Behind the dormitory building, there was a broken car parked. Every time at 7 o'clock in the evening, the children in the compound would climb on the car and jump. The banging sound was deafening. The more adults took care of it, the happier the children jumped. It was helpless to see it.
On this day, a person said to the children: "Children, today we have a competition, and the one who bounces the loudest will be awarded a toy pistol."
The children cheered and jumped, and the winner really won the prize.
The next day, the friend came to the car again and said: "The competition will continue today, and the prize is two toffees."
All the children were unhappy when they saw the prizes plummeting. No one jumped hard, and their voices were sparse and weak.
On the third day, the friend said to the children again: "Today's prize is two peanuts."
All the children jumped out of the car and said, "No more jumping, no more jumping, it's so boring. Let's go home and watch TV."
This is the famous Aronson effect, which refers to the psychological phenomenon in which the attitude becomes gradually negative as the reward decreases, and the attitude gradually becomes more positive as the reward increases.
This psychological effect is very interesting, but when people apply this psychological effect, they only focus on external rewards and ignore more essential things.
Why does an increase or decrease in rewards lead to changes in behavior?
The root cause is the increase or decrease in internal driving force.
Reward is just an external means, the key is the strength of one's own internal motivation.
Someone asked: Why do we have to find the essential reason? Isn’t it very effective to use rewards to drive people’s behavior?
People who have studied the wisdom of our country’s excellent traditional culture will understand a truth:
If there is a way but not a technique, you can still seek it.
means: if you know the essential principles of things, you can find solutions. Knowing the solutions but not knowing the essential principles will stop you there.
Behaviors that rely solely on external rewards cannot last long, and they cannot fundamentally change the nature of things.
What to do?
We have found that the essence behind this psychological phenomenon is to change the internal drive. So, can’t we just change the internal drive directly through self-awareness?
For example:
You want to develop the habit of running every day, but you can't run at all. After a few minutes of running, you feel that your lungs are hurting, your legs are too heavy and you can't walk. You mentally calculate that there is still a long way to run, and you feel that this thing is too difficult and cannot be completed at all, so you can't help but give up. What to do with
?
Some people will set a goal for themselves: if they complete the running task, they will reward themselves with a piece of cake or other things. The external reward method of
is good, but I have a better and lower-cost method.
transforms boring things into a "game" mentality through consciousness transformation.
You can look ahead and find a target, such as a road sign or building in the distance, and tell yourself that you will be great if you run there. When you reach the set goal, you can continue to set new goals, and still tell yourself: you will be great if you run there. Repeatedly.
You will continue to complete small goals one after another, and you will not stop, because your internal drive is driven, you will continue to prove that you are powerful, and you will become more and more confident. In this way, you turn an originally boring thing into a relaxing "game".
This mentality transformation is like telling myself:
The thing itself is not important, I just get the fun of "game" by doing this thing, and this thing is just done by the way.
Of course, the mentality of turning into a "game" is just one kind of thinking transformation. People with more profound ideas will exercise themselves through some things. Finishing things is not the purpose, the purpose is to train and improve yourself. Doing this is just a test for yourself.
For example:
The leader has arranged a lot of work for you. After reading it, you feel conflicted and feel that it is too tiring to do so much work.
But if you transform your consciousness and regard completing work as exercising your ability, your mentality will be different.
You will classify these tasks, and you will have a mental expectation before doing things. How much can I learn, how much information can I master by completing these tasks, and how much can I grow.
So, this is a method of converting external pressure into internal power.
This is different from most people, because most people feel that they do these jobs just to complete tasks for their leaders. They are passive at work, while the internal drive takes the initiative.
Therefore, people who lack this kind of consciousness transformation are usually motivated by external things, have little room for independent choice and control, and are prone to fall into the situation of "doing for the sake of doing". But people who can transform their consciousness will promptly detect whether their motives for acting are stuck in external things that have nothing to do with the target task. When they find this situation, they will promptly find ways to transform it into internal driving forces, so as to have the ability to choose and control independently.
When you learn this kind of consciousness transformation, over time, you will become a person who is sensitive to internal motivations. You will not deliberately perform for external evaluation or rewards, but will only work hard for your own growth and progress. You will become unique and charming.
In fact, this method is just a simple application of the wisdom of our ancestors.
"Tao Te Ching" says:
One body is divided into two phases, and the two phases are yin and yang.
A thing has both a good side and an advantageous side, and a bad side and a disadvantageous side.
Which aspect do you focus on, guide yourself, and keep working hard to do it? That is your life.
hopes this article can help more people.
