How To Get and Stay Motivated
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There are plenty of articles, books and blog posts on motivation
that tell you how to become more motivated. Often, they give tips
like ‘getting more sleep’ and ‘introducing new habits slowly’.
These ideas are all useful to an extent but they ultimately fall
short. If you struggle with motivation and can’t keep yourself
focused on new tasks, then a tip like this isn’t going to transform
your ability to focus overnight.
And if you struggle to motivate yourself, how are you expected to
keep up the changes that lead to greater motivation? It’s
something of a vicious circle don’t you think?
If you really want to see changes, then you need to look a little
deeper. You need to focus on the actual neuroscience that
underpins our ability to get and stay motivated. In this report,
you’ll learn exactly how motivation actually works on a biologically
level and more importantly, you’ll discover how you can
manipulate that process to your own ends…
INTRODUCING THE SALIENCENETWORK
What we’re interested in here is what neuroscientists and
psychologists refer to as ‘attentional control’ or ‘executive
attention’. This describes the ability we have to direct our attention
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and hold it – the control we have over what we choose to focus on
and what we choose to ignore.
So how does this work? It comes down to several frontal regions
within the brain that control this function. Perhaps most notable is
the anterior cingulate cortex which has been the result of a fair
amount of research.
In fact though, attention is controlled by two separate networks of
brain regions in the brain: areas that work together in order to get
the desired result. Specifically, these networks are referred to as
the ‘dorsal attention network’ which includes brain regions that run
along the top of the brain (dorsal means ‘top’ in biology – hence
‘dorsal fin’) and the ‘ventral attention network’ (which runs along
the bottom).
Understanding these two different attention networks is key
because they have different purposes that clue us in on how to
get superior attention. The dorsal attention network is concerned
with our intentional attention (bit of a tongue twister). In other
words, when you decide that you want to focus on a book for a
while, or you choose to check the time, you are using the dorsal
network.
The ventral attention network meanwhile is used when our
attention is directed beyond our control in a reflexive manner. In
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other words, when you hear a loud bang and you turn to look at it,
that is your ventral attention network.
But your ventral attention network can also be distracted by a
range of other biological clues. If you are hungry for instance,
then your ventral attention network will begin to direct your
attention toward getting food and if you are tired, then your ventral
attention network will direct your attention that way.
So, if you’re trying to get work done and things keep stealing your
attention away, then it is going to be hard for you to maintain your
attention!
The next question we need to ask is how the brain knows what to
pay attention to. The answer comes down to yet another neural
network called the ‘salience network’. This network tells us what is
important and what isn’t and it appears to be very closely
connected to our ability to motivate ourselves.
In other words, those with the ability to tell their brain what is
really important will be able to stay focussed on work, they’ll be
able to run longer distances and they’re be able to stay intensely
focussed during competition.
But if you weren’t born with a powerful salience network, then
what can you do to fix the situation?
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TAKING BACK CONTROLHow does the salience network work? What does it deem as
important?
The answer comes down to our evolutionary history. Every aspect
of our psychology evolved the way it did in order to help us
survive. Traits that proved conducive to our long-term survival
would be passed on to our offspring and those that did not, would
eventually die out.
Thus, the job of this network is to alert us to things that are
important for our survival – which is based on biological signals
from the body and our associations. If you see a lion, then your
salience network will identify this as important, it will trigger the
ventral attention network and this will direct your attention there.
The result will be that your parasympathetic nervous system kicks
in and triggers a hormonal and neurochemical response: you’ll
produce adrenaline, dopamine, cortisol and norepinephrine and
these chemicals will raise the heartrate contract your muscles and
narrow your attention to that one thing.
To a lesser extent, this happens if you’re hungry, too hot, too cold,
or if you are stressed about something else whether that be debt,
your relationship or anything else.
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The first thing you need to do then to improve your ability to focus
and stay motivated, is to ensure that you remove these
distractions that can override your dorsal attention network. This
means you need to create a working environment that will be free
from distractions and that makes you as comfortable as possible.
Any loud noise, any discomfort, any hunger or any lingering stress
can potentially make it hard for you to maintain your focus.
One trick that you can use in order to encourage a more focussed
state of mind to this end, comes from WordPress creator Matt
Mullenweg. He described to Tim Ferriss during a podcast
interview, how he would listen to music he knew well on repeat.
The music would play over and over again and he would become
immensely familiar with it. As a result, the brain would then start
to phase that music out. In other words, it would become
desensitized to it, just as you eventually stop hearing the ticking of
the clock. Only if you are listening to that music through
headphones, it will drown out all other sound.
