The most challenging yet the most exciting and enduring activity in our journey through 11th standard was the book review assignment. The 3rd book review session was conducted on Monday 13th April 2015. It was on the New York Times best seller book – “Drive – The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us” by Daniel H. Pink. The book was nicely presented by Manhilbhai, Abhibhai, Krutarthbhai and Sahajbhai. Book review was conducted during the sports hour in the school auditorium. There was a charming audience which included the students of 9th, 10th and 11th standards and all the teachers from the junior as well as senior section.

During the session, we understood what the sole motivation for us is and what our purpose of living is. The book was introduced by Manhilbhai and he started with an experiment explaining the three types of motivation. He explained motivation 1.0 as the biological desires that a person has, motivation 2.0 as the carrots and sticks approach also known as rewards and punishments, and the last was the motivation 3.0 which is intrinsic motivation. After Manhilbhai’s brief introduction Sahajbhai took over the presentation. Sahajbhai explained the rise and fall of motivation 2.0 with the help of a concept draw and later he explained three incompatibility problems that we face in our lives. Which are, how we do what we do, how we think about what we do and how we organise what we do. He explained these three problem with great lively examples and concluded that we human beings are mostly motivated by external desires such as Money, Car, Big House, etc.

Then Krutarthbhai with his detailed and witty examples, explained the seven reasons why carrots and sticks approach often doesn’t work and some circumstances when they work. Krutarthbhai told us about less of what we need in our lives and more of what we don’t need in our lives. He said we need more of intrinsic motivation, high performance, creativity and good behaviour. He continued saying that we should not have unethical behaviour, addiction towards something and never have short-term thinking if we want to stay happy and successful in our lives.

Abhibhai then took the lead on the presentation and explained with his amazing storytelling skills the two types of behaviour’s that people around us have. He said they are type 1 and type 10 people. Type 1 people’s behaviour is to be intrinsically motivated on the other hand Type 10 people’s behaviour is to be seek rewards and be externally motivated. He explained the five major differences between Type 1 and Type 10. In each difference he gave examples from people around us. He gave examples of Sachin Tendulkar, Lata Mangeshkar, Narayan Murthy, and many other successful people. It was very clear to everyone sitting in the auditorium that you may have talent but it is your good behaviour and internal motivation that makes you successful. There are many people in the world who have great talent but cannot become successful because they were externally motivated and chase money in their life.

Then Abhibhai introduced the concept of “The three building blocks of motivation 3.0”. He further explained that the 1st building block of motivation 3.0 is autonomy. We understood autonomy is different from independence. Autonomy means acting with choice. He explained to us that many companies in the world are now following ROWE (Results Only Work Environment) in which they give their employees Autonomy over: “task – what we do”, “time – when we do”, “technique – how we do” and “team – with whom we do”. We also understood that people working in companies that have adopted ROWE are more happy and successful. He continued saying that there is a great need for a shift from motivation 2.0 to motivation 3.0.

Manhilbhai continued the presentation and introduced the 2nd building block of motivation 3.0 which is mastery. He said Mastery is the desire to get better and better at something that matters. He continued with a discussion on autotelic experience which is nothing but FLOW. In flow, goals are clear and relation between what a person has to do and what he can do is in alignment. We understood that when the 12th standard students are writing their final exams they forget the sense of space and time, they are in a state of FLOW. We imagined how our lives would be altered positively, if we could always be in a state of FLOW. He then moved to describe the three laws of mastery which are as follows: Mastery is a mind-set, mastery is a pain, and mastery is an asymptote. He also said that mastery is a slow and steady process which needs flow as its oxygen for its soul.

Then he explained the 3rd building block of motivation 3.0 which was purpose. Purpose is our yearning to contribute and to be part of something greater than ourselves. He also discussed three techniques through which we can achieve our purpose of life. The techniques that were described are as follows: goals, words and policies. To explain the techniques he showed a video of Param Pujya Swamishree in which He had explained the goals of an AVM student. To explain words he helped us recap the words that we always write on our whiteboards, but don’t recognise their importance which are “Be Nice, Work Hard” and “There are No Shortcuts”. To explain the concept of policies he reminded us of our Classroom Goals. In the end, he discussed the importance of these techniques and how following them can help us lead a happy and successful life.

To live a good life, we need the three building blocks of motivation 3.0 which are autonomy, mastery and purpose and furthermore, our body, mind and soul should be in a single line – aligned.

Then, the cover page designed by the team was projected on the screen. It was drawn very artistically with inputs from the whole group and it highlighted the theme of the book showing a man breaking the shackles of material desires and becoming the Pilot of his own life. This ended the book review session. Then the floor was opened for question and answer.

All the students sitting in the auditorium understood that we should work hard on purpose and never chase material things. If we strive to achieve mastery in everything we do, money will follow anyway.

Submitted by: Students of 12th Commerce