Creativity Every Day 1/10
Intrinsic motivation 🌟 is the inner spark that drives us to create for the sheer joy of it—not for praise or pressure, but because the process itself feels meaningful.
#IntrinsicMotivation #PassionForWork #CreativeDrive

EQUAL RESPECT 8/10
Recognizing struggles and potential in others fosters intrinsic motivation 🌱. People rise when they feel valued, not judged.
#IntrinsicMotivation #HumanPotential #EncouragementMatters

COURAGE TO ENCOURAGE 5/10
The effect? Defensiveness, avoidance of risk, and diminished trust 😔. Both at home and at work, criticism often backfires. Encouragement inspires.
#EncourageDontCriticize #IntrinsicMotivation #PositiveImpact #EmberhartJourney

Learning isn’t a checkbox—it’s a culture. Good leaders fuel curiosity. Weak leaders hand out carrots and wonder why the hamsters quit. 🐹🔥
Which kind are you working for?

#LeadershipDevelopment #LearningCulture #IntrinsicMotivation #WorkplaceCulture #LeadBoldly #LeadershipStyles

http://leadboldly1.blog/2025/09/23/learning-isnt-a-checklist-its-a-culture/

1️⃣2️⃣Curiosity, Boredom, and Intrinsic Motivation
We value both curiosity and boredom. Curiosity fosters depth—like our daughter’s deep dive into chess. Boredom fosters breadth—nudging our teen into creative writing, music, and more. Homeschooling gives them time and space for both to work, driving intrinsic growth.
#IntrinsicMotivation #SelfDirectedLearning #SecularHomeschool

Ballet as a Habit 1/10
🩰 Dear Amilia Emberhart,
Some habits stick not because we are rewarded, but because they feel meaningful. Writing to you and training at the gym are just that for me—deeply purposeful.
#IntrinsicMotivation #MeaningfulWork #PurposeDriven

Cross post from my LinkedIn:

"My philosophy is that our worth is measured in the impact we make, the integrity we uphold, and the passion we bring to our endeavors. At least, that's what I'm trying to do with my career."

https://jgmonger.blogspot.com/2025/04/the-trophy-that-never-came-until-it-did.html

#IntrinsicMotivation #WorkEthic #PersonalGrowth #RespectOverRecognition #MeaningfulWork

Teaching Tip:
No More 'Shoulds'! 🚫 Learning without coercion. Let kids explore their passions & find their own path. Ditch the pressure & embrace intrinsic motivation.

Discover how to foster this: https://page.fo/CIC-course-overview #IntrinsicMotivation #Unschooling

Music track: Last Summer by Aylex
Source: https://freetouse.com/music
Free Music Without Copyright (Safe)

Instead of metrics, fixate on joy to motivate learning.

And I began to wonder, where do we see this pure joy in our schools? When do we see kids just being kids without us intervening?

We see far too little joy in our schools, whether school is face-to-face or virtual.

Joy. SpeEdChange.at.Medium | by Ira David Socol | Age of Awareness | Medium

Instead of metric fixation, joy fixation. Learning goes where intrinsic motivation leads.

Measurement kills curiosity, joy, and intrinsic motivation.

Goodhart’s law: “When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure”.

We might argue that a ‘traditional’ school, even for the students who say they love and do well in it, is a process of limiting learning and an interference in the learning of life skills. And, joy is often very hard to find. It also limits curiosity, and curiosity is not just the essential ingredient in childhood and adolescence, but a huge component of joy as well. Trying something and getting it for the first time is always joyful — and it is always the cognitive reward for being curious.

Joy. SpeEdChange.at.Medium | by Ira David Socol | Age of Awareness | Medium

Step 1 of motivating learning: Restore curiosity and joy. Stop measuring everything.

What if all the reductionist scientism of “the science of” frameworks were replaced with “the joy of”? That change of framing would serve us far better, including when teaching STEM.

So, as we reimagine our learning structures, let’s make sure we build around joy, and build around curiosity. Because, joy is what all of our children need.

Joy. SpeEdChange.at.Medium | by Ira David Socol | Age of Awareness | Medium

Further Reading

https://stimpunks.org/glossary/metric-fixation/

https://stimpunks.org/glossary/intrinsic-motivation/

https://stimpunks.org/glossary/mcnamara-fallacy/

https://stimpunks.org/glossary/scientism/

https://stimpunks.org/2023/11/22/on-the-problems-with-science-of-reading/

https://stimpunks.org/glossary/framing/

https://stimpunks.org/glossary/stem/

https://stimpunks.org/glossary/autistic-joy/

#education #intrinsicMotivation #learning #measurement #metricFixation #reductionism #scientism #STEM

Hello, I am new here. I am raised up in Germany.

