Wellbeing and Motivation

Paying attention to our motivation is another facet of teacher wellbeing and the following could be considered while attending to the motivation: Recognizing the relationship between teacher and student motivation, time-related aspects of motivation, dynamic nature of motivation and the relationship between sense of achievement and motivation.

Below questions can provide guidance:

1. To what extent do I realize the interplay between my motivation and learners’ motivation?

(According to the self-determination theory, motivation arises when we feel competent at what we do, autonomous and connected to others (Deci&Ryan, 2000). Also, attending to our motivation affects not only us but also our learners as the attitudes are contagious (Mercer & Gregersen, 2020).)

2. How much am I aware of my time perspectives: Am I past, present or future oriented or a balanced
   version of all three?

(According to Mercer and Gregersen (2020), those with a balanced time perspective experience higher levels of wellbeing. An important concept here is delayed gratification, which means postponing immediate pleasures to work and achieve a future goal.)

3. How much attention do I pay on altering the nature of my tasks, relationships and perceptions to
   improve my day-to-day motivation?

(Making proactive changes on job-related areas of our lives could help our wellbeing. Three crucial areas to address are tasks, relationships, and perceptions.)

4. How much do I feel a sense of achievement or do I put myself down by focusing on the negatives?

(An important aspect of wellbeing is achievement. Much of a teacher’s work goes unnoticed or unappreciated, so it might be helpful to remind ourselves of our accomplishments.)

Some strategies to care for our motivation and wellbeing

Have a bucket list and work towards it. Be aware of finite time and raise consciousness. (Mercer & Gregersen, 2020)

Perspectives on time: Do you believe you live in the present or do you remember the past positively or negatively, or do you always look forward. You can find out about your own time perspective and try to find a balance. Zimbardo and Boyd (2008) state that all our mental decisions are influenced by our biased time perspective, which we are unaware of. Go to this link to take the ZTPI test and learn about your time biases: 

https://www.thetimeparadox.com/zimbardo-time-perspective-inventory/

Consider job crafting (Berg, Dutton & Wrzesniewski, 2013): Adjustments one can proactively make to redesign their job to fit their strengths, needs, and interests. There are three key areas: tasks, relationships, and perceptions. 

-task crafting: adjusting the focus of the tasks your job involves

-relationships: working on our relationships to make the workplace more satisfying

-perceptions: changing our thinking about our jobs and tasks.

Work with your strengths: Use VIA (Values in Action) inventory to define character strengths, then you can find out which ones you regularly use and which ones you could use more. (Mercer & Gregersen, 2020)

‘Best Self Exercise’ to reconnect to your meaning and purpose. Once put in the written form, the strategy may help meaning-building (Granziera et al., 2021)

References

Berg, J. M., Dutton, J. E., & Wrzesniewski, A. (2013). Job crafting and meaningful work.

Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2000). The" what" and" why" of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior. Psychological inquiry, 11(4), 227-268.

Granziera, H., Collie, R., & Martin, A. (2021). Understanding teacher wellbeing through job demands-resources theory. In Cultivating Teacher Resilience (pp. 229-244). Springer, Singapore.