How To Force Your Brain To Crave Doing Hard Things

science shows there's a hidden motivation switch located deep in the brain that unlocks a level of motivation more powerful than money praise or fame one that practically forces your brain to Crave doing the hard work you keep putting off I'm ran Daris co-founder and CEO of the flow research Collective and along with my partner Steven Cutler we've taught thousands of professionals how to access flow States at will now picture this you've set your alarm early determined to start the day right when it rings you hit snooze repeatedly last night's enthusiasm has already evaporated and the

blanket weighs you down like a concrete slab the day ahead feels like an enemy to avoid instead of a challenge to conquer at your desk the cursor blinks and your to-do list stares back at you you know you should work but something inside you just won't cooperate lunch comes and goes you tell yourself you'll start soon but the afternoon finds you lost in distractions chasing trivial tasks while the important ones Loom large and untouched and the day ends and the weight of what you didn't accomplish settles in as you put your head on the pillow

you feel the sting of disappointment having fallen short of the potential you know you're capable of one more day if you experienced this sort of depletion in Drive know this you're not lazy procrastination isn't the problem and there's nothing abnormal about you the problem is more than a lack of motivation rather the issue is that you lack a specific type of motivation which we're going to cover in a moment and we're going to cover a number of science-backed solutions for how to create Limitless motivation to do even the most difficult laborious work and it starts

with upgrading your fuel source so there's really two types of motivational fuel one far out performs the other the trouble is most of us are stuck relying on the weaker of the two extrinsic motivation comes from the outside like money status and praise if your fuel is extrinsic you act for the sake of a reward extrinsic fuel works but wains that's because for the brain anticipation is more rewarding than attainment dopamine which enhances focus and motivation surges as we anticipate something and plummets upon that thing's attainment think of extrinsic rewards like fossil fuels they come

from forces outside your control offering only a temporary boost and unfortunately they eventually run out intrinsic motivation on the other hand comes from one's inside it's made up of elements like curiosity purpose and mastery if your fuel is intrinsic you act for its own sake and win with or without an external reward you listen to the song to enjoy the song not to finish listening to it so think of intrinsic motivation more like Fusion Energy the dominant source of energy for the Stars within our universe it's self- sustaining and longlasting and Incredibly efficient intrinsic fuel

works better than extrinsic Fuel and it compounds it makes hard work easy leading to to an upward spiral of skill development and access to Flow State that optimal State of Consciousness where we lose ourselves in deep immersion within our work extrinsic motivation can get you started but it's intrinsic motivation that keeps you going think of it like this a rocket needs an extra booster engine to launch but once it hits escape velocity the booster falls off and it can cruise on its remaining engines so how do you upgrade your fuel source well it starts by

focusing on the five intrinsic motivators curiosity mastery autotelic purpose and autonomy and I'm going to show you how to dial up each of these intrinsic motivators for profound Unstoppable levels of motivation now I first felt the Deep pain of a lack of intrinsic motivation in my early 20s back in Ireland I was on the academic path wanting to pursue a PhD in Neuroscience researching optimal States Of Consciousness and in my first few years on this path I had enormous insatiable Drive But as time went on something began to shift my drive started to Wayne wildly

some days I was reasonably driven but more commonly the days started to feel like an endless grind and I scratched my head wondering what the hell was going on here and one day while doing some research with my current business partner Steven Cutler he sent me a breakdown of the intrinsic motivators the first one being curiosity curiosity is the insatiable itch to learn everything you can about your work without it work ends when you leave the office with it work is like reading a book you can't put down for me on this academic path to

this PhD in Neuroscience my curiosity was actually really high it was all I could think about I was gobbling up podcasts on the topics of peak States Of Consciousness I couldn't stop reading about them and couldn't stop talking about this stuff to my friends so when I read about this intrinsic motivator in Steven's breakdown I was confused about why my drive was so flat then I read about the next intrinsic motivator which is purpose without purpose you're in the proverbial Rat Race trading your life for a paycheck in some faceless company that exists just to

make money when purpose is present you're willing to make sacrifices because the work is a cause you care about and this resonated with me tremendously on the academic path my purpose felt really high I was so passionate about what I was researching knowing that if we could figure out more about Consciousness itself we could Elevate the quality of The Human Experience for so many people on Earth but I kept reading about the other intrinsic motivators wondering at this point why my drive was flat if curiosity and purpose were high for me the next one was