My interests are #IntrinsicMotivation and #ExtrinsicMotivation . #Cause and #effect

And some other topics. Of course #Universum 🙂

I try to keep updated my bio with my main interests.

I hope I am right here on this instance. If not, please tell me.

Is it okay to talk German here sometimes?

I’ve always had a wild imagination.

Growing up, I’d play hockey and soccer in my basement for hours on end. Every single time, I’d visualize being the best in the world. I’d break all the records, score the wildest of goals, and mesmerize the commentators every time.

When I quit hockey at age 12 and took up running instead, my imagination never disappeared. Whether or not I was running with Ben Harris, I was always running with Ben Harris.

Sometimes Muhumed Sirage was there too. He always finished first (I knew where to draw the line).

I think the art of visualization helps keep the mind and body focused and engaged on the task at hand. I love being out in nature, I love running, but I’ve always had this burning desire to be the absolute best I can be. This mindset can be problematic. In fact, it’s probably held me back.

But at its core, running has never been just about the love of nature or the love of running itself. It’s about seeing what I’m fully capable of in a realm where I’ve visualized more success than I’ve achieved.

That only motivates me more. The fact that the others in this realm are faster only motivates me more. And it’s awesome to have them by my side in training. But recently, I’ve started to only visualize myself. No one else.

I’ve always been a proponent of “game-realistic training” for any sport. When it comes to my running, I sometimes take that to extremes. Leading up to Sulphur Springs, I ran the demands of my race at just about the pace and/or distance of my race every weekend. I got fit fast and secured third, but I knew this wasn’t a sustainable approach to training.

Now working with a dedicated coach, I’ve been slowly doing better at not crushing every single downhill/uphill as though it’s the race itself. Sometimes I still get carried away on downhills, loving my life. And as long as I’m in Ontario, climbs are short enough where I can physically run every step. So why walk when you can run?

One of the most helpful elements of that slowing down process has been ending the visualizations on climbs.

When I’d do repeats of Martin Rd. prior to Sulphur Springs, I always made it my mission to catch Reid Coolsaet ahead. He was never actually there.

This actually ended up playing out in the final climb against Matt instead, almost exactly as I visualized it.

Those visualizations paid off. But I think in many ways, they aren’t sustainable for a career in running where I’m not destroying my body in training every single time. Why did I feel the need to include Reid in that equation (someone who didn’t even race!) when I could have visualized myself being cheered on by an imaginary crowd? Why do I always feel the need to compare myself to others around me? Beating these guys can serve as some sort of validation that I’m good. But I should know that intrinsically. So that’s what I’ve tried to do more of in this block, with the help of Brett.

Now I’m going down my favourite section of Falling Water to the finish (these rolling downhills are incredible and I could do that section every week), and I’m only imagining myself doing this on race day. I’m not picturing trying to catch up to Matt, and I’m actively slowing myself down from the fun (partially so that I can save my legs for the starting climb that comes immediately after that in my training).

I will always be a proponent of game-realistic training, but I also think there’s a line that has to be crossed in recognizing that training still isn’t the game itself. And that’s a line I can certainly do better to walk (or run).

Thanks for reading & see you soon!

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#Ambition #BenHarris #Confidence #FallingWaterTrailMarathon #GameRealisticTraining #HillTraining #Imagination #IntrinsicMotivation #MuhumedSirage #RaceSimulation #RaceSpecificTraining #RaceStrategies #Running #TheComparisonGame #TrailRunning #TrainingTheory #Visualization

The power of reframing negative thoughts

As the self-conscious individuals that we are, it’s impossible to go an entire day with zero negative thoughts entering the mind. Despite the difficulty of that task, I used to subscribe to a ‘no-negativity’ mindset.

It’s incredibly important to always think on the bright side and come up with the positives in any situation, but the negative thoughts don’t always have to be diminished. In fact, it’s the negative thoughts that can spur on positive thoughts if treated correctly.

In creating training plans for other runners, I’ve often asked my athletes to subscribe to the same ‘no negative thoughts’ policy. I’ve since realized that the negative thoughts are not the problem. It’s how long we let those negative mindsets fester, and what we do about them.

To give you an example, in my recent Sulphur Springs 50k, I recognized as early as 4 kilometres into the race that my hamstrings were already showing signs of wanting to burst out! This inherently was a negative thought, and one that I couldn’t avoid from creeping into my brain. But it’s also one that I was right to bring to the surface and recognize, so that I could then react accordingly. And that’s exactly what I did. I fuelled early and often with electrolytes, water and other nutrition to counter-act the tightness from getting worse. In the process, I managed to delay my suffering and a complete cramp until the final three kilometres of the race.

