Passion Struck with John R. Miles - 8 Highly Effective Ways to Stay Motivated w/ John R. Miles EP 217

Episode Date: November 18, 2022

In today's Momentum Friday episode of Passion Struck, I share with you 8 highly effective ways to become and stay motivated. These tips will change your life and help you reach your goals. If you're struggling to find the motivation to pursue your goals, this episode is for you. What I Discuss on How to Stay Motivated Whether you're a student, athlete, or entrepreneur, finding motivation can be a challenge. Our ability to stay motivated is essential to success, and these 8 methods will help you overcome any obstacles you face.  Leveraging the science of motivation from the gradient effect to loss aversion to the empathy gap, these techniques will help you stay motivated and reach your goals! Full show notes and resources can be found here: https://passionstruck.com/8-highly-effective-ways-to-stay-motivated/  Brought to you by Indeed, Masterclass, and InsideTracker. --► For information about advertisers and promo codes, go to: https://passionstruck.com/deals/  --► Prefer to watch this interview: https://youtu.be/tnS8Wx5go9Y  Like this show? Please leave us a review here -- even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter or Instagram handle so we can thank you personally! --► Subscribe to Our YouTube Channel Here: https://www.youtube.com/c/JohnRMiles Want to find your purpose in life? I provide my six simple steps to achieving it - passionstruck.com/5-simple-steps-to-find-your-passion-in-life/ Did you hear my interview with Robin Sharma, one of the top personal mastery and leadership coaches in the world and a multiple-time number-one New York Times best-selling author? Catch up with episode 209: Robin Sharma on Why Changing the World Starts by Changing Ourselves ===== FOLLOW ON THE SOCIALS ===== * Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/passion_struck_podcast * Gear: https://www.zazzle.com/store/passion_sruck_podcast Learn more about John: https://johnrmiles.com/ 

Coming up next on the Passion Struck Podcast, when you begin to feel tired and your mind starts suggesting that you quit, pause for a moment, and remember that dream that you want to live out. Think about how good you will feel accomplishing the work that you've set out to do once it is complete. Think about how much better a person you will become and let those thoughts re-energize you. Welcome to Passion Struck. Hi, I'm your host, John Armiles, and on the show, we decipher the secrets, tips, and guidance of the world's most inspiring people and turn their wisdom into practical advice for you

and those around you. Our mission is to help you unlock the power of intentionality so that you can become the best version of yourself. If you're new to the show, I offer advice and answer listener questions on Fridays. We have long-form interviews the rest of the week with guest-ranging from astronauts to authors, CEOs, creators, innovators, scientists, military leaders, visionaries and athletes. Now, let's go out there and become PassionStruck. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Momentum Friday

and episode 217 of Passion Struck. And thank you to all of you who come back weekly to listen and learn, how to live better, be better, and impact the world. And if you're new to the show, thank you so much for being here, or you would just like to introduce this to a friend or family member,

we now have episode starter packs, both on Spotify and passionstruck.com slash starter packs, and these are collections of our fans. Favorite episodes that we organize and convenient topics that give any new listener a great way to get acquainted to everything we do here on the show. If you missed my episodes from earlier this week, they featured Harvard professor Max H. Bezerman, and we discuss his new book, Complicit. Why we become complicit and how do we overcome it? I also had on another Harvard professor, Dr. Chris Palmer, and we released his brand new book, Brain Energy,

which is just a fascinating discussion of how metabolism is at the root cause of mental illness. And he explains why that's the fact and how you can use his findings to overcome mental illness. I also wanted to acknowledge our fan of the week Carolyn Jackson who writes, My Favorite Podcast, I am a podcast junkie and this is my favorite podcast ever. John shares excellent insights into all characteristics of being human and how to better ourselves our relationships and our careers. This is my first podcast review as I wanted passion-structs rating to go up, so more can benefit from his infinite wisdom.

