"In deficiency motivation individuals seek to restore their physical and/or psychological equilibrium, while in growth motivation individuals seek to surpass what they have been and done in the past." (27)
These motivations then inspire actions that are tension-reducing or tension-increasing. As one author describes, "Deficiency motivation is an aversive state of tension that makes the person seek the goals that will fulfill the need, and thus reduce the tension."
The opposite occurs, however, in growth motivation. As Ware writes, "Growth-motivated persons usually welcome uncertainty, increased stress, and even pain to reach worthwhile goals in the process of fulfilling their potential." (27)
Of course, in singing training, one of the primary goals is to build efficiency in part by reducing unnecessary tension. But the kind of pain, stress, and tension Ware describes as part of growth-motivation are the natural "growing pains" of learning and skill development. This may include the discomfort of regularly extending the mental effort and concentration needed to master a skill. It may be the disappointment of prioritizing daily practice when there are other things you'd rather be doing. It also means leaning into the psychological stress of performing in front of others.
Despite the negative-sounding name, deficiency motivation is not at all a bad thing. I would imagine we have all used singing as a way to restore "physical and/or psychological equilibrium." In fact, I would guess that's what led most of us to pursue vocal studies—because singing, in many ways, allows us to feel most ourselves, brings us comfort, and sets us right again. To be honest, many of us who have given our lives to the serious study of the voice probably don't use singing for that purpose often enough.
Ware points this out, as well. As he says, "Singing for enjoyment is as valid as any motivation, especially if musical activity makes one's life more whole." On the other hand, he continues, "the realization of one's highest potential in any endeavor will require an inquisitive nature and openness to new experiences, ideas, emotions, and missions...Those who have serious vocal aspirations are typically oriented more toward growth-motivation objectives." (27)
A couple of blogs ago, as a way to find motivation, we entertained asking ourselves the questions, "Do I really want this?" and "Am I willing, TODAY, to do the work that will lead me to become a more skilled and expressive singer, even if I don't see those results immediately?"
Based on Maslow's theories, we may go even further and ask, "Am I willing to welcome uncertainty, increased stress, and discomfort in order to reach my goals and fulfill my potential?"
One of the greatest baseball movies of all time is A League of Their Own (that's not my opinion—that's just fact), which chronicles the beginning of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. In one of the movie's most iconic scenes, catcher Dottie Hinson (Geena Davis) is considering quitting the team, believing that the demands of the sport have become too hard. Coach Jimmie Dugan (Tom Hanks) tells her, "It's supposed to be hard. If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great."
We all know that achieving greatness is not easy. But it takes a higher level of commitment to truly embrace the difficult aspects of the process, knowing that what is hard is what helps make us great.
Now go practice.
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| Dottie (Geena) and Jimmy (Tom) |
I really enjoyed reading this weeks blog. And it really brings a new perspective to motivation as a whole. I think that often motivation can be misconstrued, and often thought of as "well I practiced and sang" but in this blog it really talks about how it's more than just doing the thing. Often times we hear about to grow you need to feel uncomfortable, and to grow you need to be motivated but to think of motivation as that uncomfortableness is new and really spoke to me.
ReplyDeleteI found this week's blog to be incredibly interesting. I hadn't really thought about there being a "motivation behind the motivation" before. I look back on my history of voice and wonder when I was being motivation by deficiency and when I was being motivated by growth. I have often relied too much on external factors when wanting to improve, and I would categorize this as deficiency motivation. I would call it this because it came from a perceived notion of deficiency from those who were grading or listening to me, not actually motivated by my own desire to grow. I was deficient in validation, so my motivations were based on that deficiency. The same thing applies when I am only motivated to practice because of a grade or assessment. If I do not feel like I am ready for said assignment, I am motivated by the deficiency in my preparedness.
ReplyDeleteI can see how a growth-motivation mindset fosters much more productive and meaningful change. It allows you to push yourself beyond what is expected and gives you a greater margin of ability. I see how much work I need to do to change my own mindset to be in line with this. Rather than practicing each day for the purpose of having more days to tally on my weekly practice sheet, I should view it as an opportunity to improve my voice and better myself as a performer.
First of all, I just need to say that I LOVE A League of Their Own (Brian, you are right -- it is simply a fact that it is one of the greatest baseball movies ever). And that quote that Tom Hanks' character says resonates with me so deeply: "If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great."
ReplyDeleteThere are definitely times where I will have deficiency motivation (e.g. coming back to school from the summer of little to no practicing), where I am trying to get back to where I was, vocally. My motivation was that I know that I can reach that place, because I've already been there. However, this idea of growth motivation is also very powerful, because you have to put so much faith and belief in yourself that you can attain something that is new and scary. Right now, my main goal in my vocal studies is to incorporate more of my head voice into my singing, all throughout my range. This is something that is very new to me and is something that I've only started to focus on since joining the MTP. It's definitely scary, and there are days when I'm worried that I will never be as good of a singer as I want to be. But I love the question that is asked in the blog: "Am I willing to welcome uncertainty, increased stress, and discomfort in order to reach my goals and fulfill my potential?"
