Short Article - Journal of Brain and Neurology (2019) Volume 2, Issue 2
How to use your Brain to motivate yourself
Problem statement: We see a significant number of people who know what they want to create in life, and yet they find it hard to motivated themselves to go through the action steps required to succeed. We also see people who feel drawn towards something they know is not beneficial to them, and yet they keep pursuing it just because they feel “compelled” to do so. The common issue is that their choices and their motivation are out of alignment. The common reaction is to use self-discipline “to get things done,” which causes an inner conflict that quickly depletes our energy, making it hard to perform at the level of excellence. Because of that, they start to experience a sense of frustration, guilt, and helplessness that results in a strong decrease in personal productivity.
Discoveries: It has been discovered that lack of motivation is simply caused by the weakness of a desire, rather than being a deficiency of the individual, and that by changing the way we represent our goals, we can stimulate a strong drive to move away or towards something in everyone. Therefore, motivation is something that each and all of us have as, and the way to fill the gap between what we want (provided that it is congruent with our values) and the willingness to act at the best of our ability is to change the inner representation of the object of our desire.
Conclusion & Significance: To do so there are principles that can be applied successfully to everyone indistinctly and specific ones that are unique to each individual allowing them to tap into greater levels of motivation. By doing so we will go from being a passive witness of the rising and falling of motivation to a conscious creator who is able address it in the pursuit of worthwhile goals.
Author(s): Max Leone