For the Thrill

            As much as we like to think of ourselves as rational, logical, intellectual beings; we are ruled by our emotions.  Emotions affect perception, memory, interpretation, and motivation.  They have a global impact on our minds like psychotropic drugs.  And like drugs, they can be addictive.  Unaware of being addicted to strong emotions, many young people actively look for situations where they experience these rushes again and again.

            We watch horror movies to experience primal fear.  We get whipped about on amusement park rides simulating a deadly fall.  All “thrill seeking” activities share an illusion of being in mortal danger.  In a movie theatre or an amusement park ride, you are in no real danger, but your mind believes you are.  More advanced thrill seekers seek out more extreme activities where the danger is less illusion and more real.  Base jumping, skiing in out of bound areas, and jumping out of airplanes places your life at risk and depends on a few immediate actions.  Wrong actions can lead to grievous injuries or death.  The greater the risk, the greater the emotional high when they live through it.

            Thousands of years ago, we lived in tribal communities.  It was common practice for young boys to undergo a formal rite of passage, where they would perform some daring act of resourcefulness and bravery to prove they were worthy of being considered an adult.  The greater the risk of their trial, the greater their fame and more sexually attractive they became.  In modern culture, we have no such “rite of passage” apart from gaining a licence and being able to drink alcohol.  The emotional need for the young to prove themselves is left unsatisfied.  This may explain why teen age males engage in dangerous stunts.  It gives them the feeling they can handle any situation that comes along (a measure of their power as an adult), and it allows them to show off their prowess to the girls.

Symbolic Danger

            While thrill seekers love the emotional rush that comes from risk, they are not suicidal.  All humans have a self-preservation instinct to avoid danger.  However, our minds are flexible.  We have the ability to link feelings we would normally get from mortal danger onto a symbolic situation.  Symbolic danger is a trick we play on ourselves.  We allow ourselves to feel that we are in a life or death situation, yet we logically know we are not at any real risk.

            Gambling takes on a variety of forms, but they all have a few common elements.  They all have a specific set of rules, they require the player to make decisions, and there is a random function which determines if those decisions lead to a win or loss.  Also there is risk, usually financial in nature, where a win means you gain something and a loss means you lose something.

            No one gambles to “make money.”  It is about feeling the excitement of risking everything and getting away with it.  If a gambler walks away from a night with only a small loss, they think they won.  They had a great evening of exciting ups and downs, lots of cheap drinks, and in the end everything almost balanced… good entertainment.  If they go on a streak, they experience an emotional high of being “in the luck.”  If they bomb and lose everything, well they still keep their life and can recover.  It was never about the money, it was about the emotional experience all along.

Waiting to the last minute for the Thrill

            Procrastination can transform any normal, boring, typical assignment into symbolic danger.  Leave everything to the last minute and you’re in a dramatic “Do or Die” scenario.   In academic circles, low grades can affect opportunities for scholarships and may lead to expulsion.  Not getting a term paper done on time won’t kill anyone, however the closer one gets to the deadline before starting, the greater the risk of failure.  The mind interprets the impending deadline as if it were a real mortal threat, hence the name “deadline.”

            Eventually, the deadline gets close enough to cause a panic of activity.  Students typically curse themselves for leaving things so late.  More typically they curse the teacher for setting unreasonable due dates which are now only a week away (ignoring the fact the due dates were set 3 months ago).  At this point students start pulling all night writing marathons to produce something that resembles a term paper and can be handed in. 

            In their minds, the risks are big, the stakes are down, and it’s up to them to save the day.  Everyone wants to see themselves as the hero in their own personal drama; to beat odds, when everything is stacked against them.  If they gain a passing grade under these intense conditions, it is an epic win for the ego.  They survived, YEAH!!! They proved themselves competent under intense fire.

            If they fail, who cares?  Who could expect them to complete a 20 page term paper with only one night remaining?  They think they tried their best given the unrealistic time frame.  Their ego remains unbruised.  The dynamic of metaphoric danger in gambling is identical to thrill seeking procrastination. 

“I work better under pressure.”

