The Way I Stay Motivated Methodically
The principles of my three-step mental motivation source might be customized to meet your needs.
In this story, rather than discussing the scholarly details of thoughts, emotions, and behaviors for initiating and maintaining motivation, I share my proven experience of sustaining my motivation for creativity, productivity, health, and happiness, as a sample model.
Like many people, I also experienced a lack of motivation, primarily related to various impediments and tedious tasks like designing and writing. However, I learned to overcome my lack of motivation.
Now I feel confident, creative, productive, focused, and determined thanks to my mental motivation source. Despite my success, I recognize that I do not have superhuman capabilities that allow me to maintain infinite motivation.
I don’t take this achievement for granted. Therefore, I depend on specific methods and habits to sustain my motivation and achieve my goals. However, motivation does not work on autopilot. It requires constant focus, nurturing, and determination.
Motivation does not also happen by itself. It requires a concerted effort to initiate and sustain purposefully. To achieve this, we must keep our bodies and minds active and in a growth state by developing healthy habits.
For example, the health of our brains is crucial for our motivation and joy, with our brains’ growth or shrinking mode determining our level of motivation.
The brain’s growth or shrinking mode has a unique role in health, happiness, and motivation. I keep my brain in growth mode (neurogenesis), topping up BDNF (Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor) with daily activities. I documented these ten steps to achieve this goal.
Motivation might come and go depending on many physical and psychological factors. It is a complex biological and psychological state that might be caused by billions of neurochemical molecules flooding our bodies. We have some ideas but don’t know the mechanisms yet.
Understanding this vast ocean of thoughts and emotions can be daunting for anyone. However, it is possible to utilize cognitive skills, such as heuristics, pattern recognition, and habit building, to tame the metaphorical monsters within us.
The balance of hormones and neurotransmitters is vital to initiate and sustain motivation. The most critical ones for motivation are dopamine, glutamate, serotonin, acetylcholine, norepinephrine, adrenaline, histamine, oxytocin, and GABA, playing different roles.
Although we all have different neuro-cocktails in our bloodstream affected by different diets, sleep, exercise regimens, and lifestyle choices, the cognitive patterns required to maintain motivation have similarities.
My goal is to give valuable perspectives and some practical tips that might help you customize your solution. This is not a prescriptive but an inspirational and awareness piece.
You can personalize the principles of my mental techniques and similar ones from different resources based on your needs and goals.
To provide structure and clarity, I have divided my approach into three headings focusing on initiating and sustaining motivation using our biological and psychological powers leveraging holistic health principles.
1 — Start with values and priorities, creating opportune times for daily activities.
To truly take charge of your life, you must establish your priorities and values rather than blindly following those of others. The first step is to articulate and understand your priorities and values.
For example, my priorities are centered around my health, well-being, the happiness of my family, the success of my business, and contributing to world peace. I also hold specific values to support these priorities, such as seeking physical, mental, emotional, social, and spiritual satisfaction.
Values and priorities are subjective and unique to each person. There is no right or wrong set of values to hold or priorities to make.
Your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors primarily drive your motivation. From a biological standpoint, the fluctuating levels of neurochemicals in your bloodstream can influence them substantially.
Negative emotions like anxiety, fear, anger, boredom, or envy can harm your motivation, but intentionally using these negative feelings can paradoxically contribute to our motivation.
I learned to turn my negative emotions and feelings into positive ones, such as envy to admiration and boredom to excitement.
The timing of activities is also essential in maintaining productivity. Setting opportune times for creative and tedious work based on your moods can help you become more creative and productive.
Mixing and matching activities based on your emotional and mental state can also be helpful. However, finding opportune times are critical to recognize and understand your moods at a specific time to avoid confusion and anxiety.
2 — Orchestrate activities by responding (not reacting) and taking short breaks every hour to rejuvenate.
Orchestrating activities is vital for sustaining motivation. This activity requires cognitive abilities such as focus, attention, action planning, using working memory, leveraging procedural memory, and task switching, for priorities and values to plan and execute activities efficiently.
For instance, in prioritizing family activities, I developed a specific time frame based on my mood and carried out my planned duties accordingly. Likewise, when focusing on my business, I take necessary measures to prevent interruptions and stay on track.
I stopped reacting to impulses and interruptions, such as by turning off my mobile phone, email, or other notifications.
Rather than multitasking, I prefer single-tasking by orchestrating my activities in a flow state. One of my proven orchestration methods is completing tasks iteratively in small chunks, like building a symphony piece by piece.