This effectively creates a kind of sensory deprivation. The only
sound there is, is completely blocked out by the brain. You can
achieve something similar by using white noise and this is
something that many people will use in order to focus while
working. Similar to white noise are other innocuous sounds, such
as the rain or background chatter. Rainymood.com and
coffitivity.com are both sites that provide these kinds of looping
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sounds for you to block out your surroundings. Similarly, using a
widescreen monitor can help you to stay more focussed on work.
Studies show that widescreen monitors can increase productivity
by up to 30%!
But the most important thing you can do is to try and remove all
other stress from your mind. That means that you need to try and
stop worrying about your debt and even about the other work you
have to do that day. If you are worrying about those things, then
your brain will keep being distracted away from what you need to
do. So, try to learn to block out feelings of stress and anxiety and
to just focus on the task that is in hand. This may take practice,
but this works much like a muscle – the more you train your mind,
the greater the control you will get over it.
JEDI MIND TRICKS
But we need to go further than this if we’re going take complete
control over our motivation. Ideally, we need to ensure that our
ventral and dorsal attention networks are aligned. How do we do
this?
The answer lies with the reason that we are distracted in the first
place. The reality is not just that we think other things are more
important, but also that we feel that what we should be doing isn’t
important. You might know consciously that you need to clean the
house, go to the gym or tidy up. That’s your dorsal network doing
its work.
But your body doesn’t know that. To your body, this is an
unstimulating activity that isn’t serving any of your prime
directives. One thing our brain needs is stimulation and that
corresponds with neural activity that comes from doing something
that seems biologically important. This is why we find it easy to
focus on computer games or films – they simulate exciting,
important events happening, all charged with emotion.
Entering information into a spreadsheet though? Not so much.
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But our human intelligence comes from our ability to focus not just
on what is biologically important right now but on what we need to
be doing in the distant future. In other words, it’s our ability to
extrapolate, plan and predict that has made us so highly effective.
This comes from our working memory, which is our ability to store
information in our ‘mind’s eye’ as it were. We can focus on things
that have happened or that we think are going to happen and this
causes the brain to light up as though they are happening. This is
what our visualization really is – we’re internalizing our experience
so as to be able to manipulate the variables.
One way to give yourself more motivation then, is to learn to link
the boring event or the thing you don’t want to do, to the
worthwhile and important goal that you hope to achieve.
In other words, you need to remind your brain why you are doing
this using visualization. If you’re sat typing out a spreadsheet,
then visualize how this is going to eventually lead to you being
wealthier, more successful in your career and less stressed
tonight. Consider what will happen if you don’t do it – you will be
behind with work and you won’t be able to accomplish the goals
you’re aiming for!
If you’re struggling to motivate yourself to go to the gym, then
imagine what it will be like to have rippling abs and a 10% body
fat. Seem worth it now?
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Another tip is to make whatever you’re doing more interesting and
more fun if you can, which makes it more salient to your brain. I
always say that the best cure for writer’s block in particular is to
make the scene or the paragraph you’re writing more interesting.
If it’s not interesting enough to write, then it likely won’t be
interesting to read!
If you’re doing data entry, then make it a little more rewarding by
putting some TV on in the background on silent – as long as it
isn’t too distracting to prevent you from paying attention to what
you’re doing. A good option is to watch people play computer
games on YouTube, as this has no plot but still provides
stimulation.
Oh, and once you get into the flow – make sure that there is
nothing there to break that concentration. Put your phone on
silent.
THE POWER OF MEDITATION
Another trick is to practice meditation. Meditation is nothing
mystical, it is all about focusing the mind and taking control of
your attention. When you meditate, you practice clearing the mind
of distracting thoughts and focusing on nothing. This is literally a
way to train your salience network just as you might train your
muscles in the gym and it can build great focus and discipline.
What’s more, is that meditation teaches you to detach from those
distracting stressors and to let go of things that might be playing
on your mind.
Meditation can provide perhaps the biggest upgrade to your
wellbeing, productivity and focus – so it is something that
everyone should be doing.
The only problem? Meditation is hard to take up if you have low
motivation! My tip then is to start out with just small 5 minute
sessions and to try tacking this onto a habit that is already a part
of your routine. If you regularly work out, then try meditating after
your gym sessions. Or how about tacking meditation on after
each tooth-brushing session?
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And if you struggle to know what you’re doing while you’re
meditating, consider using an app like Headspace
(www.headspace.com) to guide you through it.
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