More on motivation

A popular myth is that "you can do anything you want if you try hard enough." This raises the question of the relationship between motivation and behavioral outcomes (performance). The fact is there are three influences on behavior and its associated outcome - skill (competency), effort, and situational factors that may inhibit or facilitate an outcome. Thus, effort is only one factor influencing outcomes.

While the movie "Rudy" appears to have the message "one can do anything they want if they try hard enough", even Rudy says multiple times that no matter how hard he tries, he can never be good enough (competent) to play football at Notre Dame. The interesting point of the movie that people miss is that Equity Theory (earlier blog) is the best way to explain Rudy's ultimate outcome of getting on the field in a game.
It was Rudy's effort that drove the outcome but not through his performance. It was the reward giver (the coach) who was moved by Rudy's effort to increase what Rudy received. It was the Coach, fans, and players drive for equity that created the result. So, Rudy's effort was instrumental, but only because other's acted on his behalf, not because he could accomplish the outcome solely through his effort.

While effort may explain variance in one's own performance, it does not expalin variances in performance across individuals. Rudy had the most effort (as testified to by many), but he was not the best football player. Others had more skill which accounted for the difference in outcomes.

So now you have it!!!