Youth Ministry: April 2011

What Motivates a Person?

By Mary Lou Rosien

What motivates a person? The answer to that question is a varied as the number of people there are in the world, but there are some commonalities among young people.

1. Food
2. Peers
3. Parents
4. Rewards
5. Recognition/Accomplishment
6. Saving themselves additional work.

Exploring motivation may help us to work more effectively with our teaching populations within youth ministry. I have seven children and a foster son. They range in age from 25-years-old to 9-years-old and they are all completely different. My 18-year-old son is only motivated by things that serve him in some way. He’s the kid that doesn’t do his homework until right before he is failing and then he pulls off a great grade. His room is one of the cleanest in the house, just because he likes it that way. My two middle children are driven to do good and be good. They are the ones who will make themselves sick trying to get a really great grade. I don’t understand their internal driving force, but I do identify with it, because I’m like that too. My oldest daughter is only motivated to do what she thinks is important. It is difficult to make other things a priority to her if she has something else going on. Eight kids, eight different motivations.

I have often said that to love someone is to become an expert on them. Part of our jobs as catechists however, is to help our students become experts on themselves. Consider asking them to look at times they have been truly successful or productive and what motivated them? This may require asking some open-ended questions and giving them time to really explore the answers.

Sometimes the answers we find to motivate ourselves may surprise us and learning to change our style to fit our motivation may surprise us even more. It took me years to learn that I work best on a deadline. I could never finish a paper in college until right before it was due. Even now, I write all my articles for the month in one day. How do I make this work for me? I have learned to set up a fictitious deadline to make myself productive. I write dates on the calendar for everything from writing assignments to cleaning the bathtub. It may not work for everyone, but it works for me.

Helping our students to identify their own styles and implement motivations for themselves will ultimately help them (and us) be more productive in and out of the classroom. God bless.

Mary Lou Rosien writes from North Chili, NY. She is the author of Managing Stress with the Help of Your Catholic Faith (OSV Publishing). Email her at mrosien@rochester.rr.com.