When I was still in the classroom, I would hand out stickers as something to motivate students. 5 year olds were motivated easily back then! Although I totally believe in being internally motivated, sometimes the motivation must begin from the outside.
Where am I going with this? Last week, Kole ran his first cross country meet of the season. Although his time wasn't that great, he had a huge KICK left in the end. He also got beat by what Kev and I would consider a "non-athlete", which didn't go over well with us! This "non-athlete" beat Kole by 1.5 minutes--OUCH to us, but for Kole, "Hey, he's gotten good!" So, I decide to go out on a limb and offer some external motivation. So, when the boys got home from football TU night, the external incentive was made...
"Kole, for every second you beat .... by, I will give you $1." I really wasn't worried about the deal because he had so much time to drop. Well, last night Kole passed .... right before the finish line and he dropped 1 minute and 20 seconds! Although Kole won't know the exact difference until tomorrow, I think I probably owe him only a couple dollars! Thank goodness I didn't offer to pay him $1 for every second he dropped. Should I give him a bonus for good effort?
Now, will he be internally motivated now that he knows he can do it? Only next week will tell!
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