A future they want to explore

Think of something you look forward to doing.

You know, that thing you find the time to do just after you announced how busy you are.

Yes, that one.

It’s not something you do because you have to, or someone else wants you to. You do it because you want to.

Of course, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s easy. It may be. Or it might have taken practice, patience and skill-building. Some parts might still be frustrating, but there’s something about doing it that engages you and gives you a sense of satisfaction.

That willingness to put in the effort and persevere is worth thinking about when we’re helping young people find their way towards learning, training and work.

There’s more to motivation than we might think

We often talk about motivation as though someone either has it or they don’t. “Alex is so motivated”. “Jordan is just not motivated.”

There’s an implied amount too – people are often said to be ‘highly’ motivated if they’re proactive and engaged. Some will even refer to this as someone being ‘self-motivated’.

So if motivation is a good thing, surely more would always be better?

Well, it depends on what’s motivating them.

Two young people might work equally hard for very different reasons. One feels under pressure to gain a reward, avoid a punishment or meet other people’s expectations. The other is involved in something that interests them or is working towards a goal they personally value.

It’s the difference between feeling pressured to act and to acting willingly.¹

In one situation, you might feel pushed into doing something. The pressure might come from other people, but it can also come from within, through guilt or a need to prove we’re good enough. In each case, these all fall into the category of controlled motivation – or ‘mustivation’. You do it with a sense of ‘I must’.

In contrast, you might do something willingly because it interests you, or because you value its purpose or outcome. It’s meaningful to you. When an activity is engaging or satisfying for its own sake – like playing a musical instrument for fun or working in your own garden – that’s intrinsic motivation.

You might also willingly do something less enjoyable – like sorting household recycling – because caring for the environment matters to you. Doing something willingly – whether for its own sake or because it serves a meaningful goal – is what psychologists call autonomous motivation.² Some scholars call it ‘wantivation’ to capture that sense of ‘I want to’

These differences in the quality of motivation can have important positive outcomes beyond these personal realms, with research in many areas, including education, finding links between autonomous motivation and greater engagement, persistence, achievement and wellbeing.¹, ², ³, ⁴

When motivation and confidence grow together

The benefits of autonomous motivation (‘wantivation’) give us a good reason to help young people connect with activities that interest them or serve a purpose they value. They then have a reason of their own to become involved. As they learn and make progress, they can begin to see what they’re capable of.

Imagine Sam, who struggles to get interested in his schoolwork but willingly spends hours working on a bicycle. He adjusts the gears, tests them and tries again when they still won’t change properly. He watches YouTube videos to figure out what he needs to do. It’s been a little bit frustrating, but he keeps at it because he wants to get to the bike working.

When the gears finally work, Sam can see what his effort has achieved. He feels a sense of competence, and he feels good about himself. He might not recognise it at the time, but he’s probably going to feel more confident to take on similar challenges in the future. This belief in our ability to handle a task is what psychologists call increased self-efficacy, and it can help us to persevere to overcome challenges and to perform well.⁵

You can think of this as a virtuous circle. Acting willingly encourages involvement and sustained effort, which can support learning and progress. Feeling more competent can then encourage further involvement and support wellbeing. Engagement and progress can begin to reinforce one another.² Connecting learning with a young person’s own interests can help set them up for more successful outcomes.

A wider view of work interests

A young person’s interests may extend well beyond the activities they already know. Career exploration gives them a chance to discover more of the working world and recognise their vocational interests: the kinds of work activities and environments they’re drawn to.

So how do we help them discover those interests?

Parents and educators sometimes look for work interests in favourite school subjects or what a young person does outside school. But school subjects offer a narrow view of the activities found across the working world,⁶ and many kinds of work may never even come into consideration.

And it’s easy to jump from an observation to a job title. We’ve probably all done it at one time. “You like arguing, you should be a lawyer.” Or “She loves animals, she should be a vet.”

These connections may be well meant – and even seem logical – but the leaps can be misleading. Enjoying an argument or loving animals doesn’t necessarily mean a young person would be interested in the day-to-day work of a lawyer or vet.

Even Sam’s hours working on the bike don’t necessarily tell us he’d enjoy fixing things as an occupation more broadly. He might simply want his own wheels and the freedom to meet his mates at the park. But it also might – we simply don’t know until Sam has had the opportunity to see what work in many areas might look like, and identify what appeals to him.

We need to broaden our own thinking about how we help young people connect with their work interests. That means giving them a chance to see the wider world of work before drawing conclusions about what interests them. We need to give them a map of that world to help them encounter the wide variety of different work activities, understand what’s involved and consider for themselves which work domains appeal.

Why finding a fit matters

Once a young person recognises the kinds of work that interest them, they have a useful starting point for exploring study, training and occupations. They can look for opportunities where those activities and environments are part of what they’ll actually be doing.

When their interests line up with what a course or job actually involves, psychologists describe this as interest fit, a form of person–environment fit. Research links interest fit with better performance in education and work, and greater job satisfaction.⁷, ⁸ All good outcomes to support, right?

And this notion of alignment can help young people feel ‘I want to do this’, supporting autonomous motivation. Work that interests them can provide its own reason to become involved, while the prospect of doing it can give study and training a purpose they personally value.²

The benefits extend to how people experience their working lives. Research links autonomous motivation at work with greater engagement and better performance. It’s also associated with greater job satisfaction and wellbeing, and less burnout.⁹

This gives us a broader reason to help young people discover their interests: we’re helping them explore directions in which they could do well and find satisfaction, while pursuing work that matters to them. In other words, we’re helping them become ‘self-motivated’.

Helping young people motivate themselves

Edward Deci, one of the founders of self-determination theory, suggests that instead of asking how we can motivate others, we should ask, “how can people create the conditions within which others will motivate themselves?” (p. 10).¹⁰

For educators and career advisors – and parents – it’s an important question.

At Work Sync, we think the answer is to begin by giving young people the tools they need to visualise and understand the wider world of work, and an easy way to identify for themselves what appeals to them.

We should support them to explore their own interests early – without pressure to decide on one pathway or another. Then we can help them find opportunities to try activities that interest them, to expand their experiences and learn more about what does and doesn’t feel like a good fit for them.

In this way, they might engage more deeply, and their confidence and motivation can grow together. ² When they’ve discovered their work interests, they can be guided towards occupations where they are more likely to find job satisfaction and success.

That’s the thinking behind Work Sync: when study, training and work connects with activities that genuinely interest young people, they’re more likely to stay engaged and thrive.

Finding a path is one thing.

Finding one they’re excited to follow is another.

Finding one they can stay with over time – that’s where the gold lies.

Let’s help them get there.