Motivation #

NOTE This is a random theory of mine; don’t put too much stock into it!

Motivation to do something requires that the “something” is attainable and meaningful (has a point/purpose).

(Perceived) Attainability #

Objectives that are perceived - which is really all that matters with respect to motivation - to be attainable have a trivially easy to accomplish next step on the path toward them.

What makes a next step trivially easy? If your body/mind are primed to do the task such that you could do it with minimal/no conscious intervention. For example walking, reading, or doing some trained skill are trivially easy. Note that this depends on the current state of your body; walking may not be trivially easy if you are exhausted or have a broken leg. And also the state of your mind; responding to a conversation may be hard if you haven’t caught up on what has been said.

Note that the whole path to the objective does not have to be trivially easy or even known. All that matters where motivation is concerned is the next step (at least for attainability).

Motivation can flag when the next step towards a goal is unclear. In such situations it’s easy to simply switch gears to another activity which has clear steps - this is procrastination.

How to make things attainable #

When something feels unattainable because either (a) it seems so hard you would fail if you tried or (b) its unclear what step to take next, I have found several tricks that work pretty well:

Thinking Creatively #

See thoughts on creativity.

Taking a Step Back #

Taking a step back both from the problem at hand AND from anything else that engages your mind. The goal here is to put yourself in a state of boredom, then slightly nudge your thoughts toward your issue. Often I find my mind much more eagerly thinks about something when the prospect of boredom is there as an alternative. One way to do this is by going and sitting in another chair far from distractions.

Another alternative is going for a walk or run, preferably with no audio or other distractions. This method also usually engages my creativity, which helps open up new potential paths to issue resolution. There is the drawback that sometimes here my creativity will wander, and I will end up with good ideas about something other than my issue.

Talking it Out #

Talk to someone (or yourself) about the issue. Sometimes the act of putting your issue into works can snap some clarity into it. The person you are talking to may also offer useful insights. Writing thoughts down can also sometimes work here, if no-one is available to talk to.

This usually involves re-verifying the assumptions you’ve been making about the problem.

Getting Psyched Up #

This only applies when you find the task hard, but you see the path you would take to do it. In this case, for me listening to energetic music or putting myself in an energetic, stimulating, or even stressful environment (e.g. with other people around) can help me feel more active and therefore more able to do my hard task. I think part of this is that the stimulation occupies the higher level part of my mind that’s telling me the task is hard, and just lets the less conscious parts of me simply execute. Again, this only works for a case (a) above, not when it’s unclear what to do next. See the book “Antifragile” for more on this, specifically Book 1 Chapter 2.

Making Concrete Sub-Tasks #

One highly effective way to keep something consistently attainable is to break it into smaller, concrete pieces that are each attainable even to a tired or distracted mind. The actual act of doing this can be very difficult, so this isn’t a great solution when you are already finding your motivation flagging. This strategy shines when you let your past self do this for you when it is energized and fresh. Of course, your past self wont have the direct motivation to do this (as it’s doing fine) so it helps to set reminders for yourself to do this work when you are fresh.

TODO add a reference to the manifesto “vision” section here, or merge the sections #

How to make things LESS attainable #

When stuck on attainability, there are several counterproductive strategies:

Eating food in hopes that it will give you energy to push through. This always just makes me MORE tired especially in the short term. Plus I usually feel more able/energetic when I am slightly hungry.

Trying to brute force your way through an issue without trying alternate routes. This sometimes works, but usually just makes me feel stupid and can lead to a vicious cycle where I continually burn more and more energy in less and less well directed ways trying to prove I am not stupid :). The key to avoiding this is making sure you aren’t following the same lines of thought over and over, and stopping if you find yourself doing so.

The tendency to try to brute force I find is more and more temping the most tired you are. One way to explain this is that as you do something hard (that you don’t already have mental circuits to handle) , your mind contracts/focuses on the problem until it becomes so rigid that even the slightest unexpected event (or new solution idea) is hard to handle. This is counter to an “expanded” mind where many possibilities are open and easy to handle. If you have been focusing hard on one thing, a way to expand your mind is to do something you might find boring and let your mind wander its way to expansion. As discussed earlier, going for a walk or otherwise exercising I find hastens this process. So going for a walk with no stimulation (no reading on phone, no listening to anything, no conversations with people) is a great technique. Some of this is inspired by the last part of Chapter 5 of “How to Change Your Mind” by Michael Pollan.