Mastery math is the pursuit of excellence and continuous Improvement without this drive you do just enough to get the job done with it you're like a musician who keeps practicing even after the concert's over and here I realized wait a second my Mastery Drive is low I can't endlessly improve my ability to do the activities within my academic work as I read about the Mastery motivator I thought hm maybe this is why my drive is low then I came across the fourth intrinsic motivator autot telicity which is the love for the activities you do at

work audicity is derived from Greek words meaning self-purpose it refers to activities they rewarding in themselves done for their own sake rather than for an external reward with it you're like one of those programmers you see in the movies who just cannot stop programming because they love the activity of coding in and of itself without it you're like an attorney who can't stand the actual activity at the core of their work reading trial cases that was me with an Academia I didn't like designing studies I didn't like crunching spreadsheets of data was gathered from participants

and I realized that even though I loved the topic I was studying with my curiosity Drive being high and I found plenty of purpose in it with my purpose Drive being high the actual activities that I did day to day hour to hour I hate it it's one thing to love the idea of a field it's another to love the daily work it involves hour to hour so my audicity was low too and it was now becoming clear why my drive was sapping down lastly the fifth intrinsic motivator that I read about is autonomy which

is the feeling of being in control of the when the how and the what of your work without it you feel trapped like someone else is pulling the strings with it you choose what project to work on how to work on it and what time a day you do the work your work is truly your own and in Academia for me autonomy was basically at zero so I was stuck on the academic hamster wield with three out of my five intrinsic motivators flatlining and the other two curiosity and purpose being confined by the lack of

autonomy that I felt realizing this Clarity was incredibly useful because I could then look for a different Pursuit that had just as high a level of curiosity and purpose but also had high autonomy Mastery and audicity so I used this framework to identify a critical career shift for me which was moving from Academia to business I co-founded a neuroscience-based research and training business with my partner Steven Cutler where my curiosity and purpose were still just as is high with the study of Consciousness and Flow State at the core of what we do but Mastery audicity

and autonomy also went through the roof with this career shift in terms of Mastery I was reading books learning how to use Financial spreadsheets and figuring out how to recruit people to skill development and Mastery possibilities within business had no cap and any Improvement I made improved the business with immediate feedback occurring I love the startup Hustle the creativity it permitted and the clear results of the work I put in which supercharged the audicity intrinsic motivator and finally I was in charge of when I worked what I worked on how I approached it and how

I designed the whole business as we built it there were no academic guard rails to constrain me I had full unbounded autonomy and within this business my love for researching optimal States Of Consciousness found a new expression one where curiosity Mastery audicity purpose and autonomy were finally aligned and dialed up to their maximum degree now why are these intrinsic motivators so powerful so potent for our Drive well first having high levels in each releases performance-enhancing neurochemicals like neopine phrine dopamine and acetal colon and they also lower cognitive load both of these mechanisms enhance focus and

drive Flow State this optimal State of Consciousness where we feel our best and function at our best and with INF flow you get an additional Cascade of neurochemistry indor orphin serotonin anandamide and even oxytocin in group flow States flood the brain now here's the crazy part the intrinsic motivators get you into flow they do but flow itself then compounds your intrinsic motivation this means that a virtuous cycle can begin where the more motivated you become the more flow you get and since flow is the epicenter of intrinsic motivation it compounds your motivation even further leading

to more flow and on and on the cycle goes once you can get in the vice grip of this virtuous cycle where intrinsic motivation is feeding flow and flow is feeding intrinsic motivation you become unstoppably driven this is why Titans of Industry like Elon and Bezos can sustain extreme motivation for multiple decades straight you see this in every field though Einstein's lifelong curiosity led to groundbreaking discoveries like the theory of relativity and Mari Cy's curiosity and purpose led to pioneering radioactivity research and two Nobel prizes van Go's audit created iconic and celebrated works of art

and athletes like Michael Jordan and Serena Williams were driven by Mastery and autonomy earning Jordan 6 NBA championships and 23 Grand Slam titles for Williams so what do all these Peak performers have in common well their intrinsic motivators are locked in and maxed out consistently with intrinsic motivation feeding flow and flow feeding intrinsic motivation back the cycle compounding on itself decade after decade ratcheting their drive up and up and up over time so let's dive into these five intrinsic motivators and untangle them a little bit more for you in a way that allows you to

