How to Motivate Your Teen {with an App!}

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Welcome to the #TechieHomeschool IRL blog series!  In this post, my guest Jimmie from TruSpark shares what core motivations are, how they drive our teens, and how an app might be the answer to your homeschool struggles.

Sure, you know it’s developmentally normal for teens to push boundaries and assert independence. But accepting this fact makes enduring the teen years only marginally easier for a parent.

Battles of the will, even when part of normal adolescent maturation, can deflate a parent’s confidence and hurt their feelings. 

What mom or dad likes to argue, nag, and scold? And teenagers equally despise being on the other end of those lectures.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could motivate our teens in non-confrontational ways? If we could guide them in ways that mesh with their own natural tendencies and channel their own intrinsic (inner) drives instead of feeling like we’re always pushing them uphill while they balk and resist?

Homeschoolers Have an Advantage with Motivation

Because you homeschool, you have the freedom to strip away silly busywork, adapt assignments, and give your teens freedoms that many public school children simply don’t get. 

• Kids can sleep in and start their day later, after they’re fully rested. You just erased the morning battle over getting up and out the door!
• Teens can pick and choose the order of their school subjects, matching their own circadian rhythms. 
• If they despise group work, they can do their projects solo without the interference of siblings. Conversely, if they love working with others, you can enroll them in a homeschool co-op or online course where they can experience cooperative learning. 

You can give your teens so much leeway with when, where, and how they learn. This freedom is a major perk of homeschooling! 

But of course, homeschooling doesn’t erase all the troubles with igniting a fire under a child. At times, adolescents simply don’t want to do what they must do. And that’s when you need extra tools to inspire and direct. 

Everyone Has Inner Motivations

When a teen isn’t following through or doing their best work, you might first assume the worst: Your child is unmotivated, lazy, or rebellious. That conclusion can lead you to enforce consequences, hand out punishments, or micromanage your teen’s daily schedule.

But in many cases, the problem with sloppy work or neglected tasks is actually a mismatch between a teen’s innate motivations and the task at hand instead of a character flaw. 

After all, there are some tasks you love doing and some you hate. Your teen is no different! 

Q. Why do some goals make your heart sing while others leave you feeling like a soda that’s lost its fizz? 

A. Every person carries around a set of inner drives, called Core Motivations, that give us zest for life and compel us to act. 

Here’s a list of the 19 core motivations:

1. Achiever
2. Arranger
3. Builder
4. Expert
5. Explorer
6. Finisher
7. Fixer
8. Helper
9. Impactor
10. Improver
11. Influencer
12. Learner
13. Maximizer
14. Organizer
15. Overcomer
16. Standout
17. Teacher
18. Team Player
19. Visionary

Core Motivations Versus Interests and Talents

These core motivations supersede our interests and abilities. Interests come and go; they aren’t enduring over a lifetime. Abilities can be developed through practice, especially when we are put in situations where they are required. 

In fact, talents and skills do not automatically lead to success unless our core motivations are tapped into! When we act out of our core motivations, we have a sense of meaning. The task suddenly becomes rewarding—intrinsically rewarding—with no outer bribes or nudges needed.

Core Motivations Unlock the Secret to Inspiring Your Teen

By learning your teen’s top 3 core motivations, you are equipped with a powerful tool for channeling their behavior. 

When your teen is aware of their own core motivations, they suddenly understand why they procrastinate some jobs and what could make the job more appealing. They gain self-awareness and self-acceptance as they cherish what makes them unique and what sparks their flame. By knowing their inner drives, they become a better self-advocate and can request changes to a task that will make it more meaningful for them. 

The TruSpark app identifies your teen’s core motivations and presents the results in a report that defines each one. Then the accompanying curriculum maps those core motivations to potential career paths that rely on those particular motivations. 

You’ll get a special supplement called How to Apply Your Teen’s Core Motivations that will help you apply your teen’s results to family life, schoolwork, and extracurriculars. You’ll be a better parent, understanding your teen more deeply, so you can work with their natural bent instead of against it.

For example, if your child is a Standout, getting the attention of others is highly motivating to them. So working in isolation without feedback is a recipe for boredom. Make sure your teen has chances to do their tasks in the public eye. It could mean opting for an online class where your teen has a leadership role versus doing a textbook based curriculum alone in the living room. 

If your teen is an Improver, they are driven to enhance things. Being stuck in an inefficient job without any chance of making it better will be torture for an Improver. Make sure they have a role where their eye for improvements is valued and they are given authority to implement these improvements. 

A Learner wants to fully understand something. So being asked to simply repeat a task without knowing the rationale behind the action is demoralizing for a Learner. Give the Learner access to the history and mechanics of the task to get them excited about it.

For optimum family building, take the quiz yourself and also give it to your teen. Then compare and discuss your results. You’ll likely see where your differing core motivations give opportunity for conflict or misunderstanding.

Then, revisit the results each semester to make sure you’re leveraging your teen’s core motivations for optimal satisfaction. When you can access these motivations, you’ll see your teen light up with exuberance, reflecting their best and truest self.

Techie Homeschool in Real Life Series

This post is part of the Techie Homeschool in Real Life blog series. If you are looking to increase your homeschool tech knowledge, you won't want to miss any of the guest posts! Learn more about the series and read all of the other posts included here.

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