(Perceived) Meaning #

Activities are meaningful when they fit neatly into a larger narrative. This could be a grand narrative about one’s identity (e.g. defined by what virtues you aspire to or possess), or a myopic narrative about what puzzle piece should fit next into the puzzle to bring it closer to solution.

What you or others may find meaningful in a certain situation varies a lot for many reasons. I have found myself obsessed with completing certain goals, and then having my obsession and motivation completely evaporate after reframing the larger context those goals fit into.

One way to lose motivation for a task is to follow the meaning of the task up through all the ways it impacts the world, coming to the final conclusion that there is no greater meaning in the world (or you don’t know what it is), and therefore the task itself is meaningless. This kind of “bubbling up” can happen on a smaller scale as well.

TODO explore ideas from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/we-learn-faster-when-we-arent-told-what-choices-to-make/

There are many sources of meaning (just see the above linked virtues list). Some of the sources that are strong for me personally:

Making something complicated, or hard to think about, clear. This could mean writing a good description or coming up with a good diagram/model. For example: https://ciechanow.ski/gps/.
- One of the main reasons this is so important is that it breeds motivation for you and others to work on the complicated thing.
Building a tool that makes a task someone does regularly much easier. Doesn’t matter how well the tool is built, just that it works.
Proving competence. This involves demonstrating to myself and others that I can overcome difficult challenges. What the challenge actually is isn’t really that important, only that I can succeed at it where others (including my past self) fail.

Holding loosely and Ego #

Becoming highly personally invested in a task often surfaces a lot of paralyzing emotions like fear of failure. Even for work that could be life-changing, I find “holding loosely” or not caring too much about the outcome is a highly effective strategy. This frees your mind up to perform in the moment, which will often be what determines the ultimate result of the work.

This mindset avoids the problem of focusing on things not in your control (explored in this gamedev post about SNKRX). By definition, this thinking can’t directly lead to positive action that would improve your situation. The best it can do is maybe make you stumble upon some new information if you are doing research about the thing not in your control, but much more often I find that it leads to dead-end thoughts that make you lose motivation entirely.

I found this concept to be extremely helpful when interviewing for jobs. Here this is particularly relevant because interviewing involves being social with your interviewer, and having a positive social interaction usually requires sharing positive emotions. It’s much easier to do this if you are actually feeling these emotions, and not faking them while internally feeling fear or panic.

This concept is really helpful in sports too, or anything that requires high in-the-moment performance. In fact, I was first introduced to this concept when playing tennis. I was taught to hold my racket like a tube of toothpaste - if I squeezed too hard (get too tense), the toothpaste would come out. This relaxed physical state is tightly coupled to a relaxed mental state of being “in the moment”.

One great exploration of this is the concept of “effortless effort” in Zen philosophy. I was first introduced to this by the book Zen in the Martial Arts by Joe Hyams. There are also some good thoughts about this in Zen Mind, Beginners Mind by Shunryu Suzuki.

See my thoughts on creativity for more exploration of related ideas.

Expectations #

For me, the hardest part of executing on goals is getting my entire brain on board to apply effort towards my current goal. The best way I’ve found to do this so far is by keeping the quality of the final product out of my head. In other words, I try to not have expectations for a specific result or, if that’s too hard, I at least try to keep my expectations low.

Not worrying about my goal’s final product makes it much easier to just start doing something. My ego is protected from failure, and I can utilize all the parts of my brain that live in the moment. Usually, the best final products are honed as they are made anyway - attempting to plan out the perfect product from the start without getting feedback from the work often just leads me to a state of analysis paralysis.

The expectations of others are often even more extreme of a factor than my own expectations. For example, if I am given a task (or collaboratively come up with a task) that is perceived as very difficult or impossible, any progress at all will make me extremely motivated to continue. Conversely, if a task is seen as trivial to accomplish, I may not be motivated to start right away or, worse, I will feel very stressed if it ends up taking longer than expected.

Managing Excitement #

TODO maybe find a better place for this.

One common pattern I fall into is getting really into one particular activity for a while, exploring it thoroughly, then getting tired of it and loosing motivation to explore further. In this situation, what can help is breaking the exploration off to keep the excitement going in the next session (having a sense of anticipation for the next session).

Execution #

Some great resources for goal execution: