Need More Motivation?
Photo by Xan Griffin
Nowadays, when we think of the word motivation, we imagine it as this fuel source that exists somewhere outside of us.
We hope the motivation fairy will bless us in the night and upon waking we suddenly have an abundance of it.
Why do we all want motivation so badly?
We want motivation so we can work out more!* (*So society will finally approve of us..)
So we can get more done!* (*Capitalism has brainwashed us to believe our inherent worth is connected to how often we work..)
So we can have more energy!* (*Any kind of rest is seen as laziness or weakness which means we’re on a path to destruction..)
So we can finally live out our perfectionist fantasies!* (*We haven’t learned how to accept and love ourselves as we are so we must change ourselves..)
Most of the time we bank on a cup of coffee to do the trick. But coffee will never fully remove this incessant desire for motivation.
Motivation must be understood biologically before we can begin to manipulate the levels we have.
We must first understand the motivational triad.
The motivational triad is a brilliant evolutionary development that exists in our brains.
It was born out of our most primitive, primal nature.
Its basis is this: Humans must, at all times, avoid pain, seek pleasure, and use as little energy as possible throughout each day.
This developed during a time when things were more uncertain and unsafe than they are today.
Our brains had to focus on danger in order to survive. We had to remember where the poisonous berries were so we didn’t die. We had to save our energy in case a tiger suddenly attacked us. We had to seek pleasure in order to perpetuate our species.
Today things aren’t as intense.
……Sure, they’re friggen bonkers.
But nothing like what humans were dealing with when this evolutionary trait developed.
Now in modern suburbia, the tiger has become a big work project. The danger has become a love interest that won’t text you back. And the pleasure has become all of the processed sugar, flour, and prescriptions we consume.
The triad will convince you to preserve energy instead of going to that work out class.
The triad will convince you to eat the sugary sweets over the nutritional veggies.
I’m not saying you should work out more and not eat sugar.
I’m saying when we desire an outcome and our choices reflect the exact opposite of that outcome, we can feel a little crazy.
The triad will win out every time because its wiring is so powerful in our brain, it makes us feel like it’s a force against our own will.
I promise you, you aren’t crazy when you say you want to do something and the time comes and you.. don’t do it.
You just have a really old, really primitive brain.
But there’s good news!
We have a higher brain now, the prefrontal cortex.
With acute awareness of the motivational triad, and the right tools to combat it, we can finally figure out how to follow through on our desires and actually make them happen.
It’s not daydreaming, it’s science.
We must continue to evolve our brains so that their ancient impulses stop sabotaging our progress and start working for us.
