Where does motivation come from?
Probably what we want to know, when we ask this question is, “how do I direct my motivation towards my chosen goals?” I come up with an idea of something I want, but when it comes to doing it, the energy or focus just isn’t there. A related problem is how to have motivation for things that you don’t feel you want, i.e. “I’m just not motivated to go to the job that I hate.” While the source of this second problem is much clearer, it isn’t necessarily any easier to solve. But for this discussion, we’ll confine ourselves to the first question.
I see (at least) two factors of motivation at play here: intrinsic/extrinsic and instant versus delayed gratification, or what I’ll call slow and fast reward systems.
Intrinsic/Extrinsic Motivation
In our modern society, many of us have been trained for years by school, family, and jobs to be extrinsically motivated. Your assignment is due week 3, finish the reading this weekend, get the ball into the opponents’ goal, come to work so you can support your family, etc. Our metrics for success are pre-defined as are the rewards and punishments that go along with success and failure.
Our society conspires to stop us from either asking ourselves what it is that we truly want in the first place or from having any idea how to get it. And there doesn’t seem to be any system in place that’s actually good at teaching us how to do these things.
So, how do I shift my motivation from extrinsic to intrinsic? We’ll come back to this, but first let’s explore the other system.
Slow and Fast reward pathways in the brain.
I don’t know exactly how the neurotransmitters all interact here (and I suspect it’s fairly complicated), but I like to imagine we’ve got two systems: dopamine and serotonin. Dopamine is the currency of the fast-reward system – of getting things done. You want to focus on something right now? Well, you better hope there’s enough dopamine in the bank for it. Serotonin, on the other hand is the laborer of the slow-reward system – mental infrastructure development. Want to make the dopamine cost of picking up a book lower? You’re gonna have to get your serotonin workers to spend some time building a bookshelf.
It’s no secret that our society loves instant gratification – we love to hook into people’s dopamine systems. It’s great for social control. And in the age of instant-communication, smartphone, internet, snapchat, video games our dopamine banks are absolutely broke. The only thing they can afford is the currently cheapest option. This, unfortunately, causes problems for our slow-reward system because the two systems are inextricably interlinked.
You see, your serotonin workers only build things for you if you pay them in dopamine to spend time doing different activities. So, while it’s the fast reward system that asks “what am I going to do right now?” it’s the slow reward system that’s running in the background tweaking cost and reward values based on the experience you’re having. A well-tuned system can say, “if I make a homemade meal, it will be tastier and I will feel better than if I order McDonald’s.” But if you don’t have enough dopamine in the bank, you will always choose the cheaper option. And if you haven’t invested serotonin-time into cooking, then a) the cost of the serotonin-labor will be higher and b) the dopamine reward of the finished meal will be lower.
Some activities are an investment that will boost our dopamine production long-term and improve our motivation infrastructure, while others are simply going to drain the bank account. We’ll call these slow-reward and fast-reward activities, respectively. If your slow-reward system is in charge, then the pathways are set up so that you have enough quick-reward currency in the bank to focus on whatever you choose (not just the cheapest option), and the cost and reward values of each of the options is aligned with priorities of your own choosing – hopefully ones that create a positive feedback loop of slow-reward activities.
So, now that we’ve discussed these two systems, we can restate our original question, “how do I direct my motivation towards my chosen goals?” as “how do I put my intrinsic, slow-reward system in charge?”
Firstly, take stock of where you are now: where does my quick-reward system currently direct me? Video games, reddit, facebook, pornography? Do I have any slow-reward hobbies in my life? Making music, reading, cooking, rock-climbing?
And along the other axis: do I work better when others tell me what to do or when I set my own goals?
The process of taking control of these systems will be slow and likely involve plenty of missteps or “wasted” time, but it’s important to see these as a learning process and not failures.
The good news is that we can leverage the systems in whatever their current state to make the changes we want.
I’m going to throw out a bunch of pieces of the puzzle here, in no particular order:
- Start setting goals for yourself!
- If you’re currently more extrinsically motivated, enlist an accountability buddy or a coach. This gives you the advantage of working within your currently extrinsic-dominant system while still strengthening your intrinsic motivation – this works because the goals you’re accomplishing are ones that you’ve chosen!
- Start to get curious about your quick-reward system. Meditate and watch where your mind goes, notice how often you’re drawn to different quick-reward and slow-reward activities throughout the day. Keep a journal and reflect on these things. Make small tweaks to your routine and notice how your mind and body react.
- Become aware of your self-talk. Berating yourself for a tv binge will only serve to lead you away from attempts to curtail future tv watching (i.e. it’s only a failure to watch a bunch of tv if you were trying not to watch tv). If, instead, you’re gentle with yourself when you fall short of goals, it’ll be easy to set the goal again next week. Maybe this week’s failure is, in fact, an indicator that you set the goal too high for your current reward infrastructure to handle and not an indicator that you’re a piece of shit.
- Break goals into small tasks and let yourself feel good for taking each step. It’s so much easier to accomplish the goal of putting on your gym clothes than the goal of going to the gym every day this month.
- Recognize that these systems are in flux throughout the day, the week, the month, and your whole life. It’s way easier for me to pack my gym bag tonight before I go to bed when my dopamine bank is relatively full than to do it tomorrow morning before I’ve had my coffee. Just pulling out my clothes now can mean the difference between whether I make it to the gym tomorrow or not. Make things easier for your future self!
- Habit-stacking: reward is a great motivator – use the reward from drinking the morning coffee to get to the gym, use the reward from the gym to motivate you to meditate, and use the reward from meditating to take the next step towards your long-term goal.
- Start medium. Don’t choose as your first intrinsic goal something that will take five years to accomplish, and don’t choose something you can have done in a week. Aim for something you think may take 3-6 months. This is long enough that you’re building up your motivation systems, but short enough that you can reflect and change course if things aren’t working.
The goal is to teach yourself to find the reward in sustained effort in a world that rewards you for doing nothing and to learn to recognize that those hard-earned rewards are superior. This task is neither quick nor easy, but I think many of us can recognize it’s value when we reflect on the empty feeling we have after bingeing a show on Netflix and and eating junk food all day.
In my mind, the goal is nothing less than the creation and discovery of meaning itself… but we’ll save that discussion for another time.