I highly recommend this podcast to anyone who is trying to top-level their life and live intentionally. Here, Alon, thank you so much for that review. They go such a long way as to all your ratings and helping us improve the popularity and the reach of this podcast. I so appreciate it, and I know our guests do as well when we get them. Now let's talk about today's episode. As humans, we tend to naturally gravitate towards pleasurable things and follow the path of least resistance. Therefore, when we set a goal for ourselves, anything from landing our dream job, running

a marathon, or maybe starting a podcast, it's a big step towards improving our lives. But taking action towards that goal that we want to accomplish can be demanding, especially when our motivation lags. Behind any human behavior, there's a goal, and a why. But even knowing our goal, we tend to avoid the things that require heavy lifting, even though these challenging paths lead to flourishing. We need motivation to give 100% of the required effort and do the needed work. Getting motivated is not easy, nor does it stay with us continuously.

As Zig Ziglar said, people often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing. That's why we recommend it daily. It's completely normal to experience highs and lows in motivation. You may have listened to a motivational speech, or read an inspiring story, and at that moment, gotten so charged up with motivation, and the drive to do great things. Or you may have given your team a pep talk to charge them up and motivate them to achieve peak performance. But as time passes, you probably find yourself

reverting to your old ways, and you're staying at the same level of performance, or maybe it's even gotten worse. So what is the key to following up on your commitments? When you just don't feel motivated, the answer to that question is what you will find in today's episode. In it, I will introduce essential findings and motivational science and explain it in detail. I will provide you eight essential steps that you can take to consistently stay motivated and teach you how to do it over the long haul. Thank you for choosing PassionStruck and choosing me. Be your host and guide on your journey to creating an intentional life.

Now, let that journey begin. So I think maybe the best way to start out this episode is to discuss what exactly is motivation. Motivation is defined by the Cambridge Dictionary as the need or reason for doing something, or the willingness to do something. It's a psychological force that enables people to take action to fulfill their needs or goals. To understand the psychology behind motivation, we need to view it through the lens of its effect on us. According to author Stephen Prasfield, in his book The War of Art, motivation is evident when at some point the pain of not doing it becomes greater than the pain

of doing it. That is, it becomes easier to take action. He further emphasized that when we are motivated, it's easier to bear the inconvenience of action than the pain of staying the same. This means that we can remain committed to achieving our goals rather than quitting. One interesting fact about motivation is that it often comes after you have started a new behavior rather than before starting. This means that you may have an impulse that causes you to take a first step towards your goal. However, it's motivation that keeps you going until you achieve that goal. So, what are the reasons why we may lack motivation? We fail to get motivated and do the things

that we plan to do because of the disparity between our present and future selves. We often overestimate the capabilities of our future selves and fail to acknowledge that we may be tired, frustrated, experiencing burnout, laziness, anxiety, low self-esteem, insufficient resources, and an overwhelming responsibilities that arise in the future. This phenomenon is known as the empathy gap, which renowned psychologist and behavioral scientist Dr. Islet Fishback and I discussed an episode 176 of PassionStruck. It is our future self that drives our present self. In fact, the Greek philosopher Aristotle believed that all intelligent action is intentional and based on our goals or aims.

Thus, as we convince ourselves to pursue our goals, we come to that future time, which now becomes our present moment. We often realize that we're making less progress. Ford our goals than we set out to do, making it harder to get motivated to progress further. By acknowledging our future selves' limitations, we are in such a better position to more accurately set feasible goals and tackle the issues that could adversely affect us beforehand, enabling us to get motivated towards achieving those goals. So then, what drives motivation? There are many, but two significant factors jump out. These factors can either be intrinsic or extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation comes from the doing and performing of an action,

rather than the result at the end. It's driven by how much we enjoy and engage in the work. Intrinsic motivation focuses on internal motivation. Intrinsically motivated people carry out their jobs because they appreciate them and find them rewarding in and of themselves. In contrast, extrinsic motivation depends on external factors, such as incentives, rewards, fear of loss, or punishment. People who are motivated by outside factors don't pursue the goal because they enjoy the activity, but because of the rewards or avoided loss when the goal

is achieved. It's challenging to continue engaging in the things they don't enjoy once extrinsic motivators are taken away. As Stephen Covey said, motivation is a fire from within. If someone tries to light that fire, chances are it will burn very briefly. Many people think extrinsic motivation is just as effective as intrinsic motivation. However, through new research, we are learning that this is simply not true. When an incentive yields a result that's contrary to its designer's intended outcome, it is referred to as a perverse incentive. A significant example of this is the Cobra effect, or seabird, an economist. First use the phrase Cobra effect to describe an incident that occurred in India under the

