Motivation: Scientific Keys for Not Giving Up
Introduction
Do you remember the resolutions you set yourself this year? If you're like most people, you're probably as far from them as when you started. Don't blame yourself: maintaining motivation is harder than it seems, and a good part of the popular advice on the subject is wrong or even counterproductive. This article dismantles the big myths about motivation and offers the keys science does support for not giving up.
Two types of motivation
- Intrinsic: born inside you, from your values, dreams and desire to grow. Nobody has to pay you to go see your favorite team.
- Extrinsic: comes from external factors — money, recognition, fame; it's the reward you expect to obtain.
And here comes the first surprise: rewards don't always motivate. In a classic experiment, one group was promised money for solving a puzzle quickly and another wasn't; on average, the rewarded group took longer. Replicated many times, the finding is consistent: external rewards can replace intrinsic motivation (the pleasure of solving something) with an extrinsic one, and when the reward disappears, motivation vanishes with it.
The biggest mistake: waiting to feel motivated
This is the decisive point. Most people wait to feel motivated before going to the gym or sitting down to study. But you don't need to feel anything to act. The problem isn't that you aren't motivated, but that you believe you should be before starting.
In fact, motivation usually appears after getting going, not before. Think of anyone who sits down to write tired and unmotivated: the hardest part is the moment before, imagining how difficult it will be; once they start, it gradually flows. The rule is simple: when you don't feel like it, instead of thinking about how hard it is, remember that you only have to start in order to end up doing it.
Why your feelings deceive you
Trusting motivation is like walking through the countryside with a map and a compass but always choosing the easiest path. The map tells you to turn left, but since the slope is steep you take the easy path to the right; you avoid crossing the stream so as not to get wet, you skirt the forest that frightens you… and you end up more lost than when you started. It's the same with emotions: if you let yourself be guided by what's most pleasant in the short term, you never reach your destination, however good your map. We all seek pleasure and avoid pain, and that's why, when a task is uncomfortable, we say we've "lost motivation". The way out isn't waiting to feel like it, but learning to move forward despite unpleasant sensations.
8 keys to bulletproof motivation
1. Find the hidden meaning
Remembering what for you're doing something strengthens commitment. Use the three-whys method: Why do I want to go to the gym? To feel more attractive. Why? To find a partner. Why? To start a family. The real meaning — starting a family — motivates far more than "going to the gym".
2. Be guided by values, not goals
Goals create the possibility of failure and, if you become obsessed with them, you can sacrifice important things. Values, by contrast, depend only on you. If your goal were to summit a mountain, your values would be persistence and courage; even if you didn't reach the top, by making the effort you'd still be true to them. Replace goals with values and a failure will never demotivate you again.
3. Break the goal into stages
Nothing motivates more than feeling that you're progressing, as various pieces of research have shown. Set yourself small daily, weekly and monthly objectives. Instead of "go to the gym", aim for 20 minutes on the treadmill the first day, three visits the first week, higher intensity the first month. Each small victory feeds the next.
4. Visualize the path, not the goal
Contrary to what certain self-help promises, visualizing yourself succeeding relaxes the mind, which confuses fiction with reality and stops giving you the necessary drive. Gabriele Oettingen's research shows it's more effective to visualize the process and, above all, the moments when you might give up: when will you fall into temptation? what will you tell yourself to justify it? what will you do then to keep going?
5. Don't fall into the reward paradox
Rewarding yourself with something that sabotages your objective (cake after five days at the gym) reduces long-term motivation. Remember that your motivation should be intrinsic; by rewarding yourself, you start swapping it for an extrinsic one.
6. When things get hard, ask yourself whether you can
Faced with discouragement, most people turn to self-affirmations ("I can do it!") that haven't proven effective. Instead, research on "interrogative self-talk" (Senay, Albarracín and Noguchi, 2010) shows that people who ask themselves whether they're capable ("can I do it?") are more successful than those who assert it, because the question activates a mental process that searches for solutions.
7. Exercise your willpower
Willpower works like a muscle: it's trained and it also depletes. Two effective ways to strengthen it are regular physical exercise (about 15 minutes a day is enough) and meditation. And since it depletes, don't leave the hardest thing for the end of the day: do it when you have the most energy.
8. Identify with your future self
We procrastinate because we imagine that in the future we'll have more time and more motivation; in fact, the brain perceives our "future self" almost as a stranger. Every time you want to postpone something, imagine that future were today: you'll see there won't be much difference, and you'll gain willpower in the present.
When motivation fails: values, acceptance and action
If none of this gives you the "urge", perfect: you don't need it. A very effective approach, linked to acceptance and commitment therapy, consists of three steps:
1. Take out your map: define your values. Not goals (which don't always depend on you), but the kind of person you want to be: open, affectionate, brave, curious. 2. Make room for unpleasant sensations. Instead of waiting for fear or laziness to disappear, accept them. A simple technique is the "expansion" Russ Harris describes: locate the uncomfortable sensation in your body, observe it with a scientist's curiosity, breathe around it and let it be without fighting. The goal isn't for it to disappear, but to act despite it. 3. Act. Ask yourself what's the simplest action you can take today, what's something a bit harder within a week and what within a month. And focus on the process, not the result.
Conclusion
Motivation sets two big traps for us: believing that rewards always help and believing you have to feel motivated before acting. Once those ideas are overcome, the path is clear: give meaning to what you do, be guided by your values, measure your progress in small stages, train your willpower and act even when you don't feel like it. Motivation, almost always, will find you already on your way.
References
- Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2000). Self-determination theory. Psychological Inquiry, 11(4).
- Amabile, T., & Kramer, S. (2011). The Progress Principle. Harvard Business Review Press.
- Oettingen, G. (2014). Rethinking Positive Thinking: Inside the New Science of Motivation. Current.
- Senay, I., Albarracín, D., & Noguchi, K. (2010). Motivating goal-directed behavior through introspective self-talk. Psychological Science, 21(4).
- Harris, R. (2008). The Happiness Trap. Trumpeter.