            Some people claim to work better under pressure.  The feeling of external pressure means it is time to knuckle down and get work done.  Without “pressure” their office feels surreal, like it is break time or just before a holiday.  Everything slows down.  People are adaptable, they think they “work better under pressure” because they have become used to working in high stress environments.

            Here we should make a distinction.  There is a difference between capability and preference.  You may have the ability to work under pressure; you may do it a lot.  But is that the same as preferring high pressure work places to relaxed ones?  If you say you prefer to work under pressure, then the real question becomes: “Would you do any work if there is no external pressure?” 

            If the answer is “NO” then I agree, you will do more work if a gun is pointed at your head than without.  You are controlled by extrinsic motivators meaning you are entirely reactive to your environment.  Don’t feel too bad, most people are in this category (I was too).  And like most people you will have to exert lots of effort to get shit done.  This book is all about the opposite philosophy, learning how to be productive with minimal effort.

Consideration of Quality

            Productivity is measured based on output.  The effort, sweat, blood, and tears spent doing the job don’t matter as much as results.  Would you like to live in a well-built house or a new house that has a leaky roof, faulty electrical and poorly installed plumbing?  Obviously, you want the better house.  Do you care how much effort was spent building either house?  Probably not; as a consumer you only care about the end result.  Production is the only point of doing a job. 

            In a gold mine, productivity is not about how much dirt and rocks come out, but the purity of gold after the refinement process is finished.  Productivity isn’t about being stressed out, nor working hard.  It is about the quality of the results the work produces.  If you cut corners, try to go faster, skip important steps, then you may come out with crappy results.  This could result in being forced to do the job over again, effectively doubling the work load.  When a student fails a required course, they have to take it again.  If they spent the time to do it right the first time around, they could have saved themselves 3 months of extra effort.  Ironically, I have seen students do worse the second time on the same course because they try to work harder putting themselves under even more pressure.  This results in even MORE time wasted as they repeat it a third time around.

            So what creates the best quality?  Being a self-starter and working in a relaxed environment where you can fully focus on the job or working with a gun pointed at your head?  How do you feel about the micro-manager; the boss who watches every little thing you do and comments on your choices as you do them.  They do add the pressure and stress.  Do you really think this leads to “better work?

            Show me a craftsman who claims to do their best work under pressure and I will show you a craftsman who is content with substandard results.  Quality work requires time, care and love.  It comes from the heart, and that won’t happen when you are under the gun.  Taking 10 to 30% more time to do a quality job on the outset and you will save yourself 200 to 300% more time in not having to redo the job a second or third time.

The A+ Student

            Teachers, parents, admin, and students (especially A+ students) believe that grades are a sign of intelligence.  People who score top marks do so because they are born with more natural intelligence than others.  After all, some people have more natural strength, so they do better as athletes.  Others have a naturally gregarious personality, so they are more socially outgoing.  Why not believe that some students are naturally more intelligent and better inclined to academic excellence? 

            This is not true!  Humans become stronger, more social, or more intelligent based on what they do.

            Between 80 to 95% of all university students procrastinate on homework, readings, and assignments.  You could also say that 5 to 20% of students don’t procrastinate and get going on assignments as soon as they are given.

            10% of students score in the A range and another 10% are in the B range.   Good and Excellent students make up the top 20%.

            As a teacher, I noticed students who start studying early always score in the top 20% and usually in the top 10%.  Wow, no big surprise here!  I understand how obvious this sounds; what amazes me is how “unobvious” it is to everyone else. 

            Good grades are not a measure of intelligence.  I have known many A+ students as a teacher and many F students.  Some F students have an ability to think far outside the box and come up with highly creative solutions.  Albert Einstein is one of the most famous geniuses in the world.  When people think of the word “genius,” they think of Einstein.  Albert Einstein failed elementary mathematics; he was an academic drop out.  He had far more intelligence than his teachers, but he wasn’t skilled in doing the typical tasks that the teachers wanted him to do.  When placed in novel situations, A+ students have no more ability to come up with creative solutions than F students.