British rule. Concerned about the number of poisonous Cobra's in Delhi, the British rule. Concerned about the number of poisonous cobras in Delhi, the British administration paid a reward for each one that was killed. This tactic was initially effective, many snakes were exterminated for the reward, but eventually business-minded individuals started breeding cobras to make even more money. This was eventually brought to the government's attention, and the incentive scheme was abandoned. In the long run, the number of wild cobras increased considerably after cobror breeders now set their worthless necks free. Another example is the great canoy rat massacre, where the French government, in Vietnam,

paid a bounty to exterminate rats to lower infestation in order to receive a reward one had to turn in a rats tail. Over time, the French government started to notice something peculiar, instead of decreasing the rat population actually grew exponentially. Many of the rats were seen roaming around the streets without a tail, meaning that the people, instead of killing the rats, simply removed their tails and were breeding them.

It's a great example of how motivation can be misused for its intended purpose. While extrinsic motivation is subject to all these undesirable results, intrinsic motivation leads to better persistence, enhances engagement and responsibility, and enables more effectiveness, better performance and overall long-term commitment. So you may be wondering now, how do you use incentives and rewards for better results? I've explained the limitations involved with using incentives or rewards so that your efforts yield the desired results. First, ensure that whatever reward you choose is consistent with your goal. Consciously choose incentives that will only advance you in pursuing your goals.

Second, only reward yourself when you have succeeded in gotten results. If you reward yourself ahead of time based on a promise to do a task, you won't have any incentive to push forward. Or, depending on your performance, you can immediately grant rewards when a particular milestone has been reached. Your ultimate objective may still be in the future, but a quick win can keep motivating you to keep moving forward. Third, use frequent small prizes more often than fewer large ones. You only need a tiny reward to keep going, but it's gotta be consistent.

Ask yourself, am I doing what I am doing solely because of the rewards? Your incentives shouldn't be the reason you're doing what you're doing, but only a source of encouragement to keep going. So now let me get to maybe the most important part of today's episode. How do you become and stay motivated?

Learning to enhance one's own are other today's episode. How do you become and stay motivated? Learning to enhance one's own are other people's motivation, demands and investment of time and energy. And one must resist the lure of quick fixes. Thankfully, there are specific strategies that you can use to boost motivation and remain focused on achieving your goals. The following are eight vital ways

that I have discovered to become and stay motivated. First, reflect and decide upon what you really want out of life. Take time to reflect on your life and decide what you want to do with it. Being motivated doesn't mean you should just be busy doing things. Movement alone does not create progress. You must expect your time and energy on worthwhile goals that align with your dreams and vision. You will be prepared and driven to give your best to your chosen pursuit after you have done this.

So before anything else, take the time to thanks things through. Engage in meditation, take a vacation, clear your head, seek the help of a mentor, and do whatever will help you to choose the right aim or goal. It is only after this that you will be able to find the motivation you need for your journey. Second, set specific, incremental, and challenging goals. A goal setting theory used today was developed for ground-breaking research by psychologist Edwin Locke. Its fundamental premise is that defined goals provide better results than ambiguous ones. To stay motivated, you need conscious intentions. For instance, instead of resolving to finish a book in a month, decide to read two chapters of the book a day.

Being specific and breaking your goals into smaller sub-goals will help keep you calm. In setting your goals, you can use the popular smart format which stands for specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-based. When your goals are specific, your mind will know exactly what you need to do, and knowing that it's feasible enough, you can stay motivated to get it done. We'll be right back to the PassionStark podcast. This episode is sponsored in part by Inside Tracker, and when it comes to your health and longevity,

you hold nothing back. You understand what it means to push harder, reach farther, and go the extra mile. This relentless drive runs in your blood. That's why InsideTracker provides you with a personalized plan. To build strength, speed recovery, and optimize your health for the long haul, created by leading scientists and agent genetics and biometrics. InsideTracker analyzes your blood, DNA, and fitness tracking data to identify where you're optimized and where you're not. It's like having your own

personal trainer and nutritionist in your pocket. For a limited time, you can get 20% off the entire inside tracker store. Just go to inside tracker.com or slash passion struct. That's inside tracker.com or slash passion struct. This episode is also brought to you by Masterclass. With Masterclass, you can learn from the world's best minds anytime, anywhere, and at your own pace. You can learn how to become a better writer from legendary authors like Malcolm Gladwell, James Patterson, Dan Brown, Amy Tan, and Amanda Gorman, or improve your business skills from Daniel Pink, Sarah Blakely, Bob Woodard, or Richard Branson. With over 150 classes from a range of world-class instructors, that thing you've always wanted to do is closer than you think.

