Did you make it past that highly distracting image of the butterfly? Whew… then you might not need this article… or maybe you do? We can all learn how to be more motivated and inspired, and we’re all human in that shiny things distract us a …. what was I saying?

Dear Koichi,

Also – and damn what an awkward question this is – is there anything one with both Asperger and ADHD should think about when using TextFugu? I wouldn’t even consider asking this to most teachers out there, but let’s face it: when I read the parts about motivation, excuses etc. it felt like you were reading my mind. Of course, you’re not to be expected with a magical answer on this one…

That is a question I got in my e-mail a few days ago (and of course, I’m keeping this person’s identity secret), and I thought there’s probably others out there who could use some help in this regard. I sent an essay of an e-mail back, but I’ve gussied it up and rewritten it to be a little more in depth and easier to understand. The answer to this question also holds true whether you’re learning Japanese or not… I use these techniques in my work, in my play, in my hobbies, and in my everything else (get your mind out of the gutter!). You definitely don’t need to have ADHD or Asperger’s to try these things out, or at least think about them.

Now, before I start, I just want to say that I’m no professional on either ADHD or Asperger’s. I don’t have either of those disorders myself (wasn’t allowed to watch too much TV as a kid, and I think that saved me) either, so I can’t say I’m speaking from experience. Despite all of that, I have spent a lot of time studying the psychology behind learning, and have done a good amount of research on what motivates and inspires people. Those two things together, I think, helped me to create a formidable theory behind learning Japanese (as well as how to circumvent and fix things like ADHD or Asperger’s).

That all being said, I’m totally prepared for a barrage of angry parents who don’t think it’s anyone’s fault (and sometimes it’s not, though I do believe that a majority cases of ADHD are the fault of environment over time… not to mention prescription-happy doctors who want their pharmaceutical handouts), and I truly am looking forward to hearing and learning from those of you who have more knowledge in this category than I do.

So here we go… prepare for some wordiness.

Finding Your “Flow”

Whether you have ADHD, Asperger’s, both, or neither, you have to know about “Flow.” Flow is a term coined by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (don’t even try to pronounce it), which is a psychological state in which you are “in the zone.” To put it less bluntly, Flow is a time where you are doing something challenging and you are completely concentrated on the thing that you are doing. This feeling comes about not because you are getting external motivation to do it (i.e. money, sex, power, etc), but instead because you are getting internal (also known as intrinsic) motivation, characterized by feelings of “absorption, engagement, fulfillment, and skill.”

So what kinds of things create flow? Well, it depends on the person, but there are a few common characteristics of these things:

• Time goes by quickly
• There is a clear goal (for example, if you were a mountain climber getting to the top of the mountain would check this one off).
• Everything you do gets you closer to your goal

Probably the most common “flow” experience among the Tofugu reader base comes from video games. Sure, you’ve probably all experienced it elsewhere (and I hope you have!), but if there’s one thing I notice about people who have ADHD, it’s that they are somehow able to focus on video games really really well. Even though it’s not necessarily a positive thing, that is flow. Time goes by quickly, there is a clear goal (well, for most video games), and everything you do in the game gets you closer to that goal. That is flow. So, if you have ADHD and you can still focus on video games, I’m going to call BS on you if you claim you can’t focus on anything else. You can, though it’s going to take some practice.

So why in the world can you focus on video games and not learning? It’s because…

Schools Have Destroyed Our Desire To Learn

Alright, alright. I don’t want people saying I’m anti-establishment or anti-school. I’m a huge supporter of schools and learning, I just think there needs to be some big changes (like we need teachers who know how to teach… which is strangely lacking).

One of the biggest problems with schools is that they’re too structured. Grades shouldn’t exist, and kids should choose what it is they want to learn. Here’s the thing. Children are naturally curious. They want to learn. The problem is that it’s beaten out of them at a very early age. Let me tell you a little bit about my early education, and how it actually saved me from following the rest of the sheep out there.

I was lucky enough to go to Montessori School, which is an elementary school that has as little adult intervention as possible. Students progress in math at their own pace. They progress in reading at their own pace. They progress in everything else at their own pace. Teachers help when helping is needed, but there was no lecturing, and the funny thing is… every single student was leaps and bounds ahead of other public school kids their age. We kept our innocence, and learning for the sake of learning was rewarding. We were intrinsically motivated to learn. Humans are naturally want to learn new things, but once you add rewards for learning these new things, it is no longer rewarding and becomes extrinsic. It becomes “what can I do and what loopholes can I take to get a higher grade?” Suddenly, learning is a chore.

I was in “alternative” school programs until 6th grade, and that’s when I noticed things starting to change. Learning stopped being fun. I was working for my grades, not for the greater purpose of improving myself. Over the years, I got worse and worse at math (which I was several years ahead in by 5th grade), got worse at reading, and got worse in just about everything else. Yes, the public school system destroyed my motivation to learn. Ouch.

There are plenty of examples of this in the real world, too.

• Open source projects like Firefox have armies of volunteer workers, not making any money at all. The reason they do it? Most of them just feel good about doing something, helping, and learning something new.
• For those of you who have graduated college – have you noticed that it takes a couple of years to want to read again? I’m just getting to that point. In school, reading is rewarded with grades, which actually makes you less interested in doing it. After a few years being away from that, you rediscover your interest in reading, and start reading because it’s intrinsically rewarding, not because you’re getting an extrinsic reward.