            Why is a belief in “innate intelligence” such a popular explanation for high grades? Simple… it’s lazy.  If you aren’t a bird, you don’t have wings, so you can’t fly… don’t bother trying.  If you’re not born with “brains” then why try for high grades?  If you’re not born with a great body, why go to a gym?  If you’re born shy, why try to make friends?  It’s the lazy man’s excuse.  Claiming innate talent means you don’t have to try.

            And the uncomfortable reversal?  What happens when you claim that intelligence is a function of how you use your brain.  Well, that puts responsibility back on you.  You now have to try.  Work with what you have and build upon it.  Not the easy option, but it is the truth.

The A+ Advantage

            So if it isn’t intelligence, what gives an A+ student their edge?  They are part of the small 15% which don’t procrastinate.  Rather than worrying about assigned due dates they set their own.  In doing so they are not reacting to the external world, but choosing a proactive approach to their studies.  They are motivated by their own song.

            Consider the 10 page term paper.  Students know about it in the first week and can do it anytime they want in the next three months.  Most students forget about it till about a week before the deadline when it becomes a real emergency.  In a mad panic, they cobble together a first draft and hand it in.  They often have many other projects which are due at the same time, as well as studying for final exams.  So they really didn’t have enough time to finish it.

            The A+ student also does this mad frantic first draft, but they do it at the beginning of the term, right after the project was assigned.  You may think, “What’s the difference?  A week of work at the beginning is the same as a week of work at the end, right?”

Wrong.

            Imagine you are assigned a 10 page paper and you have 15 weeks before it’s due.  You finish the first draft one week in and you have 14 left over before the “real” due date.  There is no rush, no outside pressure, no feeling under the gun with an oppressive force bearing down on you.  Because you’re not under any real pressure, you spend another week checking your facts and revising it.  At this point the paper is already in the top 10%, as it doesn’t look like a rushed job.  So you hand it in 2 months early.

            Professors rarely see term papers handed in ahead of schedule.  It is so unusual (less than 1 in 500 students) that a professor may check over the paper and give a few pointers.  Teachers tend to be fond of students who are enthusiastic about their topic.  Consciously or not, they want to see those keeners get the As.  The advice they give you is usually in alignment with how they mark a paper.  You spend another week polishing the paper, adjusting it to your teacher’s preferences, and you have your A+ paper ready to go.  What’s more important: you have removed one major project from your work load.  Now it isn’t hanging over your head, giving you more time to devote to studying.

            One week before the exams the majority of students are juggling time.  They have to study for 4 different exams, they are trying to finish 2 term papers and constructing a presentation all at the last minute.  Cramming 12 hours per night, every night, is quite common for students to try to catch up with an insane workload.

            With bags under their eyes, some of your friends may notice that you are walking out of the same “impossible” situation with an A grade and that you have no stress or worries.  “He must be some kind of genius,” they conclude in jealous whispers. 

            There is nothing “genius” about starting early, it is only a choice to do so.  The A+ edge is simply not leaving everything to the last bloody moment. 

The Elderly Advantage

            Elderly students (60+) who are coming back for a second or third undergraduate degree are some of the most interesting people I have ever met.  They don’t need credentials for a job, they don’t want a degree on their wall, and they certainly don’t have any desire for more stress late in life.  They are going to university as a form of entertainment; to take a break from retirement and to learn something new.  They are studying a topic because they enjoy it.  They do assignments because they understand it will help them learn what they are studying.  The 60+ undergraduates are generally the most active people in lab discussions because they are there to participate.  Neither reading, nor written assignments are left to the last minute.  They are there for the university experience, not for credentials.   It shouldn’t surprise you to know that these elder students almost always are at the top of their class with A or A+ grades, yet they have none of the frantic stress younger students seem to have.

Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation

            Motivation is commonly thought of as the “will to act.”  Most people think motivation is something you use to force yourself to do a difficult or undesirable job.  You have to “push” yourself to get going through an exertion of will power. 

            This isn’t exactly correct.  Motivation is more about triggers.  What activates your mind to start moving towards something, to seek pleasure, or to avoid something, such as pain or danger?