I recently took Matthew Walker's The Science of Sleep Class, and I was blown away by the death of knowledge that he teaches. This is so useful for me, is I try to better up my own sleep habits. I highly recommend you check it out. This holiday, give one annual membership, and get one free. Go to masterclass.com slash passion struct today.

That's masterclass.com slash passion struct term supply. Thank you so much for listening to the show. I love hearing from all of you, and I love the fact that you all have been very tourist sponsors because they're the ones that keep the show going as well. You can check out all the sponsors at passionstruck.com slash deals. You'll find all the codes and URLs, all those things are there. So please consider supporting

those who support this show now back to the Passion Struck podcast. Third, create clear plans and schedules. Often, we waste time deciding where or when to work, what to wear, what to eat, and so many other routine everyday decisions. These things can impede our effectiveness and take away from time that we could spend on being productive. When this happens, we can quickly lose momentum that is required to stay motivated. A key to tackling this inefficiency is creating a plan and a schedule for yourself. Creating a schedule will help you quickly navigate the everyday decisions that arise throughout our days, as well as prioritize essential tasks. Through it, you can understand what is realistically achievable within the available time. You can work on fixing loopholes, prepare for unexpected

problems along the way, keeping better track of your progress, and ultimately boosting your productivity, motivating yourself to do even more. Fourth, build a routine. You must make it your lifestyle to continuously get motivated in order to achieve your goals. You shouldn't see it as something to reach and stop. You must make the daily microchoises that I talked so much about on this podcast. Required to focus on the activities that aren't intrinsically motivating. As Zig Ziglar said, motivation isn't what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going. Building a routine ensures that your behavior gradually becomes more effortless and automatic, making it a habit. As number one, New York Times best-selling author and self-mastery expert Robin Sharma said, in my recent interview with him,

when you maintain healthy routines, you have the needed structure and discipline to keep going when things become complex and challenging. Fifth, amplify the importance of your goals and have fun working towards them. Don't see your goals as chores, but as worthwhile pursuits that can be fun. By incorporating fun, you get excited and anticipate the task or activity, giving you a much better chance at success. Finding the fun path takes several forms. For example, you might listen to your favorite songs while exercising or create a blog where you write about and share your experiences. Understandably, not all activities towards your goals are going to be fun. Some tasks are going to be downright challenging. In such cases, you can turn inwards and focus on the importance of what you're doing and

how it could impact other people's lives. This will help you to see the brighter side of your work and encourage you to keep pushing forward. Sex surround yourself with motivated people. Humans are social beings who often function better in the presence of like-minded people. So in order to get motivated and achieve your goals, you must surround yourself with people who have similar aims for progress. This support can come in the form of encouragement, healthy competition

or accountability, which will help you to stay committed. Also, as you get more motivated, do well to support others in your circle who need it. This act of supporting and encouraging one another will create a perpetual cycle of increase in capacity to function at your best and keep you advancing. Seventh, take adequate care of your physical and mental health. The need to take care of your health and never be overemphasized, which is why we talk about it here constantly on this podcast. If your mind and body are not performing at their best, you will simply not be able to carry out the things that you set out to do. And at this point, being motivated

will be difficult, if not downright impossible. So, ensure that you get adequate sleep, eat well, exercise regularly, and avoid lifestyle choices that could be detrimental to your health. And finally, eighth, practice patients. In a previous PassionStrike podcast, solo episode that I did, on why patients is an important virtue. I shared the story of the farmer who stayed patient and motivated during the long course of watering his Chinese bamboo plants, even though there was no visible growth for years. In the end, his patience paid off and he received a bountiful harvest behind his wildest dreams. In like manner, patience is crucial. You must have it if you're going to get motivated and stay that way.

