendency to hold dogmatic beliefs like “I must” or “I have to”, and harmful beliefs about yourself creates a negative and <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10413200.2018.1446472?casa_token=ObBghnn3ab4AAAAA%3ATpiEvunYBqKbIqI2_kuC5fM2zMvhhYLP72TVplW3Noc4PYhQUaMBkq1pEabaXXid0hwnE3R5kNYvnA">unhealthy approach to exercise</a>. </p>
<p>But the darker side of this mindset is that people who held these beliefs reported higher symptoms of anxiety, depression and stress compared with exercisers who didn’t use self-pressure and guilt as motivation. </p>
<p>While it’s possible that people already experiencing poor mental health would be more likely to have negative beliefs about themselves, there’s a deeply reciprocal relationship between mental health and how we think and act.</p>
<p>Research shows that extreme, rigid, negative ways of thinking are <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26609889/">risk factors for mental health problems</a>. Repeating negative thoughts many times, over many years, can lead to deep self-loathing which can corrode your <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2019-59628-001">mental health</a> and leave you in a continuous state of <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/02640414.2022.2042124">stress and depression</a>. It can also make you even less likely to positively change your thinking and <a href="https://journals.humankinetics.com/view/journals/tsp/8/3/article-p248.xml">exercise habits</a>.</p>
<p>On the other hand, our study found that people who reported lower symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress had significantly less extreme, rigid and negative ways of thinking. These participants were less likely to endorse ways of thinking that involved self-demands (“I must”), magnification (“things are awful”), and self-condemnation (“I am a failure”). </p>
<p>These exercisers reported using more useful forms of motivation to workout, such as exercising because they loved the activity and recognised the value and importance of exercise as a part of their identity. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A group of two men and two women run together in a park." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568182/original/file-20240108-21-8fuupt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568182/original/file-20240108-21-8fuupt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568182/original/file-20240108-21-8fuupt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568182/original/file-20240108-21-8fuupt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568182/original/file-20240108-21-8fuupt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568182/original/file-20240108-21-8fuupt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568182/original/file-20240108-21-8fuupt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The right mindset is key.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/healthy-group-multiethnic-middle-aged-men-1999270208">Ground Picture/ Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These findings show us just how important the thoughts you use to motivate your workouts can be, especially when it comes to your mental health. </p>
<p>One solution to these ways of thinking is a psychological approach called <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01423/full">rational emotive behaviour therapy</a> (REBT). REBT aims to understand and challenge deeply held beliefs and develop helpful alternatives. This approach may help an exerciser go from “I have to exercise” and “I’d be worthless if I didn’t exercise” to thinking “I really want to exercise, but if I didn’t exercise, I would be disappointed, but I would not be worthless.” </p>
<p>Improving a person’s beliefs about exercise can change their motivation from being centred on self-pressure and guilt to seeing the value and potential enjoyment in working out.</p>
<p>There are many <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rational-Practitioner-Performance-Psychologists-Practicing/dp/1032060409">ideas and tools</a> we can apply from REBT even without having to step foot inside a psychologist’s office. So if you find yourself falling into this cycle of self-loathing and losing motivation to exercise, here’s what you can do.</p>
<h2>Think critically about your thinking</h2>
<p>When you think about exercising, are your thoughts negative, unhelpful and self-pressuring? Be more critical of your thoughts about exercise, and ask yourself whether they make sense – and if they’re helping you. </p>
<p>If the answer is no, try to work on adopting thoughts that do make sense and help you achieve your exercise goals, such as seeing exercise as something to enjoy, instead of something you have to do out of guilt. Being able to challenge your own unhelpful beliefs, and learning to harness more helpful ones, can help you <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/sms.12926?casa_token=fbVymZ3SxrAAAAAA:SiNRAlz0Xh11xbeWDUtxjwlP40gDfurptgas5SSHYLtLD9v06uLm8ztlTvi1AnwTSvTReT_u-fdgiJ0h">achieve your goals</a>.</p>
<h2>Realise you’re not what you do</h2>
<p>As human beings, we’re imperfect. We mess up – but we also do great things. When things don’t go to plan, it’s important to try and accept this. And remember that failing doesn’t mean you’re a failure. </p>
<p>Realise that you aren’t <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1469029222001662">defined by your shortcomings</a>. Recognising that failing does not make you a failure may help you better bounce back from times when you fall short of your goals and expectations and keep on track with reaching your goals and finding solutions.</p>
<h2>Harness the power of want</h2>
<p>You’re far more likely to stick to your exercise goals if you <a href="https://selfdeterminationtheory.org/SDT/documents/1997_RyanFrederickLepesRubioSheldon.pdf">want to do them</a>. Find an activity that offers you something more than just exercise. Perhaps join an exercise group where you can make new friends or rekindle your passion for something you used to do. </p>
<p>If you’re only exercising because you believe you have to or to avoid guilt, then you probably won’t stick with it. Nobody likes to be pressured into doing difficult things. Finding an activity you don’t have to force yourself to do may help you move from seeing exercise as something you have to do to something you love to do.</p>
<p>Exercise is, of course, important, but guilting yourself into doing it will probably do more harm than good. The best way is by finding things you enjoy, accepting yourself unconditionally if your motivation does wane, and removing “have to” from your thoughts about exercise.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220342/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Using “I must” or “I have to” to motivate your workouts could be bad for your mental health.Martin J Turner, Reader in Psychology, Manchester Metropolitan UniversityAnthony Miller, Senior Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Psychology, Staffordshire UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2168702024-01-04T13:45:55Z2024-01-04T13:45:55ZFocus on right now, not the distant future, to stay motivated and on track to your long-term health goals<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564976/original/file-20231211-26-io2vdz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=342%2C201%2C6367%2C4265&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The fresh flavors taste good now – a here-and-now reward that's more motivating than potentially avoiding health problems in the future.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/fresh-fruit-salad-royalty-free-image/811628388">kajakiki/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s a familiar start-of-the-year scene. You’ve committed to a healthier lifestyle and are determined that this time is going to be different. Your refrigerator is stocked with fruits and veggies, you’ve tossed out processed foods, and your workout routine is written in pen in your daily planner.</p>
<p>Yet, as you head out one morning, the tantalizing aroma of fresh doughnuts wafts through the air. How can you resist the call of this sugary treat and stick with your healthy choices?</p>
<p>Conventional wisdom, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.106.1.3">grounded in years of research</a>, suggests that the best way to resist unhealthy choices is to think about the long-term consequences. For example, you could consider how the added sugar from eating too many doughnuts can lead to <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nutrition/data-statistics/added-sugars.html">diabetes and obesity</a>. Thinking about these long-term consequences, the argument goes, should help you avoid indulging right now and better stick to your goals. </p>
<p>However, in our <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=axoPTvwAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">combined 25 years of experience investigating</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ZJA5R0QAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">people’s self-control behavior and motivation</a>, we have learned that, in the heat of the moment, people often overlook distant outcomes, diminishing the effectiveness of strategies focused on the long term. </p>
<p>In response, we propose three approaches, backed by recent research, to help you stick to healthier habits.</p>
<h2>To resist temptation, think short term</h2>
<p>One strategy to avoid indulging is to consider the short-term consequences of unhealthy behavior. We tested this approach in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucad004">seven studies</a> with over 4,000 participants. </p>
<p>In one study, we invited university students to view one of two <a href="https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/what-is-a-public-service-announcement">public service announcements</a> detailing reasons to avoid energy drinks. One message emphasized long-term costs of drinking high-sugar energy drinks, such as diabetes and obesity. The other stressed short-term costs, such as anxiety and a sugar and caffeine crash.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/561685/original/file-20231126-23-8s8mzp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="two PSAs with similar graphic of a drink but different effects highlighted" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/561685/original/file-20231126-23-8s8mzp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/561685/original/file-20231126-23-8s8mzp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=362&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/561685/original/file-20231126-23-8s8mzp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=362&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/561685/original/file-20231126-23-8s8mzp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=362&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/561685/original/file-20231126-23-8s8mzp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=455&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/561685/original/file-20231126-23-8s8mzp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=455&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/561685/original/file-20231126-23-8s8mzp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=455&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">PSAs about unhealthy energy drinks: One highlights the long-term health costs, and the other highlights the short-term costs – 61.7% of participants chose the energy drink over another prize if they only saw the long-term PSA vs. 46.4% of participants who saw the short-term PSA.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lilia Fromm</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Students then had a choice between receiving an energy drink or another attractive prize. Those who read about the short-term costs were 25% less likely to choose the energy drink than those who read about the long-term costs.</p>
<p>In another study with a similar setup, participants read about either the short-term costs of eating sugar, the long-term costs of eating sugar, or they did not read about any downsides. Everyone then had to choose a delivery of cookies or a tote bag. Those who read about the short-term costs were 30% less likely to choose the cookies than those who read about the long-term costs and 45% less likely than those who didn’t read about any detriments to sugar.</p>
<p>We found that emphasizing short-term costs can also help you avoid other temptations. For alcohol, think about how excessive drinking can lead to poor sleep and hangovers. For fast food, think about how it can make you feel bloated or give you indigestion.</p>
<p>In our studies, immediate effects were a stronger motivator than long-term consequences that could take decades to occur. The takeaway is simple: To avoid indulging, think short term.</p>
<h2>Focus on the fun of healthy options</h2>
<p>Avoiding unhealthy foods is one thing. On the flip side, can you nudge yourself toward consuming more healthy foods? </p>
<p>Research that one of us (Kaitlin) conducted with behavioral scientist <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=-vIQsasAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Ayelet Fishbach</a> found that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucv098">prompting people to focus on the good taste</a> – rather than the health benefits – of foods such as apples and carrots increased consumption in the lab and the real world. These findings were independently replicated in an intervention at <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797619872191">five university dining halls</a> that used food labels focused on either tastiness or healthfulness.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564978/original/file-20231211-15-fr0nd4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="smiling man outside in jacket with small hand weights" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564978/original/file-20231211-15-fr0nd4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564978/original/file-20231211-15-fr0nd4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564978/original/file-20231211-15-fr0nd4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564978/original/file-20231211-15-fr0nd4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564978/original/file-20231211-15-fr0nd4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564978/original/file-20231211-15-fr0nd4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564978/original/file-20231211-15-fr0nd4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Picking a more enjoyable exercise routine can mean sticking with it longer.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/mature-african-american-man-exercising-royalty-free-image/991036038">kali9/E+ via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This strategy can also promote other healthy behaviors, such as exercise. In one study, Kaitlin asked gymgoers to choose a weightlifting workout from a list of similarly difficult routines. The participants who were instructed to select a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucv098">fun exercise completed more reps</a> than those told to pick an exercise most useful for their long-term fitness goals. </p>
<p>Immediate rewards that result from pursuing long-term goals improve your experience right now, although they often go unnoticed. For this reason, focusing on the immediate versus delayed benefits of behaviors such as healthy eating and exercise can increase <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000095">intrinsic motivation</a>, making a behavior feel like its own reward and resulting in the immersed-in-an-activity feeling called “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29742-2">flow</a>.”</p>
<h2>Timing the reward sweet spot</h2>
<p>Starting healthy behaviors is one important piece of the puzzle; another is sticking with these behaviors over time. One strategy for persistence is to use rewards to stay committed.</p>
<p>Research led by marketing professor <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=VNKNZfMAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Marissa Sharif</a>, along with Kaitlin, involving over 5,000 people across eight experiments found that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucac007">small, regular rewards were more effective</a> for cultivating long-term commitment to healthy behavior such as exercising and flossing than were large, occasional rewards. Think watching 20 minutes of a guilty pleasure TV show each day you work out, rather than waiting to the end of the week to watch 80 minutes of TV to reward yourself for those four workouts.</p>
<p>But there’s a twist: Rewarding yourself too early may backfire. It seems rewards are most effective when people have to work to unlock them, after which they become regular. In other words, putting in initial effort while not being rewarded, followed by small, continual perks, is the most effective way to structure rewards.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564981/original/file-20231211-25-3gd4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="calendar with red X's crossing off days and one date circled" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564981/original/file-20231211-25-3gd4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564981/original/file-20231211-25-3gd4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564981/original/file-20231211-25-3gd4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564981/original/file-20231211-25-3gd4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564981/original/file-20231211-25-3gd4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564981/original/file-20231211-25-3gd4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564981/original/file-20231211-25-3gd4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rewards are less effective when they’re set too far off in the future.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/deadline-royalty-free-image/172704039">JLGutierrez/E+ via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In a study on exercise, Marissa and Kaitlin followed exercisers as they engaged in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucac007">four initial workouts that came with no rewards</a>. Then a work-to-unlock-rewards group began to receive small, continual rewards for each subsequent workout. They ended up persisting longer and completing more workouts than people in a lump-sum group who received a larger, occasional reward for every four workouts they finished.</p>
<p>A similar effect was evident in a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucac007">12-day study on tooth flossing</a>. People in the work-to-unlock-rewards group – three days of flossing without rewards followed by daily rewards – flossed for more days than those who received continual rewards right way. Those who had to commit extra effort to unlock the rewards flossed 15% more days.</p>
<p>These studies suggest people can strategically incorporate rewards – with a short initial period without any rewards – into their routine to help them stick with healthy behaviors over time.</p>
<h2>Resistance, enjoyment and persistence</h2>
<p>Our research highlights three effective strategies to help you achieve your goals: prioritizing short-term consequences to resist temptation, finding enjoyment in long-term choices, and continually rewarding yourself for sustained persistence.</p>
<p>What’s great about these strategies is that you can adapt them to any personal goal you hold. For instance, if you’re finding it hard to swap social media for a book, consider reflecting on negative short-term consequences of endless scrolling. Or if carving out time for relaxation feels like a challenge, focus on the immediate benefits of engaging in meditative exercises.</p>
<p>By incorporating these evidence-based approaches, you can empower yourself to follow through on your long-term goals.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216870/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Long-term goals can be hard to stick to if the benefits are only way off in the future. Research suggests ways to focus on the here and now to help you ultimately achieve your more far-off targets.Kaitlin Woolley, Associate Professor of Marketing, Cornell UniversityPaul Stillman, Assistant Professor of Marketing, San Diego State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2191982023-12-26T19:41:19Z2023-12-26T19:41:19ZKeeping a streak alive can be strong motivation to stick with a chosen activity<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566590/original/file-20231219-17-i2u80d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1379%2C248%2C3881%2C2980&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Neither rain, nor snow, nor sleet, nor hail shall keep a streaker from their self-appointed activity.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/athletic-man-jogging-in-extreme-weather-condition-royalty-free-image/1184153812">janiecbros/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://ftw.usatoday.com/2013/06/alabama-fan-attended-781-consecutive-games-before-passing-away">Dick Coffee</a> attended 781 consecutive University of Alabama football games. <a href="https://www.mensjournal.com/adventure/meg-roh-celebrates-7-years-of-surfing-every-day-by-going-surfing">Meg Roh</a> surfed through illness, storms and nightfall to maintain a seven-year daily surfing streak. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/01/sports/running-streak-rise.html">Jon Sutherland</a> ran at least 1 mile every day for over 52 years. </p>
<p>An activity streak has the power to compel behavior, and marketers have taken note. Marketing researchers <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=irJyTtAAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Jackie Silverman</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Lb3D24EAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Alixandra Barasch</a> recently documented 101 unique instances, including Snapchat, Candy Crush Saga, Wordle and the Duolingo language learning platform, of apps that have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucac029">incorporated streaks into their architecture</a> by tracking the number of consecutive days users complete a task. There are even <a href="https://www.thestreakingapp.com/">apps dedicated solely to tracking streaks</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566406/original/file-20231218-15-fcjdpq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="statistics for wins and streak with a guess distribution chart" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566406/original/file-20231218-15-fcjdpq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566406/original/file-20231218-15-fcjdpq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=310&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566406/original/file-20231218-15-fcjdpq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=310&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566406/original/file-20231218-15-fcjdpq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=310&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566406/original/file-20231218-15-fcjdpq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566406/original/file-20231218-15-fcjdpq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566406/original/file-20231218-15-fcjdpq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">One user’s Wordle streak of more than a month’s worth of wins.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Screenshot from Wordle on New York Times</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What is it about streaks that makes them so compelling? <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=5yNBAfIAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">I’m interested in consumer behavior and decision making</a>. For insight into streaks and their motivating influence, I conducted research, recently <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-023-00944-4">published in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science</a>, on the phenomenon.</p>
<h2>What is a streak?</h2>
<p>Because there’s no generally accepted definition of what a streak is, I started by trying to define the phenomenon. Based on input from people maintaining streaks and how streaks are described in the popular media, I suggest they have four underlying characteristics.</p>
<p>First, streaks require unchanging performance and temporal parameters. In other words, rules, established by the streaker or others, define what it means to successfully complete the activity and the schedule for doing so. For example, a streak may involve completing a session of 50 pushups every calendar day.</p>
<p>Second, the streak-holder largely attributes completing the activity to his or her resolve.</p>
<p>Third, a streak is a series of the same completed activity that the person maintaining the streak considers to be uninterrupted.</p>
<p>Fourth, the streaker quantifies the series’ duration. For instance, a streak-holder can tell you exactly how many consecutive workdays they’ve biked in to the office, or they can tell you the precise date the streak began.</p>
<p>This definition distinguishes an activity streak from winning streaks and lucky streaks. Unlike activity streaks, winning streaks depend on the performance of others – an opponent – while lucky streaks involve outcomes that are not under the control of the person executing the streak.</p>
<p>My definition also highlights that streaks are perceptual. Some people who have completed an objectively uninterrupted series of an activity may not view that as a streak. Others who have not completed the activity every time the opportunity arises may believe they have a streak.</p>
<h2>Is it a streak, habit or collection?</h2>
<p>People often engage in behavior patterns, or a recurring way of acting in a given situation. A streak is a form of patterned behavior, but there are others. Most people have habits, which are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.1998.tb01681.x">reflexlike and triggered by the context</a>. For example, many people mindlessly fasten their seat belts upon getting in a car.</p>
<p>That automatic aspect sets a habit apart from a streak. A streak often requires the actor to have a strategy for completing the activity <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/1252098">in various situations or contexts</a>. For example, someone with a streak of running at least 1 mile every calendar day may need to carefully plan a run when traveling across time zones.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566591/original/file-20231219-27-q90dyb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="man looking anxiously out airplane window" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566591/original/file-20231219-27-q90dyb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566591/original/file-20231219-27-q90dyb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566591/original/file-20231219-27-q90dyb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566591/original/file-20231219-27-q90dyb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566591/original/file-20231219-27-q90dyb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566591/original/file-20231219-27-q90dyb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566591/original/file-20231219-27-q90dyb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A streaker can get stressed when circumstances outside their control prevent them from doing the activity.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/scared-male-passenger-looking-out-the-window-of-an-royalty-free-image/1439979538">urbazon/E+ via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While developing a habit may be appealing because it <a href="https://www.springerprofessional.de/en/customer-inertia-marketing/18347036">minimizes thinking</a>, I discovered that the challenge of finding a way to complete the behavior can motivate many streak-holders.</p>
<p>Failing to perform a habitual behavior on occasion will have little impact on the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.114.4.843">likelihood of the person performing the behavior in the future</a>. Conversely, failing to perform a behavior that is part of a streak ends the streak.</p>
<p>For some people, ending a streak discouraged the behavior in the future: “The streak is over. Why bother?” For others, it hardened their resolve: “The streak is over. I’ve got to start another streak as soon as possible.”</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/0167-4870(95)98956-X">Creating a collection</a> is another form of patterned behavior. Collections typically involve dissimilar objects connected by a common meaning. For example, Jay Leno is known for his <a href="https://cars.usnews.com/cars-trucks/features/jay-lenos-car-collection">collection of antique and exotic cars</a>. But unlike a streak, a collection does not end if someone fails to add to it every time the opportunity arises. I found that a collection of experiences or stories is often a byproduct of maintaining a streak. </p>
<h2>Why do streaks motivate behavior?</h2>
<p>By tapping into various psychological drivers of behavior, streaks can motivate people in several ways.</p>
<p>In general, a streak adds a higher-level goal (keeping the streak alive) to a lower-level goal (completing an individual activity). Streaks also add structure to an activity, and structure can <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.65.1.113">simplify thinking and decision making</a>. The extent to which goal achievement or structure is important to you would influence your commitment to a streak.</p>
<p>I also found the way a streak is structured can affect the streak-holder’s commitment to it. For example, a streak of meditating at least 20 minutes each day may be more appealing, and lead to more commitment, than a streak of meditating at least 140 minutes each week. While the amount of meditating is the same in both cases, a daily streak adds structure, thus simplifying decision making, and encourages the person to regularly engage in a beneficial behavior.</p>
<p>Streaks can serve to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s12599-013-0273-5">gamify</a> the underlying activity by <a href="https://theconversation.com/gamification-harnesses-the-power-of-games-to-motivate-37320">creating rules and quantifying the outcome</a>, and many people enjoy the challenge of a game.</p>
<p>Finally, I found that activities that are more relevant to one’s identity are more likely to generate commitment to a streak. If someone identifies as religious, a daily streak of praying may be more appealing than a daily streak of playing Wordle because a praying streak can provide a way of demonstrating one’s desired identity to others.</p>
<p>While streaks can compel behavior, they do not motivate all people for all situations. They can even have the opposite effect. Some people are turned off by the prospect of a streak because they’re concerned about being obligated to it, as reflected in the <a href="https://www.runeveryday.com/news/archive/newsletterV17N4.pdf">comments of a former streak runner</a>: “I realized that, if I let it, the streak could become a ‘thing’ that controlled my life, my travel, and those around me.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566593/original/file-20231219-15-e39aqx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="January calendar page with 'Let's go!' sticky note on the first of the month" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566593/original/file-20231219-15-e39aqx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566593/original/file-20231219-15-e39aqx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566593/original/file-20231219-15-e39aqx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566593/original/file-20231219-15-e39aqx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566593/original/file-20231219-15-e39aqx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566593/original/file-20231219-15-e39aqx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566593/original/file-20231219-15-e39aqx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A new page on the calendar can feel like it offers a fresh start.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/calendar-indicating-lets-go-on-1st-january-royalty-free-image/1080219424">Isabel Pavia/Moment via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Streaks and the new year</h2>
