“I lack motivation” - often I hear from people who cannot do something, due to some internal resistance, for example, laziness. But when they talk about motivation, they usually mean stimulus. What is the difference between these concepts? Do people really need an incentive to do something? Let's try to figure it out. In this article I will try to expose the myths about motivation, which the internet and popular literature are simply teasing.
Myth 1. Motivation and stimulation are one and the same.
People confuse the concepts of motivation and stimulation, mix them and under the first understand the second. The question here is not about the definition debate. Like what to call is not so important. This is necessary, first of all, in order not to combine two fundamentally different things in one definition, not to confuse them with each other. Because there is always motivation, and we create incentives ourselves; There is nothing wrong or unnatural in motivation, while the pursuit of incentives can make us weak-willed and not independent. That is, the difference is and it is significant.
The concepts of stimulus and motivation are taken by me somewhat arbitrarily and, probably, what I understand by them, does not quite correspond to academic terms. But I do not think that I will sin a great deal against scientific truth, if, for better understanding, I will describe two phenomena that are different in meaning, with different concepts.
So, motivation is a rational and natural motive for our actions, for example, we want to play sports for our health and the development of qualities that are good for life. This is what motivates us. But stimulation is the creation of some kind of stimulus in order to reduce the resistance on the way to achieving a certain goal (or reduce this resistance to zero). For example, we want to play sports, but we are lazy and cannot force ourselves. We hire a trainer who will stimulate us (call us if we didn’t come to the training session, constantly tell us: "come on, weak, you can ..."). We set up a photo of Schwarzeneger, so that it looms in front of our nose and constantly reminds us of the possible result of our studies. This is all stimulation.
If motivation is some kind of desire that reflects a completely natural desire, then the stimulus is, as a rule, something artificial, short-term, something that we create ourselves or something that circumstances create for us. The stimulus does not help to reach the goal faster; it simply makes it easier to achieve, makes us constantly “want” this goal, spurs us on, reminds us of something. The stimulus is more of a means, while motivation reflects a goal. Suppose you are working hard to make more money, start your own business and leave the office. This is the motivation. Your boss constantly tweaks you, reprimands or praises, rewards or fines to make you work better. This is an incentive. Stimulus is something from the category of "carrots and sticks."
Stimulus also exists in circumstances that are characterized by a lack of choice. If a barrel is inserted into your temple and they say “work”, then this is stimulation. In this case, your resistance to work is reduced to zero. You have no choice. Under the pressure of a hard stimulus, everyone can work, but if this stimulus is removed, many will lose arms.
So, when they say, I don’t have enough motivation to go in for sports, for example, usually mean “I don’t have enough stimulus”, because motivation cannot but be there for everyone! Since health is an absolute good, the desire to feel better is the natural desire of any person!
Therefore, the phrases “motivation for losing weight” or “motivation for success” are logically incorrect and are, in some ways, tautologies, as weight loss and success, or rather, what results we expect from this process (beauty, health, attractiveness, material wealth, financial independence) is our motivation!
Why is it difficult for us to force ourselves to do what we don’t want to do?
But people, at times, are hard to “feed” with an exceptionally long-term goal, looming somewhere far on the horizon. In fact, health, well-being, strong muscles, money will not appear immediately, if we only begin to move towards this, it will not be sometime soon. The temporary remoteness of such a goal makes it almost invisible, it is rapidly fading against the background of insignificant but current desires: to eat, sleep, “score” and roll around a fool. I wrote about this in my other article (how to develop willpower), here I will repeat a little.
This is the wisdom and stupidity of our body. Our instincts do not have a “sense of perspective,” they are “tuned” in such a way that they only respond to momentary stimuli. The wisdom here lies in the timeliness and speed of signaling the needs of the body. Stupidity, on the other hand, consists in the fact that without mental control, blind instincts are sometimes unable to “understand” what is good for us and what is bad for us. Our bodies will require cigarettes, a “dose”, although the mind understands that this only harms it. But the body knows nothing about the possible harm and it will ask for what it wants.
Therefore, many of us find it difficult to force ourselves to play sports or stop smoking, for example. After all, our body, at the level of instincts, does not find expedient all this physical activity or refusal from cigarettes, because it is not aimed at receiving some instant benefit for us, for our body, this does not meet any current need. Therefore, the body will protest.
