The Neuroscience of Motivation
I’m sure we have all had the experience of wanting to accomplish a goal, but having a hard time feeling motivated to begin. Whether it is something as simple as cleaning a room, or as multi-faceted as creating a heathy lifestyle through diet and exercise, we often find ourselves lacking the motivation to do what it takes to make it happen. This can result in procrastination, or giving up on the goal altogether, neither of which is particularly effective.
For those of you who follow my “Life from the Top of the Mind” philosophy, you know that I like to help people accomplish their goals by understanding how the brain processes information. For example, when we are faced with a task or goal, we often experience conflicting emotions. Part of us wants to get it done, but another part either sees the process of getting it done as laborious, or might even conjure up fears of failure.
What is fascinating is that these two perspectives are actually the result of different brain chemicals. The more negative of the two (seeing the process as laborious, or fearing failure) are the result of stress-related chemicals (mostly adrenaline, noradrenaline, and cortisol) while the more positive perspective, the desire to accomplish the goal, is fueled by dopamine. In the past, dopamine was thought to be the “pleasure molecule,” but we now know it to be the anticipation or the driver molecule. It is what motivates us to do something.
By the way, both of these perspectives are the result of constructs created by the brain, and are generally based on experiences or beliefs from our past. Unfortunately, most people don’t know this, and, therefore, often find themselves lacking the motivation to even begin, but not understanding why.
So, what is the solution? I suggest that we work with the brain versus against it, and work to produce enough dopamine to begin the process. Of course, in order to do this, we must keep this week’s quote in mind, i.e., “The thing that kills motivation is, when thinking of a goal, people want to be the person who has done it versus the person doing it.”
The solution, therefore, is to create an image of accomplishing the goal as enjoyable, which will then trigger the needed dopamine/motivation. For example, if painting a room or a house is our goal, then finding an audio book or podcast that we are looking forward to hearing would be a way to imagine enjoying the process. And, that is the key… the ability to imagine enjoying the process because this allows the brain to trigger enough dopamine to move us into action.
It goes without saying, continuing to ensure that we will indeed enjoy the process of accomplishing the goal will be important, but that is less about motivation, and more about how we create the experience. What we need to get started in is the ability to trigger enough of the “motivation chemical” dopamine, and the way to do that is to create a clear image of how we are going to enjoy the process.
Therefore, if, in the future, you find yourself lacking the motivation to get started, don’t waste your time and energy worrying about the problem. Instead, use your brain to trigger the chemicals needed to both begin and sustain the effort needed to create a solution. In other words, if you use the “Top of the Mind” versus the lower brain to motivate yourself to accomplish your goal, you will increase the potential for success exponentially, and this will set you up for even more success in the future.
~ All the best, Dr. Bill