Compensation as Motivation


My experience is tied to me leaving my high school volleyball team due to coaching changes/styles.

In my junior year of high school, I participated in two different extracurricular activities. One of them was Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) and the other was playing for my high school volleyball team.

For context, my coach did not like FBLA to begin with. As I was a junior in high school, my commitments to each of these activities became increasingly demanding. My volleyball coach preferred that we take the volleyball PE class as an extra practice of sorts, but if I did I would have had to drop FBLA. I chose FBLA over volleyball in that regard. In junior year, because I took part in FBLA events as well as volleyball, my coach started to play me less and less at the varsity level. He went so far as to play one of my best friends more than me along with putting his own daughter on the varsity team when she was clearly not qualified to play on that level. Additionally, we had a new incoming head coach and I knew she was not going to be a good fit for the team.

My coach obviously made me very upset and not want to play volleyball in high school anymore. It was no longer enjoyable for me to play, so I focused all my time on FBLA events for the rest of high school.

I think the lack of compensation for my efforts in volleyball, regardless of being in FBLA, became emotionally taxing to the point it would be better for me to stop playing volleyball. I also noticed my efforts in FBLA were being praised quite often, which made me feel good about myself and it was very fulfilling.

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