We wrestle with motivation and persuasion every day. It's happening all around us, right now. The leader wonders how to get people to support their agenda. The ER nurse wonders how to convince management to provide what patients need. The commuter wonders how to get our government to stop kidnapping people off the street. The family member wonders how to get a loved one to stop smoking and start exercising. The health-conscious person wonders how to stop drinking and go vegetarian without alienating family and friends.
As a thinker/educator/consultant who helps individuals and organizations understand how they can learn and engage in new ways to achieve the outcomes they want, I’m constantly exploring these types of questions with clients and audiences.
What persuades people to change their minds? What galvanizes us to change? How can we most productively explore these ideas in a time in our culture when calling someone’s previously held beliefs into question can feel high-risk or result in hard feelings?
Here we can take a lesson from Dr. Dolittle’s pushmi-pullyu, the “gazelle/unicorn cross” that had a head at each end of its body. Sure, Dolittle talked to lots of animals and ended up in an insane asylum, but stay with me. The pushmi-pullyu is a useful metaphor for the conflict that exists within all of us: we are motivated to escape pain, and we are motivated to pursue pleasure.
Last week I wrote:
We are swimming in digital and cultural waters that we do not see, much less understand. Judging by your social media feed and your cervical posture, you are about as prepared for the tsunami of data washing over us as you are for that double-decker bus.
That approach is a “push” – the idea is to prevent oncoming pain by taking action. Learning is a great way to achieve all our personal and professional goals, so it makes sense to point out what’s missing and/or going wrong when we settle for crap information. If we know there’s a problem, we’ll be more likely to seek out and use better information to get the results we want.
But push motivation only goes so far. First of all, it’s, well… pushy. Even though my extended metaphor involved saving a fellow pedestrian from becoming a hood ornament, no one likes to get pushed around. More importantly, push motivation is defensive. Once we’ve done the thing we need to do to avoid pain, we’re not in pain anymore. And once we’re not in pain, we’re not motivated to do much else.
(NOTE: You also have to be convinced that the pain caused by inaction is real. If this were easier, everyone would floss.)
So: “push me” can get the ball rolling, but we need more to sustain our efforts.
That’s why I ended last week’s note with a preview of coming attractions:
Cheer up. There is a glimmer of hope. It turns out you’re sitting on a treasure map.
What we need to learn most isn’t somewhere out there.
The raw materials we need to learn are already present within us. Of course, having awesome knives and fresh produce doesn’t make someone a chef; we need to get acquainted with our capacities and how they work so that we can make the most of them and put them to the best use.
Welcome to the “pull you.” At some point, you wanted to be able to do something. Cook. Fly. Break a world record. Write a book. Dance. Or… (?)
If you’re struggling to think of what that something might be, let your brain off the leash for a minute and use your imagination – which is also a skill most of us can improve. (Pro tip: The most appealing things to explore are often not the subject of academic coursework. This is a broader conversation for another day, but schooling and education are fundamental misunderstandings that have long outlived their original intent. Here we’re talking about learning.)
How is this related to the motivation of learning? We get inspired when we see people who love something so much that they dedicate themselves to the task and do it really well. Magicians, artists, hat makers, carpenters, bakers, athletes – what these people do challenges the limits of the possible, yes, but even more importantly they inspire us just by showing up. We see potential versions of ourselves in their choices and creations, and somewhere in the back of our mind, a small voice asks: “What would you really love to be able to do, even if just for an hour?”
In less than one hour you can create a learning love story that will make you more effective at EVERYTHING you do and will inspire everyone around you.
I will prove it to you. Be one of the first three people to click [reply] to this email. Copy and pasting the next sentence in bold – In less than an hour I can win learning – and we’ll put that meeting on the calendar. I guarantee that you will learn, and I guarantee you that you will succeed.
This is your call to adventure, which means you are on the hero’s journey, which means, if you answer the call, you will be closer to being a hero. Do you feel that? That desire to solve the problem, do the thing, overcome the obstacle, accomplish the goal, and succeed in the eyes of your people?
That’s the pull.
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Why did you choose to do something that other people thought you couldn’t do? Drop me a line – I’m curious!
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Open-Source Learning is yours. Free. Get the white paper here. Use what works and customize whatever you need, however you want. I’m here to help.
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Curiosity is worth practicing. That’s how we get better at it. When it’s done particularly well, curiosity can be elevated to an art form. Curiosity makes life worth living. I am literally Curious AF. And now you can be too! Click HERE to unlock your free membership subscription.
Here is a taste of what I’m doing, reading, watching, and thinking about.
What Dan Read –
Last month, retired social worker Dan Pelzer died at the age of 92. People leave behind all sorts of legacies, but Dan’s was literally epic. From CBC: “Dan Pelzer's nose was always in a book. The U.S. Marine Corps veteran and retired social worker made it his personal goal to read at least 100 pages every day, and he kept a list of every book he'd ever read since 1962, spanning almost any genre you can think of, totalling 3,599.”
You can see Dan’s own reading journal on https://what-dan-read.com/ (the family originally planned to hand it out at the funeral, but it’s over 100 pages!). Thanks to the Columbus Metropolitan Library, where Dan was a longtime customer, you can also see Dan’s list as a PDF and a searchable database.
What I’m Listening To –
Tom Morello’s “F*ck ICE” playlist on Spotify. Yeah, I know, Spotify, but that’s how far I’ll follow Mr. Morello for being a thinker, a values-driven, outspoken advocate for ideas that resonate with me, and a badass guitarist. “Immigrant Song” by Led Zeppelin and “Icky Thump” by White Stripes were thumpingly predictable, Everlast’s “What It’s Like” and Devo’s “Freedom of Choice” somehow kicked even harder in this context, and “Killing in the Name Of” would’ve disappointed if it wasn’t on the list, but there were also some surprises and new friends. My favorite: “Never Fight a Man With a Perm” by the Idles.
Quotes I’m pondering –
The system under which we live is owned and operated by people who do not deserve to run the world.
I am not the least bit surprised that injustice persists. I'm also not surprised that resistance to injustice persists.
– Tom Morello
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Best,
Know someone who is also Curious AF? Please share this edition with them!
David Preston
Educator & Author
Latest book: ACADEMY OF ONE
Header image: By Hugh Lofting - https://archive.org/details/storyofdoctordol00loft, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24205044.
David Preston
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