Change the World
You must change to the world to stay motivated
“I just don’t have the motivation to do that”. Have you ever thought or said that to yourself? Maybe you said it aloud to someone or maybe it was simply a thought to yourself. Motivation isn’t something you get by swallowing a pill or drinking a shake or smoothie at the local juice shop. Where then, does motivation come from?
In my younger days I loved to run. A long run was always a mind-clearing experience. It also helped with keeping the weight off (perhaps I should start running again). While running, particularly the longer you go, one experiences what is called “runners high” or what we now know as flow. It is an experience where you are performing your best and feel your best. A runner’s high comes with is own set of neurochemicals that feels really good, hence the “high”
But how do we get our running shoes on, the proper clothing, and force ourselves out onto the road? Is it willpower (overrated)? Motivation is driven by the ego, this ethereal thing that floats around somewhere between our ears or out in space (depending upon your view of the world). The ego does drive us to wake up in the morning, put on the pot of coffee, and start generating blog pieces. It also provides that motivation to survive. Also, to go out and run.
If writing a blog, running 3 miles or hitting the snooze button excites you in the morning then that is your ego driving you towards your sense of survival that those activities may represent.
You feel you have to write to be happy or feel some sense of accomplishment. Maybe people like what you write (blog comments, book reviews, buying your written word).
Maybe you run because you are training for a marathon. You don’t want to hit the “wall” when you run the race and so you train using a specific set of guidelines.
Getting another 18 minutes of sleep, you feel will make you a better thinker, more productive, and friendlier person, when you wake up, therefore you hit the snooze.
Have I lost you? Keep following.
The ego talks to us all the time. It is that entity you are talking to all the time. Or better said it, talks to you. “Do this, or do that”. Eat the bear claw, or don’t and eat the celery and hummus. The ego is the thing that tells us, based on our beliefs, whether something is bad or good, and if it is worth doing.
Is your conscience or your consciousness? Religious people will tell you this is the soul, or your essence. The problem is, no one can tell you where or how it exists. Whatever it is, it is the thing reading these words and making sense of them (or not).
So how do we get the ego to do the things we want it to do? How do we move towards a goal or an objective? Social scientists, psychologists, neurobiologists have studied these things and they show that goals and objectives are best achieved if the motivation for the goal is intrinsic versus extrinsic.
Intrinsic motivation is the spontaneous tendency to be curious and interested in something and seek out challenges, to develop skills and knowledge for the pure joy of it. There need not be a tangible reward for participation in that activity. If you are intrinsically motivated to do something, it is natural, it feels right, in some ways you don’t even think about it.
Extrinsic motivation is the short term reward for doing something. It is what our modern society in Western culture is based on. Quick hits of dopamine drive you to sit and look at cat videos until all of a sudden an hour has gone by. Yes, you can be in flow watching cat videos too. The motivating factor are quick hits of happiness.
To create a motivation factor or factors that are intrinsic in nature requires a little work if you are not already there. Developing long term pursuits are where one starts. Ten-year or life long career or personal goals is where you start. Think Bucket-list with meaning.
After you have determined this long term pursuit or goal, then it’s what are called “high-hard goals” These are goals that are perhaps five years in the making. Then annual, quarterly, monthly, weekly and daily. At the very end of the list are “clear” goals.
This goal “Stack” reviewed on a periodic basis, even daily makes your goals generate for a deep place. Your vision for the future is the best place to begin reaching your goals.
So give it a try, dream a little. What are your long term goals? How do they “stack up”? Where are you in your motivational journey? Are you still waiting for those quick hits or are you working towards your effort to change the world?
Changing the world will get you where you want to go. So go there, what are you waiting for?
