Whether your goal is simple or complicated, it can be hard to stay motivated. But why is that? Fortunately, science can help us uncover the challenges of motivation and how to give yourself the best chance of completing your goal. This video highlights the best, and worst, ways to keep yourself motivated.
TALKING POINTS:
- In some cases, money can be a good motivator, but most of the time it just distracts you from keeping focused on the task at hand.
- Studies have shown that people who complete a challenge for reward and people who do it for fun show similar activity in the brain. However, if someone is offered a reward for a challenge and then is asked to do that same challenge for no reward, they are much less motivated.
- ‘Play’ is the biggest motivator for sustained behavioral changes. It is much easier to stay motivated if you actually enjoy doing the activity.
- You are more likely to complete a task if you imagine the goal coming to fruition and thinking through the potential obstacles, rather than just imagining the end result.
Talk About It:
- Watch the video together or invite someone to summarize the topic.
- What is your initial reaction to this video? Do you disagree with any of it? What jumped out at you?
- What do you think is your biggest motivator? Why?
- Think about some goals that were difficult to achieve or weren’t achieved. What made these so challenging?
- Why do you think anticipating the bumps in the road will help a person stay motivated when trying to achieve a goal?
- List 1-2 goals you are currently trying to achieve. Brainstorm obstacles you may encounter while trying to achieve them.
- Write a personal action step based on this conversation.
