Motivating without pushing too hard...

[Sammiez]

Hi,
I am wondering if anyone could advise on this...
My dd is 5(almost 6) and has just gone into Yr1. She is doing okay at school but I worry that she is not self-motivated. She wouldn't try her best unless being reminded to(I have to look stern many times). Is this because she is still too young? She is a sparky child but has to be reminded sometimes to focus on her task. Her teacher in reception had no concerns but mentioned that 'she will need to learn to listen to her yr1 teacher and try her best all the time'.
Sometimes,I wonder if she gets bored easily because she is always complaining of boredom...
I am quite worried about this and have explained the importance of trying one's best all the time to her. I didn't want her frustrated with mistakes(she hates making mistakes) so I told her mistakes don't matter as long as we learn from them and that trying your best is what's most important but don't think she understands that and doesn't want to be bothered anymore.

Has anyone experienced this/got any advice that could help please?

Can you teach self-motivation? I don't know.

Has she got one particular interest or subject area that she enjoys? With my own DD1, who went into year 1 doing ok but not brilliantly, it was history; it really grabbed her and she was then self-motivated to try really hard in these lessons and did loads of extra research in library books etc; this then had the knock-on effect of improving her literacy and spelling skills because she wanted to write about it. Roll on a few years now and she wants to be an archaeologist when she is older.

Try to find her "niche" is thus the best advise that I can give you.

Hmmm... Thanks! What she enjoys doing the most is drawing and we encourage her a lot with that.

She used to get frustrated when she makes mistakes and I have explained to her that it is okay to make mistakes;trying your best and enjoying whatever you do is what is most important. She took it in but now I have noticed that doesn't put in effort and says, 'it doesn't matter if you get it wrong...' quoting me. I don't want to tell her otherwise so I don't confuse her?
Do they know what is means to put in their best or are they too young(6) to understand this?
Is it something that could pass with time?