Do you want to know how motivation works to learn how to use it when you need it as an ally?
If you are waiting for your motivation to arrive, but you see that it does not arrive, read this article to learn how to control it.
How motivation work?
The first thing to know is that motivation is not going to happen by magic. It just doesn’t work that way.
Motivation works in reverse: you get motivated when you start.
Motivation is going to come. That is, it appears in a second moment, after having begun to focus on something.
It happens to me when I sit down to write that I say to myself, “I’m going to write anything, even for 5 minutes,” then I motivate myself and end up writing for hours. I start, and then I motivate myself.
Did it ever happen to you that you started to tidy up your house without much desire and said to yourself, “I’m just going to put the table together”? Then you started noticing the bad things and ended up cleaning the entire room.
What happens is that once you start, you get motivated, and then you adjust your attentional focus to your goals instead of focusing on the obstacles.
You have to get into action, and then you get motivated.
But first things first.
What is motivation?
Motivation is the set of processes that lead you to direct your energy towards achieving goals.
It is a process that guides you towards goals that give impetus and direction to your actions.
Once you have more or less identified your goal, you can start.
Motivation will come once you start and will help you stay focused on your purpose.
On the other hand, people usually expect motivation to start. And this doesn’t work that way. Unless there is a crisis,
If we feel overwhelmed, we may be motivated, but there are less extreme ways to achieve it.
A crisis is a great motivator and is what happens to people who wait to feel overwhelmed before they start.
But the goal was not clear if we left the plan halfway. Or maybe it’s about the fact that we didn’t know how to get it through.
We have to see the case.
As I explain in this article, maintaining good eating habits helps you have more motivation in the different areas of your life because you have more energy available and your system is more lubricated.
But I emphasize, from cognitive psychology, having motivation in a specific area.
First, I set goals,
I make the decision to start.
I’m starting,
That’s why I’m motivated,
And I agree with her.
The mind is going to look for a way to achieve the goal you set for yourself. But it is essential to have a clear mental dialogue and a clear goal.
To be motivated, you have to start first.
How motivation works: our mind
Our brain establishes habits and routines to save energy since the brain uses a lot of energy when it is in operation.
On the other hand, our brain fears the unknown. This is something that allowed us to survive millions of years, so it is evolutionarily sustained, and, in fact, even today it helps us a lot, but sometimes it stops us. especially if we have established harmful habits.
The areas of our brain that act in our organization are those that are responsible for executive functions, attention, memory, especially working memory, and the areas that participate in reasoning and problem solving.
Now, imagine that from the area of mental representations and concepts you are sending contradictory information to your mind about what the problem is.
You tell your mind that you like to stay in bed and watch Netflix, and that the problem is that you hate going to work.
Your mind puts all its structure to work in solving the conflict:
- positively reinforces,
- increases the motivation to stay, increases
- the discomfort of going to work,
- and can make your body sick so that you stay at home and avoid the imminent danger of going to work.
From cognitive psychology, we maintain that emotion, thought, and behavior are all closely related and that if we modify one, the others are also modified.
If you think that going to work is a horror, you will feel anguish. And if you repeat what your goals of the day are, you will feel emotions that support you in achieving them.
Intestinal chemicals serotonin and dopamine send pleasure signals to the brain.
And there are at least 30 other neurotransmitters, which are sent to the brain through the bloodstream and the vagus nerve (a nerve that connects the intestine with the brain), to manage your emotions and behaviors.
If this management is failing and we are feeling general malaise or suffering, there may be several points to work on: Everything is built on self-assurance and the fear of rejection. They are based on negative mental dialogues such as procrastinating or culpable thoughts. and color everything with pessimism and unease.
How to improve your motivation
Many times, it’s because we don’t know how to take care of ourselves. We are not capable because they never taught us to put ourselves first. So we don’t think we can do it.
Part of improving your motivation is tuning in to yourself and what gives you pleasure and joy. Eliminate your worries and beliefs that prevent you from putting yourself first or working on yourself to achieve your goals.
Cognitive psychology is used to address these types of roadblocks. Sometimes in certain sessions, and sometimes for a longer period of time. If you arrive by recognizing them, the road is faster.
