autonomy, creativity, mastery, and purpose

Daniel H. Pink, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, Penguin Group: 2009

[After experiencing a downturn in motivation due to cloudy skies, endless blizzards, and frigid temperatures, I decided to read Daniel H. Pink's book to hear his truth about what motivates the human animal. The paraphrased content from his book that you will find below is what I took to heart.]

The Need: Autonomy, Human Creativity, Mastery and Connection

People want to work autonomously, have the time necessary to master their work creatively, and recognize its beneficial connection to the community and the world. It’s time to throw away the tardy slips, time clocks, and outdated industrial-age thinking about management techniques.

It’s important to overturn the age-old idea of “managing” workers and students because people with intrinsic motivation almost always outperform carrot and stick grunts in the long run. Intrinsic motivation is a renewable resource. But, best of all, men and women who are intrinsically motivated experience a greater sense of physical and mental well-being.

Contingent rewards- if you do this, then you’ll get that- have a negative effect on people’s motivation. Why? Because if-then rewards require people to forfeit some of their autonomy.

The problem with making an extrinsic reward the only destination that matters is that some people will choose the quickest route to achieve the end result, even it means taking the low road… Contrast that approach with behavior sparked by intrinsic motivation. When the reward is the activity itself, deepening learning or doing one’s best for example, there are no shortcuts. The only route to the destination is the high road.

CARROTS AND STICKS: The Seven Deadly Flaws

They can extinguish intrinsic motivation.

They can diminish performance.

They can crush creativity.

They can crowd out good behavior.

They can encourage cheating, shortcuts, and unethical behavior.

They can become addictive.

The can foster short-term thinking.

The Self –Determination Theory (Richard Ryan and Edward Deci)

This theory argues that we have three innate psychological needs- competence, autonomy, and relatedness. In other words, human beings have an innate inner drive to be autonomous, self-determined, and connected to one another. And when that drive is liberated, people achieve more and live richer lives.

“The science confirms that this sort of behavior is essential to being human- and that now, in a rapidly changing economy, it is also critical for professional, personal and organizational success of any kind,” writes Daniel H. Pink in his book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us after reviewing a substantial amount of literature on the subject of human motivation

[Dan Ariely, the author of Predictably Irrational, is cited in Pink’s book and is also now on my reading list.]

I found this quote from Seth Godin inspiring and insightful concerning human nature and employment.

“As an entrepreneur, I’m blessed with 100% autonomy over task, time, technique and team… The art of the art is picking your limits. That’s the autonomy I cherish. The freedom to pick my boundaries.” Seth Godin, author of Tribes and Purple Cow

Dough It: Loaves of Love

Do a little dance; Share a little love; Bake a loaf of bread!

This whole-wheat bread recipe is the scrumptious partnership of delicious and healthy, so much so that I am considering devoting part of each Sunday to the bread baking experience. Painting the crust with an egg wash is my favorite part. Grocery store bread can’t measure up to the real thing.

100% Whole Grain Maple Oatmeal Bread

Makes enough for two 2-pound loaves. The recipe is easily doubled or halved.

5 cups whole-wheat flour

2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

½ cup wheat germ

1½ tablespoons granulated yeast, or 2 packets of yeast

1 tablespoon salt

¼ cup vital wheat gluten (Vital wheat gluten is easy to find in the supermarket.)

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2½ cups lukewarm water

1 cup buttermilk

¾ cup maple syrup

¼ cup neutral-flavored oil (I use canola oil.)

Egg wash (1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water) for brushing on top of the crust

Raw sugar for sprinkling on top

1. Mixing the dough: Whisk together the flour, oats, wheat germ, yeast, salt, vital wheat gluten, and cinnamon in a large bowl.

2. Add the liquid ingredients and mix without kneading using a spoon.

3. Cover (not airtight) and allow the dough to rest at room temperature until it rises and collapses (or flattens on top), approximately 2 hours.

4. Grease two loaf pans. Separate the dough into two parts. Elongate each part into an oval and place each oval in a loaf pan. Cover loosely with plastic wrap. Allow these two loaves to rest for 60 minutes.

5. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

6. Just before baking, use a pastry brush to paint the top of the crust with egg wash and sprinkle with sugar.

7. Bake for about 45 or 50 minutes, until richly brown and firm.

8. Allow the loaves to cool for at least 15 minutes in the pans.

[Advice: Stick large chunks of warm buttered bread into your mouth. Chew with self-awareness and eyes closed. Smile while executing the final step and share some love with the neighbors.]

