Discipline is overrated

As a PE teacher, I face an incredibly difficult challenge each day:

Motivating kids with TikTok brains to do certain activities they don’t like.

When I was still in school, I enjoyed all the different games, sports, and exercises that were a part of PE.

I also loved playing outside and playing football with my friends.

But for kids these days, there are other options.

Like Fortnite and TikTok.

They seek to be constantly stimulated by dopamine, finding no joy in things like:

• Playing outside

• Sports

• Physical education

Did you know that only 11% of all the children play outside?

And who could blame them?

These things were made to be addicting.

In the Netherlands, there is a massive shortage of PE teachers.

Almost no one wants to take it upon them to motivate kids to be athletic and healthy.

But I personally love the challenge.

So how do I make sure that all them kids are motivated to do things they don’t like?

By something called autonomous motivation.

Why is this important for you?

Because adults are basically big children.

What works for them, also works for you.

Discipline doesn’t work.

Kids these days couldn’t care less about discipline.

They need to be motivated, or else they will not do it.

If they have autonomous motivation, they will even do things they don’t like because they know that it will help them to get where they want to be.

The psychology and social science researchers Deci and Ryan came up with this concept.

They have both written numerous articles in the fields of psychological wellbeing, motivation and the human personality.

According to them, you need 3 basic needs in order to be autonomously motivated:

• Autonomy

• Competence

• Relatedness

I will go over each of them in the rest of the newsletter.

If you satisfy these 3 basic needs, you don’t have to be disciplined anymore.

There will be an endless amount of motivation waiting for you.

Let’s get into it.

Autonomy

Most people say they want freedom, but actually, they want autonomy in what to do.

Autonomy means framed freedom of choice.

In order to satisfy this basic need, you should have options.

And then you can choose the option that you like the most and do it the way that you like most.

Most people can choose what type of job you want to do.

But only a few can choose how and when they want to do it.

If you are lucky enough to have a boss that trusts you in completing a task exactly how you like, then congratulations.

Most people though, don’t have the freedom to do that.

A lot of you are already working towards full autonomy by starting this entrepreneurial journey.

Competence

The next basic need is competence.

You have to have faith in your own ability.

If you think you aren’t able to do something, you will not be motivated to do so.

The best way to feel competent is to try to stay in the flow state.

You should pick a challenge that equally matches your current skill level.

If the challenge is too difficult, you will feel anxious.

If the challenge is too easy, you will feel bored.

The flow state is somewhere in between.

Being in the bored state means that you are able to do it without help.

Being in the flow state means that you are able to do it with help.

Being in the anxious state means that you are not able to do it even with help.

The help could be a teacher, mentor, course, or a peer.

Relatedness

This point follows the last one nicely.

Relatedness means that you have to be connected to your environment.

You have to have trust in others around you.

You have to feel free to ask questions and don’t be scared to make mistakes.

Surround yourself with people that you can trust.

Competent people who can help you to stay in the flow state.

There are multiple ways to do this:

• Find a mentor

• Network with competent people

• Be a part of a community

I was lucky enough to get all 3 in one place.

I joined X order about a month ago.

It is a paid community with 3 mentors who will help you remain in the flow state.

They host 3 weekly calls that will skyrocket your writing ability.

Once a month, there is a masterclass from a well established creator in the space.

Besides the calls, you can follow courses that will teach you everything you need to get started.

At this moment, there are 66 competent members in it who you can also network with.

So surround yourself with competent people you trust and don’t be afraid to ask for help.

By satisfying these 3 basic needs, I got an endless amount of motivation to work towards my goals.

I wake up every day full of energy to work on something meaningful.

Whenever I focus on discipline, I eventually lose that spark, making it much more difficult to continue.

It is much easier to follow the path of least resistance and become autonomous motivated.

I would highly recommend giving it a try.

See you next time :)

Tibor