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[Music]
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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I love
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love
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motivation it's given me a good
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life and every place I look I see
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motivation or lack
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thereof so what is this thing I love
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this thing called
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motivation it's the energy for action
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it's what gets you up in the morning and
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mov moves you through the
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day
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traditionally
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psychologists
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economists people on the street have
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thought about motivation as a unitary
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concept that is they see it as something
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that differs only in
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amount you can have less motivation or
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more
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motivation and of of course our teachers
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our bosses our parents want us to have
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more
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motivation for the behaviors they want
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us to
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do it's a simple and straightforward way
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of thinking about
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motivation and I have no doubt that if
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you measured the amount of a person's
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motivation you could predict the amount
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of that person's
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Behavior but I've never believed that
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the amount of behavior was the most
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important
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thing what I think is the important
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thing actually is the quality of
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behavior not the
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quantity and you can't get to that by
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looking at the quantity of
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motivation let me give you an example to
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illustrate the point you have two women
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who work for you recently you found a
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bunch of new material that seemed very
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relevant to your work so you give the
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material to both of these women and you
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ask them to spend two hours learning it
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they do and they both put in
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considerable effort the first person
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goes through the
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material and then through it again and
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through it again and during the 2 hours
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she memorizes every single fact that's
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contained within
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it she did a lot of
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learning but the second person reads it
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and she's looking for the themes that
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are emerging she's addressing it in a
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more conceptual way trying to understand
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the big picture what is this really
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about and along the way she learns a few
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facts but she's interested in knowing
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how the facts fit together and how they
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relate to the big
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picture the quality of their learning
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even though it may have been exactly the
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same amount was very different and you
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can't explain that with the amount of
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motivation for more than 30 years my
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best friend Rich Ryan and I have been
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working on a theory of motivation that
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we call self-determination theory sdt
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for
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short and one of the central tenants of
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sdt is that you have to differentiate
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types of
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motivation and the distinction that is
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most important for us is between
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controlled motivation and autonomous
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motivation controlled motivation is
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essentially the carrot and stick when
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you're controlled in your motivation
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you've either been seduced into behaving
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perhaps by a offer of a reward or
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coerced into behaving perhaps by threat
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of punishment but in either of those
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cases you feel a lot of pressure and
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within you is a sense of tension and
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anxiety and all of those things have
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negative
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consequences for your performance and
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well-being there's another thing about
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controlled motivation that's
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interesting and that is that when you're
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motivation is controlled you tend to
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take the shortest path to the desired
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outcomes remember
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[Music]
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Enron the directors of that company had
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the goal of making the company stronger
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and more
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productive so they gave stock options to
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the top managers as a way of motivating
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them to achieve the
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goals well those managers were pretty
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clever fellows and it didn't take them
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long to realize that the shortest path
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to the outcome of making gazillions of
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dollars from their stock options was to
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artificially inflate the value of the
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company's
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stock and we all know how well that
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worked
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out in contrast we have autonomous
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motivation when you're autonomously
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motivated you will experience a full set
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of
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volition willingness and choice about
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what you're doing at the moment you're
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doing it you you're endorsing the doing
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of that
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behavior autonomous motivation comes in
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two flavors the first has to do with
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interest and
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enjoyment if you're interested in some
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activity and you enjoy doing it the
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motivation is right there inside you
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ready to come out and move you into
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action have you ever watched a
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2-year-old play
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2-year-olds love to
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play and when was the last time you
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heard a parent ask how do I motivate my
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2-year-old to play it's a silly question
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the motivation is right there when
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you're interested and enjoy the
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activity the other type of um autonomous
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motivation has to do with your deeply
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held values and beliefs if you really
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have something that's important to you
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something that you truly value you're
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perfectly willing to engage in the
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behaviors that are consistent with that
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so both of these things these two types
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of autonomous motivation are all about
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being fully willing to
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behave there are literally hundreds and
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hundreds and hundreds now of scientific
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investigations that have shown when
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you're autonomously motivated your
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behavior will be more
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creative you'll be a better Problem
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Solver when you encounter obstacles
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you'll be able to think outside the box
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and figure out what to do about them
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your performance will be better
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particularly euristic activities and
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your emotions will be much more
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positive and very
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importantly autonomous motivation is
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associated with both physical and
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psychological
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health so I'm arguing that autonomous
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motivation is a much more effective
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motivation than the carrot and stick the
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controlled motivation so what does
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autonomy support mean which is the way
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of getting people to be more
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autonomously
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motivated You Begin by taking their
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perspective if you're dealing with a
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child with an employee whoever it
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happens to
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be can you begin by trying to understand
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how that person sees the situation what
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is the internal frame of reference and
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if you do do that you're in a position
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to move forward from there to do
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whatever it is that needs to be done it
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also involves providing people with
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Choice allowing them to be engaged in
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the decisionmaking process it means
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supporting their exploration letting
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them try new ways encouraging them to be
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self-initiating to be a selfstarter if
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you will and very importantly if you're
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asking somebody to do something you need
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to provide them with a meaningful
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rationale because that way they will
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understand the importance and they may
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actually internalize it and make it a
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part of their value
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system so what happens when people are
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autonomously
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motivated when teachers are autonomously
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motivated their students learn in a
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deeper more conceptual way
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the students enjoy learning more and
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they feel more confident and competent
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about
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themselves when doctors are autonomy
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supportive their patients live healthier
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lives they take their medications more
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reliably they eat healthier diets and
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they exercise on a more regular
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basis when coaches are more autonomy
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supportive the research shows their
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athletes persist longer at the activity
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they feel better about themselves while
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doing it and they work together better
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as a
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team when bosses are more autonomy
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supportive their subordinates perform
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better at the job they also are better
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adjusted in the workplace which has
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important implications in terms of
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absenteeism turnover and so forth
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and when parents are more autonomy
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supportive their children have stronger
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mental health they do better in school
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and they cooperate more around the
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house now all of these relationships
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that I've been talking about so far have
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an implicit differential in terms of
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authority but many of our relationships
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aren't like that we have relationships
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with peers relationships that are more
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Mutual our romantic relationships our
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best
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friends there are people that
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argue that in order to have a high
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quality
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relationship you have to relinquish your
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autonomy in the service of the
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diet but in fact the research shows that
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you won't have a high quality relation
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reltionship if you don't feel autonomous
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within
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it what does that mean then in terms of
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your close
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relationships let me ask you
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this are you really interested in your
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partners do you give to them
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freely are you clear about your your own
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needs and the relationship so they're
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out there on the table and do you
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negotiate in good
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faith and then importantly do you do all
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those things fully
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willingly if not may I suggest you try
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it and see what
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happens so what am I trying to say in
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all
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this the take-home message is don't ask
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how you can motivate other people that's
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the wrong way to think about it
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instead ask how can you create the
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conditions within which other people
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will motivate
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themselves and the
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answer quite
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simply is autonomy
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support thank you very much
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[Music]