Throughout the race, I thought about my hamstring and how it was feeling tight. But I also thought about how the guys ahead of me went out at course-record pace, and that one of them was bound to blow up. I told myself over and over “someone’s going to blow up, and it’s not going to be you.” While I did ultimately end up cramping late into the race, having a positive attitude despite my potential for misfortune allowed me to stay present, and continue to kick it into high-gear without feeling sorry for myself.

So much of ultramarathon running is about who can delay their suffering the longest. Much of that comes from training all sides of the process, from speed to nutrition, hydration, climbing, strength, and mental fortitude. But it also comes from staying positive even when things start to not go your way. Much of what’s happening in the body when things start to go wrong are only signals and “check-engine lights”. They are not catastrophic events that become unrepairable. A lot of the time, the mind is even capable of exaggerating the pain and making it worse than it seems.

But what I’m subscribing is not about pushing that pain away and ignoring the negativity going on inside your mind. Instead, it’s about staying present and continuing to push past the pain when it’s safe to do so. It’s about continuing to engage in self-talk and visualization throughout the race so that you can stay in the moment. It’s about preparing for those events before the race so you know exactly how you’re going to deal with them when they ultimately happen 47km into the race. It’s even about reframing those negative thoughts as positive ones.

If I’m suddenly going slower because my hamstrings are cramping with three kilometres to go, I can think about this in several different ways without panicking. I can think about how I’ve already done the hard work to get into the position I’m in, and how lucky I am that the cramping didn’t happen earlier. I can even stay present in the moment and know that the race still isn’t over, and that I have a chance of catching what’s ahead of me if I just keep pushing. I don’t have to worry about what’s behind me and all that could go wrong. I can instead reframe my mind to think about all that could go right if I keep pushing.

This is exactly what I did in hunting down 2nd place in my recent Sulphur Springs 50k. I hadn’t run anywhere near second place all day, and for the final twenty-kilometres, I had no idea how far ahead they were. But I kept controlling all the things that I could control and continued at my pace for as long as I could hang on, knowing that if I did, I could have a chance of hunting down that person ahead of me. Eventually, I closed the gap to just milliseconds, after not being in it with a fight whatsoever.

Had I panicked and thrown the race away within those last three kilometres, I would have likely finished fifth or sixth, walking to the finish line after fighting for three and a half hours to stay within reach of the podium. But instead of letting the negative problem rule my race with three kilometres to go, I kept pushing right to the line, nearly securing silver instead. This is the mindset I want all of my athletes to develop.

Negative thoughts are not inherently bad, but it’s what you do with those negative thoughts that truly matters.

Thanks for reading & see you soon!

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Autism, Stress, and Flow States

https://stimpunks.org/2023/02/26/autism-stress-and-flow-states/

#neurodiversity #autism #education #flow #EdChat #IntrinsicMotivation

Find an intrinsic motivation: hearing that little “DING!” of the habit tracker when I mark a habit done is nice, but having an intrinsic motivation, something inside you, is even better. In my experience the best motivator is how a habit makes you feel in the moment. There’s something about meditation, or writing a poem, or going for a walk, that makes me happy in ways vegging out doesn’t. #habits #newyearsresolution #newyears #newyearsresolutions #intrinsicmotivation #motivation

1 week left to apply for your opportunity to push your research agenda in #AI, #HCI, #creativity, #games and/or #intrinsicmotivation. Join me as postdoc / research fellow position at Aalto University! Call / application in original post: https://sigmoid.social/@creativeEndvs/109524582427836036 Image created w DALL-E 2.

… A large majority of programmers, the researchers discovered, reported that they frequently reached the state of optimal challenge called ‘flow.’”

Source: Drive, The Surprising Truth About What Drives Us, by Daniel H. Pink

(2/2)

#MotivationScience #OpenSource #Mastodon #IntrinsicMotivation #Motivation

@VickiKyriakakis I've read that decreasing #intrinsicmotivation decreases #creativity, this being one of them:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780126190700500258

...and the #rewardsystem in #capitalism replaces intrinsic #motivation with #extrinsicmotivation

#psychology #alfiekohn #overjustificationeffrct

Are you an interdisciplinary researcher with prev experience in CS? Join me & others Aalto University's Department of Computer Science as funded postdoc (3y) / research fellow (5y) to bridge between #AI, #HCI, #creativity, #games and/or #intrinsicmotivation! My profile: https://aalto.fi/en/people/christian-guckelsberger. Job call & application -> https://www.hiit.fi/hiit-postdoctoral-and-research-fellow-positions/ Questions -> Email!