Increase Your Capacity by Manufacturing Motivation – The Answer Lies in the Pursuit

Capacity = Time + Attention + Energy, all of which are finite. In order to increase your capacity, you must find ways to increase either your time, attention, or energy - none of which is easy to do. Awareness is one of the few things that helps in all three areas. I have found it to be most helpful in improving time management skills and in the ability to focus, but most effective lately in the “energy department”; specifically when it comes to finding ways to stay motivated especially over long periods of time.

We get so caught up in the idea that motivation should be based on always striving for the end goal. To a certain extent, having this idea in mind will help you to better see the outcome as a euphoric experience, but it is not sustainable.

So how can you continually motivate yourself and in essence, manufacture your own motivation? The answer is simple but is not simplistic to apply. There are a number of theories and techniques out there for increasing motivation, but in this article, we are going to stick with the one that is the easiest to master and most sustainable (at least in my experience) which is: mastering the science of learning to love the pursuit.

What does it mean to learn to love the pursuit? Simply put, if you want to be successful at reaching your goal, celebrate the activity that it will take to get you there by rewarding the effort.

Scientifically speaking by doing this you will be activating a release of a neurochemical called dopamine. Dopamine is a hormone and neurotransmitter that is an important part of your brain’s reward system, often referred to as the “pleasure chemical.” By attaching pleasure to the pursuit (the activity that will take you to your goal, rather than the moment when you reach your goal), you will be able to increase the amount of dopamine released in your brain. And the result will literally be (if done properly) you having the ability to manufacture your own motivation.

Practice makes perfect but learning to love to practice makes anything possible.

Here is a great example of how learning to love to practice makes anything possible:

A friend and client of mine, Aaron Beasley who had a stellar career in the NFL was recently recognized by the Jacksonville Jaguars as one of the top players of all time by the franchise. In an interview discussing his career, Aaron was described as “A good player who SO believed that he was a great player, that he played at a much higher level than he probably should have.” There is much more being said about Aaron's mindset in that sentence and his story is remarkable. But when I asked Aaron HOW he did it his answer was a testimonial to putting the reward into the effort. “I LOVED to practice because practice is what I could do to become better.” (aka be the best player he could be). And that is exactly what the #20 top Jaguars of all time did as a starting defensive back for the Jets, Jaguars and Falcons for 11 years in his NFL career and beyond. Aaron trained himself and his brain to release his pleasure chemical by his love of pursing the activity that helped him get better, practicing (the pursuit) instead of only to winning (the end result). Doing so clearly served him well and is something that he continues to practice in business and also uses as a foundation of his development program as a coach and mentor to youth athletes.

So, if you are still reading, this may sound very simple and easy. And that is exactly where the problem lies. It’s it is harder than you think and there’s a catch. Let’s first talk about the catch and then the process.

If at first, you don’t succeed try, try again. You have to keep trying, but there’s a flip side to it. By continuing to try but continuing to fail repeatedly will result in a lack of confidence in the process and one’s own ability over time which makes it even that much harder every time.

But, with the recent discoveries in neuroscience and having the knowledge and tools, you can create new habits by building new neural pathways which we will discuss in detail in future articles.

FOCUS ON THE HOW:

Stop Overthinking

Spend more time congratulating yourself on the improvements you’re making instead of overthinking how far you have to go.

First, you’ll need:

Metacognitive skills which means you’ll need to have knowledge of your own knowledge to think about your own thinking.

In order to do that you’ll need to increase your self-awareness. The most efficient and effective way to do this is to develop a meditation practice.

Increased awareness helps in the decision-making process (choosing to decide what you tell yourself in this case).

Metacognition creates the space to make a decision. Use metacognition to continually remind yourself how much you love the activity that will help you take you to your goal.

Second, try this trick:

Use the 5-second rule. You only have 5 seconds before your brain automatically defaults to its comfort zone.

"The 5 Second Rule is simple. If you have an instinct to act on a goal, you must physically move within 5 seconds or your brain will kill it. The moment you feel an instinct or a desire to act on a goal or a commitment, use the Rule. When you feel yourself hesitate before doing something that you know you should do, count 5-4-3-2-1-GO and move towards action."

-Mel Robbins, Best-Selling Author, Speaker, Influencer

To increase your energy and capacity, you’ll need to practice every day! Meditate and use metacognition every day throughout the day when performing activities for which you lack motivation.

Keep it going for 30, 60 and up to and beyond 90 days. Do not give up. It will become automatic, just like brushing your teeth.

And always remember when it comes to putting the reward into the effort, celebrate the activity that takes you to your goal instead of just the accomplishment of achieving the goal.

Practice makes perfect but learning to love to practice makes anything possible.

If you would like to learn more about creating a winnable game plan that will help you learn to love the grind, create a cadence of consistency and/ or create a path towards achieving sustainable growth by learning how to track and measure your results and for more articles by Jenny Ryan, visit jennymakeithappen.com/blog. Jenny is a Certified Resilience Practitioner and Consistency Coach with a specialization in Cognitive Behavioral Technique. She is also the mastermind behind and creator of MINDAGILITY™, a personal and business consulting platform designed to help successful, business-minded people control their focus, measure results and reach their goals in a shorter amount of time by giving them: tools, resources, affirmation and encouragement while providing a framework and structure of accountability which in her words she does by, “Getting people excited about what they can control.”

[DJ1]