4-step HIGH-motivation recipe. Long-term goals.
When we find ourselves low on motivation (drive and energy to take challenging action), especially to pursue long-term goals we miss out on one of these 4. Based on neuroscience-research of mice and high-performers like elite athletes or successful business and creative people. Interested to learn more? Check out the book by Emily Balcetis, a neuroscientist who studies motivation, "Clearer, closer, better. How successful people see the world"
- Not in your phone and definitely not in your mind! Tracking your progress with checkmarks on your wall calendar or in your journal serve as a visual reminder of the goal. It has another brain bonus! Your brain only works for things that move forward toward the reward. When we don't track daily progress - the brain decides it's a waste of resources (without consulting you). And if it's a waste - no dopamine, no energy, no motivation. We quit!
1. Have a BIG vision.
What's your why? Why do you do things daily? What vision, what purpose, what meaningful goal do your daily actions connect to? Ask these for actions you procrastinate on often. Feel it, taste it, touch it! Connect to your vision daily in a way that makes you feel something big and rewarding is coming with each action step taken. Why do you write these idea lists?
2. Break down your BIG vision into small steps, milestones.
Research shows that the closer we are to the completion of our goal - the more dopamine is released (the molecule that gives us motivation and energy to take actions). So if we only have a 10-year vision - the amount of dopamine is gonna be much smaller for everyday actions. And everyday actions are where we build that vision! So we need more motivation every day - not less! (More in my blog here "Raising motivation levels. Mice can do it, why canโt you? Elon Musk and other leaders do it before breakfast.")
3. Celebrate small wins daily.
When we feel good - dopamine "wires" the action preceding the feeling into our brain as a rewarding and worthy one. So right after you accomplish a daily milestone towards your goal, right after you do something challenging - do a little dance, make yourself feel good with a power move! You have ONLY a 20-sec window to link the action you finished with the reward and dopamine pathway. Learn to celebrate right after completion. AND ideally during the hard stuff. As Navy Seals say - "Embrace the Suck" (Read more on that in the post by Rich Diviney, navy seal, author, leadership coach. "The Science Behind โEmbracing the Suckโ โ How Navy SEALs Leverage Pain)
4. Track progress physically.
Any time I find myself low on motivation, on energy to take action, every time my mind starts talking me out of taking action, I check in with myself, "Which one of the 4-steps is missing? BIG vision? Small milestone? Celebration? Progress tracking?" Then I work on the missing part, driving up my motivation as I go. Highly recommend checking out the book by Emily Balcetis if you are into this stuff! Into audio? I also talk about it on my daily podcast HERE.
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