This is because patience enables you to stay persistent and putting in the effort towards your goals even though we're the rewards, maybe in the very distance feature. Another thing that patience will help you with is delayed gratification. By this, you will be able to say no to things that could immediately

distract or demotivate you from aiming towards your goals and staying focused. So now let's answer the second part of this. How do you sustain motivation? Rob and Sharma, who I mentioned earlier, said, change is hard at first, messy in the middle, and glorious in the end. Often, we begin our journey towards a new goal, with so much excitement and anticipation of the benefits to come. But when we do the work and we get into the middle phase, that excitement starts to wear off and it often becomes tough to continue. This is more difficult because while beginnings and ends are clearly marked, the middles can be extremely long and undefined. How then do you navigate the pesky metal?

We can tweak ourselves to be more motivated by implementing the goal gradient effect concept, which was coined by behaviorist, Mark Hall in 1932. And basically, it states that as people get closer to a reward, they speed up their behavior to get to their goal faster. It is based on the fact that the more progress you make,

the more motivated you get, their goal faster. It is based on the fact that the more progress you make, the more motivated you get. The goal gradient effect encourages you to consciously and continuously think of the things that you've already done. Because as you get closer to your goals, the stakes increase and you begin to get more for the same level of effort. By doing this, you will be able to build the tenacity and the perseverance needed to go through the difficulty of the middle phase and stay motivated until you reach the end. The other part of sustaining motivation can be found in what's known as the Goldilocks Principle. That states that we experience peak motivation when working on tasks that are right on the edge of our current abilities.

These tasks might not be challenging or easy, but the important point is to make them just right. Often you lack the motivation to work on a task because it's below your level of competence. They're by making it dull, or because it's really challenging, and above your capabilities, thus discouraging you. Finding a means to push your tasks back to the edge of your capabilities, where you feel capable but not challenged will help you to stay motivated. So I've covered a lot today,

so let me summarize today's episode for you. One notable thing that I have found with all who are passion struck is that they not only get motivated at the start of the journey, but stay consistently motivated through continual action towards their goal. I interview with retired astronaut Captain Wendy Lawrence

is a great example of this. In doing so, she was motivated by the deliberate path that she needed to take to realize her dream which required her taking daily intentional choices towards it. When you begin to feel tired and your mind starts suggesting that you quit, pause for a moment, and remember the dream that you want to live out. Think about how good that you quit, pause for a moment, and remember the dream that you want to live out.

Think about how good that you will feel about accomplishing the work that you've set out to achieve once it's complete. Think about how much better a person you will become and let these thoughts re-energize you. Our discomfort is short-lasting and the joy of accomplishment always outweighs the pain that exists along the journey. As Jim Rohn said, we must all suffer from one of two pains. The pain of discipline or the pain of regret. The difference is that discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons. Follow through on your motivation by strategically applying all the points that I've made during today's episode so that you can continually

slowly move forward. I hope that you all enjoyed that show. And I wanna thank everyone who wrote in this week, and especially those who came today and listened to this episode. Thank you so much. A link to the transcript will be in the show notes at passionstruck.com. Videos are on YouTube at John Armiles.

Please go and subscribe and check out the over 400 videos that we have there, including exclusive content you will only find on YouTube. Everties are deals and discount codes are in one convenient place at passionstruck.com slash deals. You can find me at John Armiles, both on Twitter and Instagram and a Mosul on LinkedIn. You're about to hear a preview of the PassionStruck podcast interview I did with Scott Galloway, who is an NYU Stern School of Business, Professor of Marketing and a Serial Entrepreneur. He is the best-selling author of Post-Corona,

a four- and the Algebra of Happiness. In inner interview, we discuss his brand new book, Adrift. Unfortunately, there's an economic incentive around turning us into Tyrannosaurus Rexes where we're drawn towards movement and violence rather than having a civil conversation. And of all these problems, whether it's teen depression, or that's failing young men, income inequality,

exploding costs in higher education, the problem I would argue is the biggest problem relative to the attention it's getting. Is it if America's problems are a horror movie, you would say the call is coming from inside the house. And that is a third of each political party sees the other party as their mortal enemy. Remember that we rise by lifting others. So share this show with those that you love.

And if you found this episode on Motivation Useful, please share it with somebody who could use the advice that I gave here today. In the meantime, do your best to apply what you hear on the show so that you can live what you listen. And until next time, live, life, action struck.