WELLNESS

Motivation and the Forces that Move Us

The power to motivate oneself toward a desired goal can sometimes feel elusive.

Self-motivation can ebb and flow with little consistency, even when the desire for a result is strong. Fortunately, there are little known bits of research on how the body and mind can work in consort to power motivation and unlocking forces that can move us forward.

For motivation to exist, the most basic of human needs must be met. Maslow’s basic needs of human survival: food, water, air, shelter, safety, sleep and clothing create the platform from which the seeds of motivation can start.

Once in a position to grow, motivation can flourish depending on three aspects that impact action (Ryan and Deci, 2000): your ability to do something, your level of independence, and how relevant the goal is to you.

We generally start a goal with these three aspects well within our control, however, challenges arises when other influences start to creep in and absorb our capacity, including family needs, emergency action or even just a day when spirits are low. This can make self-motivation like a tidal river; sometimes raging and other times trickling-making the way forward a muddy slog. When you hit the trickle, here are a few forces that can change our outlook and prompting action toward a result.

Your Body, Your Mind

published research on smiling. This research studied smiling under both voluntary and involuntary circumstances. Regardless of the faked or spontaneous response, participants were noted as having action (smiling) that impacted the same region of their brain that resulted in a positive feeling. Use Your Spine: Another emotional manipulation based on physical action that can change our outlook and our level of engagement is detailed in a 2016 article found in Cognition and Emotion by Lotte Veenstra and colleagues. In this paper, researchers discovered that when the spine is stooped, one’s ability to regulate a negative mood is less effective than when a straight or otherwise controlled posture is used. The effects of body posture appear to make an independent contribution to mood regulation. The next time you are feeling down and lack motivation, straighten your spine and allow your mood to rise.

A Change in Your Attitude

Spell Out Your Gratitude: Allowing the actions of others to generate your words of gratitude can change your motivational effort. Although the exact mechanism between the two still requires further studies, research shows that intrinsic motivation and gratitude are activated in the same region of the brain and that they are related.

Designing Positive Psychology recalled a study in which students made a list of goals they hoped to reach over a two-month period. Ten weeks later, the students who showed they were grateful were closer than others in the study to reaching their goals. Researchers over many studies have also shown that gratitude-focused participants increased their well-being. A written or verbal expression of gratitude can change interpersonal relationships and help boost our ability to self motivate.

Let Someone Else Lead You: Selfesteem is another driving factor that helps increase motivation. When self-esteem is low, it acts as a negative motivator. In 2014, Frontiers of Phycology published research on how to boost self-esteem through working with a partner. Researchers found that keeping time with others may be a means of increasing self-esteem (by extension motivation) and feeling good about us. When you are in a rut, find a trusted friend to sync up with.

Engage Discipline

While motivation is an emotion that acts tidally, discipline is a quality that is constant and has a structure associated with it. Acts of discipline are based on rules and often consequences that get levied when a lapse occurs, even if those consequences are selfinflected or self-induced.

As motivation wanes, employing structured discipline can make some small executable actions toward an end result. Motivation and discipline actually go hand-in-hand. Think of discipline as a life raft, or in the case of a really low tide, the Bogger Boots. They are the tools that allow you to keep moving forward when the tide is out. Spend a few minutes building a structured set of rules and triggers for action that surround your goal to keep your momentum.

The forces that move us do not have to be evasive. With a little bit of body movement, a friend who begets gratitude, and some good old-fashioned discipline, you can reach your goals with a positive attitude through changing tides.

Nothing in this article constitutes medical advice. All medical advice should be sought from a medical professional.

EMILY REIBLEIN

Director-Health, Safety, Security and Environment (HSSE) Crowley Logistics