<p>As the calendar turns to a new year, many people resolve to engage in self-improving behaviors that facilitate better mental or physical health. People often begin streaks on Jan. 1 or other important dates, such as holidays, birthdays or anniversaries of noteworthy events. Such temporal landmarks add meaning and structure to the streak and create a “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2014.1901">fresh start effect</a>.”</p>
<p>While many people make New Year’s resolutions, <a href="https://fisher.osu.edu/blogs/leadreadtoday/why-most-new-years-resolutions-fail#:%7E:text=Researchers%20suggest%20that%20only%209,fail%20at%20New%20Year's%20resolutions.">only a small percentage of people complete them</a>. My research suggests that structuring a resolution as a streak may be the nudge that some people need to stick with it further into the new year – and maybe far beyond.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219198/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Danny Weathers does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A streak can motivate you to keep on keeping on with behaviors ranging from praying to running to sharing pictures on social media. Here’s what goes into making them so compelling.Danny Weathers, Professor of Marketing, Clemson UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2135912023-09-22T11:51:05Z2023-09-22T11:51:05ZSeven tips for using the back-to-school mindset to help you stick to your goals<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/549553/original/file-20230921-28-47ft6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5615%2C3732&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The back-to-school period is one of many temporal landmarks you can find throughout the year.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/runner-caucasian-woman-jogging-autumn-park-328341206">chesterf/ Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Even if it’s been many years since you were last in school, you might still associate this time of year with that “back-to-school” mindset – that feeling of a page turning, a new phase beginning and the chance to start anew and reinvent yourself.</p>
<p>While you won’t find any research on the “back-to-school mindset” itself, this feeling is very similar to what science calls the “<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2014.1901">fresh start effect</a>”. This is a boost in motivation for change that comes with a shift from one time in your life to another – called a temporal landmark. The beginning of a new school year, birthdays, anniversaries and even Monday mornings are all temporal landmarks.</p>
<p>Temporal landmarks support our belief that we can reinvent ourselves, acting as a threshold to a new start and the chance to leave old habits behind. These landmarks <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2014.1901">open our minds up</a> to novelty and the possibility of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0133254">seeing the bigger picture</a> – rather than being mired in our daily slog. </p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Quarter life, a series by The Conversation" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em><strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/quarter-life-117947?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=UK+YP2022&utm_content=InArticleTop">This article is part of Quarter Life</a></strong>, a series about issues affecting those of us in our twenties and thirties. From the challenges of beginning a career and taking care of our mental health, to the excitement of starting a family, adopting a pet or just making friends as an adult. The articles in this series explore the questions and bring answers as we navigate this turbulent period of life.</em></p>
<p><em>You may be interested in:</em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-motivate-yourself-to-learn-a-language-210341?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=UK+YP2022&utm_content=InArticleTop">How to motivate yourself to learn a language</a></em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/why-its-so-difficult-to-figure-out-what-to-do-with-your-life-and-three-steps-to-take-209266?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=UK+YP2022&utm_content=InArticleTop">Why it’s so difficult to figure out what to do with your life – and three steps to take</a></em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/four-ways-to-have-hard-conversations-with-your-friends-without-making-things-worse-207675?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=UK+YP2022&utm_content=InArticleTop">Four ways to have hard conversations with your friends – without making things worse</a></em></p>
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<p>New Year’s Eve is our most well-known marker for fresh starts. But as many of us know, new year’s resolutions <a href="https://openventio.org/wp-content/uploads/How-to-Make-Your-New-Year%E2%80%99s-Resolutions-Work-SBRPOJ-4-119.pdf">often don’t work</a> when it comes to making <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0899-3289(88)80016-6">lasting lifestyle changes</a>. </p>
<p>This is because resolutions tend to lack specificity, are too ambitious, last too long, or people don’t make necessary changes in their environment to <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/0022-3514.88.6.918">support behaviour change</a> (such as finding new hobbies to do on weekends instead of going to the pub if you’re trying to drink less). Feeling you have to make a new year’s resolution can also <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0306460389900506">lead to failure</a>.</p>
<p>But other temporal landmarks tend to better support changes, not just in ourselves but in our environment too. The new school year, for example, often means a change of routine, but also a change in the clothes we wear and the people we socialise with. All these subtle changes may work together to support your motivation when making a new start.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A group of university students talk with each other about their coursework." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/549554/original/file-20230921-19-ilm2fd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/549554/original/file-20230921-19-ilm2fd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549554/original/file-20230921-19-ilm2fd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549554/original/file-20230921-19-ilm2fd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549554/original/file-20230921-19-ilm2fd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549554/original/file-20230921-19-ilm2fd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549554/original/file-20230921-19-ilm2fd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">We associate the back-to-school period with many changes – including new routines and meeting new people.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/classmate-classroom-sharing-international-friend-concept-408849511">Rawpixel.com/ Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Our brains <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.124.3.423">love novelty</a> and there’s nothing better than a chance to leave behind the “the treadmill of the predictable everyday flow” of our lives and have a new period to look forward to. This makes motivation easier to come by as it offers a chance to <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cb.2155">change our circumstances</a>.</p>
<p>While this change in routine can be nerve-wracking, it might be the kind of interruption needed to <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jcr/article-abstract/35/4/640/1806395?redirectedFrom=fulltext">shift how we think</a> and visualise how we can achieve our goals. </p>
<p>The back-to-school period offers the perfect chance to kick-start any life changes you’ve been meaning to make. Here are a few ways to make sure your goals don’t fail:</p>
<h2>1. Write to your future self</h2>
<p>Set timers to send yourself aspirational reminders of your goals to <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300262285/nudge/">gently nudge</a> yourself towards achieving your goals. If you’re trying to save more money, for example, setting a reminder to set aside some cash via an email that appears in your inbox on payday may help give you this much-needed nudge. </p>
<h2>2. Don’t worry if you falter</h2>
<p>It can be hard to make big changes and build new habits. Even if you don’t succeed in sticking with your changes at first, there are plenty of other temporal landmarks you can find throughout the year that offer a chance for a fresh start (such as your birthday or returning to work after a holiday). Even the smallest period of change offers a chance to make <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.57.9.677">positive lifestyle changes</a>. </p>
<h2>3. Quick wins</h2>
<p>The motivation and energy provided by a fresh start can often be short-lived. But having <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/systems8040055">quick-win goals</a> that require only small boosts in motivation are the perfect ones to set for yourself during these transition periods. This can include things such as decluttering your room or deleting your most addictive social media app.</p>
<h2>4. Put your imperfections behind you</h2>
<p>Instead of focusing on who you are now, put your attention on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/a0030477">the person you want to be</a> – and use this as motivation to make change. Focusing on who you want to be in the future may also help you <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0956797615605818">leave your imperfections in the past</a>.</p>
<h2>5. Set a deadline</h2>
<p>Temporal landmarks are great because they provide natural structure and flow to our lives. Not only can you use temporal landmarks to start working towards a goal, upcoming temporal landmarks can also act as a way of bringing a <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2014.1901">natural urgency</a> to accomplishing our goals.</p>
<h2>6. Avoid the slump</h2>
<p>Motivation fluctuates over time. We usually have high motivation when we first set a goal, and high motivation as we get close to achieving it. But the period in the middle tends to be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/a0025928">low in motivation</a> – and the longer the period, the harder it is to maintain our resolve. If you want to make the best of the back-to-school mindset, shorten the period of time you want to achieve your goal. This can even be as short as one week or even just one day at a time.</p>
<h2>7. Pair the good with the bad</h2>
<p>“<a href="https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2013.1784">Temptation bundling</a>” is the practise of pairing something you love with something you’re less enthusiastic about (but know you should do). By pairing these behaviours together, it wires them together in your brain – motivating you to keep working on the thing you may not enjoy as much in the future. </p>
<p>Let’s say you want to exercise more often, for example. Saving an episode of your favourite podcast until you workout may help you feel more motivated to exercise, as you’ll now associate the gym with your favourite podcast.</p>
<p>Making any lifestyle change is hard – but the back-to-school mindset that accompanies the transition from summer into autumn offers a great opportunity to make these changes.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213591/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Trudy Meehan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The ‘fresh start effect’ explains why the beginning of a new school year often leads to a boost in motivation – even if you aren’t a student.Trudy Meehan, Lecturer, Centre for Positive Psychology and Health, RCSI University of Medicine and Health SciencesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2102292023-08-15T12:35:07Z2023-08-15T12:35:07ZDaily report cards can decrease disruptions for children with ADHD<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542161/original/file-20230810-23-1fhmc8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Students with ADHD who get a daily report card had 4.5 fewer rule violations per 30-minute class than those without one, one study found.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/father-looking-very-happy-looking-at-his-daughters-royalty-free-image/1389796720">Hispanolistic/E+ Collection/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As another school year approaches, some caregivers, students and teachers may be feeling something new needs to happen to promote success in the classroom. </p>
<p>Daily report cards can be a great starting point.</p>
<p>As a clinical psychologist who studies <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=BRXERkMAAAAJ&hl=en">how schools can help students with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder</a>, I know traditional report cards distributed three or four times per year don’t do enough to make a difference for children who are prone to outbursts or other challenging behaviors. </p>
<p>Studies <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0014402917706370">conducted by my team</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1087054717734646">and others</a> support the idea that these students are better served by <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02796015.2010.12087748">daily report cards</a>. </p>
<h2>Track daily progress</h2>
<p>Daily report cards date back at least to the 1960s, when they were used in a study involving children attending a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1901/jaba.1970.3-223">special education summer school</a>. </p>
<p>Today they are commonly used for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0014402917706370">children with ADHD</a> in both <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s12310-020-09375-w">general education</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02796015.2010.12087775">special education</a> classrooms. Daily report cards have also been used for <a href="https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED607134.pdf">students with autism</a> without intellectual disability. And one study found that many teachers say they use <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/10983007060080030601">versions of a daily report card</a> for brief periods to address behaviors across many different school situations.</p>
<p>A daily report card can be very <a href="https://ccf.fiu.edu/research/_assets/how_to_establish_a_school_drc.pdf">easy for teachers</a> to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10474412.2013.785182">create and use</a>, either with <a href="https://mygoalpal.fiu.edu">an app</a> or by developing them on their own. First, the teacher along with others – who may include the parents, principal, school psychologist or counselor, and even the child if appropriate – should meet to establish goals. Goals should be positively phrased, such as: “Completed work within time given” or “Participated in class discussions without interruption.” </p>
<p>Once set up, the daily report card can take just 10 seconds to complete. The time savings are significant when one considers the alternatives typically used in schools, such as repeated redirection or reprimanding, or sending the student to the principal’s office to be monitored.</p>
<p>Daily report cards also work. </p>
<p>A 2010 study evaluated children with ADHD where half had a daily report card and half did not. Those with the daily report card had an average of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02796015.2010.12087775">4.5 fewer rule violations</a> per 30-minute class than those without one. Extrapolating across a school day, that is 54 fewer daily rule violations on average, and over 10,000 per school year. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Example of a daily report card used in schools" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542048/original/file-20230810-25-k9dewx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542048/original/file-20230810-25-k9dewx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542048/original/file-20230810-25-k9dewx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542048/original/file-20230810-25-k9dewx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542048/original/file-20230810-25-k9dewx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542048/original/file-20230810-25-k9dewx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542048/original/file-20230810-25-k9dewx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An example of a daily report card.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Florida International University Center for Children and Families</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Realistic goals</h2>
<p>For many children with challenging behaviors, it is important to set goals that can be easily reached – at least at first. </p>
<p>Over time, the goals can be made more challenging as the child experiences success – a <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Behavior-Modification-What-It-Is-and-How-To-Do-It/Martin-Pear/p/book/9780815366546">process called shaping</a>. For example, if a child interrupts a lesson by calling out about five times per class, the initial goal may be set at “Participates in lesson with no more than four interruptions.” </p>
<p>This would represent an improvement, and it would also ensure the goal was reachable. Once the child met the goal for three to five days in a row, the goal could be changed to “Participates in lesson with no more than three interruptions.”</p>
<h2>Positive parent-teacher communications</h2>
<p>Teachers tend to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/spq0000442">communicate with caregivers more frequently</a> when a child is experiencing difficulties in the classroom. But these communications often focus on <a href="https://www.additudemag.com/mean-teacher-comments-adhd-students/">negative behaviors</a>. As a result, they can <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00131911.2019.1666794">strain relationships</a> between the caregiver and the teacher. Other times, it may result in the caregiver’s avoiding communication with the school. </p>
<p>Daily report cards can result in more positive and solution-focused communication instead of reports focusing only on what went wrong and can therefore enhance caregiver-teacher communication.</p>
<h2>Motivating rewards</h2>
<p>Importantly, the daily report card should be linked to home-based privileges and rewards so that children are motivated to meet daily goals.</p>
<p>At the end of the day, the child brings their daily report card home and, based on their behavior at school that day, home privileges such as an allotment of screen time or a slightly later bedtime can be used as rewards.</p>
<p>Importantly, this is not a punishment program in which a child loses privileges if goals are not met. It also is not bribing the child by providing a reward before an appropriate behavior is completed. Rather, the child starts the day without home privileges and earns them based on positive school behavior. The daily report card tells the child exactly what goals need to be met to earn the motivating privileges. This small difference can be quite powerful for the child because it puts them in charge of how they earn access to things they like to do at home based on how they behaved at school that day.</p>
<p>Evidence suggests this home-based reward system is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02796015.2010.12087775">one of the biggest factors</a> in whether the daily report card is successful. It also provides a new opportunity for the child and caregiver to have a positive discussion about school each day.</p>
<h2>Better than medication?</h2>
<p>There is also evidence that the daily report card is a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/15374416.2015.1055859">cost-effective approach</a> for children with ADHD as an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/15374416.2015.1105138">alternative to medication treatment</a>. </p>
<p>My colleagues and I conducted a study in which children with ADHD were randomly assigned to start the school year with either medication or a daily report card. The parents of those assigned the daily report cards took part in classes that taught them how to provide home rewards for it. At the end of the year, the students who started with the daily report card had half as many discipline referrals and 33% fewer disruptive behaviors observed in the classroom than the students receiving medication. The daily report card approach also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/15374416.2015.1055859">cost less than daily medication</a>. The students who started the school year with the daily report card had overall treatment costs of US$708 less than the students starting with medication.</p>
<p>Teachers and caregivers who want to learn more about daily reports cards can check out the <a href="https://ccf.fiu.edu/research/_assets/how_to_establish_a_school_drc.pdf">downloadable workbook</a> or <a href="https://mygoalpal.fiu.edu">free app</a> designed by my colleagues at Florida International University’s <a href="https://ccf.fiu.edu/">Center for Children and Families</a>. Both resources allow caregivers and teachers to set goals and track a student’s progress. Starting the school year with a daily report card should help the child achieve the positive days needed to get a good grade on their report card at the end of the grading period.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210229/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gregory Fabiano receives funding from the Department of Education and the National Institutes of Health to study positive behavioral supports like the Daily Report Card. Gregory Fabiano also receives royalties from Guilford Publications for a book written about Daily Report Cards.</span></em></p>Traditional report cards sent home every few months are fine for most students. But for kids with behavioral issues, a daily report card can be a better option.Gregory Fabiano, Professor of Psychology, Florida International UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2103412023-07-31T11:44:05Z2023-07-31T11:44:05ZHow to motivate yourself to learn a language<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539598/original/file-20230726-21-yg8dm9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=32%2C32%2C7156%2C4753&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/student-male-dark-skin-dressed-yellow-657724918">Cast Of Thousands/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Are you thinking about learning a language? Perhaps you’ve decided that it’s time to dust off your classroom French. Maybe you’re planning a trip to Japan and feel like you should make the effort to learn the basics, or work is sending you to the Cairo office for a year and you’ll need Arabic. </p>
<p>Learning a language is a hugely worthwhile endeavour, but two things are certain: it will take a while, and motivation will be crucial. </p>
<p>I <a href="https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/education/people/academic/abigail-parrish">research</a> language learners’ motivation, using what is known as <a href="https://selfdeterminationtheory.org/">self-determination theory</a> to measure motivation. This theory proposes that there is a <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-4899-2271-7">continuum of motivation</a>. </p>
<p>The continuum starts from the least motivated – “amotivation” – where you might resist doing a task, perhaps because you can’t see its value. The highest form of motivation is “intrinsic motivation”, which means you do something because you find it fun. </p>
<p>In between, along the continuum, there are different forms of motivation. Our motivation increases as we perceive the activity to be more and more aligned with our own beliefs and values. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Table showing feelings about doing a task" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539742/original/file-20230727-52806-n0i7kq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539742/original/file-20230727-52806-n0i7kq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=347&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539742/original/file-20230727-52806-n0i7kq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=347&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539742/original/file-20230727-52806-n0i7kq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=347&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539742/original/file-20230727-52806-n0i7kq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539742/original/file-20230727-52806-n0i7kq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539742/original/file-20230727-52806-n0i7kq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The continuum of motivation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Abigail Parrish</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Self-determination theory is <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0346251X22000434">increasingly popular</a> <a href="https://bgro.repository.guildhe.ac.uk/id/eprint/337/1/Parrish_Student%20motivation%20school_2018.pdf">among researchers</a> looking to <a href="http://selfdeterminationtheory.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/2017_Olga_Baldwin_et_al_Contemp_Educ_Psych.pdf">explore language learning</a>. It tells us that if you are learning a language because you think it’s important to you – because it fits with your beliefs and values – then you will want to do it. It’s not enough to know that language learning might be a good thing in the abstract; you need to find <a href="https://oasis-database.org/downloads/cz30ps65n?locale=en">personal relevance</a> in it.</p>
<p>You can try to build this motivation by setting yourself goals that revolve around <a href="https://selfdeterminationtheory.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/InPress_Al-HoorieEtAl_Self-DeterminationMini-Theories.pdf">connecting meaningfully</a> with others – such as improving your ability to communicate with friends, family or colleagues in their language. </p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Quarter life, a series by The Conversation" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption"></span>
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<p><em><strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/quarter-life-117947?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=UK+YP2022&utm_content=InArticleTop">This article is part of Quarter Life</a></strong>, a series about issues affecting those of us in our twenties and thirties. From the challenges of beginning a career and taking care of our mental health, to the excitement of starting a family, adopting a pet or just making friends as an adult. The articles in this series explore the questions and bring answers as we navigate this turbulent period of life.</em></p>
<p><em>You may be interested in:</em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/is-the-barefoot-boy-summer-trend-bad-for-your-feet-experts-explain-208901?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=UK+YP2022&utm_content=InArticleTop">Is the ‘barefoot-boy summer’ trend bad for your feet? Experts explain</a></em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-make-your-next-holiday-better-for-the-environment-203445?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=UK+YP2022&utm_content=InArticleTop">How to make your next holiday better for the environment</a></em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/treat-culture-why-indulging-in-small-affordable-pleasures-can-help-you-cope-with-tough-times-207957?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=UK+YP2022&utm_content=InArticleTop">Treat culture: why indulging in small, affordable pleasures can help you cope with tough times</a></em></p>
<hr>
<p>You are more likely to persevere and to do better if this is your motivation to learn, than if you are doing something for a more controlled, external reason, for example, because your boss expects it. It’s likely to make you <a href="https://scholarworks.uark.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5353&context=etd">feel happier</a>, too. </p>
<p>This is why compulsory language learning in schools doesn’t necessarily yield the results we might hope for. Students often <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09571736.2018.1508305">don’t have a sense of autonomy</a> about undertaking the study in the first place.</p>
<h2>Keep going</h2>
<p>As well as feeling that you’re studying for your own goals, other important factors can keep you motivated on your language journey. </p>
<p>One key factor is known as relatedness. This means having positive relationships with those around you – your teacher, your classmates, your friends and family – and helps you thrive and find meaning in what you’re doing. If your partner supports your language learning and encourages you, you’ll be more likely to find that you’re keen to continue. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Tutoring session" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539784/original/file-20230727-29-bxhzo3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539784/original/file-20230727-29-bxhzo3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539784/original/file-20230727-29-bxhzo3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539784/original/file-20230727-29-bxhzo3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539784/original/file-20230727-29-bxhzo3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539784/original/file-20230727-29-bxhzo3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539784/original/file-20230727-29-bxhzo3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A supportive teacher will help.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-student-during-individual-tutoring-lesson-608536676">Elnur/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Another is competence. This is not about being the best at everything, but about feeling capable. So even if you’re a beginner, you can feel a sense of competence if you take your learning step by step and feel confident in your ability before moving on. </p>
<p>If language learning app Duolingo, for instance, has been telling you you’re “amazing” and the lesson is “no match for you”, you may well feel enthused to continue. </p>
<p>Duolingo has been <a href="https://investors.duolingo.com/static-files/3c5dd359-4936-452a-9d9f-9a8c853c06c0">incredibly popular</a> as a way to learn a language, either instead of or alongside traditional methods such as books and lessons. Part of the model of this and other language learning apps is to reward users at every turn – for using the app on consecutive days, for completing a certain number of exercises, and even for engaging at certain times of the day. </p>
<p>But self-determination theory research tells us that <a href="https://www.routledgehandbooks.com/pdf/doi/10.4324/9780203874783.ch24">rewards can also be demotivating</a>.
