Imagine Goldilocks.
What did she do? Well, she broke into a house, but besides that, Goldilocks saw three bowls of porridge. She tried the first bowl and it was simply way too hot, so she moved to the second bowl which had been sitting there too long and found it was cold. Not quite done with committing theft, Goldilocks tried the third bowl of porridge, and it was just right as far as she was concerned.
This is the story behind a phenomenon aptly named The Goldilocks Rule that states that humans experience peak motivation when working on tasks that are right on the edge of their current abilities. Not too hard. Not too easy. Just right. If you ask me, Goldilocks is the type of person who will always find motivation.
Imagine for a minute that you’re a quarterback and your opponent is a bunch of literal babies in uniforms. While their uniforms are as cute as can be, their motor skills and formations are a bit lacking. If you and your team were to try to play a serious game against these actual babies, you would quickly become bored and find it super hard to stay motivated. Now replace those babies with the 1985 Chicago Bears, the hardest hitting professional football team of all time. This now becomes the opposite side of the spectrum and you find yourself un-motivated for a completely different reason. The game has become waaay too difficult.

The Goldilocks Rule can be applied every day. Whether it’s our hobbies or our jobs, our brains love to be challenged, but too challenging can be disheartening.
I left my job as a deli clerk because I wasn’t being challenged by slicing the same 30 types of meats all day. After leaving the deli, the opposite happened: I was hired to be a bank teller and lasted less than six months because it was too large of a challenge for me to handle the precise duties of a teller. Forced to find work again, I got a position at a record shop where my main duty was scanning the backs of CD’s and stocking them or tossing them in the trash. Again, I was stuck in a job where the tasks were far too easy, and, in truth, I wasn’t a very good employee. The new motivation and challenge for myself was to find a job in the field I went to school for: media and design.
I stayed motivated because it was the right kind of challenge for me. Each application and cover letter were challenging enough that I needed to learn and adapt, but my end goal always felt attainable. I did extensive research on what employers were looking for. I edited together a film reel, built a website portfolio, and watched tutorials on how to build my network. All of this led to my eventual hiring at my present job where my duties now include writing about motivation or creating silly videos with my co-workers for our brand… among other things. I’m constantly being challenged enough where expectations can be tough, but never out of reach and certainly never easy-peasy.
Goldilocks might have been a troubled young girl who was careless and didn’t realize that for every action, there is an equal or opposite reaction. You can also look at Goldilocks and see an individual who knew exactly what was achievable for her present level of development. You shouldn’t have to settle through life eating a stranger’s cold porridge, and you certainly don’t have to go through it trying to beat the ’85 Bears.
Find motivation that works for you. Know where you draw the line between too easy and too hard. And eventually, as you grow, what used to be impossible might not be as impossible as you thought.
 

The perfect job exists somewhere between being too challenging and too easy. It’s just right. The Video Guy had to test out the proverbial porridge of the world before finding his niche. What’s just the right amount of motivation for you? Comment below or email Andrew directly.