Recipe: Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day, Jeff Hertzberg, M.D., & Zoë François, St. Martin’s Press: New York, 2009, p. 147

Sexual Maturity in Humans Takes Time

Sex and Age: Think on This

Words of Wisdom from... Elizabeth Gilbert, Committed, Penguin Publishing, 2010

Immanuel Kant believed that we humans, because we are so emotionally complex, go through two puberties in life. The first puberty is when our bodies become mature enough for sex; the second puberty is when our minds become mature enough for sex. The two events can be separated by many, many years, though I do wonder if perhaps our emotional maturity comes to us only through the experiences and lessons of our youthful romantic failures. To ask a twenty-year-old girl to somehow automatically know things about life that most forty-year-old women needed decades to understand is expecting an awful lot of wisdom from a very young person. Maybe we all go through the anguish and errors of a first puberty, in other words, before any of us can ascend into the second one?

[And, what do search engines like Google reveal about sexual maturity and the pursuit of love?]

"If Google Reveals Secret Desires, What Can It Say About Relationships" on NPR

Om Shanti: I Need a Yogi

More Time to Chaplin

I wish I had more time to watch Chaplin films.

Divine Inspiration

Four Arms Embrace Me

Saraswati, the goddess of arts and knowledge, represents the free flow of wisdom and consciousness. She has four hands representing the four aspects of human personality in learning: mind, intellect, alertness and ego.

[The ideals of this goddess reside in my heart. She turns my head with her musical charm because I also desire the free flow of knowledge and consciousness in my own life.]

The Natural Laws of Good Luck

Tiny Bubbles: Slippery Luck

I found this reference to translations of Antonio Machado’s poems by Robert Bly in Ellen Graf’s memoir The Natural Laws of Good Luck: A Memoir of an Unlikely Marriage.

Soap bubbles are transitory and fleeting like all human life; Treading softly on humble ground goes Machado. This encourages me to consume more of his blue skies and memory lanes.

I have never wanted fame
Nor wanted to leave my poems
Behind in the memory of men
I love the subtle worlds,
Delicate, almost without weight,
Like soap bubbles.
I enjoy seeing them take the color
Of sunlight and scarlet, float
In the blue sky, then
Suddenly quiver and break.

Heart of Darkness: Assorted Thoughts

Teaching Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness is never uplifting and usually leaves me depressed- about as low as one human mind can sink. Listening to an interview with Francis Ford Coppola about the making of Apocalypse Now, a modern portrayal of the themes in Conrad's novella set during the Vietnam War, didn't elevate my mood any higher despite the fact that I admire Coppola greatly.

After listening to the interview and preparing discussion questions for the last half of the novella, my mind drifted to the Richmond High School gang rape that happened in the picnic area of the school grounds circa October 2009. Picnic areas are supposed to be places where people relax and chat with friends. In this case, a 15-year old girl was allegedly gang raped by ten young men while ten bystanders, who had been somehow desensitized to the violence, watched for more than two hours.

Parallels to Heart of Darkness:

Setting:

* The Belgian Congo in the late 1800s was destroyed by Belgian's exploitation of the area's natural resources and the murder of 8-10 million Africans who died working in a slave labor system.
* Inner City American High Schools in 2009 are destroyed by violence, the breakdown of community support, drugs, and a culture of hopelessness leading to high drop out rates.

Theme:

* Entering the heart of darkness = Realizing and exposing the depth of human cruelty and violence in all its forms through the ages is the job of every human being.

Characters:

* Victims- Africans in the Congo / A 15 year-old rape victim in Richmond, California
* Rulers- King Leopold and the Colonizing Belgians / Twenty young people inflicting sexual violence on the victim caught in the workings of a larger political, social, and economic system, which turns a blind eye to their problems
* The System- The Company run for profit above humanity / The United States ignoring festering problems in inner cities
* Money Makes the World Go Round- The Accountant carefully tends to Company profits / The Government slashing education funds in poor inner city schools

Ideology Fueling the Darkness

* Africans are inferior and Europe is bringing illuminating light into the continent's ignorant dark interior
* Americans should pull themselves up by their bootstraps and out of poverty / It's all your fault mentality!

Richmond High School Gang-Rape: Suspects Wear Bulletproof Vests at California Arraignment

One bright spot on the horizon of human nature: Art exposes the heart of darkness and helps us heal the wounds. This story was on National Public Radio's Weekend Edition this morning and explores the trafficking of women in the global sex trade. I would like to think that there is the prospect of a bright future for a 15 year-old girl in Richmond, California who has a long road of recovery to travel on her personal experience though the heart of human darkness.

Emma And Elena, Exposing The Sex Trade Through Art

Is it really Oct. 17, 2009

Times, Days: Here and There and the Cat

I have been busy during the month of October, so I haven't had sufficient time to think, process or reflect on life. I enjoy the aforementioned activity of being productive- the motivational tension of work dynamics- because I subscribe to the philosophy of working hard in order to play hard when my goals are successfully behind me. You better believe I am looking forward to playing hard in a few short months.