When life gets in the way or you find a lesson particularly hard and the rewards stop, you may feel adrift. The best way to find the will to keep going is to find that personal reason to learn – and remind yourself of it when the going is tough.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210341/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Abigail Parrish does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Try to figure out why learning a language is important to you.Abigail Parrish, Lecturer in Education, University of SheffieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2050002023-06-06T12:29:11Z2023-06-06T12:29:11Z3 ways to use ChatGPT to help students learn – and not cheat<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529814/original/file-20230602-19-xaqe7e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Students can use AI chatbots to break down a complex assignment into smaller steps.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/smiling-teacher-teaching-girl-studying-on-digital-royalty-free-image/1345022832">Maskot/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Since ChatGPT can engage in conversation and generate essays, computer codes, charts and graphs that closely resemble those created by humans, <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-chatgpt-robs-students-of-motivation-to-write-and-think-for-themselves-197875">educators worry students may use it to cheat</a>. A <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ariannajohnson/2023/01/18/chatgpt-in-schools-heres-where-its-banned-and-how-it-could-potentially-help-students/?sh=3665bcf16e2c">growing number of school districts</a> across the country have decided to block access to ChatGPT on computers and networks.</p>
<p>As professors of <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=Awl0ddQAAAAJ">educational psychology</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=cBsh7i4AAAAJ">educational technology</a>, we’ve found that the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00405841.2017.1308172">main reason students cheat</a> is their academic motivation. For example, sometimes students are just motivated to get a high grade, whereas other times they are motivated to learn all that they can about a topic.</p>
<p>The decision to cheat or not, therefore, often relates to how academic assignments and tests are constructed and assessed, not on the availability of technological shortcuts. When they have the opportunity to rewrite an essay or retake a test if they don’t do well initially, students are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00405841.2017.1308172">less likely to cheat</a>.</p>
<p>We believe teachers can use ChatGPT to increase their students’ motivation for learning and actually prevent cheating. Here are three strategies for doing that.</p>
<h2>1. Treat ChatGPT as a learning partner</h2>
<p>Our research demonstrates that students are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1207/s15326985ep4103_1">more likely to cheat</a> when assignments are designed in ways that encourage them to outperform their classmates. In contrast, students are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2004.02.002">less likely to cheat</a> when teachers assign academic tasks that prompt them to work collaboratively and to focus on mastering content instead of getting a good grade.</p>
<p>Treating ChatGPT as a learning partner can help teachers shift the focus among their students from competition and performance to collaboration and mastery. </p>
<p>For example, a science teacher can assign students to work with ChatGPT to design a hydroponic vegetable garden. In this scenario, students could engage with ChatGPT to discuss the growing requirements for vegetables, brainstorm design ideas for a hydroponic system and analyze pros and cons of the design.</p>
<p>These activities are designed to promote mastery of content as they focus on the processes of learning rather than just the final grade.</p>
<h2>2. Use ChatGPT to boost confidence</h2>
<p>Research shows that when students feel confident that they can successfully do the work assigned to them, they are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1207/s15326985ep4103_1">less likely to cheat</a>. And an important way to boost students’ confidence is to provide them with <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1891/0889-8391.13.2.158">opportunities to experience success</a>. </p>
<p>ChatGPT can facilitate such experiences by offering students individualized support and breaking down complex problems into smaller challenges or tasks. </p>
<p>For example, suppose students are asked to attempt to design a hypothetical vehicle that can use gasoline more efficiently than a traditional car. Students who struggle with the project – and might be inclined to cheat – can use ChatGPT to break down the larger problem into smaller tasks. ChatGPT might suggest they first develop an overall concept for the vehicle before determining the size and weight of the vehicle and deciding what type of fuel will be used. Teachers could also ask students to compare the steps suggested by ChatGPT with steps that are recommended by other sources. </p>
<h2>3. Prompt ChatGPT to give supportive feedback</h2>
<p>It is well documented that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00940771.2019.1674768">personalized feedback</a> supports students’ positive emotions, including self-confidence.</p>
<p>ChatGPT can be directed to deliver feedback using positive, empathetic and encouraging language. For example, if a student completes a math problem incorrectly, instead of merely telling the student “You are wrong and the correct answer is …,” ChatGPT may initiate a conversation with the student. Here’s a real response generated by ChatGPT: “Your answer is not correct, but it’s completely normal to encounter occasional errors or misconceptions along the way. Don’t be discouraged by this small setback; you’re on the right track! I’m here to support you and answer any questions you may have. You’re doing great!” </p>
<p>This will help students feel supported and understood while receiving feedback for improvement. Teachers can easily show students how to direct ChatGPT to provide them such feedback.</p>
<p>We believe that when teachers use ChatGPT and other AI chatbots thoughtfully – and also encourage students to use these tools responsibly in their schoolwork – students have an incentive to learn more and cheat less.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205000/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Schools are blocking access to ChatGPT on their computers to try to prevent students from cheating. Two experts on academic cheating offer a very different strategy.Kui Xie, Professor of Educational Psychology and Learning Technologies, The Ohio State UniversityEric M. Anderman, Professor of Educational Psychology and Quantitative Research, Evaluation, and Measurement, The Ohio State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1983872023-04-13T12:27:51Z2023-04-13T12:27:51ZWhy do mass shooters kill? It’s about more than having a grievance<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520290/original/file-20230411-1936-1a1qsx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C6%2C1142%2C830&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A memorial for Joshua Barrick, killed by a shooter at the bank where he worked, April 10, 2023, at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Louisville, Ky. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/LouisvilleShooting/d3427bc6b22a4988a4b73b1672f1d6f3/photo?Query=shooting%20louisville&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=508&currentItemNo=0">AP Photo/Claire Galofaro</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>An acutely troubling aspect of life in contemporary America is the <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/10/mass-shootings-increasing-harvard-research/">growing proliferation of mass shootings</a> that <a href="http://www.fitgny.com/uploads/7/5/7/0/75709513/congressional_research_paper_mass_shootings.pdf">claim thousands of innocent lives</a> year after painful year and make everyone feel unsafe. </p>
<p>The year 2023 is still young, and already there have been at least <a href="https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/">184 mass shooting events</a> in the U.S. on record, including two on April 28 – <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/texas-shooting-wilson-garcia-lost-son-daniel-wife-sonia-guzman/">five killed in their Cleveland, Texas, home</a>, and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/30/us/philadelphia-shooting-teens-killed/index.html">three killed and one injured</a> in Philadelphia – as well as <a href="https://wach.com/news/local/sheriff-lott-speaks-on-mass-shooting-at-meadowlake-park-11-injured-teenagers-adults-columbia-south-carolina#">at least 9 teens injured</a> in an April 29 shooting at a park in South Carolina.</p>
<p>There were 647 mass shootings in 2022 and 693 in 2021, resulting in 859 and 920 deaths, respectively, with no respite in sight from this ghastly epidemic. Since 2015, over 19,000 people have been <a href="https://everytownresearch.org/mass-shootings-in-america/">shot and wounded or killed</a> in mass shootings. </p>
<p>In the wake of most shootings, the news media and the public reflexively ask: What was the killer’s motive?</p>
<p>As <a href="https://scholar.google.gr/citations?user=Trd2BdsAAAAJ&hl=en">a psychologist who studies</a> violence and extremism, I understand that the question immediately pops to mind because of the bizarre nature of the attacks, the “out-of-the-blue” shock that they produce, and people’s need to comprehend and reach closure on what initially appears to be completely senseless and irrational. </p>
<p>But what would constitute a satisfactory answer to the public’s question?</p>
<p>Media reports typically describe shooters’ motives based on specific individual details of the case, on their “manifestos” or social media postings. These generally list insults, humiliations or rejections – by co-workers, potential romantic partners or schoolmates – that a perpetrator may have suffered. Or they may cite alleged threats to the shooter’s group from some imagined enemy such as Jews, people of color, Muslims, Asians or members of the LGBTQ+ community. </p>
<p>Though perhaps informative about a given perpetrator’s way of thinking, I believe these motives are too specific. Each shooter’s life story is unique, yet the growing number of mass shootings suggests a general trend that transcends personal details. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520303/original/file-20230411-16-zfr949.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Posters, flowers and photos and heart shapes piled on a lawn." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520303/original/file-20230411-16-zfr949.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520303/original/file-20230411-16-zfr949.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520303/original/file-20230411-16-zfr949.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520303/original/file-20230411-16-zfr949.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520303/original/file-20230411-16-zfr949.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520303/original/file-20230411-16-zfr949.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520303/original/file-20230411-16-zfr949.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Posters, flowers and portraits fill the lawn in front of Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, where a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers at the school on May 24.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/MassShootingsMarginalizedGroups/3303aa68c2364950971ad579e71e9a6f/photo?Query=%20memorial%20uvalde&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=382&currentItemNo=5">AP Photo/Lekan Oyekanmi</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Quest for significance</h2>
<p>Perhaps surprisingly, the general motive that drives mass shootings is a fundamental human need. It is everyone’s <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/17456916211034825">quest for significance</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12368">a feeling that their life matters</a>.</p>
<p>That need gets activated when someone feels the loss of significance, the sense of being slighted, humiliated or excluded, but also when there is an opportunity for a gain in one’s sense of significance, being the object of admiration, a hero or a martyr in other people’s eyes. </p>
<p>I took part in a recent study carried out in the aftermath of the 2016 Orlando mass shooting. In that study, headed by <a href="https://scholar.google.ca/citations?user=CdQeGbsAAAAJ&hl=en">social psychologist Pontus Leander</a> of Wayne State University, we subjected American gun owners to <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2019-12985-001">feeling a loss of significance</a> by giving them a failing score – or not – on an achievement task. We then asked this random sample of gun owners to respond to a number of questions including whether they would be ready to kill a home intruder even if they were about to leave the home they invaded, and also how empowered those gun owners felt by owning a gun. </p>
<p>We found that the experience of failure increased participants’ view of guns as a means of empowerment, and enhanced their readiness to shoot and kill a home intruder.</p>
<p>And a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9133.12472">2020 review of mass shooting incidents</a> between the years 2010 and 2019 found that 78% of mass shooters in that period were motivated by fame-seeking or attention-seeking – that is, by the quest for significance.</p>
<p>If the need for significance is so fundamental and universal, how is it that mass shooting is an isolated phenomenon perpetrated by a handful of desperate individuals – and not by everyone? </p>
<p>Two factors can push this common human striving into mayhem and destruction. </p>
<p>First, it takes <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000260">extreme heights of significance craving</a> to pay this high a price for potential notoriety. Shooting is an extreme act that demands self-sacrifice, not only giving up on acceptance in the mainstream society, but also producing a high likelihood of dying in shootouts with law enforcement. </p>
<p>Research shows that <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7803479/">about 25%</a> to <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2021-43325-001">31%</a> of mass shooters exhibit signs of mental illness, which is likely to induce in them a deep sense of disempowerment and insignificance. But even the remaining 70%-75% with no known pathologies are likely to have suffered extreme significance issues, as attested by their ample statements about humiliation, rejection and exclusion they believe they or their group suffered at the hands of some real or imagined culprits. These feelings can create a <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/journals/rev/128/2/264/">one-track significance focus</a> that can ultimately precipitate a mass shooting. </p>
<p>Yet even someone who really really wants to feel significant is not necessarily going to carry out a mass shooting. </p>
<h2>Shortcut to stardom</h2>
<p>In fact, most highly motivated people satisfy their egos quite differently; they focus their extremism on various socially approved areas: business, sports, the arts, the sciences or politics. Why would some then choose the repugnant road to infamy paved by the massacre of innocents?</p>
<p>There is a method to this madness: The shocked public attention a shooting attracts delivers instantaneous “significance.” Climbing the steep hill of a respectable career, however, is fraught with obstacles and uncertainties. Success is elusive, takes ages to attain, and is inequitably afforded to those with unusual ability, grit or privilege, or some combination of those.</p>
<p>Committing a mass shooting represents a widely available shortcut to “stardom.”</p>
<p>There are over <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-25/how-many-guns-in-the-us-buying-spree-bolsters-lead-as-most-armed-country">390 million guns</a> in today’s America and a lack of background checks in many states. People have the freedom to purchase assault weapons at a local store. Thus, planning and executing a mass shooting is a road to notoriety open to anyone, and the narrative that links gun violence to significance – that is, the idea that by becoming a mass shooter you become famous – has been spreading ever wider with each successive shooting.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520304/original/file-20230411-14-wjq69l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Five U.S. flags at half-staff, seen through the blossoms of a flowering tree." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520304/original/file-20230411-14-wjq69l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520304/original/file-20230411-14-wjq69l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520304/original/file-20230411-14-wjq69l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520304/original/file-20230411-14-wjq69l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520304/original/file-20230411-14-wjq69l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520304/original/file-20230411-14-wjq69l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520304/original/file-20230411-14-wjq69l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Flags at half-staff in Washington, D.C., on March 30, 2023, following the mass shooting in a Nashville, Tenn., school several days before.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-monument-with-flag-at-half-mast-in-because-the-massive-news-photo/1250070479?adppopup=true">Photo by Arturo Jimenez/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Killings celebrated</h2>
<p>A final puzzle is this: If significance and respect are what the shooters are after, how come they do things that most people despise? </p>
<p>In today’s fractured public sphere <a href="https://www.apa.org/research/action/speaking-of-psychology/extremism-digital-age">dominated by social media</a>, it is easy to find networks of supporters and admirers for nearly anything under the sun, including the most repugnant and unconscionable acts of cruelty and callousness. In fact, there is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/000276421876347">ample evidence</a> that mass shooters are celebrated by appreciative audiences and can serve as role models to other would-be heroes who seek to outscore them in casualty counts. </p>
<p>What my colleagues and I <a href="https://www.apa.org/monitor/2019/04/conversation-kruglanski">call the “Three Ns</a>”: need, narrative and network, refer to the would-be shooter’s need to become significant or notorious, the narrative that says being a shooter means being important, and the network that exists to support such behavior. They together combine into a toxic mixture, driving a person to carry out a mass shooting. </p>
<p>But this framework also suggests how the tide of this horrific epidemic may be stemmed: Negating the narrative that depicts violence as an easy path to significance and dismantling the networks that support that narrative. </p>
<p>The two go together. Disproving the narrative that gun violence is an easy route to fame by making it hard to obtain guns, for instance, and reducing media attention to shooters would reduce the appeal of gun violence to people seeking to feel more significant. </p>
<p>It is equally important to identify and make available alternative paths to significance, conveyed in alternative narratives. This would likely require a concerted effort across society and its institutions. Understanding the psychology of it all may be a necessary precondition for taking effective steps in this direction.</p>
<p><em>This article, originally published April 13, 2023, was updated with descriptions of recent mass shootings.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198387/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Arie Kruglanski receives funding from the Department of Defense.</span></em></p>Is there ever a satisfactory answer to questions about what motivated a mass shooter? There is, but it’s not what you think.Arie Kruglanski, Professor of Psychology, University of MarylandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1990222023-02-21T13:13:17Z2023-02-21T13:13:17ZPsychological grit is over-rated as the key to retention in distance education: a South African study debunks the myth<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508297/original/file-20230206-19-e1my6b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">PeopleImages / Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Psychological grit has garnered a lot of interest in the last decade, particularly in the higher education arena. It’s typically defined as passion and perseverance for long-term goals. A great deal has been <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27845531/">written</a> about it and the role it plays in the retention and success of tertiary students. Kelly Anne Young <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02680513.2022.2134003">explored</a> the role grit played in determining postgraduate retention among historically disadvantaged students enrolled at the University of South Africa (Unisa) – the <a href="https://www.unisa.ac.za/sites/corporate/default/About/The-leading-ODL-university">largest</a> provider of open, distance e-learning in Africa.</em></p>
<h2>How did you define grit?</h2>
<p>I followed the widely accepted definition of grit coined by <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2007-07951-009">Duckworth and colleagues (2007)</a>. Grit is passion and perseverance for long-term goals, despite setbacks, adversity or plateaus in progress.</p>
<p>My study included 594 Unisa students who enrolled for an honours degree in 2017. Essentially, I wanted to know whether grittier students were more likely than less gritty students to enrol for their second year of studies. </p>
<p>So, I asked them to complete the <a href="https://sjdm.org/dmidi/files/Grit-8-item.pdf">Grit-S scale</a>. This scale includes items relating to your passion and perseverance towards long-term goals – for example, “I finish whatever I begin” and “Setbacks don’t discourage me”. Responses on these items range from “not at all like me” to “very much like me”. The scores are combined to determine an overall level of grit, ranging from 1 (not at all gritty) to 5 (extremely gritty). </p>
<p>My sample scored towards the higher end of the grit spectrum (3.85). </p>
<p>The next year, I checked the proportion of my sample who returned, and paired this retention data with the grit scores. Although a relatively large portion of my sample returned for their second year of studies (62.3%), results revealed that a higher grit score did not mean the student was more likely to continue with their degree.</p>
<p>My study also looked at whether gender, age, ethnicity and home language were significant predictors of retention among the participants. They were not.</p>
<h2>Why did you think it was important to look at the role of grit?</h2>
<p>Retaining historically disadvantaged students in distance education programmes is often cited as a major challenge facing South African higher education institutions. Nowhere is this issue more topical than at Unisa, which has over <a href="https://www.dhet.gov.za/Information%20Systems%20Coordination/Statistics%20on%20Post-School%20Education%20and%20Training%20in%20South%20Africa%202020.pdf">95% of all enrolled distance education students</a> in South Africa. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.dhet.gov.za/HEMIS/2000%20TO%202017%20FIRST%20TIME%20ENTERING%20UNDERGRADUATE%20COHORT%20STUDIES%20FOR%20PUBLIC%20HEIs.pdf">recent cohort analysis</a> by the country’s Department of Higher Education and Training showed that 56.8% of the 2000 cohort of distance education students had dropped out after their first year of studying. That’s double the attrition rate reported among students in the contact cohort (23.6%). Although subsequent distance education cohorts had lower rates of dropout from first to second year (for example 29.6% among the 2017 cohort), these figures are still concerning and require further exploration.</p>
<p>In an attempt to mitigate this dropout and enhance student success at the institution, a number of studies have been conducted. Some have explored cognitive attributes, such as <a href="https://www.journals.ac.za/index.php/sajhe/article/view/249">school leaving exam results</a>, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/18146620902857574">assignment grades</a> and past course performance. Others have looked at non-cognitive attributes, such as <a href="https://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/4325">motivation</a>, <a href="https://journals.co.za/doi/pdf/10.10520/EJC153518">locus of control</a>, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09639280802618130">attribute style</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02680513.2017.1356711">self-efficacy</a>, as predictors of success and retention among Unisa students.</p>
<p>This research has resulted in a better understanding of what shapes student retention at Unisa. One review has found, though, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.2190/4YNU-4TMB-22DJ-AN4W">that</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>most institutions have not yet been able to translate what we know about student retention into forms of action that have led to substantial gains in student persistence and graduation. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The question of grit then arose.</p>
<p>Psychological grit is often positioned as a panacea in higher education. This is because grit has shown enormous potential in predicting student success and retention in elite or historically advantaged traditional tertiary settings, both <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2017.1409478">in South Africa</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.92.6.1087">abroad</a>. What’s more, grit has shown to predict success among tertiary students pursuing their <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0033294117734834">studies online</a> and among <a href="https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v19i3.3393">those completing massive open online courses</a>.</p>
<p>Very little research on grit has been conducted among South African distance education students, though. My <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02680513.2022.2134003">study</a> produced the first published findings on grit’s predictive role in determining retention among historically disadvantaged distance education students in South Africa.</p>
<h2>Why did you choose this particular cohort of students?</h2>
<p>I included certain ethnic groups in the study as a proxy for historical disadvantage, because of the way apartheid policies identified these groups. The 594 Unisa students in my sample were black African (83% of the sample), Indian, Chinese and mixed-race South Africans who enrolled for an honours degree for the first time in 2017.</p>
<p>As an ongoing consequence of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/apartheid">apartheid</a> policies, South African university students are often first-generation students and academically <a href="https://doi.org/10.25159/0256-8853/1938">under-prepared</a>. They often lack what’s called <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF01074084">epistemological access</a>, which means access to
the knowledge that the university distributes.</p>
<h2>Why do your findings matter?</h2>
<p>Contrary to popular findings, my results revealed that historically disadvantaged students with higher levels of psychological grit were not more likely to enrol for their second year (when compared to their less gritty peers). </p>
<p>I think it’s important to remember that the seminal literature on grit has (predominantly) emanated from largely privileged student populations, to the point that the only thing possibly missing in those students’ lives is grit. And so it makes sense that the presence of grit would produce significant results (thus alluding to it’s importance).</p>