Right, so what does this all have to do with ADHD and Asperger’s? It all comes back to “flow.” You have to change the way your brain thinks of things in order to give yourself the ability to reach flow in your Japanese (or other) studies. Learning is most likely ruined for you (if you are reading this, you’ve been in school long enough). The challenge is changing the way you think about learning (or making it so you don’t think about it at all!). How can you make learning as flow-worthy as video games? It’s hard, but it can be done.

Changing The Way Your Brain Thinks

Our brains are a funny thing, but the cool thing about them is that you can actually change them in whatever way you’d like (at least when it comes to thinking). You can exercise your brain too, just like you’d exercise your arms, legs, or abs. Depending on how you exercise these things, different parts of them will get stronger. With your brain, you can change the way it’s wired by forcing yourself to rethink certain things. Think of your brain like a blanket of snow with one path cut in it. Maybe you decide you don’t like that path (because it makes you think negatively about things). You can let snowfall fill that path, and create your own path. The new path won’t be easy to create (there’s a lot of snow in the way!), but you can do it with persistence.

The same thing goes for reworking your brain so that you can enjoy learning again. Although what I’m going to say seems a bit drastic, it’s not.  You have to convince yourself that grades are not important, and that they should be completely ignored. If you do this properly, I guarantee your grades will be way higher than if you paid close attention… or, at the very least, you’ll be more confident, smarter, and better prepared for the real world (seriously, I use only like 5% of what I learned in school).

This is going to sound a lot simpler than it is, but here’s how you do it.

1. Every time you get some homework or school work, catch yourself every time you think “how will I get a higher grade on this.”
2. Whenever you catch yourself thinking that (or something like it), replace it with something else. Perhaps “how can I solve this puzzle?” or “What part of this research am I interested in?”
3. Do this over and over again, and if you’re persistent, you’ll begin to find learning enjoyable again. Something that you do for yourself because it’s genuinely interesting to you, and not because you’re getting an A, B, C, or D on it.
4. When you get something back that’s graded, try not to look at the grade. Work something out with your teacher if you can, where they can keep your grade on file (or whatever they are required to do), but they don’t put it on your papers, assignments, etc. Instead, just ask for the feedback and corrections.

One other thing that’s also very important is changing your mindset on how you approach new challenges and problems. Tell me, do you think:

1. “How can I do this task with my current skill set” or…
2. “What can I learn in order to accomplish this task?”

You have to think the second one. People who go into challenges and problems thinking “what can I learn” are far more successful than those that only try to use the skills they currently have. These are two completely different people, and the second one is always happier, more successful, and has more meaning in their lives.

I do also believe that those with ADHD and Asperger’s can change the way their mind works too. It will take persistence, and it will be difficult, but those are the only thing stopping you from a very meaningful life. Humans are naturally interested in learning, but our upbringing and our schools take that away from us. If you can change the way you think about learning and attain flow, then things like ADHD and Asperger’s will only be an afterthought (especially if you make it to the end of this very long article, then you know you can do it).

To sum it up, catch yourself when you think “I can’t,” and force yourself to change it to “I can.” It’ll be slow progress, but you’ll get there if you really want to get there.

Applying All This To Japanese Learning

See! I knew we’d get back to the topic at hand. To be honest, though, there isn’t too much more to say. You’re going to fall into one of two camps:

1. The camp that learns Japanese for extrinsic motivators (grades, to make friends, to get a job, etc).
2. The camp that learns Japanese for intrinsic motivators (because it’s genuinely interesting, because it’s like solving a puzzle, etc).

Now, I’m not saying that wanting to get a job with your Japanese or getting good grades is necessarily a bad thing (okay, it is when it comes to long term learning), but I guarantee you the #2 camp is going to study a lot longer and a lot more effectively than the #1 camp.

It’s been shown time and time again that extrinsic rewards, such as grades, money, etc., only provide short bursts of motivation. Sure, give someone $100 bucks to learn Japanese for a week and they’ll study really really hard for a few days, but after that I guarantee they will end up studying way less and enjoy it way less by the end of the week (whereas the person who studies for personal growth is going to surpass the first guy no problem). Plus, if you want to keep motivating the first guy, you’re going to have to give him $200 the next week, and $300 the third. It becomes a situation of “that first $100 wasn’t enough, I’ll need more now to get that excitement back.” When you do something for a reward (other than the reward of doing something great) the excitement goes away and you associate the action (learning Japanese) with money. It’s like parents who give their kids money to do chores. Do that for a few months and try to ask your kid to take out the trash without paying them. They’re not going to want to do it, even though it helps the entire family out.

So, to learn Japanese more effectively, you need to figure out how to make learning Japanese intrinsically gratifying. You need to cut out all extrinsic rewards and come to terms with the fact that learning on its own is rewarding in itself. You’re going to have to backpedal all the way back to preschool, where learning wasn’t about grades and golden star stickers. Becoming a better person has to be the reward, and if you can do that, I promise you that you’ll learn a lot of Japanese in a short amount of time.

Recommended Reading:

• Flow Wikipedia Article
• Drive (book)
• Maria Montessori Wikipedia Article
• Unschooling Wikipedia Article

P.S. Despite the lack of extrinsic motivators, you should follow Tofugu on Twitter

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