ENGLISH

PROJECT
Podcast Report

Student's Name:

Grade:

Roll No.:

TOP I C :
ch o lo g y of
The psy

____ _
self-mo _
ti
_
va
_ tio n

Facilitator's Name:
Table of Content

1. Statement of Purpose
2. Objectives and Goals
3. My Action Plan
4. Evidence of Learning Progress
5. Report
6. My Reflections, Learnings &
Experiences
7. Bibliography
8. Certificate of Completion
9. Teacher's Feedback
 Statement of
purpose
The purpose of this report
is to test our vocabulary
skills and develop our
analyzing and attention-
to-detail abilities, while
also giving us an insight
into the world of self-
motivation

Your paragraph text

 Goals and
objectives
I am hoping that this report would
enable me to understand the concept
of self-motivation and how it affects
us mentally.
I am also expecting my vocabulary to
be tested.
Also hope to get a new and different
perception into self-motivation
MY ACTION PLAN
Listen to the podcast a few times
Break it down into parts of 3
minutes
Take down notes of each part
Type down a report taking help
from the notes while listening to
the podcast again
 THE
REPORT
The podcast that I have chosen to do a report on is
The psychology of self-motivation by Scott Geller.
Who is Scott Geller?
Scott Geller is a behavioral psychologist, and
currently an Alumni Distinguished Professor of
Psychology at Virginia Tech and Director of the
Center for Applied Behavior Systems.

How to simply define self-motivation?

Geller starts the podcast with two words that
basically summarize the essence of self-motivation.
"Beyond boundaries".
Most of us are definitely motivated to finish a task
if there is a deadline or a supervisor who urges us
to complete a task, but when there's no deadline or
anyone to propel us to complete a job, will we?
Self-motivation is, "to do more than we have to. To
do something not because they tell us, but because
you want to", as Geller puts it quite elegantly and
accurately.
Geller, after putting across the idea of self-
motivation elliptically, moves on to explain how to
achieve it.
The next question Geller asks and proceeds to
answer is-
How can we inspire people and ourselves to be
self-motivated?
The answer to this was just one word.
Empowerment. He then went on to differentiate
between the management definition of
empowerment and feeling empowered.
Management defines empowerment as achieving
something with fewer resources and lesser time.
But feeling empowered is different. It is when you
are self-motivated.
How do we know if we or our family, friends,
acquaintances, etc feel empowered?

Can you do it?

Will it work?
Is it worth it?

If the answer to all these questions is yes, then we

feel empowered.

Can you do it, is a question of ability. The test of

self-efficacy, as Albert Bandura calls it.
 Do we have the knowledge, training, and time to
complete the work?
The second question is will it work. Do we believe
that the process we are going to follow would
lead to the right results, also called the response
efficacy. And here to understand and analyze the
expected results, we need education.
Geller goes on to explain the difference between
training and education. Where training is a result-
oriented process, education is more theoretical
than training.
The last question is, is it worth it? Do we believe
the consequences are worth fighting for?
The simplest way to motivate people or yourself is
by just convincing them, that it is worth it. Here
we get our first C-WORD.
CONSEQUENCES. Are the consequences worth it?
When we answer yes to all these questions, there
is one change we do observe in us. The second C-
WORD.
COMPETENCE. We feel competent and that is
enough motivation to complete any task.
When you feel like you are worth it and you can
do it, you will do it.
Geller here identifies a challenge and helps us
overcome it. He questions us how to make someone
or ourselves feel competent? The keyword here is
FEEDBACK. When you give them feedback or
recognition, then they feel competent.

The third C-WORD Geller talks about is

CHOICE. When you provide someone the freedom,
the autonomy, the choice to do something, it will
automatically give you self-motivation.
The reference Geller gives here in line with this
point is a book "Beyond freedom and dignity" by
B.F.Skinner. In this book, Skinner says that human
freedom as a concept can not exist.
Geller in reference to that states that he realizes
that it's true and that every person is controlled by
consequences.
But we always don't feel that we are controlled.
That's because when we work to achieve a good
consequence we wouldn't feel controlled. But
when we work to avoid an inversive consequence,
we feel controlled.
Geller here tries to make a statement. He urges us
to be success seekers, rather than failure avoiders.

But how? The secret here is how you look at a

situation. It's all in the mindset. When you look at
everything as an opportunity instead of 'something
you gotta do', you would always be motivated and
positive.

Ellen Langer, a Harvard professor of psychology,

says in her book 'Mindfulness', that when you
perceive choice, you perceive motivation.
When you sit back and think of the choice you
have and positively reflect in your attitude about
being a success seeker rather than a failure
avoider, you are already motivated.

The fourth and last C-WORD Geller uses here is

COMMUNITY. Geller says that social support is
critical. People who perceive a sense of
connection with other people are generally
happier and consequently more motivated.
Geller later moved on to tell a beautiful and
inspirational story to put all the 4Cs together and
in passing included another small but effective tip.
When you are in distress or feel helpless, break it
down.
He ends the podcast by summing it all up telling
us that it's us who should help each other get
motivated and be motivated.
 MY
REFLECTIONS,
LEARNINGS &
EXPERIENCES
When I first started listening to the podcast I was wondering
how I am going to write a report on it. 15 long minutes later,
I decided to shelve it and do it later. After a few days, I again
decided to listen to the podcast. This time though I decided
to pay attention to every detail. The answer to my question
of how to start the report was in the podcast itself.
"When you are in distress or feel helpless, break it down."
And that's exactly what I did. I broke it down into parts of 3
minutes and decided to start reporting each part at a stretch
and take a break and do it again and again. And I eventually
finished this report. This is how Scott Geller has directly
affected this report with his very inspiring insight into self-
motivation.

As I listened to the podcast I noted down a few words.

Can you do it? Feel competent
Do you believe it will work? Break things down
Is it worth it? It’s how you see it
Feedback Mindfulness
Perceive Choice Community
Consequence

These words essentially summarise the entire podcast.

The empowerment testing questions, the 4Cs, and some very
helpful words which would forever be imbibed in my mind
have led me to say that this is one of the most impactful
podcasts I have heard to date.
 https://youtu.be/7sxpKhIbr0E

SPEAKER: Scott Geller

EVENT: TEDx Talks

https://reason.com/1975/01/01/ski
nner-vs-freedom-dignity-and/
https://psychminds.com/motivatio
n-the-psychology-behind-staying-
motivated/
 CERTIFICATE
OF COMPLETION

Student name
2022 This is to certify that _____________ has
successfully completed the English Project under
the guidance of __________.

FACILITATOR'S NAME

English Teacher