My goals are what I strive for in order to become a talented singer. And if that is what I want in life, more than anything, then there should be nothing that should stand in my way of that. I think a lot of us are scared of this growth motivation, because we are scared of what our potential is. However, I feel that if we put enough trust in ourselves, we shouldn't let the sky be our limit and we should soar as high as we want.
When I began reading the blog, I thought the moral of the story would be that we should be striving for “growth motivation” because, well, it sounds a lot more inspiring than “deficiency motivation.” The real moral of the story though, if I interpreted the blog post correctly, is that both are healthy. “Deficiency motivation” is blasting “Gives You Hell” in the car on the way to McDonald’s, while “growth motivation” is doing things that seem boring or mundane, like vocal warmups, diligently and consistently. For me, I resonate with the pain, stress, and tension of sticking to a regular practice schedule the most. For the past year and a half-ish, I have never stuck to a schedule, usually finding time to practice, but barely ever at certain scheduled times. I am so reluctant to make practicing a scheduled activity because one of my favorite things is singing when I have a bunch of laundry to fold or dishes to do. It is relaxing and allows me to alleviate some of the discomfort of doing my boring warmups, but then when there comes a day when there are no dishes in the sink or fresh laundry to fold, singing slips my mind.
ReplyDeleteAs someone who is relatively new to vocal training, I appreciate the reminder that deficiency motivation is not bad. It’s a pretty effective coping technique for me to either reclaim my own voice or find joy in doing dishes. My main takeaway is the bit about maintaining an “inquisitive nature.” Curiosity is a virtue, maybe even a necessity when singing is a daily practice.
-Serena :)
This weeks blog was a nice refresher for me, I have had a rough few weeks with motivation, never being able to find what I need to work. Doing something for enjoyment should definitely be enough. I have the same thing as Serena where I have a schedule but a lot of the schedule is open ended. I strive to find the point where I am consistently confident in my practicing.
ReplyDelete-Tate Foshay
Motivation has always been an issue for me regarding schoolwork or the arts, I sometimes just get lazy and decide to do something else and procrastinate on what I should be doing. I believe that I tend to use growth motivation rather than deficiency motivation. I get intimidated easily and also set up expectations that are too early for my voice and get discouraged once I’m not able to achieve my goal. I think that the question near the end of the blog is an excellent question to ask yourself. I notice that even though I get discouraged at times with not succeeding the first time, I keep going. I put myself back up and tell myself that I do want to do this, and it’s true. I really want to be able to work somehow in the industry in NYC one day, and that’s another source of motivation for myself is the future. I look back at my old videos and I think about the progress I made and how far I’ve come since high school and the satisfaction that comes with that realization is awesome.
ReplyDeleteMotivation is and will always be a constant struggle for me. Not sure why. But this post is really interesting as it shows motivation in a whole new way. This type of motivation that is needed in my life right now. Especially in this climate I not that I have lost passion for the arts but I have lost exposure to everyone elses motivation. A lot of the arts right now seem bleak and less powerful, but I have to realize not everything will be optimal ever. Motivation should also come through myself and not solely from other people. I feel I need the motivation to restore my motivation I had coming into the semester.
ReplyDeleteMotivation has been hard for me to find lately so this was really nice for me to read. I've never thought of it in these two ways before. I always just thought of it as wanting to be better but there being even more than that does make so much sense. I want to try and incorporate both deficiency motivation and growth motivation into my life. It's not an easy thing to have all the time but maybe thinking of it in these ways will help me in the future.
ReplyDeleteA lot of this year has felt like deficiency motivation- struggling to maintain my skillset as I get my education in a less effective format (maybe not so much with voice, but certainly with dance). That being said, I would love to finish strong and pursue real growth for this last part of the semester. It's not so much that I am not putting in the effort- I am doing all of my work and to an okay standard-but my attitude about it often leaves me feeling drained and dissatisfied with my work. For my deficiency motivation to become growth motivation, I should (as the blog says) lean into the fear and the uncertainty.
ReplyDeleteI loved the line "Am I willing to welcome uncertainty, increased stress, and discomfort in order to reach my goals and fulfill my potential?" because I remember coming into this program thinking I was an alto belter.LOL. I had to give up basically everything I knew about singing and start from scratch with real technique. For a while, without being able to rely on anything I knew how to do, I sounded bad. Airy, uncontrolled, and generally uncomfortable to listen to. But I leaned into the fear, I trusted the process, and it delivered me to better technique. If I can remember how to that, I think this semester will feel a lot more productive.
This Blog made me think about how I often get increased stress from having a growth mindset. sometimes I look at the small mistakes that I make, and I dwell on them for too long. this showed me that we have to find ways in which we get the most motivated and know that we are improving. Natural growing pains is the best way to think about it. really helped put it into perspective.
ReplyDeleteAlex Fish