Friday, September 16, 2011

Rediscovering Motivation

Needing some help in a time when confidence is becoming harder to come by, I found an interesting article that illustrates how overgeneralization ties to demotivation. Overgeneralization involves taking a single example of something and applying it to every possible instance when it is not rational to do so. For example, a person might see a teenager dressed in hipster clothing, leading her to come to the conclusion that all teenagers want to be gangsters. There exist plenty of teenagers that don't want to be gangsters and it's possible that the one in this example has no choice but to dress like one so this conclusion is an overgeneralization.

Overgeneralization results in demotivation when it causes us to drag ourselves through the mud. There come countless times in life when we work hard at something just to have it go wrong or build up towards a goal just to have a barrier rise up in front of it. It's extraordinarily easy for us to conclude that the cause of the problem isn't in what we did, but rather something about ourselves. Far too quickly we come to conclusions like “That conversation didn't go well because I'm incurably awkward.” or “I didn't get the job because I'm hopeless.” In reality, how unlikely is it that the other person just wasn't being understanding or that the job really wasn't a good fit? It's critical to evaluate the situation before putting the pin on yourself.

As the article states, Martin Seligman and his colleagues discovered that the two most deadly assumptions you can make about a setback is that the cause is permanent and that the cause is pervasive. Permanence says, "This is always going to be here and I'm stuck with it”. Pervasiveness says, "My life is ruined because of this". These are very unrealistic conclusions, but they are conclusions that are very easy for our realistic minds to pick up.

The key to avoiding this line of thinking is to catch yourself in the act. It's important to remember that we all experience setbacks and they are there to learn from rather than to tear us down. Before you come to the conclusion that you're inherently bad, check your line of thinking for an overgeneralization. When you find it, you will instantly feel your negativity lose its edge and your motivation come back to life. You will be able to get back up and continue to pursue that which you love, undefeated.

If you would like to read more, here is the article.


Monday, September 12, 2011

Heralding Autumn

With the average weekly temperature gradually dropping and a few more leaves hitting the ground each day, it's hard not to see that autumn is upon us. It's a time of transition from the hot, muggy summer to a cool, frosty winter. It's also my personal favorite time of year. The cool weather, the colors of the turning trees, and the hint of gloom in the atmosphere make it a unique time for reflection.

As the environment transitions, the season can be seen as a time for the individual to transition as well. Let whatever promises you've made to yourself that have been broken fall off of you like leaves. You can still work on yourself so that when springtime comes, you will arise anew!

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

At A Juncture

The unemployed life has given me an opportunity to weigh the next step I take. As I peruse through the openings online, I have to consider if each opening will take me in the right direction or if I'll just end up back in this position. In my search for a new job, I've found that the software development realm has become a place for people who have a much greater obsession with technology than I have. Almost every job posting I've run across requires pre-existing programming experience in several different languages over a much longer time than my meek 1-2 years of exposure. Along with the years and years of experience that is required, a lot of the descriptions contain statements like "Positive, motivated, energetic, flexible, attitude and attention to detail a must!" which pretty much says you need to eat, sleep, and breathe code for the job to work.

I'm a geek, truly. There's no other way to look at it. I've never been very physically coordinated nor do I consider myself particularly good with interpersonal communication. I love tech and geek culture (though you can leave out the zombies) and I enjoy more creative pastimes like music and art. However, I don't have the obsession that seems to be required to be truly successful in my industry. What's wrong with me? I can only describe it as a difficulty with finding a passion. Most geeks get good at what they do because they always have pet projects to pursue. I never came up with one because my ideas were hardly new and I always figured why would I want to reinvent the wheel?

Now I realize that my problem has been letting myself be overly critical. It's a case of analyzing the situation in a way where any fault means that the idea is not worth pursuing. Well, by sticking to this frame of mind, a person will never achieve anything! If you think you'll have fun getting into something, just go for it! Who cares if someone else has done it, maybe you can do it better? Even if you end up dumping your pursuit, you'll have learned along the way. That's the new attitude I've been trying to pick up so I can get more in touch with my geek self. As I step into the next path in my career, I will keep an open mind to new ideas and new pursuits, because they can only make me stronger.