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One of my favorite things to do while slogging through my typical 9-5 is listen to podcasts. I’m sure I’m not alone in being a fan of bigger podcasts like the Joe Rogan Experience, Radio Lab, Stuff You Should Know, Touching Base, Freeze All Motor Functions, and Don’t Take It From Us (*cough* shameless self-plug *cough*). But I’ve always had an interest in lectures about psychology, mental health, and self-improvement. I’m a creature of self-analysis and improvement, so it’s always fun for me to examine, or listen to someone else examine, the little mental nuances that we tend to ignore.
Last week, I was flipping around Soundcloud, looking for something to listen to as I work. I came across the channel of Weldon Green, a sports psychologist now focused on esports, responding to a question about how he gets his players to be motivated to train and practice. His answer actually shocked me: you don’t. More accurately, you can’t.
He explained that motivation is not a characteristic one can have or a mental state you can put yourself in. It’s based on your emotions and associated with how much you value the task. Essentially, when you really value something and you feel pumped to accomplish it, you’re motivated. If you don’t really value something that you have to do and feel sluggish, you’re unmotivated.
According to Green, you can’t just change your mindset and immediately become motivated. That’s not how it works. Unless you’re actually Barney Stinson who can just stop being sad and be awesome instead (true story), your motivation will be dictated by your mood.
What you can do, according to Green, is alter the framework around your value of the task at hand. For instance, if you’re not motivated to get up early and go to the gym (raises hand), you might be trying to make yourself want to go to the gym before work. But a better approach is to focus on how much you value good fitness and having your evenings free. Specifically, frame it as you value being a person who works to achieve those values. With those two goals in mind, you’ll be more inclined to skip the snooze and start the 6 a.m. gym grind.
Of course, it’s not like you can just tell yourself that you want to be healthy and get up early, and then you’ll automatically make it happen. This happened to me recently, where I went several weeks without going to the gym before work. Instead, I’d lie in bed and make excuses to get out of the gym even though I wanted to be in better shape and have my evenings free. So what gives?
Well, as Green would answer, it’s just plain and simple that I don’t actually value those things. Or, at least, I don’t value them highly enough to be motivated. That leaves me two options: do it, despite being unmotivated, or quit.
That’s right, in the podcast, Green actually advocates for giving up if it’s too hard. He points out that, in his own life, he was trying to motivate himself to become a teacher, but had a hard time being productive. So he stopped trying to do something that he was clearly unmotivated to do and found something that better aligned with his values. If you don’t like your job, if you’re consistently unmotivated to do work, find something else that you highly value and will have you in a positive mood.
Of course, you can also work through your lack of motivation. However, when you’re not emotionally invested or placing a high value on a task, performing at your highest level is certainly difficult. Luckily, according to the podcast, motivation is not a stagnant state; you can become more or less motivated at a job or skill at different times based on your changing emotional state. When you’re more motivated, you should have the discipline to recognize that and use this motivation to its fullest. Hit the gym twice a day, or get in some extra cardio when you’re feeling particularly energetic. Or, when your emotional state is much less conducive to motivation, you should try to focus on simpler tasks. The reasoning is that because you are less motivated, and therefore unlikely to be as productive, you shouldn’t even attempt tasks that would normally be difficult. Failing while unmotivated can hurt your emotional state, and is thus counter-productive. Instead, doing smaller tasks that are still productive (like organizing your workspace, cleaning out your e-mail inbox) doesn’t require you to push too hard against the lack of motivation while still allowing you to have a feeling of accomplishment.
None of this is meant to excuse pure sloth and laziness. Part of life is doing shit you don’t want to but are required to do. And I still pull my ass into the gym five days a week even though I hate it because I do value the benefits that come from it. But I’ve stopped going in the morning, because I know, emotionally, I’m not going to have enough motivation to make it happen then. And that’s not a bad thing, nor is it something I should feel ashamed for. I’m just reframing it as “I value my health and appearance, so I’ll work out when I will have more energy.”
Green also made another salient point that I had not considered: that motivation can be framed internally or externally. To put more simply, you can internally feel motivated or not, but other people may not perceive your motivation accurately. For instance, say you stay late every night at work. You hate it, you despise doing it, but you do it because you usually meet your buddies at a place around the corner for happy hour but they won’t get there for an hour after your quitting time. Your boss may see this behavior and think that you’re a dedicated, motivated employee even though internally you are just counting the minutes until you get to leave. On the other hand, if you are really passionate about being great at Fortnite, and you spend hours during your day watching Youtube guides, that is motivation that is internal to you. But if your friends, boss, or girlfriend found out that’s how you spend all your time, they’d think you’re completely lazy and unmotivated. I guess what I’m trying to say to all my friends reading is…I’m not lazy for trying to be good at Fortnite! .
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@joshetyler
@joshetyler
Some days you just don’t have it.
A lot of this aligns with the ideas in the book “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck.”
The title is a little aggressive, but it’s an eye-opening read.
Can confirm, great book
Shoutout to vyvanse for keeping me motivated to crunch debits and credits every M-F.
Name checks out.
There are only three ways to motivate people, money, hunger, and fear.
And sex…
Sex is money and money is sex. Sex both buys and sells
The key to keeping me motivated for my workout is hating my body. Works like a charm.
“The moment you look in the mirror and like what you see you have lost.” – Dr Percival Cox
That and, “You can always be thinner, look better.” Will keep me motivated the rest of my life
Once and a while would be nice.
“Discipline Equals Freedom” truly changed my life. Jocko is a machine. Read it and you won’t need motivation.
Best advice I’ve ever gotten: the world is a cunt. And when it’s being a cunt to you you can either take it or punch it square in the throat.
Lol. What the fuck.
If you can’t be motivated by what’s in front of you be motivated to give a big middle finger to whatever is holding you back.
We just talked about this on my podcast too! The hardest part of getting out of a rut is being intentional about it and admitting that you need to do SOMETHING, even though maybe your body just won’t move out of bed or the couch. I agree with the cleaning/organizing part. Also get some plants, the greenery helps me not slip into those unmotivated episodes.
Good article on day two of March Madness.