<p>But positioning grit as a panacea among historically disadvantaged students can be a dangerous distraction from the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0883035522000465">real barriers to student retention</a>. Moreover, the legacy of disadvantage remains, despite legislative and policy changes that were intended to transform the <a href="https://www.che.ac.za/sites/default/files/inline-files/BS23%20Final_A%20Reflection%20on%20Two%20Decades%20of%20Programme%20Differentiation%20in%20Higher%20Education%20in%20South%20Africa%5B74%5D.pdf">higher education sector in South Africa</a>. And because of this, we must remember that higher education institutions do not survive in “<a href="https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.82.2.v1jx34n441532242">hermetically sealed spheres</a>” in which past (and present) inequality gaps have no effect on student success and retention.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199022/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kelly Anne Young does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Seeing grit as a panacea among historically disadvantaged students can be a dangerous distraction from other barriers to student retention.Kelly Anne Young, Senior Researcher, University of South AfricaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1973622023-01-11T06:12:33Z2023-01-11T06:12:33ZWhy do musicians like Elton John find retirement so tough? A music psychology expert explains<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503433/original/file-20230106-10513-3zaqtr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=101%2C0%2C3907%2C2384&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Elton John performs in Michigan as part of the Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour in 2018.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/grand-rapids-michigan-usa-october-15-1764489509">Tony Norkus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>With his <a href="https://www.eltonjohn.com/stories/farewell-yellow-brick-road">Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour</a>, Elton John confirmed his latest plans for retirement. The final show of the tour in July 2023 will be his last. However, deja vu suggests this might not be the last we see of Elton.</p>
<p>The singer has announced plans to retire <a href="https://www.musictimes.com/articles/8902/20140817/elton-john-career-false-retirements-brief-chronological-look.htm">at least five times</a> since 1984 but is still going strong. By the end of his current tour, Elton John will have performed in over 300 concerts in the UK, the US and Europe and he shows no sign of slowing down. On Sunday he performed a <a href="https://www.billboard.com/music/pop/elton-john-final-uk-show-glastonbury-festival-1235180982/">headline slot at Glastonbury</a>.</p>
<p>Elton is not the only performer with a history of retiring and unretiring. He is in good company with <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/story?id=113477&page=1">Barbra Streisand</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/justinbieber/status/415683404462436352?lang=en">Justin Bieber</a>, <a href="https://www.revolt.tv/article/2022-07-14/180311/jay-z-explains-2003-retirement-i-thought-i-was-burned-out/">Jay-Z</a>, <a href="https://www.nme.com/news/music/lily-allen-hints-she-may-not-retire-just-yet-after-olivia-rodrigo-glastonbury-performance-3258600">Lily Allen</a> and <a href="https://ultimateclassicrock.com/phil-collins-retired/">Phil Collins</a>. </p>
<p>Hip-hop star <a href="https://www.upi.com/Entertainment_News/2022/02/04/Nicki-Minaj-returns-music-new-single-Do-We-Have-Problem/9811643982091/">Nicki Minaj’s</a> retirement lasted for only 22 days, while heavy metal singer <a href="https://ultimateclassicrock.com/ozzy-osbourne-retirement-1992/">Ozzy Osbourne’s</a> valedictory No More Tours tour in 1992 preceded a further 30 years of performance.</p>
<p>In contrast with handsomely rewarded performances on the global stage, retirement can be an intermittent pipe dream for many musicians. Long, unsociable hours in the music industry often offer modest remuneration and few of the perks available in other sectors. </p>
<p>There is <a href="https://www.gov.uk/working-retirement-pension-age">no compulsory retirement age</a> in the UK, which can be a godsend for lower paid professional performers who find that saving for an adequate pension is beyond their means. In these cases, working <a href="https://theconversation.com/ageing-activism-why-we-need-to-give-voice-to-the-new-third-age-50305">beyond the third age</a> is a necessity.</p>
<p>For Elton and his internationally acclaimed peers, however, the incentive to return to performing is less likely to be financial. So why do some successful musicians find it so hard to stick to retirement?</p>
<h2>The motivation of the stage</h2>
<p>The key to understanding this lies in motivation. </p>
<p>For many musicians, the motivation to perform is intrinsic rather than extrinsic. Extrinsically motivated performers are interested in tangible rewards such as money. <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0305735617721637">Intrinsic motivation</a> meanwhile, is present when a musician performs mainly because of a strong inner desire to make music.</p>
<p>For intrinsically motivated performers, making music is inherently pleasurable and a means unto itself. This partly explains why the music profession remains attractive even if it does not always bring the financial security of other careers. It also explains why some celebrated performers find it difficult to stay out of the public arena.</p>
<p>Among those with a passion for music, the rewards of performance often exceed the financial benefits. The status and accolades derived from a celebrated performance career provide a source of affirmation which can become difficult to obtain elsewhere. </p>
<p>Once human beings have fulfilled their basic needs of food, water, shelter and relationships, <a href="http://eznow7jgmenpjz.pic3.eznetonline.com/upload/MASLOW_YQfG.pdf">self-actualisation</a> becomes a significant driving force. For dedicated performers, achievement in the musical sphere can become an irreplaceable vehicle for attaining self esteem, personal growth and the satisfaction of fulfilling their potential.</p>
<h2>You’re only as good as your last performance</h2>
<p>Identity is also a central component in the motivation to perform. Continuing to perform professionally <a href="https://westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk/download/fbc3b0a7fd80bcb648344f9d298414ece784f56ff9018d267fd77a7fce70a980/519636/Gross%20%26%20Musgrave%20%282017%29%20Can%20Muic%20Make%20You%20Sick%20Pt2.pdf">can provide validation</a> for musicians, regardless of the level of income and recognition.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503606/original/file-20230109-7616-wupr0d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Nicki Minaj performs with long wavy platinum blonde hair, wearing a red catsuit." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503606/original/file-20230109-7616-wupr0d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503606/original/file-20230109-7616-wupr0d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503606/original/file-20230109-7616-wupr0d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503606/original/file-20230109-7616-wupr0d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503606/original/file-20230109-7616-wupr0d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503606/original/file-20230109-7616-wupr0d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503606/original/file-20230109-7616-wupr0d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Nicki Minaj’s retirement in 2019 lasted just 22 days.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/new-yorkaug-14-singer-nicki-minaj-114184756">Debby Wong</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For many, being a musician is inextricably linked with their sense of self. Their self worth is then strongly affected by their capacity to perform. This is especially true for singers, as voice is an integral part of <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jane-Oakland/publication/258173213_Re-defining_'Me'_Exploring_career_transition_and_the_experience_of_loss_in_the_context_of_redundancy_for_professional_opera_choristers/links/00b7d52d6675946763000000/Re-defining-Me-Exploring-career-transition-and-the-experience-of-loss-in-the-context-of-redundancy-for-professional-opera-choristers.pdf">identity formation and expression</a>.</p>
<p>There is some truth in the old saying; “You’re only as good as your last performance.” If you’re not performing at all, how good can you be? </p>
<p>For retired musicians, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jane-Oakland/publication/280067238_AGEING_AND_RETIREMENT_TOWARDS_AN_UNDERSTANDING_OF_THE_EXPERIENCES_OF_SYMPHONY_MUSICIANS_AS_THEY_APPROACH_RETIREMENT/links/55a640e008aee8aaa765644b/AGEING-AND-RETIREMENT-TOWARDS-AN-UNDERSTANDING-OF-THE-EXPERIENCES-OF-SYMPHONY-MUSICIANS-AS-THEY-APPROACH-RETIREMENT.pdf">it can be challenging</a> to find a comparable way to channel the energy they once dedicated to performance.</p>
<p>Musicians, like other professional groups, are diverse in many ways, but there are some personality traits different types of musicians tend to share. </p>
<p>For example, classical musicians typically score highly on introversion, which partly accounts for <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/03057356810090010201">their ability to focus</a> on the solitary practice necessary for developing technique before engaging in ensemble playing.</p>
<p>In contrast, rock and pop musicians tend to <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/epdf/10.1177/0305735694222006">score highly</a> on extroversion, often learning and rehearsing more informally in collaboration with their peers. Extroverted performers often derive their energy from audience interaction so it can be difficult to achieve that “buzz” once the music stops.</p>
<h2>Don’t stop me now</h2>
<p>Performing music is <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00906/full">widely recognised</a> as a way of achieving the highly desired state of “flow”, otherwise known as “peak performance” or being “in the zone”.</p>
<p>Providing that the challenge of performing closely matches the skill level of the performer, <a href="https://nuovoeutile.it/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/2002-Flow.pdf">music can become an all-absorbing activity</a>, which is so immersive that it distorts our sense of time and distracts us from our everyday concerns. During live concerts, the audience and performers can experience a sense of <a href="https://sociologicalscience.com/download/vol-6/january/SocSci_v6_27to42.pdf">“collective effervescence”</a> rarely achieved elsewhere.</p>
<p>Add in the emotional high derived from the adrenaline released in public performance and we can begin to understand why the rewards of performance can be difficult to replace in retirement.</p>
<p>Rihanna’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yd8jh9QYfEs">Don’t Stop the Music</a>, Queen’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgzGwKwLmgM">Don’t Stop Me Now</a> and Elton’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHwVBirqD2s">I’m Still Standing</a> are these musicians ways of telling us that they want to be in the limelight, just as much as their audiences want them to stay there.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197362/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Bonshor does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Elton John is still standing after at least five previous retirement announcements. An expert in music psychology explains why intrinsic motivation is behind many musicians’ reluctance to retire.Michael Bonshor, Course Director, Music Psychology in Education, Performance and Wellbeing, University of SheffieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1894392022-09-27T17:36:46Z2022-09-27T17:36:46ZPreparing for exam season: 10 practical insights from psychology to help teens get through<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486027/original/file-20220922-15278-3v2807.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=19%2C46%2C2568%2C1621&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Exam season is fast approaching for many senior students in New Zealand and Australia. At the best of times, adolescents may struggle with ambition and drive, let alone after two-and-a-half years of <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/475547/more-than-two-years-of-disrupted-learning-taking-a-toll-on-ncea-students-principals-say">COVID-induced disruption</a> and uncertainty.</p>
<p>But parents can still nurture their teens’ motivation to do what they need to do. </p>
<p>Behind the scenes, the adolescent period is one of huge developmental change, and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/current-opinion-in-psychology/special-issue/10B866D7VR3">not only physically</a>. Teens are developing their sense of identity and refining their own values. Their autonomy and individuation is emerging while they still remain somewhat dependent on the family system. </p>
<p>Parents may expect their young people to be intrinsically motivated when it comes to exams. The importance of studying is obvious to many adults. But even the most diligent among us can easily identify behaviours we know we should be doing, but aren’t. </p>
<p>Clearly, knowing that something is important may not be enough to generate the desired behaviour. </p>
<h2>Understanding human behaviour</h2>
<p>According to clinical psychologist Susan Michie and her colleagues at University College London, <a href="https://implementationscience.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1748-5908-6-42">three factors interact</a> to produce any human behaviour, whether it’s studying or surfing: capability, opportunity and motivation.</p>
<p>Michie’s team developed the “COM-B” model, which forms the basis for behavioural interventions relating to everything from <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-020-0887-9">hand washing</a> to our own efforts to <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34948725/">support clinicians</a> to use evidence-based treatments.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-keep-kids-curious-5-questions-answered-189512">How to keep kids curious – 5 questions answered</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Capability (both physical and psychological), opportunity (physical and social) and motivation come together to influence behaviour in an interactive way. </p>
<p>For example, if a young person is very capable (or believes themselves to be very capable) at solving maths equations, those around them are supportive or encouraging (social opportunity), and they have the practical resources they need (physical opportunity), they’re likely to want to do maths homework (be motivated). </p>
<p>Conversely, imagine a young person who starts the school term really motivated to study for two hours online every night, but only has access to the laptop at school (limited physical opportunity), still has fatigue after an illness (limited physical capability), and is surrounded by friends who have other priorities (low social opportunity). Herculean motivation may be required in this situation. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-keep-kids-curious-5-questions-answered-189512">How to keep kids curious – 5 questions answered</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>How parents can support their teen to study</h2>
<p>Put simply, parents should “zoom out”. Motivation can’t be produced magically out of thin air, and attempts to force it can have the opposite effect. But parents can support and encourage their young person’s capability and opportunity to study.</p>
<p><strong>1. Motivation fluctuates</strong></p>
<p>Motivation is not something that is simply present or absent. It fluctuates from hour to hour, day to day. So rather than “how can I make him be motivated today?”, a more useful question is “how can I create an environment where he’ll be a bit more motivated than he was last night?”</p>
<p><strong>2. Good foundations</strong></p>
<p>Remember the basics, for teens and parents alike – sleep, exercise and balanced nutrition. If these are in place, it’ll help both physical and psychological capability.</p>
<p><strong>3. Balanced thinking promotes capability</strong></p>
<p>A sense of mastery or capability is important. Stressed teens can fall into black and white thinking traps. “I’m useless at maths” fuels feeling overwhelmed and a sense of futility.</p>
<p>Instinctively, it’s tempting to reply with “no you’re not, you’re amazing!” But that’ll likely bounce right off. Instead, try to encourage your teen’s balanced thinking. “Stats is hard, but I’m okay at algebra and geometry”.</p>
<p><strong>4. Focusing on what teens can control</strong></p>
<p>Praise <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/0022-3514.75.1.33">effort over achievement</a>. Persisting with an hour a day of English revision for six weeks deserves as much acknowledgement as winning the English prize (and unlike the prize, it is within your teen’s control).</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A father and teenager putting their foreheads together" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486029/original/file-20220922-24-2unqug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486029/original/file-20220922-24-2unqug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486029/original/file-20220922-24-2unqug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486029/original/file-20220922-24-2unqug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486029/original/file-20220922-24-2unqug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486029/original/file-20220922-24-2unqug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486029/original/file-20220922-24-2unqug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Parents should keep in mind that teenagers’ irritability may be caused by underlying anxieties.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>5. Reinforcing their worth, no matter what</strong></p>
<p>Likewise, be sure to separate your teen’s attributes (who they are) from their behaviour (what they do). They’re not a “lazy” person, but there are particular behaviours they may need to do more (or do less).</p>
<p><strong>6. Behaviour as communication</strong></p>
<p>If young people are irritable or snappy, try to hold in mind that this anger or irritation is likely to be secondary to other emotions, like anxiety, hopelessness or overwhelm. It’s probably not about you.</p>
<p><strong>7. Worry might have a purpose</strong></p>
<p>Lots of anxiety may be incapacitating, but some anxiety in this season makes sense, and a little bit can actually enhance preparation and performance. Paradoxically, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13284207.2022.2108315">perfectionism isn’t always useful</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two young women studying, on beds" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486034/original/file-20220922-15568-3o6hzx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486034/original/file-20220922-15568-3o6hzx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486034/original/file-20220922-15568-3o6hzx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486034/original/file-20220922-15568-3o6hzx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486034/original/file-20220922-15568-3o6hzx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486034/original/file-20220922-15568-3o6hzx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486034/original/file-20220922-15568-3o6hzx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Motivation to study can fluctuate.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>8. Validate what you can</strong></p>
<p>Try to validate the emotion, even if the behaviour can’t be justified. Perhaps reflect that it makes perfect sense that things feel overwhelming, many people would feel that way in that situation, and then pause. </p>
<p>It’s tempting to rush to solve the problem, or rapidly fire questions. But often young people just need to be given permission to feel the feeling, and they can sometimes figure out the solution themselves.</p>
<p><strong>9. Collaborating to solve problems</strong></p>
<p>Similarly, try to avoid doing “to” (or “for”), instead aiming to do “with”. Collaborating to solve problems (if they want input) may develop or enhance future independent problem-solving abilities. It also communicates your belief in their capability to do so.</p>
<p><strong>10. Acknowledge to create habits</strong></p>
<p>Parents might consider using targeted, short-term incentives (we don’t see these as bribes, but recognition of hard work or effort) to create new habits or reinforce emerging behaviours.</p>
<p>Finally, try to hold a longer-term view. One exam, one assessment, won’t make or break things. Families and cultures may hold a range of values around what a successful life looks like, but it usually involves more than just exam success. </p>
<p>Good health, connection with others, and meaning or purpose are fundamental to success in life. Try to keep this in mind over the next few months, even if the going gets tough.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189439/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Melanie Woodfield receives funding from the Health Research Council of New Zealand. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jin Russell has previously received funding for research projects from the Starship Foundation, Health Research Council of New Zealand, and The Royal Australasian College of Physicians. She is a board member of the Parenting Place, a not-for-profit organisation in Aotearoa New Zealand.</span></em></p>Secondary school exams are here, with all the stress they bring. But parents can help their teenagers stay engaged by getting the motivational basics right and keeping a sense of perspective.Melanie Woodfield, Clinical Psychologist, Te Whatu Ora | HRC Clinical Research Training Fellow, University of Auckland, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata RauJin Russell, Community and Developmental Paediatrician, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata RauLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1883542022-08-08T20:02:49Z2022-08-08T20:02:49ZEddie Betts’ camp saga highlights a motivational industry rife with weird, harmful ideas<p>Former AFL star Eddie Betts’ revelations about the 2018 Adelaide Crows training camp, which left him feeling like he had been brainwashed and sapped his passion for football, raises all sorts of questions.</p>
<p>But the most obvious is how could the Crows’ management, running an elite organisation with a team that had made the grand final the year before, treat its most valuable assets – its players – so badly? </p>
<p>Who decided the bullying and abusive behaviour that reportedly traumatised individuals and <a href="https://amp.abc.net.au/article/101307908">fractured the team</a> was a good idea?</p>
<p>We can’t answer that. But as academics with experience in the “motivational industry”, we’re not all that shocked such things occurred.</p>
<p>The market for programs and processes to improve individual and organisational performance is huge, and with it comes faddish ideas with little or no basis in evidence.</p>
<h2>A shattering experience</h2>
<p>Betts’ account of the 2018 training camp, in his recently published autobiography <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com.au/books/The-Boy-from-Boomerang-Crescent/Eddie-Betts/9781761102394">The Boy from Boomerang Crescent</a>, describes scenes of humiliation, misappropriation of Indigenous cultural practices and an emphasis on toxic aspects of masculinity.</p>
<p>The four-day preseason camp followed Adelaide making the 2017 AFL grand final but being trounced by the Richmond Tigers.</p>
<p>Betts describes being blindfolded, led onto a bus with papered-over windows and taken to a random location with Richmond’s club song (“Tigerland”) being played loudly over and over again. </p>
<p>He says there were criticism sessions in which “counsellors” yelled taunts at him about personal matters he believed he had disclosed in confidence:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I was exhausted, drained and distressed about the details being shared. Another camp-dude jumped on my back and started to berate me about my mother, something so deeply personal that I was absolutely shattered to hear it come out of his mouth.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The experience clearly left a lasting impression. Betts says his performance and relationship with his family suffered.</p>
<p>His account is disturbing. Equally concerning is how easily these kinds of inappropriate, confrontational and ethically dubious experiences occur in the name of “training” and “motivation”.</p>
<h2>A tough idea with no evidential basis</h2>
<p>As industry-engaged academics, we are experienced in developing, implementing and evaluating training and interventions that build <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/52BF223994E9C91321B8FC5DD4E14CFD/S1833367219000531a.pdf/div-class-title-building-capacity-in-the-healthcare-sector-a-strengths-based-approach-for-increasing-employees-well-being-and-organisational-resilience-div.pdf">psychological capital, resilience and wellbeing</a>. </p>
<p>We can only presume the rationale for the training camp was to develop greater mental toughness. </p>
<p>But while it might be a commonly held belief that placing people in highly stressful and emotionally confronting circumstances will help them “sink or swim” and “face their fears”, the evidence shows this is not helpful. Indeed, it has the potential to be very harmful. </p>
<p>The brain is a highly efficient learning machine. It uses emotions (the automatic deployment of chemicals in the brain as a response to stimuli) to “bake in” memories – and, for that matter, skills. </p>
<p>When external stimuli trigger negative emotions, this leads to a “flight, fight or freeze” response. Long after the trigger and experience, the emotional and physiological reaction to the memory can remain. </p>
<p>This is called trauma. As described by Martin Seligman - often referred to as the “father of positive psychology” - if that trauma isn’t resolved it can lead to anxiety and depression, and even <a href="https://hbr.org/2011/04/building-resilience">post-traumatic stress disorder</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-complex-ptsd-and-how-does-it-relate-to-past-abuse-and-trauma-172497">What is complex PTSD and how does it relate to past abuse and trauma?</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The time and place for ‘post-traumatic growth’</h2>
<p>Decades of research in the field of psychology has led to the general understanding that there are times when it is appropriate for people to face emotionally confronting circumstances, particularly childhood experiences, that may have had a defining impact on a person’s behaviour or cognition. </p>
<p>However, there are very strict guidelines and protocols as to when and under what conditions this occurs. In Australia this is governed by the <a href="https://www.psychologyboard.gov.au/">Psychology Board of Australia</a> and underpinned by the <a href="https://www.nhpo.gov.au/legislation">Health Practitioner Regulation National Law Act</a>. </p>
<p>In brief, such confrontation should only occur when a qualified and registered practitioner believes the person they are treating feels safe and supported, so the emotional and physiological reaction can occur in a contained way. When this occurs, it is called “<a href="https://hbr.org/2020/07/growth-after-trauma">post-traumatic growth</a>” – and it must be done by a dedicated expert practitioner.</p>
<p>There are no circumstances under which an organisation, or those acting on behalf of it, should deliberately subject its employees to experiences that have the potential to be emotionally traumatic. </p>
<p>Indeed, Australia’s work health and safety regulations are increasingly making employers legally responsible for “<a href="https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/safety-topic/managing-health-and-safety/mental-health/psychosocial-hazards">psycho-social hazards</a>” – anything that could cause psychological harm – at work. This includes aggressive, bullying behaviour and exposure to <a href="https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/safety-topic/managing-health-and-safety/mental-health/psychosocial-hazards/traumatic-events-or-materials">traumatic events</a>.</p>
<p>In some workplaces, exposure to emotionally confronting events is unavoidable.