            “Extrinsic” and “Intrinsic” are useful distinctions in motivation, as they allow you to understand and take control over your own motivational switches.  Extrinsic simply means external and intrinsic means internal.  Let’s look at how they apply to motivation.

Extrinsic Motivation

            Imagine a slave driver cracking a whip over your head barking orders.  Having seen a fellow slave half beaten to death, you would probably be highly motivated not to become the next example.  This is extrinsic motivation; the reason for doing something is a reaction to an external event.

            It is easy to understand extrinsic motivation in terms of avoiding punishment.  Human beings are highly motivated to avoid pain.  However, extrinsic motivation is very often a positive desire to obtain something.  How long would you continue to work at your job if you weren’t paid?  For most people, money is an extremely common extrinsic motivator.  Why else would you get up very early, fight your way through rush hour traffic to do eight hours of work?  Would you even get out of bed if “getting paid” were removed from the equation?      Love is another powerful, positive extrinsic motivator, so is justice, so is revenge.  Satisfaction of strong emotional desires are often linked to external events.  This is why thrill seeking is entirely extrinsic.

            Positive or negative, being ruled by extrinsic motivators means your environment determines your action.  With too little pressure, you fail to start.  With too much pressure you become overwhelmed and can burn out.  The external environment is a haphazard regulator of activity and through it your personal productivity becomes equally imbalanced.  It is also the most common strategy human beings use for motivation.  97 out of 100 individuals do what they do because they respond to the external demands of the world.  They are reactionary.

Intrinsic Motivation

            A donkey will move when it sees a carrot or when someone spurs his rear.  Positive or negative, these actions are in reaction to the external (extrinsic) environment.  Yet sometimes a donkey will move all on its own without any apparent external stimulus to do so.  Why did it trot over there?  Maybe it just felt like it.  In other words, the action was not initiated by the environment but from an internal (intrinsic) source. 

            The experience of intrinsic motivation is quite different from extrinsic.  It is the difference between dancing and being pushed.  There is no outside pressure forcing you to do something; you do the activity because you want to. 

            Ironically, being allowed to do an intrinsic activity is often used as a reward to control others.  “Johnny, You can play your video games after you clean up your room.”  You never need to “motivate” Johnny to play video games.  Also, if you think about it, there is never an issue with Johnny procrastinating on playing games either. 

            No one is exclusively ruled by extrinsic nor intrinsic motivational triggers.  We are self-directed, intelligent agents who live in a physical world.  We are motivated by both forms all the time.  Hobbies, sports, entertainment activities (any activity you pay to do) are all intrinsically motivated.  Many activities like dancing, acting, playing a musical instrument, and artistic painting lend themselves to being intrinsic.  Intrinsic activities are not done for an end result, but because we enjoy the process.  No one plays Sudoku nor does a jigsaw to “get it done.”  When the source of motivation comes from the love of doing the activity, then the work, itself, becomes the reward.  When we look at the results of “a labour of love,” the quality is always higher than something produced under duress. 

            Procrastination and motivation is never an issue when talking about an intrinsically motivated task, it simply never comes up.

Conclusion

            In this chapter we looked at the thrill seeking motive which leads to procrastination.  Young adults, especially those in university, are unaware they use procrastination to create high-stress situations.  These situations fulfil a need to prove themselves as capable adults, yet they sacrifice academic goals in doing so.  They also form a bad work habit which follows them into their working career.

            Thrill seeking is reactionary.  Changes in the environment tell a person how they should feel, though in reality how you feel is based on your interpretations.  To look for thrills in the external world means that you wire control of your motivation to extrinsic factors.  Ultimately, it means you surrender control and become a slave to an unpredictable external world.

            We also introduced the concept of intrinsic motivation.  Where we do things simply because we enjoy doing them.  Oddly enough, intrinsically motivated individuals gain better quality production in BOTH their academic performance AND in finding higher quality thrills. 

            The next chapter is about rewiring your mind.  You will learn how to migrate your motivation (your drive to do) from extrinsic to intrinsic sources.  Choosing to become more responsive to intrinsic motivators means you are the one who motivates yourself.  You choose your actions and you empower yourself.