In order to somehow "get around" this obstacle and invented various incentives.
Myth 2. “In order to force myself to do something useful, I need an incentive”
Many cannot or, rather, think that they cannot do without incentives and constantly seek them out, and justify their inaction with their absence. To do something that lies beyond the satisfaction of current needs, they need an incentive. But what happens when this stimulus disappears? This happens for objective reasons (you ran out of money for a personal trainer) or because of internal (many incentives experience “inflation” and if at first the stern look of a personal trainer inspired you to practice, now you don’t).
And the following happens: in the absence of an incentive, your hands dropped, you abandoned your studies. What important conclusion can be made about this? And such that you become addicted to incentives, without which you can’t do anything! And the stimulus is always a transient phenomenon, temporary, which a person gets fed up (any manager knows how hard it is to constantly stimulate his employees, constantly have to invent something new, not loosen his grip, therefore companies are looking for people with motivation (career growth, professional development, and .d.)), so being dependent on him is just silly and unprofitable. That incentive is, it is not.
When you pursue incentives, you only encourage your inability to do something on your own, despite your unwillingness; you exacerbate your lack of self-organization: it becomes difficult for you to work when you don’t have a boss who controls you, you lose your will and independence. (many people explain their inability to work at home or have their own business ...; you can call it as a syndrome of "dependence on the warden")
The ability to overcome internal resistance is a measure of developed will and self-organization !. And if you do not learn to step over yourself without any incentives, then you will not be able to set long-term goals and fulfill them.
Conclusion: no need to chase after incentives! This does not mean that incentives should be avoided, as they will appear by themselves, and there is nothing wrong with that. This means that one should not remain in a manic search for incentives, depend on them, and justify one’s laziness by their absence!
For example, you came to the gym, started doing exercises. In addition to you in the hall there are people who, apparently, have been visiting the hall for a long time. You feel that the evaluating views of experienced “strokes” are turned to you (in fact, most often this is just an obsessive thought with an element of paranoia, but in the context of this example, this is not important) and therefore you feel an incentive to do the exercises correctly and not to lose it.
There is nothing wrong with something that prompted you to do better, it happens. But all the people left the room, leaving you alone. Here is the important point. If you were addicted to the stimulus, then you would immediately begin to slip, because no one is looking at you. But the principle is to continue doing the same thing, it’s just now that it’s more difficult than a few minutes ago: resistance has increased and it takes more willpower to continue the exercise. You do not stop and train correctly.
You can use the fact that we started talking about the gym and make a very appropriate comparison. In the absence of a stimulus, our will "lifts up more weight" than when there is stimulation, therefore, it develops better.
Therefore, get rid of all the tips from your head, like “go to the gym friends, then you will not have an incentive to skip classes”. And what will happen if friends "score"? Do you immediately lose all desire, just because someone changed their mind about walking? Do not make yourself dependent on third-party factors! You should play sports not because if you don’t do this you will be ashamed in front of someone, and then, in order to have a healthy, strong body, live longer and be less sick! I am talking about sports here because these examples are very relevant in the context of motivation.
Do not expect that everything will always be easy. Sometimes, indeed, a lot goes without effort, on some kind of “inspiration” and it depends on the mood. But you need to tune in to the fact that there will be periods when you don’t want to do something at all. It is impossible to be inspired constantly. And it is in those moments when you do something through the greatest “I don't want” that your personal skills gain the most powerful development.
Do not focus on stimulation. Let the motivation, your natural desire for development, push you to a useful activity, and not some kind of stick or carrot. After all, the ability to neglect short-term desires in favor of a long-term goal, plan your future and sacrifice the present to it, is what distinguishes man from animals. The animal does not know how to sacrifice the needs of the body; if it wants something, it goes to that. But a person has the ability to deny himself his desires, guided by reason and realizing his demands through will.
A developed and independent person confidently continues to move toward his goal, even when the carrot, looming before the nose, disappears, and the legs stop and do not want to go any further. Let this movement be difficult now: legs, with great reluctance, make short steps, shuffling their feet along the ground, and the body aches and resists. But, at such moments, your will flourishes and triumphs, which managed to escape from the captivating shackles of your body and establish itself in the power of the mind over the flesh, constant over the transitory, of freedom over the captivity ...