Examples include aged-care and health-care workers who regularly have to confront human frailty and death; paramedics who have to attend car accidents; and police officers who are exposed to the very worst of human nature. Particularly for paramedics and police, substantial organisational resources are deployed to help mitigate the impact of exposure to trauma – although, sometimes, they can still fall through the cracks.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/team-building-exercises-can-be-a-waste-of-time-you-achieve-more-by-getting-personal-119601">Team-building exercises can be a waste of time. You achieve more by getting personal</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>All workplaces should be safe and respectful</h2>
<p>The idea of provoking trauma for some organisational benefit is wrong. Do not ever believe that any good is done by doing harm. There is no evidence to support this.</p>
<p>Helping someone to achieve personal growth requires standard <a href="https://mhfa.com.au/about/our-activities/what-we-do-mental-health-first-aid">mental-health first-aid skills</a>: listening; giving support and information; and encouraging them to seek appropriate professional help.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-hope-can-keep-you-healthier-and-happier-132507">How hope can keep you healthier and happier</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Betts’ reported experience is a reminder that engagements with colleagues, managers, subordinates, customers and clients at work should always be safe and respectful. </p>
<p>Deliberately exposing someone to an emotionally confronting situation is only likely to harm their ability to perform.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188354/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The research conducted by Ben Farr-Wharton has received funding from several sources over the last decade. Sources include: the Australian Army, Ramsay Health Care, Dept. Treasury and Finance (Tas), Humanitas Hospital, the Dept. of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Dept. of Water and Environmental Regulation (WA), Sydney Water, and the Centre for Work, Health and Safety (NSW).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>The research conducted by Matthew J. Xerri has received funding from several sources over the last decade. Sources include the Australian Army and Ramsay Health Care.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Yvonne Brunetto receives funding from Ramsay Health Pty, Ltd, Queensland and NSW Health departments, Wesley Mission Queensland, McKenzie Aged Care Pty Ltd, Australian Army, Centre for Work, Health and Safety (NSW Govt) and Erasmus UN Funding.</span></em></p>The idea of provoking trauma for organisational benefit is profoundly wrong.Ben Farr-Wharton, Associate Dean of Management, Edith Cowan UniversityMatthew Xerri, Senior Lecturer in Human Resources, Griffith UniversityYvonne Brunetto, Professor of Management and HRM, Southern Cross UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1797612022-04-14T05:30:18Z2022-04-14T05:30:18ZHow do I improve my motivation to exercise when I really hate it? 10 science-backed tips<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456466/original/file-20220406-20-v4g2xk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C11%2C7348%2C4891&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>We’ve all heard those people who say “running gives you a high” or “exercise is addictive,” but for many of us, it’s hard to love exercise. Some might even say they hate it, dread it, or the thought of going to the gym gives them anxiety. </p>
<p>Why do some of us hate exercise? And how can we overcome this to reap the lifesaving benefits of getting the body moving? </p>
<h2>Humans didn’t evolve to ‘exercise’</h2>
<p>Throughout most of human history, food was scarce and being active wasn’t a choice. For millennia, humans had to move to find food, and once they were fed, they rested to conserve energy, because they didn’t know where their next meal was coming from. </p>
<p>So, if you have the urge to sit down and watch Netflix rather than going to the gym, you might take solace in the knowledge resting is a natural human tendency.</p>
<p>Having said that, our 21st-century lifestyles involve far too much sitting and resting. With technology, cars, and other labour-saving devices, moving is no longer necessary for daily survival. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456470/original/file-20220406-22-drai3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Man sitting at desk" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456470/original/file-20220406-22-drai3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456470/original/file-20220406-22-drai3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456470/original/file-20220406-22-drai3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456470/original/file-20220406-22-drai3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456470/original/file-20220406-22-drai3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456470/original/file-20220406-22-drai3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456470/original/file-20220406-22-drai3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Movement is no longer necessary for our daily survival.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Yet, being physically inactive is terrible for our health. A meta-analysis published in prestigious medical journal <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0140673612610319">The Lancet</a> found physical inactivity is associated with a 30-40% increased risk of colon cancer, 30% increased risk of breast cancer, 20-60% increased risk of type 2 diabetes, and a 30-50% higher risk of premature death, compared with being physically active.</p>
<h2>So how much physical activity do you actually need?</h2>
<p>It’s <a href="https://www.health.gov.au/health-topics/physical-activity-and-exercise/physical-activity-and-exercise-guidelines-for-all-australians/for-adults-18-to-64-years">recommended</a> Australian adults (aged 18-65) get at least 150 (though preferably 300) minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity each week. Moderate intensity exercise might be a brisk walk, light cycle or mowing the lawn. </p>
<p>If you are willing to do vigorous physical activity, you only need half that (75-150 minutes per week). Vigourous activity is anything strenuous enough you would struggle to have a conversation: jogging, or running around playing a sport like footy or tennis.</p>
<p>A variety of activity types are encouraged since different physical activities entail different benefits. Muscle-strengthening exercises, like lifting weights or doing push ups, are encouraged twice a week, to keep bones and muscles strong. </p>
<p>If that is all starting to sound too complicated, rest assured ANY exercise is good for you. You don’t have to achieve the physical activity guidelines to benefit from physical activity.</p>
<h2>What are some science-backed tips for getting motivated?</h2>
<p>According to psychologists there are two main types of motivation: extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation arises from within – doing something for the personal reward or challenge of it. Extrinsic motivation comes from external factors, like trying to earn a reward or avoid a punishment. </p>
<p>You can boost your <em>intrinsic</em> motivation by identifying why exercising is important to you.</p>
<p><strong>1.</strong> Identify your “why” – do you want to exercise for your health? Is it for your kids? Is it for how working out makes you feel? Exercise has long-term benefits for health and function, flow-on benefits for your children, and immediate effects on mood and vitality. Being clear in your mind about what you want to gain from exercising, can help prompt you into <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095254616300928">action</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456475/original/file-20220406-15-qhe8em.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Woman on yoga mat thinking" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456475/original/file-20220406-15-qhe8em.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456475/original/file-20220406-15-qhe8em.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456475/original/file-20220406-15-qhe8em.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456475/original/file-20220406-15-qhe8em.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456475/original/file-20220406-15-qhe8em.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456475/original/file-20220406-15-qhe8em.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456475/original/file-20220406-15-qhe8em.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Thinking about why you want to exercise can help your intrinsic motivation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>Extrinsic</em> motivators can also help you get started with exercise.</p>
<p><strong>2.</strong> Arrange to meet a friend to exercise together. You’ll be more likely to follow through, as you won’t want to let your friend down. Also, research suggests people exercise for <a href="https://europepmc.org/article/med/19657302">longer</a> when they exercise with family members and friends compared with those who exercise alone</p>
<p><strong>3.</strong> reward yourself with a new piece of clothing or shoes you’ll enjoy exercising in. Be sure to make the reward <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08964289.2015.1074880">conditional</a> on doing a certain amount of exercise, so you have to earn it</p>
<p><strong>4.</strong> get an activity tracker. Fitness trackers have a host of <a href="https://www.jmir.org/2014/8/e192/">features</a> designed to boost motivation, such as prompts, self-monitoring and goal-setting. There is a plethora of research suggesting activity trackers <a href="https://mhealth.jmir.org/2019/4/e11819">increase physical activity</a></p>
<p><strong>5.</strong> exercise at the same time each day, so it becomes a habit. Research suggests exercising in the <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fhea0000510">morning</a> leads to faster habit formation compared with evening exercise</p>
<p><strong>6.</strong> do an activity you enjoy. Starting a new exercise habit is hard enough. Increase your chances of <a href="https://www.scirp.org/html/5-6901353_53271.htm">sticking</a> with it by doing an activity you find enjoyable. Also, you may exercise at a higher intensity without even realising it, if you are doing a form of exercise you enjoy. If you hate running, don’t do it. Go for a long walk in nature</p>
<p><strong>7.</strong> start small. Leave yourself wanting more, rather than overdoing it. You’re also less likely to feel sore or <a href="https://www.ajpmonline.org/article/S0749-3797(09)00676-X/fulltext">injure</a> yourself</p>
<p><strong>8.</strong> listening to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1750984X.2011.631026">up-beat music</a> improves mood during exercise, and reduces perceived exertion, leading to increased work output. These benefits are particularly effective for rhythmic, repetitive forms of exercise, such as walking and running</p>
<p><strong>9.</strong> take your dog for a walk. <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12889-016-3659-8">Dog-walkers</a> walk more often and for longer than non-dog walkers, and they report feeling safer and more socially connected in their neighbourhood</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456478/original/file-20220406-12-ygzoae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Woman walking dog in wooded area" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456478/original/file-20220406-12-ygzoae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456478/original/file-20220406-12-ygzoae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456478/original/file-20220406-12-ygzoae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456478/original/file-20220406-12-ygzoae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456478/original/file-20220406-12-ygzoae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456478/original/file-20220406-12-ygzoae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456478/original/file-20220406-12-ygzoae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People who walk with dogs walk more often and for longer.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>10.</strong> make a financial commitment. Behavioural economic theory recognises humans are motivated by loss aversion. Some commercial websites have harnessed this for health by getting people to make a “commitment contract” in which they pay a financial deposit that is forfeited if the health behaviour commitment is not met. This approach has been shown to improve <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jaba.776?casa_token=kMeiMUhCX7MAAAAA%3AWnuFdZewFfyrua4MpFYk2JXdzu7RVA6W0joZde-bwsESSrNTBveKVJlScXeKFX0yMC9yRO1YkjH_4WZX">physical activity</a>, <a href="https://journals.lww.com/aidsonline/Fulltext/2017/07310/A_commitment_contract_to_achieve_virologic.15.aspx">medication adherence</a> and <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0890117116661157?casa_token=c7xhgAWoTwcAAAAA%3AFf7J2lUN9dr4d0XAxP1sU3B0_fCwreGXldM2vJuLtGzWbZzm3DO_P92z4uHOf13EysgIoO2wc2woNA">weight loss</a>. </p>
<p>Be patient with yourself, and keep the long game in mind – it takes around <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fhea0000510">three to four months</a> to form an exercise habit. After that, the intrinsic motivators take over to keep your exercise routine going. Who knows, maybe you’ll be the one hooked on exercise and inspiring your friends and family a few months from now.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/179761/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carol Maher receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council, the Medical Research Future Fund, the National Heart Foundation, the South Australian Department for Innovation and Skills, the South Australian Department for Education, Healthway and Hunter New England Local Health District.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ben Singh does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Despite knowing the health benefits of exercise and the harms of inactivity, many of us still struggle to find the motivation to get moving.Carol Maher, Professor, Medical Research Future Fund Emerging Leader, University of South AustraliaBen Singh, Research fellow, University of South AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1749482022-01-24T14:47:18Z2022-01-24T14:47:18ZFive rules for effective leadership in difficult times<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441987/original/file-20220121-13-1998c5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=2%2C0%2C995%2C561&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/leadership-concept-red-pawn-chess-standing-747539488">Vlad Chorniy/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>After another punishing year dominated by COVID, the omicron threat appears to be receding and many people may now be looking at the <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/12/omicron-end-of-pandemic/621089/">beginning of the end</a> of the pandemic. But the fallout from COVID will still pose <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/global-growth-could-slow-sharply-due-to-omicron-world-bank/ar-AASGqCg?ocid=uxbndlbing">huge challenges</a> in 2022 in terms of economic growth, supply chain issues, labour shortages and employee confidence. </p>
<p>As ever, effective leadership in business is paramount. But strong leaders need to be thinking beyond the pandemic. So how do they navigate a future filled with uncertainty? Here are the five core skills which all leaders facing these challenges must demonstrate and embody.</p>
<h2>1. Have a vision</h2>
<p>The pandemic has caused the unprecedented disruption of commerce in most industry sectors. Envisioning involves creating a picture of what the future will be like for an organisation and which will serve as a road map to success. When that vision is understood and shared, it generates enthusiasm and motivation, and builds the confidence in employees. Good leaders cultivate not just a plan of how the vision may be achieved but also a deep conviction that it will be successful.</p>
<p>When COVID-19 emerged, Mark Aslett, CEO of aerospace and defence company Mercury Systems, had been tracking the virus for several months and had a clear vision for how his organisation could address the emerging challenges. His <a href="https://www.spencerstuart.com/-/media/2020/november/qa-markaslett/mark-aslett-qa-with-the-ceo-of-mercury-systems.pdf">three-fold plan</a> was to protect the health, safety and livelihoods of Mercury’s employees, reduce operational financial risks to the business and deliver its commitment to customers and shareholders.</p>
<p>Aslett communicated this clearly in a way that resonated with employees, customers and shareholders alike. The success of his vision has been reflected in the <a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2021/08/03/2274079/18849/en/Mercury-Systems-Reports-Fourth-Quarter-and-Fiscal-2021-Results.html">strong financial performance</a> demonstrated throughout the pandemic, leaving the company poised for further success in the year ahead. </p>
<h2>2. Adapt and be open to change</h2>
<p>Good leaders develop appropriate strategies for their organisations in periods of crisis or stability alike, anticipating and being open to change. Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson did just that when faced with a public backlash following the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/apr/16/arrest-of-two-black-men-at-starbucks-for-trespassing-sparks-protests">arrest of two black men</a> waiting for a friend in a Philadelphia branch. Because they hadn’t purchased anything, the manager allegedly deemed the two men to be suspicious and called the police. </p>
<p>The arrest caused public outrage. Johnson not only apologised but closed 8,000 US stores while 175,000 employees underwent <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/starbucks-stores-closed-diversity-training-racial-bias-philadelphia-arrests-racist-a8374426.html">training in unconscious racial bias</a>. This kind of policy change is important in inspiring and motivating employees while reassuring customers and helping to restore the company’s reputation.</p>
<h2>3. Generate new ideas</h2>
<p>The uncertainty of a volatile business environment experiencing everything from environmental pressures to supply chain problems means innovation and creativity will be key in 2022. The ability to question the way things are done, challenge assumptions and generate new ideas is vital in good leaders. </p>
<p>This means creating an environment that fosters innovation among the workforce. Employees should be encouraged to challenge the status quo and look at alternatives to traditional perspectives and problem solving.</p>
<p>Leaders need to make teams think about existing challenges in new ways and re-examine assumptions about their roles. This could involve more creative thinking and idea generation through useful tools such as mind-mapping, brainstorming and <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-gamification-could-revolutionise-creative-thinking-in-the-workplace-122852">gamification</a>. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VwGKdKTNYxM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>4. Solve problems creatively</h2>
<p>In 2022 there is likely to be a variety of social, economic, environmental and technological problems affecting businesses. Labour shortages are expected to be an issue of concern as COVID self-isolation continues and some people are hesitant to rejoin the workforce. </p>
<p>Supply chain issues that were evident throughout 2020 and 2021 may not be resolved. Companies will need to consider how much of their supply chain should be <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/phillipbraun/2021/11/30/top-economic-concerns-for-2022-growth-continues-but-risks-abound/?sh=2ae439837179">international versus domestic</a> in an effort to address environmental issues, future production and supply chain problems. </p>
<p>Solutions will be found by analysing the root cause of the problems with employees at the centre of the process. Communication is key. Good leaders recognise the value of their teams’ input and motivate people to work together to solve thorny problems. Most importantly, listening carefully to customers’ needs and concerns is also crucial.</p>
<p>Reacting to pandemic challenges such as falling demand accelerated shipping company Maersk’s shift from being a port-to-port transport operation to an integrated logistics company. Maersk’s speeded-up transformation capitalised on digital technologies to enhance its expertise and provide customers with better, faster and more integrated supply chain information.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A Maersk shipping container hoisted in the air by a crane." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442006/original/file-20220121-27-ydrl08.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442006/original/file-20220121-27-ydrl08.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442006/original/file-20220121-27-ydrl08.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442006/original/file-20220121-27-ydrl08.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442006/original/file-20220121-27-ydrl08.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442006/original/file-20220121-27-ydrl08.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442006/original/file-20220121-27-ydrl08.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The pandemic presented shipping company Maersk with an opportunity to digitally transform its business.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/savannah-ga-usa-april-23-2021-1961825860">Mariusz Bugno/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>5. Inspire and motivate</h2>
<p>After almost two years of pandemic conditions, the fallout from COVID for the coming year includes workspace concerns, low employee morale and burnout. People need inspirational leaders at the helm to unite the workforce and reinvigorate the workplace. In motivating people, empathy is critical. Effective leaders need to understand the fears, hopes and concerns of those who work for them.</p>
<p>Working separately and often in isolation has taken its toll on some people, demonstrated in the rise in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/08/covid-crisis-dramatically-worsened-global-mental-health-study-finds">mental health issues</a> across the population. Some workers may now prefer the work from home arrangements, and leaders will need to look at continuing flexibility while balancing the needs of the business. </p>
<p>Compassionate and supportive leadership is vital in inspiring confidence in employees and reassuring them in difficult and uncertain times. Concerted efforts to support and maintain employee wellbeing is crucial to morale and achieving company goals.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/174948/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christian Harrison does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The threat of COVID may be receding, but the fall-out will continue to affect business in the coming year, requiring strong leadership to navigate uncertain times.Christian Harrison, Reader in Leadership, School of Business and Creative Industries, University of the West of ScotlandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1720502021-11-18T22:22:27Z2021-11-18T22:22:27ZYes, Australia’s PISA test results may be slipping, but new findings show most students didn’t try very hard<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432575/original/file-20211118-27-1jh8wfp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/group-high-school-students-doing-exam-704245237">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Most Australian students who took part in the last OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) said they would have invested more effort if the test had counted towards their school marks.</p>
<p>This is a finding from a <a href="https://research.acer.edu.au/snapshots/vol16/iss16/1/">recent report</a> issued by the Australian Council for Education Research. The data came from a questionnaire students filled out at the end of the two-hour PISA test in 2018. They were asked to rate how much effort they would have invested if they knew their results would count towards their school marks.</p>
<p>Some 73% of students indicated they would have put in more effort had that been the case.</p>
<p>While 56% of Australian students claimed to put in “high effort” in the PISA tests, this would have increased to 91% if the results were included in their school results.</p>
<p>We spend a lot of time focusing on debates about curriculum (what is being taught to students) and pedagogy (how it is being taught). Data from standardised tests such as PISA and NAPLAN are often used as evidence of declining standards, falling outcomes and failing teachers.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1204164407804084226"}"></div></p>
