Power of Choice

In education, and in business, individuals need to understand the power of ownership through choice. On one hand, motivational theories suggest that the primary index of motivated behavior is choice. One cannot be motivated without making a conscious and deliberate choice to engage in meaningful activity. It is not my intention here to embark on a motivational journey. I anticipate that as I engage in this blog as a personal forum for my internal dialogue, these things will naturally emerge. What IU intend to describe here is that we must take ownership for behavior.

"I choose" is an essentially fundamental statement of ownership. I often speak to middle school students and teachers and quickly tire of externally attributed statements like "my boss/teacher is out to get me" or "the work is too hard." In the simplest sense, when we choose to take ownership of our behavior, we can move beyond either success or failure. This is an internal struggle as we don't want, as a natural consequence of being human, to recognize our weaknesses. However, when we can coach ourselves, or be coached, we rapidly understand that ownership gives us options for future behavior.

I spent a lot of the day in meetings today. My Facebook update stated that I had meeting narcolepsy but I chose to sit there. While I sat there, I thought about how we create our own circumstance and how easy and effortless it is to blame our circumstance on other things other than ourself. Even when we recognize that we make a mistake, it is often too late. We are blessed with the gift of reflection but the curse of spontaneity.

Homework for you...and me...make a list of the things that anger you, that make you feel as a victim, that cause you anxiety...and convert them to "I choose" statements. Take ownership of your behavior.

As a relation to teaching, it is no surprise that as a motivational psychologist, I often interact with faculty that blame their ineffectiveness on "unmotivated" or lazy students. Imagine the behavioral change from blaming the kids to "I choose to let them behave that way." The power of choice enables us to actually do something.