Another approach is to take deliberate breaks every hour by setting the alarm, enabling me to re-energize and stay focused. During these breaks, I indulge in different hobbies or pleasure activities to re-energize.
I take a ten-minute break every hour. During these breaks, for instance, I jump on my indoor trampoline for five minutes, do planks, or perform 100 pushups in my office, deliberately.
These physical activities increase my heart rate to 150 bpm, improving heart rate variability, which oxygenates cells, and increases blood flow and energy, ultimately boosting motivation.
Another effective way to uplift my mood and increase motivation is to take a cold shower or to listen to uplifting dance music, which can balance neurotransmitters that play a critical role in brain activities leading to mental stimulation and motivation.
3 — Observe your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, build new habits, and strengthen them in flow states.
We all possess different habits characterized as positive or negative obsessions. However, it is not for anyone to judge as your good habit could be deemed a bad one by someone else. Perceptions may vary and do not reflect reality.
What I emphasize is the importance of being mindful of your habits. Habits are deeply ingrained neural links in your brain. Therefore, your brain will always use the most vital link to achieve a particular task.
Once we have productive habits, we need to constantly observe them, as the level of neurochemicals in our bloodstream influences their order of emergence.
I have created micro habits that support my priorities and values to maintain my motivation and productivity. The key to building habits is introducing them in small chunks and consistently performing them regularly.
I reinforce my good habits by mentally visualizing an infinity sign, which signifies their continuity. Based on my emotional state and mood, unproductive habits surfaced. The visualization technique of the infinity sign has been highly effective for me in these situations. Let me illustrate.
The UP section of the sign signifies good moods when I am productive, and the DOWN section represents low moods, especially when I am unproductive.
Subtle mood fluctuation is a natural process for a healthy brain and body. However, if negative moods persist, it could indicate depression, so require support from qualified healthcare professionals.
From my observations, the infinity sign is an excellent representation of our moods. Therefore, whenever I recognize this mental picture in the UP section, I remind myself that I am in a good mood and can perform creative tasks.
When I notice my mood in the DOWN section, I acknowledge that I am experiencing a low mood and need to revitalize and replenish my depleted mental and physical energy.
By applying this technique, I can maintain my motivation and produce outcomes based on my priorities and values.
Let me share some habits I have developed, which have turned into hobbies or lifestyle choices to sustain my motivation.
1 — Eating one meal a day and occasional long-term fasting.
2 — Meditating thrice daily and working in a flow state intentionally.
3 — Moving the body joyfully and regularly, then resting, sleeping, and recovering timely.
4 — Tapping into the subconscious mind and using intellect and intuition in balance.
5 — Having self-compassion and empathy for others to build better relationships and social connections.
Summary and Conclusions
Using this three-pronged approach, I managed to maintain my motivation and produce results despite the challenges, interruptions, and setbacks.
Motivation does not happen by itself. We must create it intentionally with a concerted effort to manifest it in our lives. To achieve this, we must keep our bodies and minds active and in a growth state to develop healthy habits.
To take charge of your life, you must establish your priorities and values rather than blindly following those of others. The first step is to articulate and understand your priorities and values. Then you can persistently pursue them.
To maintain motivation, it’s vital to orchestrate activities skilfully. This requires cognitive abilities such as focus, attention, action planning, using working memory, and task switching, for priorities and values to plan and execute activities efficiently.
To sustain your motivation with creativity and productivity, you need to create micro habits that support your priorities and values. The key to building habits is introducing them in small chunks and doing them regularly with persistence.
Takeaways
1 — Set your priorities and values. Don’t act impulsively, reactively, or based on the priorities and values of other people.
2 — Find opportune times for various activities and orchestrate them, leveraging your physical and cognitive abilities.
3 — Take regular breaks every hour and perform your favorite physical or psychological activities to gain energy for motivation.
4 — Be mindful of your habits and create new habits to keep you creative, productive, and motivated.
5 — Use a mental model of the infinity sign to understand the ups and downs in your mood and act accordingly to sustain your motivation.
Here’s How You Can Enjoy Your Life More in Better Zones.
I hope this story inspires you and gives you valuable perspectives to initiate and sustain your motivation to achieve your goals and realize your dreams.
Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.
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Disclaimer: My posts do not include professional or health advice. I only document my reviews, observations, experience, and perspectives to provide information and create awareness.
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