<p>But the above results show yet again that schooling is more complex than politicians like to advocate. Methods to lift standards such as going “<a href="https://www.afr.com/policy/health-and-education/alan-tudge-s-10-year-plan-to-get-schools-back-to-basics-20210413-p57ir9">back to the basics</a>” – as the then education minister, Dan Tehan, vowed to do after the last PISA results came out – or encouraging the “<a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/yes-minister-you-can-entice-our-best-and-brightest-into-teaching-you-will-have-to-pay-them-more-20210415-p57jib.html">best and brightest</a>” to become teachers – a goal of the current education minister, Alan Tudge – are too simplistic for the real world.</p>
<h2>What is PISA?</h2>
<p>Every three years, PISA tests how 15-year-old students in dozens of countries apply <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-pisa-world-education-test-results-are-about-to-drop-is-australia-getting-worse-127011">reading, science, maths and other skills to real-life problems</a>.</p>
<p>PISA generates <a href="https://theconversation.com/pisa-results-dont-look-good-but-before-we-panic-lets-look-at-what-we-can-learn-from-the-latest-test-69470">much attention</a> from policymakers and the media. It is often used as a proxy for making judgements about the quality of teaching and learning in Australian schools.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/pisa-doesnt-define-education-quality-and-knee-jerk-policy-proposals-wont-fix-whatever-is-broken-128389">PISA doesn't define education quality, and knee-jerk policy proposals won't fix whatever is broken</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But there are important questions regarding what exactly the PISA tests measure and how useful the results are for informing policymaking and education debates.</p>
<h2>Is it knowledge or effort?</h2>
<p>The ACER report showed levels of effort in PISA were higher for female students, those attending metropolitan schools, non-Indigenous students and students from backgrounds of relatively high socioeconomic advantage. </p>
<p>But, when averaged out, nearly half of Australian students who sat the 2018 PISA test admitted they did not try their best. </p>
<p>These results are comparable with the <a href="https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/04fd5153-en/index.html">OECD average</a> of 68% of students claiming they tried less on the PISA tests than they would if it counted towards their school grades. In contrast, students in the <a href="https://www.oecd.org/pisa/publications/pisa-2018-results.htm">highest-performing education systems</a> of Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang (China) reported very high levels of effort. There could be several reasons why the same theory may be less applicable to these Chinese systems, such as them having a more strongly competitive academic culture. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-pisa-world-education-test-results-are-about-to-drop-is-australia-getting-worse-127011">The PISA world education test results are about to drop. Is Australia getting worse?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Educational psychologists <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S014019710800122X">in Australia</a> have long studied the links between motivation, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00461520.1991.9653133">self-efficacy</a> (students’ beliefs they can perform at the level they need to) and <a href="https://aps.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00050060701405584">academic achievement</a>.</p>
<p>For example, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0361476X99910159">expectancy–value theory</a>, to put it simply, suggests the lower the perceived value or usefulness of a task, the less motivated one potentially is to put in much effort.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432572/original/file-20211118-25-1sv82up.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Student running up some stairs that has a door at the top opening up to the sky." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432572/original/file-20211118-25-1sv82up.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432572/original/file-20211118-25-1sv82up.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432572/original/file-20211118-25-1sv82up.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432572/original/file-20211118-25-1sv82up.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432572/original/file-20211118-25-1sv82up.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432572/original/file-20211118-25-1sv82up.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432572/original/file-20211118-25-1sv82up.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Motivation to do the task is determined by its perceived value.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/female-high-school-student-running-on-571923439">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Perhaps one of the unintended side effects of assuring participating students that PISA is a low-stakes task — it does not count towards their school grades — is the potential for downward pressure on performance.</p>
<h2>The year 9 slump</h2>
<p>Another potential reason for the lack of motivation in students taking the PISA test is the well-documented slump in <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3102/00346543064002287">engagement and motivation</a> during the <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/461740">middle years of schooling</a>.</p>
<p>NAPLAN data have consistently shown a pronounced drop in performance from year 7 to year 9, when students are 14–15 years old. For example, 9.1% of year 7 students didn’t <a href="https://search.informit.org/doi/abs/10.3316/INFORMIT.357583795641713">meet the national minimum standard</a> in the 2013 NAPLAN writing task. Two years later in the NAPLAN 2015 writing task, nearly twice as many (17.7%) year 9 students didn’t meet the minimum standard. </p>
<p>At the higher end of performance, the proportion of students above the national minimal standard dropped from 72.2% in 2013 to 59% in 2015.</p>
<p>The pattern is persistent. The results from the <a href="https://theconversation.com/naplan-results-show-year-3-students-perform-better-than-year-9-in-writing-and-its-a-worrying-trend-122541">year 9 NAPLAN writing task in 2019</a> clearly demonstrate a dramatic drop in performance. The percentage of students in year 9 meeting or exceeding the national minimum standard was 82.9%, compared to 95% of the same student cohort in the 2013 year 3 writing task.</p>
<p>Research has shown the middle years of schooling is a challenging time for many students. Their bodies and minds are changing rapidly, the demands of high school and their social lives become more complex, and the level of disengagement and disaffection with school rapidly escalates. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-missing-middle-puberty-is-a-critical-time-at-school-so-why-arent-we-investing-in-it-more-150071">The missing middle: puberty is a critical time at school, so why aren’t we investing in it more?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What does this mean for school policy?</h2>
<p>Instead of policies such as going back to basics, student motivation and <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13603116.2021.1956605">engagement</a> must be part of the education policy landscape.</p>
<p>This means paying closer attention to the lives, knowledges, experiences, hopes, fears, challenges and opportunities facing young people.</p>
<p>Educators and policymakers must consider complex factors of social, economic and educational disadvantage and advantage to meet the <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/alice-springs-mparntwe-education-declaration/resources/alice-springs-mparntwe-education-declaration">Mparntwe Declaration</a> goals of educational excellence and equity. This includes the interplay of socioeconomics, location, culture and community, school resourcing and access for all young people to housing, health, economic and social stability, and quality schooling.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/172050/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stewart Riddle does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Motivation plays a large part in educational success. Of students who sat the PISA test in 2018, 73% indicated they would have put in more effort had the scores counted towards their school marks.Stewart Riddle, Associate Professor, School of Education, University of Southern QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1661442021-11-10T18:37:46Z2021-11-10T18:37:46Z7 ways to get proactive about climate change instead of feeling helpless: Lessons from a leadership expert<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417703/original/file-20210824-16-1wv9ahi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4110%2C2861&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Actions today affect the world these young people will live in.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/students-take-part-in-a-march-for-the-environment-and-the-news-photo/1126526949">Emmanuel Dunand/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Humans do not capitalize nearly enough on our most significant evolutionary advantage: a unique ability to take forward-looking actions that influence the future for the better.</p>
<p>Exhibit A: Climate change is here, <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/sixth-assessment-report-working-group-i/">and things are changing quickly for the worse</a>. However, even as dangerous and costly weather events grow more frequent and severe, we <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/feb/26/co2-emissions-nations-pledges-far-away-from-paris-target-says-un">still don’t do what we need to do</a>.</p>
<p>Ideally, everyone would ratchet up their efforts to protect the climate as smartly as possible. But how can each person help in the most valuable ways? As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=S7lkzxYAAAAJ&hl=en">professor of organizational behavior</a>, I study leadership and proactive problem solving. Research in these fields offers some helpful advice.</p>
<h2>Untapped human potential</h2>
<blockquote>
<p>“I’d love to change the world, but I don’t know what to do,
so I leave it up to you.”
- Alvin Lee, Ten Years After, 1971</p>
</blockquote>
<p>When too many people think like <a href="https://youtu.be/CTUsFm0BAu8">those lyrics</a>, problems don’t get solved.</p>
<p>The only way societies will do enough to keep climate change in check is if they reject passivity, experiment with new strategies and tactics, and wisely strengthen their coping repertoire.</p>
<p>People avoid doing much about climate change for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/sipr.12058">many reasons</a>: 1) They worry about time and cost; 2) they believe it’s difficult to change; 3) they have faulty assumptions, like feeling unable to help or that <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/90654016/al-gore-net-zero-cant-be-a-get-out-of-jail-free-card">other people or new technologies will save the planet</a>; 4) they have psychological biases, like caring more about the present than the future; and 5) they’re uncertain about the best ways to participate. </p>
<p>Laying a foundation for higher-impact action begins with changing common mindsets. Most essential, and a tough task, is to behave far more proactively than most people have up until now. </p>
<h2>How to become more proactive</h2>
<p>Based on psychological and organizational behavior research, here are some starting points: </p>
<p><strong>1) View yourself as someone who cares about the planet and the future.</strong></p>
<p>Your self-identity is how you view and describe yourself, and this generates <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s12053-021-09958-9">corresponding behaviors</a>. How you self-identify can help you think about your future, choose your preferred actions and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s12053-021-09958-9">provide a motivating standard or model to strive for</a>. Take “caring” a step further by viewing yourself as a proactive person who thinks ahead and helps to make the future better than it would be without your contributions.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417708/original/file-20210824-16663-yaju8p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man in jeans and a jacket kneels next to a small tree that's lying on its side in preparation for being planted. Several other ready-to-plant trees are in the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417708/original/file-20210824-16663-yaju8p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417708/original/file-20210824-16663-yaju8p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417708/original/file-20210824-16663-yaju8p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417708/original/file-20210824-16663-yaju8p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417708/original/file-20210824-16663-yaju8p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417708/original/file-20210824-16663-yaju8p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417708/original/file-20210824-16663-yaju8p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Helping plant and care for trees in useful locations is one way to become locally invested with your community.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/ric-weidner-prepares-one-of-the-cherry-trees-before-news-photo/161217330">Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>2) Assess, honestly, your efforts to reduce the harmful effects of climate change.</strong></p>
<p>In the same way people tend to overestimate their driving, athletic and leadership skills, they also tend to believe they are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01973533.2019.1689364">more environmentally friendly than most</a> other people. This misleading bias can breed complacency and hinder action. </p>
<p>If people assess themselves accurately compared to what they could and should be doing, most will see great untapped potential to make a difference. To unleash that potential, consider applying time management strategies found in business management that can free you from countless unpleasant and unproductive tasks and allow you to <a href="https://hbr.org/2013/09/make-time-for-the-work-that-matters">devote attention and time to impactful activities that take most advantage of your skills</a>.</p>
<p><strong>3) Assume responsibility for engaging more usefully in solving the problems of climate change.</strong> </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2016.11.001">Feeling responsible motivates action</a>. A key question is how you define responsibility. </p>
<p>This is different from pinning all responsibility for fixing things on the guiltiest transgressors. In the blame game, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2021.04.014">fossil fuel companies have worked hard to shift</a> responsibility for the world’s climate change predicament to consumers and not themselves. Remember this from George Bernard Shaw: “We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future.” What the future holds really is up to us. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417707/original/file-20210824-23-at1geh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A cyclist rides over a bridge with metal girders." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417707/original/file-20210824-23-at1geh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417707/original/file-20210824-23-at1geh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417707/original/file-20210824-23-at1geh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417707/original/file-20210824-23-at1geh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417707/original/file-20210824-23-at1geh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417707/original/file-20210824-23-at1geh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417707/original/file-20210824-23-at1geh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Boston climate scientist Nathan Phillips bikes with a portable backpack device to measure the venting of natural gas, which contributes to climate change.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/climate-scientist-nathan-phillips-bikes-around-the-news-photo/1230125174">Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>4) Resolve to actively navigate the changing future.</strong> </p>
<p>In general, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2018.04.005">thinking more about the future</a> – rather than just the present and past – yields more positive life and work outcomes. Regarding climate change, it is imperative to <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2019/03/11/688876374/its-2050-and-this-is-how-we-stopped-climate-change">look ahead</a> and act accordingly so you’re helping to forge the best possible outcomes rather than leaving them to chance. </p>
<p>Today’s leading psychologists strongly advise more <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691612474317">mental prospecting</a> – actively envisioning likely and possible futures, exploring for opportunities like old-time gold prospectors and salespeople searching for new leads – and continually seeking the best pathways forward.</p>
<p><strong>5) Learn more about humanity’s biggest challenges.</strong> </p>
<p>Climate change affects everything, so it shouldn’t be hard to find an arena that’s personally interesting. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biab079">Learn enough</a> from accurate sources to discuss with others, consider how your skill sets can help and figure out <a href="https://heated.world/p/what-can-i-do-anything">where you can contribute best</a>. </p>
<p>Here are a few places to start: <a href="https://drawdown.org/">Project Drawdown</a> offers big-picture solutions for lowering greenhouse gas emissions. NOAA provides advice for <a href="https://www.climate.gov/news-features/climate-qa/what-can-we-do-slow-or-stop-global-warming">what individuals can do</a> and where to learn more. The BBC had a good <a href="https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20181102-what-can-i-do-about-climate-change">list of 10 simple ways</a> to take action on climate change a few years ago. Climate scientist <a href="https://www.publicaffairsbooks.com/titles/michael-e-mann/the-new-climate-war/9781541758223/">Michael Mann’s new book</a> discusses what individuals can do politically and collectively for the highest impact.</p>
<p><iframe id="fDSfi" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/fDSfi/3/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p><strong>6) Help solve problems and seek constructive opportunities.</strong> </p>
<p>A common refrain in MBA and executive development programs is to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0021886307313824">turn problems into opportunities</a>, and climate change offers many opportunities, from cleaner energy sources to better construction techniques and food production. This approach opens conversations about long-term change rather than just short-term damage control. It also uncovers diverse views, addresses underlying problems rather than just their visible symptoms and encourages more ideas – thus enhancing problem-solving.</p>
<p><strong>7) Address the root causes and embrace “multisolving.”</strong></p>
<p>In solving business problems, it’s important to not simply treat the most visible symptoms but to identify and address root causes. “<a href="https://ssir.org/articles/entry/the_magic_of_multisolving">Multisolving</a>” identifies solutions that address a root cause of multiple problems.</p>
<p>Climate change is one root of many current problems, from disasters and species extinctions to food and water shortages to social injustice and wars. Military officials often refer to it as a “threat multiplier.” Stopping climate change could help alleviate pressures elsewhere. Backing up further in the <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/">cause-and-effect chain</a>, carbon emissions cause global warming and climate change.</p>
<p>So, personal efforts to reduce your “carbon footprint,” like using less fossil fuel, help. So does <a href="https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2021/01/scientist-mike-manns-must-read-book-the-new-climate-war/">pushing politicians and businesses</a> to reduce carbon and methane emissions by limiting fossil fuel extraction and investing in zero-carbon energy.</p>
<p>The best climate solutions will reduce harm and spread all kinds of benefits. Stabilizing the climate will require help from every direction. It isn’t just an “all hands on deck” moment – the planet needs all heads and hands being proactive.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/166144/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thomas S. Bateman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>To learn to be more proactive, start by viewing yourself as someone who cares about the environment and the future.Thomas S. Bateman, Professor Emeritus of Organizational Behavior, University of VirginiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1691272021-10-18T12:11:42Z2021-10-18T12:11:42ZHow to nurture creativity in your kids<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426475/original/file-20211014-7324-1u31syx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4998%2C3344&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Creativity has many academic, professional and personal benefits.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/four-children-drawing-with-chalk-on-pavement-royalty-free-image/AB15713">Stephen Simpson/Stone Collection via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Parents who want their kids to be more creative may be tempted to enroll them in arts classes or splurge on STEM-themed toys. Those things certainly can help, but as a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=OzW_dWUAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">professor of educational psychology</a> who has <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316979839">written</a> <a href="https://www.springerpub.com/creativity-101-9780826129529.html">extensively</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/a0013688">about creativity</a>, I can draw on more than <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/h0063487">70 years of creativity research</a> to make additional suggestions that are more likely to be effective – and won’t break your budget. </p>
<h2>1. Be cautious with rewards</h2>
<p>Some parents may be tempted to reward their children for being creative, which is traditionally defined as producing something that is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1207/s15326985ep3902_1">both new and useful</a>. However, rewards and praise may actually <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.50.1.14">dissuade your child’s intrinsic interest</a> in being creative. That’s because the activity may become <a href="https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9780306420221">associated with the reward and not the fun</a> the child naturally has doing it. </p>
<p>Of course, I am not saying you should not place your child’s artwork on your fridge. But avoid being too general – “I love every bit of it!” – or too focused on their innate traits – “You are so creative!” Instead, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316832134.028">praise specific aspects</a> that you like in your child’s artwork – “I love the way you made such a cute tail on that dog!” or “The way you combined colors here is pretty!” </p>
<p>Some rewards can be helpful. For example, for a child who loves to draw, giving them materials that they might use in their artwork is an example of a reward that will <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316979839.020">help them stay creative</a>. </p>
<p>It is also important to note that there are many activities – creative or otherwise – for which a child may not have a particular interest. There is no harm – and much potential benefit – in using rewards in these cases. If a child has an assignment for a creative school activity and hates doing it, there may not be any inherent passion to be dampened in the first place.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Boy draws at table partially covered with art supplies" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426576/original/file-20211014-7324-vetody.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426576/original/file-20211014-7324-vetody.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426576/original/file-20211014-7324-vetody.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426576/original/file-20211014-7324-vetody.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426576/original/file-20211014-7324-vetody.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426576/original/file-20211014-7324-vetody.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426576/original/file-20211014-7324-vetody.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">If a child already enjoys a creative activity, offering rewards or nonspecific praise for it may actually dampen their enthusiasm.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/young-boy-at-home-drawing-at-the-table-royalty-free-image/1257515701">Noel Hendrickson/DigitalVision Collection via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>2. Encourage curiosity and new experiences</h2>
