Today is January 29 and the Navigate the Chaos question to consider is "How often do you engage in self-determination?"
People who navigate the chaos use a variety of strategies to engage in self-determination.
Parents, teachers, coaches, and managers are just a few of the many people that struggle with helping others engage in self-determination.
Individuals struggle to find energy, mobilize effort and persist at the tasks of life and work.
People are often moved by external factors such as reward systems, grades, evaluations, or the opinions they fear others might have of them.
Yet, just as frequently, people are motivated from within, by interests, curiosity, care or abiding values.
These intrinsic motivations are not necessarily externally rewarded or supported, but nonetheless they can sustain passions, creativity, and sustained efforts.
The interplay between the extrinsic forces acting on persons and the intrinsic motives and needs inherent in human nature is the territory of Self-Determination Theory.
The theory was initially developed by Edward L. Deci and Richard M. Ryan, and has been elaborated and refined by scholars from many countries.
Self-determination theory (SDT) is an approach to human motivation and personality that articulates enhanced performance, persistence, and creativity, arguably three critical skills everyone needs to succeed, best fostered by an individual developing a sense of autonomy, competence, and relatedness.
To better understand your level of self-determination, consider asking yourself the following three questions:
Do you want to enhance your performance at work, your hobby, or perhaps a physical goal you are working towards?
Would you like to improve your ability to persist through difficult situations?
Does increased creativity interest you?
If you answered yes to any of these questions; than it would behoove you to examine your level of autonomy, competence, and relatedness.
Doing so requires you to ask yourself the following questions.
Are you more autonomous or dependent upon others?
Have you been labeled competent more than incompetent?
How well do you relate to others?
If you have the self-awareness to measure your sense of autonomy, competence, and relatedness. then you have some measure of self-determination.
If you believe what playwright Oscar Wilde noted "Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken" then self-determination remains critical for your ability to navigate the chaos.
As you go about your day consider asking yourself how often do you engage in self-determination?