I recently attended the German Association for Positive Psychology Research’s (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Positiv-Psychologische Forschung: http://dgppf.de) Conference at Trier University. It was a fantastic event with much food for thought. Over the next few days I will try to share some of the insights from the latest German PP research. So let’s start at the beginning…
The introductory keynote speech delivered by Professor Dr. Michaela Brohm-Badry of Trier University addressed the topic of “Risk, Happiness and Excitement”.
Professor Brohm-Badry explained how our ability to motivate ourselves is linked to our perception of the “excitement” of a task. Research exploring which games or sports events we find exciting shows that the outcome of a game must be unpredictable for it to be experienced as engaging. The risk of potential failure is the ingredient that makes it interesting. If we can easily beat our opponent, we think the game is boring; if it is too difficult, we also disengage. This also seems to be true for our inner motivation to complete various tasks. In a way, we compete against ourselves – and if the challenge is too simple or too complex, we lose interest.
We can only experience personal growth by putting ourselves outside of our comfort zone (also known as the “zone of stagnation”, I loved the visual imagery), and allowing ourselves to experience situations in which we might fail. We should be brave in pushing our boundaries, whilst not choosing tasks that generate fear since these will most likely not lead to growth.
In fact, there is a “growth zone” somewhere in the middle between boredom and fear – in which we are open-minded and will be motivated to try our new things. And try new things we should: only if we are required to test out new ideas and behaviours or approach problems from a new angle will we acquire new skills that contribute to our personal growth. And even if we make mistakes, and fail, we will learn more than others who never try anything new.
And in any case, failure is simply a matter of perception. As Thomas A. Edison famously said – “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
A detailed explanation of these ideas can be found the following article by Prof. Brohm-Bradry in German magazine Wirtschaftswoche: http://www.wiwo.de/erfolg/coach/glueck/wie-mut-uns-stimuliert-mach-was-womit-du-scheitern-kannst/19741370-all.html