<p>Research shows that people who are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316228036">open to new experiences and ideas</a> are more creative than those who are more closed off. Many parents have children who naturally <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2014.07.004">seek new things</a>, such as food, activities, games or playmates. In these cases, simply continue to offer opportunities and encouragement. </p>
<p>For those whose children may be more reticent, there are options. Although personality is theoretically stable, it is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-6494.694157">possible to change</a> it <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000088">in subtle ways</a>. For example, a study – although it was on older adults – found that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/a0025918">crossword or sudoku puzzles</a> can help increase openness. Childhood and adolescence is a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.132.1.1">natural period for openness to grow</a>. Encouraging curiosity and intellectual engagement is one way. Other ways might include encouraging sensible risk-taking – such as trying a new sport for a less athletic child or a new instrument for one less musically inclined – or <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022110361707">interest in other cultures</a>. Even very simple variations on an evening routine, whether trying a new craft or board game or helping cook dinner, can help normalize novelty. </p>
<h2>3. Help them evaluate their best ideas</h2>
<p>What about when children are actually being creative? Most people have heard of brainstorming or other activities where <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/psychology/divergent-thinking">many different ideas are generated</a>. Yet it is equally important to be able to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1207/s15326934crj1803_13">evaluate and select one’s best idea</a>. </p>
<p>Your child might think of 30 possible solutions to a problem, but their creativity will not be expressed if they select the one that’s least interesting – or least actionable. If giving praise can be tricky, feedback can be even tougher. If you are too harsh, you risk <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1037/a0036618">squashing your child’s passion</a> for being creative. Yet if you are too soft, your child may not develop their creativity <a href="https://doi.org/10.2190/EM.28.1.b">to the fullest extent possible</a>.</p>
<p>If your child seeks out your input – which in adults can be a <a href="https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2011.64870144">good indicator of creativity</a> – make sure to give feedback <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10400410802391827">after they have already brainstormed</a> many possible ideas. Ideally, you can ensure your child still feels competent and focus on <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102/003465430298487">feedback that connects to their past efforts</a>: “I like the imagery you used in your poem; you are getting better! What other metaphors might you use in this last line?”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Girl walks over an aerial bridge made of rope and planks surrounded by trees" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426574/original/file-20211014-28-ysbysf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426574/original/file-20211014-28-ysbysf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426574/original/file-20211014-28-ysbysf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426574/original/file-20211014-28-ysbysf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426574/original/file-20211014-28-ysbysf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426574/original/file-20211014-28-ysbysf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426574/original/file-20211014-28-ysbysf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">More guarded kids may need to be encouraged to try new foods or activities.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/girl-walks-through-one-of-the-circuits-of-the-aventura-news-photo/1335426205">Rafael Bastante/Europa Press via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>4. Teach them when not to be creative</h2>
<p>Finally, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02783193.2013.799413">creativity isn’t always the best option</a>. Sometimes, straightforward solutions simply work best. If the toilet is clogged and you have a plunger, you don’t need to make your own from a coat hanger and bisected rubber duck. </p>
<p>More notably, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1207/s15326934crj0801_1">some people</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2162-6057.2005.tb01247.x">including teachers</a>, say they like creative people but actually have negative views of creative kids without even realizing it. </p>
<p>If your child is in a class where their creativity is causing some blowback, such as discipline issues or lowered grades, you may want to work with your child to help them understand the best course of action. For example, if your child is prone to blurt out their ideas regardless of whether they are related to the discussion at hand, emphasize that they should <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13598139.2014.905247">share thoughts that are directly relevant</a> to the class topic. </p>
<p>If, however, you get the feeling that the teacher simply does not appreciate or like your child’s creativity, you may want to suggest that your child keep an “idea parking lot” where they <a href="https://brill.com/view/book/edcoll/9789462091498/BP000003.xml">write down their creative thoughts</a> and share them with you – or a different teacher – later in the day.</p>
<p>Creativity has a host of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/aca0000433">academic</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2001.tb00234.x">professional</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691618771981">personal</a> benefits. With some gentle nudges, you can help your child grow and use their imagination to their heart’s content.</p>
<p>[<em>Over 110,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletter to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=100Ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169127/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James C. Kaufman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Art classes and STEM toys are nice, but there are simple and free ways parents can encourage their child’s creativity – or keep it from getting squashed.James C. Kaufman, Professor of Educational Psychology, University of ConnecticutLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1651702021-08-01T20:08:05Z2021-08-01T20:08:05ZWhat Olympic athletes can teach us about regulating our emotions and staying dedicated<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413903/original/file-20210730-13-1q1clwm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=105%2C373%2C6094%2C3826&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alessandra Tarantino/AP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Olympians are often seen as the epitome of human performance, with incredible physical and mental strength. And with the 2020 Tokyo Olympic games well underway, it’s hard to not be impressed by the sheer talent and determination of athletes competing from all over the world. </p>
<p>For many of us non-Olympians, the thought of possessing such capabilities is but a dream. But research in sport psychology suggests there are indeed some skills we can learn from the experts, as long as we’re willing to put in the work ourselves.</p>
<h2>What makes an Olympic athlete?</h2>
<p>Being an Olympian not only requires immense physical talent but also an incredible amount of psychological control. Sport psychologists have spent decades trying to identify the key psychological ingredients that make the world’s greatest athletes great.</p>
<p>For one, elite athletes display high levels of passion and commitment towards their sport. They also tend to believe in their own abilities more than the average person - which can protect them against the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2014.901551">negative effects of stress</a>. </p>
<p>Resilience and determination help them bounce back from defeat. A case in point: after competing in three prior Olympic games, British diver Tom Daley <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/jul/27/tom-daley-knits-a-tea-cosy-holder-to-keep-his-gold-medal-safe-from-scratches">recently won</a> his first ever Olympic gold medal in Tokyo.</p>
<p>While competing, athletes must effectively regulate their emotions and attention to ensure best performance. Not keeping their emotions in check may compromise their performance under pressure — a phenomenon often referred to as “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/nov/05/under-pressure-why-athletes-choke">choking</a>”.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-27/tokyo-olympics-simone-biles-out-of-team-gymnastics-finals/100328420">withdrawal</a> of gymnast Simone Biles from the US women’s team and all-round finals to focus on her mental health has highlighted to the whole world how important it is for athletes to be aware of their emotional and psychological functioning. </p>
<h2>But how is discipline developed?</h2>
<p>While genetics do <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12864-017-4190-8">play a role in shaping an elite athlete</a>, life experiences and environmental factors are also very important. Characteristics such as self-efficacy (your belief in your ability to perform a task) develop through experience and continued support from others. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/tokyo-olympics-what-are-the-limits-of-human-performance-podcast-164882">Tokyo Olympics: what are the limits of human performance? Podcast</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Studies show <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0264041031000140374">enabling a supportive environment</a> which promotes free will, emotional expression and non-controlling feedback is important for enhancing athletes’ psychological well-being.</p>
<p>This type of environment fosters what we call “autonomous motivation”, which is the motivation to perform an action based on one’s own interest or enjoyment. Research has shown behaviours that are autonomously motivated are more likely to be <a href="https://ijbnpa.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1479-5868-9-78">maintained long-term</a>. </p>
<p>Olympic champions often deal with multiple stressors relating to their sports performance, occupation and personal lives. But their work requires them to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2012.04.007">develop resilience</a> and approach stressors as challenges to be overcome. </p>
<p>An athlete’s performance can also be impacted by a variety of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/1612197X.2011.614848">environmental cues</a> including their peers, opponents, training facilities, training activities and their coach. Coaches therefore have a particularly important role in shaping an athlete’s environment and promoting high performance.</p>
<h2>Adopting an elite mindset</h2>
<p>Whether or not you’re training for the 2024 Paris Olympics, adopting some of the psychological skills used by Olympians can help you maintain focus and motivation in your own life.</p>
<p>Whether you want to exercise more, reduce your alcohol intake, or maybe be more productive at home or work — the following techniques can help you adopt an elite mindset. </p>
<p><strong>1. Goal-setting</strong></p>
<p>Elite athletes often set short-term and long-term goals. Setting “SMART” goals (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-bound) can help you achieve those small wins to keep you motivated as you progress towards a greater goal.</p>
<p>When setting goals for yourself, try to make them meaningful by linking them to values you care about. For instance, you might wish to prioritise your health, or academic achievement. Doing so can help boost your motivation <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcbs.2013.08.002">to achieve your goals</a>.</p>
<p><strong>2. Planning</strong> </p>
<p>Obtaining a goal can often take considerable time and effort, as we see with athletes preparing for the Olympics. Planning is an important psychological skill that can help you regulate your behaviour as you move toward your goals. </p>
<p>Consider creating detailed action plans which outline when, where and how you will progress toward your goal. Your action plan may look like this:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Every afternoon at 3:00pm (when) I will drive to the local swimming pool (where) and swim for 45 minutes (how).</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In addition, creating detailed coping plans will help prepare you for potential challenges that may impede goal attainment. For instance:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If the pool is too busy, I will go for a 45-minute run through the park instead. </p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>3. Positive self-talk</strong></p>
<p>Many athletes engage in reflective practices such as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1123/tsp.15.3.306">self-talk</a> to help them focus or concentrate on the task at hand. </p>
<p>Identifying positive key words or phrases such as “I can do it” and “I’m almost there” can help redirect your attention and increase motivation to persevere through difficult or challenging situations. Positive self-talk can also help <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2008.07.009">enhance your self-efficacy</a>, which is a strong predictor of various positive outcomes. </p>
<p><strong>4. Mental imagery</strong></p>
<p>Before running towards the vault or executing a serve in volleyball, athletes often use mental imagery to visualise their performance. Visualising the steps needed to perform an action or reach your goal can boost motivation and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2019.02.002">anticipated pleasure</a> from completing the planned activity.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-power-of-no-simone-biles-naomi-osaka-and-black-womens-resistance-165318">The power of no: Simone Biles, Naomi Osaka and Black women's resistance</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>So the next time you sit back to watch the world’s best compete for glory, think about how you too can adopt the mindset of an Olympian, and feel motivated to excel in your own way.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/165170/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thomas Hannan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Simone Biles’ recent Olympics withdrawal is a reminder for all of us to balance our passions with our emotional well-being — as both work in unison.Thomas Hannan, Postdoctoral research fellow, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1598822021-06-22T16:42:52Z2021-06-22T16:42:52Z5 ways international students can harness emotional intelligence to deal with COVID-19 stress<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407318/original/file-20210619-26-11pzjzv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C137%2C7087%2C4572&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Managing academic expectations, culture shock, language barriers and financial constraints amid concerns about viral safety are some of the intersecting stressors faced by international students.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>COVID-19 has drastically changed education for millions of university students around the world. International students <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0020872820940030">are a vulnerable population group</a> with <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/student/blogs/interviews-international-students-canada-about-covid-19-situation">unique challenges</a>. Away from their home countries or at a distance from their universities, they have been significantly <a href="https://thepienews.com/news/covid-19-intl-students-particularly-vulnerable/">affected by the COVID-19 pandemic</a>. </p>
<p>Beyond concerns about themselves and loved ones due to the virus, international students have worried about things like visa and graduation status, optional practical <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/45-28-0001/2020001/article/00022-eng.htm">training opportunities being harder to obtain or cancelled</a> or whether to go home (if that is even an option due to <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2020/04/08/billions-of-dollars-are-at-risk-colleges-and-universities-scramble-to-protect-international-student-sector-amid-covid-19-pandemic.html">border closures</a>). Some have worried about living far from loved ones, having to <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/students-at-several-colleges-and-universities-asked-to-vacate-dorms-over-covid-19-1.4858086">find a place to live if dormitories close</a>, <a href="https://dmjzone.ca/student-houses-struggle-with-pandemic-rules/">self-isolating from roommates</a> if necessary and finances.</p>
<p>My preliminary research has examined the lived experiences of international graduate students in Ontario, and government and university policies pertaining to international students. My findings to date suggest that international students can be better supported by their institutions to cope with their personal and emotional challenges that may become compounded during <a href="https://diverseeducation.com/article/169596">public crises</a>.</p>
<p>I have also explored models that institutions could rely on to support students’ emotional well-being. This has led me to consider how international students might turn to the <a href="https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20210110205926261">toolkit of emotional intelligence</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Back of a young person in backpack looking at the sky." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407316/original/file-20210619-26-1oikddu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407316/original/file-20210619-26-1oikddu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407316/original/file-20210619-26-1oikddu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407316/original/file-20210619-26-1oikddu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407316/original/file-20210619-26-1oikddu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407316/original/file-20210619-26-1oikddu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407316/original/file-20210619-26-1oikddu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The pandemic has been difficult both for international students living away from loved ones and those far from their institutions wondering about interruptions to their programs or research.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Matese Fields/Unsplash)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>More international connections</h2>
<p>Canada’s <a href="https://www.international.gc.ca/education/strategy-2019-2024-strategie.aspx?lang=eng">International Education Strategy (2019-2024)</a> details how government policy has advocated both recruiting international students to study in Canada and sending more Canadian students abroad for exchange programs. </p>
<p>What some scholars call “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/23322969.2020.1820898">internationalization” of higher education</a> is the process of integrating an <a href="https://doi.org/10.32674/jis.v10i1.1893">international, intercultural or global dimension</a> into the purpose, functions or <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/344568111_Canada's_Universities_Go_Global">delivery of post-secondary education</a>. </p>
<p>This involves <a href="https://www.collegesinstitutes.ca/what-we-do/international/international-recruitment/">recruiting of international students</a>, developing <a href="https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=2021031012405285">international branch campuses</a>, scholarly <a href="https://doi.org/10.2304%2Frcie.2012.7.1.5">exchange programs</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8905-9_244">developing research and education partnerships</a> between institutions regionally and internationally and changing curriculum to reflect global realities.</p>
<p>According to the Canadian Bureau for International Education, there was an <a href="https://cbie.ca/infographic/">increase of 135 per cent international students</a> in Canada between 2010-20. In 2019, there were about <a href="https://www23.statcan.gc.ca/imdb/p2SV.pl?Function=getSurvey&SDDS=5017">1,090,000 full-time and 266,000 part-time international students</a> enrolled in Canadian institutions.</p>
<p>Ninety-six per cent of Canadian universities include internationalization as part of their strategic planning, more than <a href="https://www.univcan.ca/universities/facts-and-stats/internationalization-at-canadian-universities-quick-facts/">80 per cent identify it as one of their top five planning priorities</a>. </p>
<h2>Pandemic challenges</h2>
<p>Every year, many international students are flying to Canada from all over the world to pursue their future academic and career goals in a <a href="https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED549823.pdf">multicultural global setting</a>. </p>
<p>However, disorienting experiences are common among most international students. Students report instances of <a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/IJEM-04-2014-0049/full/html">academic differences</a>, <a href="https://www.washington.edu/counseling/resources-for-students/international-students-and-cultural-shock/">culture shock</a>, <a href="http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/a?id=1042">language barriers</a>, <a href="http://plaza.ufl.edu/ffgao/mmc5015/final/financial.html">financial constraints</a> and other challenges. </p>
<p>These experiences often lead to <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.2991/jegh.k.201016.001">traumatic effects and psychological reactions</a> such as depression, anxiety and acute stress disorder. International students already face challenges to their mental health, and the COVID-19 pandemic has <a href="https://www.nafsa.org/ie-magazine/2021/4/6/compounding-stress-pandemics-effects-mental-health">intensified these challenges</a>.</p>
<h2>What’s your ‘EQ’?</h2>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A cartoon of a brain shaking hands with a heart." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407315/original/file-20210619-35539-1acy6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407315/original/file-20210619-35539-1acy6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407315/original/file-20210619-35539-1acy6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407315/original/file-20210619-35539-1acy6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407315/original/file-20210619-35539-1acy6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407315/original/file-20210619-35539-1acy6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407315/original/file-20210619-35539-1acy6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Emotional intelligence or ‘EQ’ challenges the notion that intelligence is all about the brain.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>American psychologist <a href="https://www.danielgoleman.info/biography/">Daniel Goleman</a> is a leading expert on <a href="https://www.ihhp.com/meaning-of-emotional-intelligence/">emotional intelligence</a>. Emotional Intelligence (EQ) is a multifaceted ability that helps individuals to sense, understand, value and effectively apply the <a href="https://www.ihhp.com/meaning-of-emotional-intelligence/">power of emotions</a> as a source of information, trust, creativity and influence. </p>
<p>He developed <a href="https://www.verywellmind.com/components-of-emotional-intelligence-2795438">five key emotional intelligence skills</a> that are linked to everything from making decisions to academic achievement.<br>
People may draw on these five aspects embedded within emotional intelligence — self-awareness, self-regulation, social skills, empathy and motivation — either as unique components or collectively to cope with everyday life events. </p>
<p>International students can benefit from considering aspects of emotional intelligence both during the pandemic and beyond. </p>
<p>1.<strong><a href="https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-self-awareness-2795023">Self-awareness</a></strong> is the ability to recognize and understand your own emotions and being aware of the effect of your actions, moods and emotions on other people. <a href="https://www.lockhaven.com/opinion/columns/2020/10/self-awareness-helpful-during-covid-19/">Self-awareness develops as we interact</a>, and it enables us to build complex social relationships. It could help international students take note of their own responses and stressors in a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/3256415">complex situation such as the pandemic</a>. </p>
<p>2.<strong><a href="https://www.verywellmind.com/how-you-can-practice-self-regulation-4163536">Self-regulation</a></strong> is all about expressing your emotions appropriately and being able to regulate and <a href="https://www.verywellmind.com/emotion-regulation-skills-training-425374">manage your emotions</a>.