Leading the discussion and an analysis of the film Rebel Without a Cause, teaching excerpts from the Malian epic Sundiata Keita, and preparing to teach Conrad's Heart of Darkness in the bleak season of autumn are where my time and attention are currently directed.

When I am in the play phase of my journey through life, I will have more time to blog, but felt the need to voice some of my thoughts at this moment.

And the cat...

He is growing fat and lazy with the coming of the cold weather. He cuddles about my head at night and keeps my ears warm.

Papaya Power

Reject nothing as ordinary- When my neighbor gave me half of a papaya for breakfast, I saw a star inside the sun glistening with seeds of promise.

Work

When you see ordinary situations with extraordinary insight it is like discovering a jewel in rubbish. If work becomes part of your spiritual practice, then your regular, daily problems cease to be only problems and become a source of inspiration. Nothing is rejected as ordinary and nothing is taken as being particularly sacred, but all the substance and material available in life-situations is used.

- Chogyam Trungpa, The Myth of Freedom (Shambhala Publications)

The Artists' Colony: A.K.A. The Snake Farm

Life on the Snake Farm

I ask the taxi driver to take me to the snake farm: Finca Serpientes por favor.

Don't Join Me in Bed Please

Before I went to sleep, I had a talk with the spider on my wall. We agreed that she could roam freely around the apartment while I slept, eating smaller bugs, just as long as she did not join me in my bed. The spider kept her promise.

Visitor in the Night: Window Walker

In Costa Rica, I never know what type of visitor will arrive at my doorstep or attach to my window glass each night. Reptile, amphibian, insect, ant and mammal have all made an appearance.

Sunshine at The Academy for Peace

Peace is as important as the sun to me, so when I visited The Academy for Peace in Santa Ana, I took a photo of the sunshine bench in the garden. Give peace a chance!

The Academy for Peace is a project of the Rasur Foundation.
Transmitting the practice of BePeace from generation to generation
Piedades de Santa Ana, Costa Rica

His Holiness

We should remember that if a situation cannot be changed, there is no point in worrying about it. If it can be changed, then there is no need to worry about it either, we should simply go about changing it.

–His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, from The Dalai Lama’s Little Book of Inner Peace

(I love this guy.)

Costa Rica's Dog Flop

In the heat and humidity of the rainy season, dogs in Cost Rica become floppy furry sleeping machines that resemble the fetal pig I had to dissect in ninth grade biology class. These dogs; however, are alive and breathing, although we humans may not think so when we study them in their lazy sleep cycles.

While I was in La Fortuna in early July, I began photographing street dogs because there are so many of them and each one has his or her own distinct personality and story. Limping, skipping, shuffling or carousing on the streets, each dog is his or her own individual canine with a paw print to match no other.

Gratitude to the Hummingbird

Gratitude

I would like to thank this enchanting hummingbird for flying into my frame on July 8, 2009 while I was photographing the flora and fauna on the grounds of the Hotel Villas Visa Arenal in La Fortuna, Costa Rica. Gracias little friend. Please come again and tease my eyes with your florescent fluttering.

Like a hummingbird, the world is florescent when our minds are open to all possibilities.

Creation, Trauma and Joy

Struggles with my art/creativity/writing are often riotous internal battles that leave me maddened and frothy of spirit because in order to fully access my imaginative potential and generate writing that originates from my true self, I must travel to the place in my mind that connects my consciousness to the totality of emotions and experiences eventually released on the page. This requires a great amount of emotional intimacy and pure white honesty in my relationship with words. I am teaching myself not to fear the process and to enjoy immersing myself in the depths of the trauma and joy.

Internal Reference Point of Spirit

This organic composition in my path in Costa Rica relayed to me the same message that Deepak Chopra arranges in words in his book The Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire. I want to live from the internal reference of spirit immune from criticism and praise. What a joy to reach that mountain top view of the lush valley and pulsing flow of all life, connected and in tune with the universal hum of spirit. Chopra writes that:

We are all multidimensional, omnidimensional. Everything that exists somewhere in the world also exists in us. When we embrace these different aspects of ourselves, we acknowledge our connection to the universal consciousness and expand our personal awareness.

True power comes from within, and it has a spiritual rather than a material foundation. It is permanent and does not die with your body… With self-power, identity comes from listening to the true self, and power comes from the internal reference of spirit.

When you work from this internal reference, your sense of self is clear and is not affected by external factors. This is the source of personal power. When external factors fail to influence your sense of self, you become immune to criticism or praise. You also understand that we are all equal, because we are all connected to the same conscious intelligence flow. That means that you understand that as you move through life, you are beneath no one and superior to no one. You don’t have to beg or plead or convince anyone because you don’t have to convince yourself.