Motivation is the driving force in nearly everything we do. It provides the “why?” behind what we’re doing and it significantly affects the way we learn.

Motivation science is an emerging field that studies the importance of motivation in various aspect of life and can help us better understand the importance of having motivation even to do the simplest tasks.

Dr. Kou Murayama explains his findings on this subject in the article The Science of Motivation.

Through human experimentation, his research examined the difference between two different types of motivation: mastery goals (mastering materials and developing skills) and performance goals (performing well compared to others).

Here’s what we learned:

“The participants in the performance goal condition showed better memory performance in an immediate memory test, but when the memory was assessed one week later, participants in the mastery goal condition showed better memory performance.”

“…mastery-based motivation supports long-term learning whereas performance-based motivation only helps short-term learning.”

Who knew! Our subconscious thought process behind the things we are learning is extremely influential towards the efficiency of our learning.

Take a minute and think about what your driving force is and if it’s aligned with a “mastery goal” mindset.

Let us know where your motivation comes from!