The capacity to perceive, understand and regulate one’s own emotions works as an ideal framework to <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.jvb.2020.103440">reason about emotions and to use emotions in reasoning</a>. International students who find themselves facing a roller coaster of emotions would be well-served in identifying what positive, healthy activities and practices could help find an equilibrium. </p>
<p>3.<strong><a href="https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-social-intelligence-4163839">Social skills</a></strong> refer to building meaningful relationships with other people. <a href="https://www.mcgill.ca/newsroom/channels/news/social-isolation-causing-psychological-distress-among-university-students-324910">Social isolation causing psychological distress</a> among university students is common in this pandemic and <a href="https://www.oecd.org/coronavirus/policy-responses/the-impact-of-covid-19-on-student-equity-and-inclusion-supporting-vulnerable-students-during-school-closures-and-school-re-openings-d593b5c8/">social skills are vital for the inclusion of the vulnerable students</a> during school closures. International students might take stock of how their social contexts and networks have changed in the pandemic and take steps to ensure that they are still finding meaningful and mutually supportive social connections.</p>
<p>4.<strong><a href="https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-empathy-2795562">Empathy</a></strong> is about trying to see from others’ points of view and consider how others may be feeling. Being empathetic also allows you to understand the power dynamics that often influence social relationships. International students can benefit from practising empathy with themselves by considering how a caring friend might speak with them. When they are empathetic to others, they are more likely to work on relationships.</p>
<p>5.<strong><a href="https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-motivation-2795378">Motivation</a></strong> is about drawing on emotions in positive ways <a href="https://resilienteducator.com/classroom-resources/daniel-golemans-emotional-intelligence-theory-explained/">to achieve goals, persevering when meeting obstacles and seeking to enjoy the learning processes</a>. Whether international students face pandemic unknowns, grief due to the virus, or socio-economic challenges, looking beyond one’s immediate circumstances to a larger picture is critical. </p>
<p>These five components of emotional intelligence play an important role in handling even the most challenging life situations with <a href="https://positivepsychology.com/importance-of-emotional-intelligence/">ease and compassion</a>. </p>
<p>For international students, especially during the pandemic, emotional intelligence is crucial for managing their adaptive processes and regulating their emotions and is essential for better overall health and well-being.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/159882/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rakha Zabin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>International students are a vulnerable population who have faced many stressors in the COVID-19 pandemic. Emotional intelligence can help navigate these.Rakha Zabin, PhD Student, Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, Brock UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1618742021-06-14T21:37:29Z2021-06-14T21:37:29ZBias is natural: How you manage it defines your ability to be just<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406191/original/file-20210614-128076-13r9glm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=99%2C140%2C5425%2C3114&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">By acknowledging our biases we can find ways to mitigate their impact on our decision making.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>People tend to think having biases is a bad thing. From the <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-and-cognitive-bias-the-surprising-reasons-people-cheat-at-social-distancing-137987">COVID-19 pandemic</a>, to education and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/starbucks-and-the-impact-of-implicit-bias-training-96491">workplace</a>, tackling and mitigating bias is very much a topic of conversation.</p>
<p>But, if we want to create a <a href="https://qspace.library.queensu.ca/handle/1974/26032">more just society</a> we need to first understand biases as natural products of our environment. </p>
<p>We develop biases and perspectives as reactions to experiences that prepare us for evaluating information that we will encounter in the future.</p>
<p>We <a href="https://perception.org/research/implicit-bias/">all have biases to some degree</a>, <a href="https://journals.lww.com/jcehp/Citation/2021/04120/Reimagining_Bias__Making_Strange_With_Disclosure.10.aspx">whether we care to admit this or not</a>. Our biases remain innocuous until our assumptions impact our behaviours toward other people. By acknowledging our biases we can find ways to mitigate their impact on our decision making. </p>
<p>Our perceptions of bias and our perspectives fundamentally affect how we interact with our environments. Take myself for example, I’m a motivation and education researcher in the Faculty of Education and Faculty of Health Sciences at Queen’s University. I tend to be moved by evidence that explains and explores <em>why</em> someone did or should do something. That’s why the motives behind bias are <a href="https://qspace.library.queensu.ca/handle/1974/27642?show=full">fascinating to me</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/measuring-the-implicit-biases-we-may-not-even-be-aware-we-have-74912">Measuring the implicit biases we may not even be aware we have</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Motivation and biases</h2>
<p>Our biases are consciously and unconsciously shaped by what motivates us. The motives behind our actions shape how we see the world and everything in it. With this understanding it is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02601370120490">impossible to be impartial</a> on <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102%2F0013189X07309471">many issues</a>.</p>
<p>I’ll use a motivation theory called <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-097086-8.26099-6">Expectancy-Value-Cost (EVC)</a> to explain this. Our motivations for anything can be sorted into three overarching groups of factors: expectancies (expectations of success), values and costs.</p>
<p>Expectancies are a combination of self-concept (how I see myself) and self-efficacy (I believe myself to be capable of this task). For example, does a person believe they are impartial and capable of being impartial on a particular issue.</p>
<p>Values are the reasons why we do something (it would be fun, fulfils my identity, or I expect a reward for doing this). Someone who aspires to be even-handed or identifies as being just and fair would naturally be more willing to consider the possibility that their view might be skewed by a past experience or what they have perceived. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406251/original/file-20210614-130619-1f9994q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An illustration showing silhouettes of different people." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406251/original/file-20210614-130619-1f9994q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406251/original/file-20210614-130619-1f9994q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406251/original/file-20210614-130619-1f9994q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406251/original/file-20210614-130619-1f9994q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406251/original/file-20210614-130619-1f9994q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406251/original/file-20210614-130619-1f9994q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406251/original/file-20210614-130619-1f9994q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Our perceptions of bias and our perspectives fundamentally affect how we interact with our environments.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Confronting biases also has perceived costs. Costs are the inherent and holistic price of doing something (extra effort, pressure, discomfort). Consider how uncomfortable it can sometimes be to challenge our assumptions and admit that we might have been less than fair, intentionally or unintentionally.</p>
<p>When we act on biases we are driven by factors like these. Although they vary from person to person, these three factors paint a generally applicable picture.</p>
<h2>Mitigating bias</h2>
<p>The best you can hope for is to be aware of how you are biased and mitigate its impact. Our perspective on something as simple as a <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/nhl/mark-scheifele-winnipeg-jets-montreal-canadiens-1.6053544">hockey hit</a> or as complex as thoughts <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/first-person-robert-doucette-more-than-a-dark-period-1.6053849">that spur discussion of histories that could demand a shift in worldview</a>, are influenced by our past experiences.</p>
<p>By stigmatizing bias, we treat it as something to evade, avoid and conceal instead of something we must discuss. This makes <a href="https://doi.org/10.1097/acm.0000000000003700">unmitigated biases</a> — <em>the ones that we convince ourselves that we do not have</em> — a source of division and shame that impedes our progress.</p>
<p>By not addressing unmitigated biases, we are setting people up to avoid difficult conversations and to live as if some folks’ experiences don’t exist or that perspectives other than their own are not valid. This lets biases fester into something that makes injustices more likely.</p>
<p>Where this becomes a threat to justice is when we believe we see things <a href="https://qspace.library.queensu.ca/handle/1974/26032">more clearly than others</a>. Instead, we should ask ourselves why we are seeing things the way we do and consider what could be informing our bias.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406200/original/file-20210614-125916-1ko2oqw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman and man argue sitting on a couch." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406200/original/file-20210614-125916-1ko2oqw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406200/original/file-20210614-125916-1ko2oqw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406200/original/file-20210614-125916-1ko2oqw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406200/original/file-20210614-125916-1ko2oqw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406200/original/file-20210614-125916-1ko2oqw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406200/original/file-20210614-125916-1ko2oqw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406200/original/file-20210614-125916-1ko2oqw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Acknowledging bias allows us to make amends, make better decisions and eventually change for the better.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I’ll go first. I love Canada, the nation that accepted my parents’ families as refugees who were seeking a better life and willing to work hard for it. But if I allow my love for Canada to make me blind or numb to <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/books/seven-fallen-feathers-1.4232642">horrific historic injustices</a> that have happened in this country, then I am contributing to a status quo that <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/firsthand/m_episodes/the-skin-were-in">actively harms</a> others.</p>
<p>By acknowledging our biases, we make it possible to do something about them, be aware of them and control how they affect us. Acknowledging bias allows us to make amends, make better decisions and eventually change.</p>
<p>Understanding the motivations and broader implications of having biases means we can better contain their negative influence and advance justice in our society. </p>
<p>What we need is a bias literacy of sorts. When we stop challenging our biases and those of others, critical conversations stop happening. Biases are natural products of our experiences, but the ability and willingness to disclose and challenge our biases are acquired through putting in the hard work.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161874/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eleftherios Soleas received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada as well as the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care.</span></em></p>The motives and biases behind our actions shape how we see the world and everything in it. Understanding our biases means we can contain their negative influence and advance justice in our society.Eleftherios Soleas, Adjunct assistant professor, Education, Queen's University, OntarioLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1614672021-05-27T17:53:31Z2021-05-27T17:53:31ZGoing beyond ‘back to normal’ – 5 research-based tips for emerging from pandemic life<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403145/original/file-20210527-23-1k3re5s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=32%2C0%2C4997%2C3375&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">You don't need to pick up exactly where you left off; you can think about how you want your life to look.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/portrait-of-mature-businesswoman-working-on-laptop-royalty-free-image/1097994624">Thomas Barwick/DigitalVision via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>You’ve been waiting… and waiting… and waiting for this amazing, magical day when you could return to “normal life.”</p>
<p>For many people in the U.S., it feels like that dim light at the end of the pandemic tunnel is becoming brighter. My 12- and 14-year-old daughters now have their first shot, with the second one soon to follow. I was euphoric when the kids received their vaccinations, choking up under my mask at the relief that my family was now unlikely to get sick or pass the coronavirus on to others more vulnerable than we are. Finally our family could start returning to so-called normal life.</p>
<p>But what should those of us fortunate enough to be vaccinated return to? I didn’t exactly feel euphoric each day in my normal life pre-COVID-19. How should you choose what to rebuild, what to leave behind and what new paths to try for the first time? <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=zYSMPmcAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Clinical psychological science</a> provides some helpful clues for how to chart your course out of pandemic life.</p>
<h2>1. Set realistic expectations</h2>
<p>You are less likely to be disappointed if you <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-006X.65.1.79">set reasonable expectations</a>.</p>
<p>For instance, you’ll likely feel some anxiety as you try to figure out what’s OK to do and what’s still risky. Even as the risk level has declined in many places, there is still uncertainty and unpredictability tied to the current coronavirus risks, and it’s natural to feel <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/a0016830">anxious or ambivalent when letting go of an established habit</a>, like wearing masks. So, be ready for some anxiety and realize it doesn’t mean something is wrong – it’s a natural reaction to a very unnatural situation.</p>
<p>It’s also likely that many social interactions will feel a little awkward at first. Most Americans are out of practice socializing, and <a href="https://www.apa.org/ptsd-guideline/patients-and-families/exposure-therapy">repeated practice is what helps us feel comfortable</a>.</p>
<p>Even if your social skills were at their peak, the current moment serves up a lot to navigate interpersonally. Chances are you won’t always agree with the people in your life on where to draw the lines about what’s safe and what’s not. There are going to be some complicated July Fourth parties to navigate given many families have some members vaccinated and some not. That will be frustrating after waiting so long to finally get together.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403147/original/file-20210527-17-1ezzbh4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="woman in a car's driver's seat covers her face with her hands" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403147/original/file-20210527-17-1ezzbh4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403147/original/file-20210527-17-1ezzbh4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403147/original/file-20210527-17-1ezzbh4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403147/original/file-20210527-17-1ezzbh4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403147/original/file-20210527-17-1ezzbh4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403147/original/file-20210527-17-1ezzbh4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403147/original/file-20210527-17-1ezzbh4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pre-pandemic life wasn’t perfect – don’t idealize what it will be like to get back to the way things were.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/sad-businesswoman-driver-sitting-in-car-royalty-free-image/878990826">baona/E+ via Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>And you won’t automatically have warm, fuzzy feelings about all your colleagues, family, friends and neighbors. Many of those little annoyances that cropped up in your interactions before you ever heard of COVID-19 will still be there.</p>
<p>So, expect some awkwardness, frustration and annoyance – everyone’s creating new patterns and adjusting to changed relationships. This should all get easier with time and practice, but having realistic expectations can make the transition smoother. </p>
<h2>2. Live your values</h2>
<p>To help plan which activities and relationships to put time into, think about your priorities.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Kathleen-Palm-Reed/publication/232494484_Acceptance_Mindfulness_and_Trauma/links/00b7d51a7934787fb2000000/Acceptance-Mindfulness-and-Trauma.pdf#page=137">Living in ways that are consistent with your values</a> can promote well-being and reduce anxiety and depression. <a href="https://www.guilford.com/books/Acceptance-and-Commitment-Therapy/Hayes-Strosahl-Wilson/9781462528943">Many therapeutic exercises</a> are designed to help reduce the discrepancy between your stated values and the choices you make day to day.</p>
<p>Imagine you are asked to carve a pie to illustrate your different roles and how important each is to the way you feel about yourself and the values you prioritize. You might value your roles as a mother, a spouse and a friend most highly, assigning them the biggest pieces of your pie.</p>
<p><iframe id="OYom5" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/OYom5/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Now, what if you were asked to carve that pie in a way that reflects how you actually allocate your time and energy, or how you actually tend to evaluate yourself. Is the time you spend with friends much lower than its value to you? Is the tendency to judge yourself based on rigid work demands much higher?</p>
<p><iframe id="zSYQc" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/zSYQc/3/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Of course, time is not the only meaningful metric, and all of us have periods when certain parts of our lives need to dominate – think about life as a parent of a newborn, or a student during final exams. But this process of considering your values and trying to align what you value and how you live can help guide your choices during this complex time.</p>
<h2>3. Keep track</h2>
<p><a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2014-05860-011">Clinical psychologists recommend</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2016.06.046">engaging in activities that feel rewarding</a> in some way to stave off negative moods. Doing things that are pleasurable, that provide a sense of accomplishment or help you meet your goals can all feel rewarding, so this isn’t just about having fun.</p>
<p>For most people, some balance of fun, productive, social, active and relaxing activities in life is key to feeling like your different needs are being met. So, try keeping track of your activities and mood for a week. See when you feel more or less happy and when you feel like you’re meeting your goals, and adjust accordingly. It will take some trial and error to find the balance of activities that provides that sense of reward.</p>
<h2>4. Is this a time of growth or preservation?</h2>
<p>There is fascinating research showing that the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1024569803230">perception of time can influence your goals and motivation</a>. If you feel time is waning – as often occurs for older adults or those experiencing a serious illness – you are likely to seek deeper connections with a smaller number of people. Alternatively, those who feel time is open-ended and expansive tend to seek new relationships and experiences.</p>
<p>As restrictions loosen, are you desperate to visit a close friend in the town you grew up in? Or more excited to travel to an exotic location and make new friends? There isn’t a right answer, but this research can help you consider your current priorities and plan that next reunion or trip accordingly.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403149/original/file-20210527-19-1gn4tg5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="older man smiles up at younger man with his arm around his shoulders" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403149/original/file-20210527-19-1gn4tg5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403149/original/file-20210527-19-1gn4tg5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403149/original/file-20210527-19-1gn4tg5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403149/original/file-20210527-19-1gn4tg5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403149/original/file-20210527-19-1gn4tg5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403149/original/file-20210527-19-1gn4tg5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403149/original/file-20210527-19-1gn4tg5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Helping others ends up benefiting you, too.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/senior-man-smiling-at-young-man-royalty-free-image/946924454">Westend61 via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>5. Recognize your privilege and pay it forward</h2>
<p>If you are vaccinated and healthy and can return to more normal activities, then you are in a fortunate group after a year of such devastating losses. As you plan how to use this time, consider the research showing that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2018.02.014">your emotional health improves when you do things to benefit others</a>.</p>
<p>Being intentional about helping others is a win-win. Many people and communities are in need right now, so think about how you can contribute – be it time, money, resources, skills or a listening ear. Asking what your community needs to recover and thrive and how you can help address those needs, as well as considering what you and your household need, can boost everyone’s well-being.</p>
<p>As the return to so-called normal life becomes more of a reality, don’t idealize post-pandemic life or you are bound to be disappointed. Instead, be grateful and intentional about what you choose to do with this gift of a reboot. With a little thought, you can do better than “normal.”</p>
<p>[<em>Research into coronavirus and other news from science</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/science-editors-picks-71/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=science-corona-research">Subscribe to The Conversation’s new science newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161467/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bethany Teachman receives funding from the National Institute of Mental Health and grants from the University of Virginia. She is the Director of the MindTrails site.</span></em></p>After more than a year of idealizing life without COVID-19, people are starting to reenter ‘normal’ life. Clinical psychology provides guidance on how to prepare for your post-pandemic reboot.Bethany Teachman, Professor of Psychology, University of VirginiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1571102021-05-10T16:02:14Z2021-05-10T16:02:14ZBeginners 101: How to confront and overcome the discomfort of starting something new<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397430/original/file-20210427-19-s8sizm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=41%2C556%2C4543%2C2887&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Turning experience into learning requires reflection.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Aaron Burden/Unsplash)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>COVID-19 catapulted our society on a mass scale into the online environment, and often we weren’t prepared. Many of us were forced to <a href="https://hbr.org/2020/04/how-the-coronavirus-crisis-is-redefining-jobs">equip ourselves with new skills and tackle new challenges</a>.</p>
<p>For instance, beyond changing how we worked, some of us also had to cope with the prospect or reality of being <a href="https://apnews.com/article/94f4446acae487e1eb7cc85e2c176908">Zoom bombed</a> <a href="https://apnews.com/press-release/business-wire/7a7b31c4758e491299d8ee62c988eedc">or scammed</a> online.</p>
<p>Beginning something new and confronting new circumstances requires us to bear the discomfort of being a beginner. It necessitates experiential learning — any learning that happens when we intentionally consider our <a href="https://books.google.ca/books/about/Experiential_Learning.html?id=3mQAFeBFcfEC&redir_esc=y">experience to be a source for a potential lesson</a>.</p>
<p>Research insights into how students learn through experience can benefit anyone who is facing the discomfort of new learning.</p>
<h2>What is experiential learning?</h2>
<p>Turning experience <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Reflection-Turning-Experience-into-Learning/Boud-Keogh-Walker/p/book/9781138984820">into learning requires reflection</a>. Reflection is a process of thinking critically to create meaning from our experiences.</p>
<p>As an example, consider the experience of your first Zoom call, whether this was during the pandemic or before. Think about how you felt before you clicked the link, the concerns you had when your internet froze or your kids appeared, and how you adapted. Maybe you increased your internet bandwidth, introduced your colleagues to your kids and found the mute button. That’s reflection, and the benefit of considering what we can learn from our experience and how we can apply what we learn going forward.</p>
<p>When I developed and tested <a href="https://doi.org/10.20343/teachlearninqu.7.1.5">a tool to help guide, assess and evaluate how students learn through experience</a>, I found that learners describe reflection as “a positive challenge.” Other research has found learners experienced it as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14703290701241042">rewarding but challenging</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A worker standing on scaffolding." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390629/original/file-20210319-19-1ctcyhc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390629/original/file-20210319-19-1ctcyhc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390629/original/file-20210319-19-1ctcyhc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390629/original/file-20210319-19-1ctcyhc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390629/original/file-20210319-19-1ctcyhc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1132&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390629/original/file-20210319-19-1ctcyhc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1132&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390629/original/file-20210319-19-1ctcyhc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1132&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The term ‘scaffolding’ refers to <strong>supports that help</strong> people progressively gain independence and mastery in what they are learning.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Jay Ee/Unsplash)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Being a beginner is most difficult and uncomfortable when what a person needs to learn seems far beyond their reach, and they don’t have the experiential scaffolding to support their learning. This can make learning ineffective. However, if a person perceives a challenge as hard but within reach, they <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/psychology/zone-of-proximal-development#:%7E:text=ZPD%20is%20defined%20by%20Vygotsky,86">may be motivated</a> to take the steps needed to get there. </p>
<p>In construction, scaffolding helps builders reach new heights. In education, the term <a href="https://ctl.wiley.com/scaffolding-learning-in-the-online-classroom/">“scaffolding” refers to supports that help people </a> progressively gain independence and mastery in what they are learning. Reflection, while a positive challenge, can help us learn and <a href="https://theconversation.com/confucius-has-a-message-for-business-leaders-who-want-to-succeed-reflect-90365">and succeed</a>.</p>
<h2>Realizing what we learned</h2>
<p>While studying the important role reflection plays in helping us learn through our experiences, I found that reflecting on our experiences seems to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/03098265.2020.1804843">make information more available for use</a>. In the words of one of my student research participants, “reflection didn’t make me learn more, it just made me realize what I had learned.” </p>
<p>There is value in explicitly knowing what you know – you can use what you know to put your new challenges within reach.</p>
<p>Used as a tool for leveraging our experiences as scaffolding for learning, reflection can help us take full advantage of novel situations. It could propel us into <a href="https://journals.tdl.org/absel/index.php/absel/article/view/306">conscious competence</a>: this is when our competence is grounded in knowing that we can easily troubleshoot, find useful information and learn effectively. </p>
<h2>5 tips for beginners</h2>
<p>Whether your current work has evolved during the pandemic or is new altogether, here’s a list of things that can help you effectively use reflection to help learn something new:</p>
<p>• <strong>Get clear on what you know and what you need to know</strong>. Use what you know and leverage the skills, abilities and resources that you have to help you tackle the challenges ahead.</p>
<p>• <strong>Consider your past experiences.</strong> How can they help you navigate this new situation? What lessons can you apply right away?</p>
<p>• <strong>Tap into your emotions.</strong> <a href="https://theconversation.com/want-to-be-happier-try-getting-to-know-yourself-109451">Identify your feelings</a> and what biases, values or intentions are underneath. Without agonizing over it, consider how these feelings may be helping or hindering you. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-we-think-about-our-past-experiences-affects-how-we-can-help-others-80190">How we think about our past experiences affects how we can help others</a>
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<p>• <strong>Take a step back</strong>. Try to <a href="https://doi.org/10.3200/CTCH.57.1.15-22">see the situation from a distance</a> or as if it were someone else’s. What else can you see and learn from this perspective? From this vantage, how could the outcome be improved?</p>
<p>• <strong>Make a plan</strong>. Answer the following questions, in order, to <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5559240/">set goals and plan for success</a>: What’s the next action to move you forward? How will you feel once it’s done? What outcome do you expect? What could derail your plan and what will you do to ensure it doesn’t stop you? </p>
<p>Whether it’s transitioning to a new job or industry, helping our children with their online homework or learning how to screen-share during video conferences, we must treat our new experiences as welcome opportunities to learn, and embrace the discomfort of being beginners.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/157110/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kate Whalen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>5 ways to use use what you know to bring new challenges within reach.Kate Whalen, Instructor, Sustainable future program, McMaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.