A short podcast micro-class by Brian Johnson introducing Self-Determination Theory (SDT) and its three core components—autonomy, competence, and relatedness—as the nutriments of intrinsic motivation for workplace happiness. The episode emphasizes Cal Newport’s idea that career capital (skills) must be earned to create autonomy, competence, and relatedness, and that pre-existing passion is not required to build meaningful work.
Chapters
You're listening to optimize with brian johnson. More wisdom in less time. Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another micro class. This one is on Self Determination Theory. It's inspired by so Good They Can't Ignore youe by Cal Newport. Why Skills Trump Passion and the Quest for Work youk Love. Check out the note below. We're gonna do a series of these classes. First, I want to establish Self Determination Theory, SDT for short. There are three aspects to it. Scientists tell us these are really important if we want to have happiness in our workplace. One, we need to have a sense of autonomy, control. And we got to feel like our work matters. That's number one. Number two, we need to have a sense of competence that we're good at what we do. Really important for Self Determination Theory. The third aspect is relatedness. We need to have a sense of enjoying the company of the people with whom we're blessed to work. Autonomy, competence, relatedness. Those are the three aspects. Scientists call them the three nutriments of intrinsic motivation. The three nutrients of intrinsic motivation. Now the point that Cal makes here is that you need to earn this. You can't just start your career and say, yeah, I'm going to have total control and I'm going to be competent from day one and I'm going to be able to work with the coolest people on my terms. You need to create and accumulate what he calls career capital, which we're going to talk about in another one of these episodes. But that takes diligent, patient and persistent work. And he makes the really important point that when you look at the three aspects here, right, of what creates happiness at work, what's missing? Nowhere on that list we got some white going on, do we have passion. Scientists didn't say you need to discover a pre existing passion in order to have work that you love. It's an important distinction and this is why the subtitle to his book is why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work you love. Because you, you can do this no matter what job you have. You can figure out how to create more autonomy, more competence and more relatedness and create a job that really gives you deep meaning as you cultivate the passion for whatever you're doing and whatever you want to do next. A lot more we can talk about here, but I'm going to leave it at that for now. Self Determination Theory. Three components. Autonomy, Competence, relatedness. The intrinsic motivators, the nutriments that help us enjoy the work we do. We want to create and cultivate career capital such that we can create that. More on that soon. Hope you enjoyed and I look forward to sharing more with a Bright White Inc. Soon. See you. Hi, this is Brian. I hope you enjoyed that micro class. If so, I think you'll enjoy everything else we offer at BrianJohnson me. Two basic things one our free newsletter. It's called the Optimizer. Over 50,000 people start their day with it and they tell us it's pretty awesome and 2 our optimal living Membership program. This is where I put all my best stuff. 10 bucks a month for a ton of wisdom. Two primary things in there philosopher's notes plus optimal living 101 classes. When you sign up, you'll get instant access to 250 philosopher's notes, which are basically six page PDFs and 20 minute MP3s where I capture my favorite big ideas for from great books. The PNTV episodes are kind of a mini version of all that goodness. You'll also get instant access to all my Optimal Living classes. This is where I take all the ideas we cover in the Philosopher's Notes and boil it down to the most practical stuff you can apply today. Classes include Confidence 101, Getting Stuff Done 101, Relationships 101 Habits 101, et cetera. You'll also get access to what we call micro classes that I think you'll love. We aim to astonish, and we're blessed to have thousands of members telling us we're helping them change their lives and that this is the best 10 bucks they invest in themselves every month. Go to BrianJohnson ME membership to learn more. Thanks for your support and have an awesome day.
