Our society is geared to congratulate people on doing something good, and not typically when they stop doing something bad. For example "We get credit for being punctual, but not for stopping out lateness".
I think that this is an interesting idea. Last semester I had a 9:30am Spanish class. I loved the class. We danced, sang, shared, learned, and expereinced. Every martes y miércoles I felt like I was back in my Chile element. But even though I enjoyed the class so much, I am sure that 9.5/10 days I walked in late to the room of seated students prepared to learn. Usually it was just a little more or less than 5 minutes. I often asked myself: "Why couldn't I have just have woken up 5 minutes earlier or took 5 less minutes to get ready?". In my mind it should have totally been so easy and possible. But for some reason, I made that mistake daily. I just couldn't get there before 9:30am. Luckily, I finished that class with a great grade. But even now I wonder, what would my motivation level been like to get there on time if someone had started positively recognizing me for stopping that lateness, breaking that habit, and changing my schedule? Maybe I would have taken that extrinsic motivation displayed in let's say an extra credit point or two to drive my bad habit away. I guess I will never know. I will keep this thought in mind when an opportunity comes around where I can really acknowledge someone's ability and effort to
cease to do something bad.
cease to do something bad.
1 comment:
"We get credit for being punctual, but not for stopping out lateness".
Guess it comes down to the fact that sometimes we make good changes just for ourselves and not for congrats😉
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