Dr. Hillary Bush Introduces 'The Motivation Mindset Workbook'

In The Motivation Mindset Workbook: Helping Teens and Tweens Discover What They Love To Do, child clinical psychologist Dr. Hillary Bush teams up with former Writer’s Voices guest and associate professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School Dr. Ellen Braaten to create an impactful and insightful workbook to help our young adolescents uncover their interests and discover what truly inspires them. Although the book is geared toward young people, it is also designed to support anyone struggling with low motivation or lack of drive. Filled with dozens of engaging exercises and activities, the book centers around 3 guiding principals – aptitude, pleasure, and practice. According to Dr. Bush, “A big gist of this book… is just the beauty and value that there is in collecting experiences and test driving your hypotheses, especially if there are hypotheses about things that might be fun for you or things that might feel motivating for you, or things that you need to just know more about…”

The collaboration between Dr. Bush and Dr. Braaten came about in January 2023 when she approached Dr. Braaten to adapt Bratten’s book, Bright Kids Who Couldn’t Care Less, into a companion guide. She reflected, “I am such a fan of her work and her writing and Bright Kids Who Couldn’t Care Less in particular that I knew that there was something really, really special here and a workbook seems like a really practical way into getting it into more hands and to helping even more kids…” While the book is designed for students to write their thoughts directly onto the pages, it is also available as an e-book which allows readers to complete the activities digitally. Additionally, “This is a book where we fully expect and encourage people to make copies of it… it is our sincere hope that a teacher or a counselor might have this book and then make 20 copies and distribute it to their class so that they can write and fill in. This does, I think, lend itself to individual, therapeutic, and coaching situations, but I think it lends itself to larger group ones too.”