start thinking about how you can dial each of these five up within your professional life to access Unstoppable motivation so curiosity what you explore you've likely had times when you're supposed to be doing something else but your mind keeps wandering to that one fascinating topic wherever your mind drifts is a compass to your curiosity curiosity is not just wanting to know it's a feeling of needing to know and in fact as Mii chmi The Godfather of Flo put it the flow concept itself was developed as a result of sheer curiosity it was the fruit of

pure research motivated only by the desire to solve an intriguing puzzle in the mechanism of human behavior from a neurological perspective curiosity activates the brain's reward system releasing dopamine which increases attention and pleasure in learning Mastery what you improve this is the ability to endlessly improve at what you do if you've ever gotten really into a sport one of the things that wrapped you up within it was likely The Thirst to be better today than yesterday that's Mastery ever rewatched that killer presentation that you absolutely crushed just to analyze your craft or spent an evening

journaling breaking down a recent Project's successes and failures you don't just want to relive the wi you want to understand how to make the next game even better so master is about skill acquisition and it releases dopamine and endorphins the biochemical markers of progression these neurotransmitters set up a feedback loop that enhances Focus as skills improve we seek out greater challenges leading to an upward spiral of growth and engagement this involves the challenge skill balance a trigger for Flow State with flow being the Pinnacle of intrinsic motivation Auto telicity the third intrinsic motivator what you

love you know the feeling of working late not because you have to but because you want to that's audicity the line between work and play starts to blur audicity is also at the heart of Flow State indeed in the original research back in the 1970s flow is the standin word for autotelic experience or activity as chiii observed in the Flow State subjects that he studied with high audicity you behave as if what you're doing is the most important thing in the world the fourth intrinsic motivator purpose is what you impact purpose takes Auto tocity and

applies to a bigger cause or Mission Beyond yourself it's the belief that what you do with your work within those activities that are autotelic for you contributes to something bigger something outside of yourself you've probably had jobs that you were good at maybe even passionate about but something felt missing you found yourself in a row where you question if any of it really mattered without a sense of purpose your job is just a collection of tasks the meaning found in purpose leads to Greater persistence despite challenges it makes your job not just a paycheck but

a mission it's a neuro chemical game Cher too ramping up levels of oxytocin and serotonin key players in Social bonding mood stability and long-term well-being autonomy the final intrinsic motivator is what you choose autonomy is that feeling of ownership that sense of this is mine remember the freedom of tackling a project your way without someone micromanaging or controlling or even influencing every step think about that side project at your job where there were no strict guidelines just an objective you could design it delegate decide the approach and suddenly work felt like play well that's autonomy

being engaged it's the agency to pursue your Curiosities autotelic activities and purpose which all drive up your focus and increase positive emotion our brains are wired to thrive when we have a say in our actions now let's explore exactly how to max out each of your intrinsic motivator so you can harness this kind of power so first you want to identify where you currently stand with each intrinsic motivator with your work in mind consider how many of these five intrinsic motivators are built in and to what extent let's take each motivator one at a time

again here so curiosity how many times over the last 30 days did you have the desire to read watch or listen to content related to your work outside of your formal work hours to boost up your curiosity motivator if it's low or if you know it could be higher you need two things number one leverage from learning this means that the knowledge you gain as you learn something it has a positive impact upon your work you learn something new implement it and you can see tangible positive results from having done so the second thing is

immediate feedback from learning which is a flow trigger this involves seeing the direct consequences of your applied learning ideally in real time back when I was in Academia I didn't read about study design because if I had it wouldn't have made a difference I wouldn't have gotten any better and it wouldn't have actually sped up my progression however when I switched to business I consumed five business books a week and this is because everything I learned and every single model or Insight I had resulted in tangible breakthroughs in the business that day often hours after

reading which then further compounded the Curiosity motivator so for the Curiosity motivator to be high by learning something and applying it to your work something meaningful has to happen you need to see a direct coupling between cause the learning and effect if this isn't happening now change something within your work such that investing in learning results in the maximum amount of immediate feedback or positive impact and progression possible next up is Mastery looking back at the last month to what degree did you feel the desire to endlessly improve at the skill set that's required for

your work and to what degree will that make a difference to your ability to succeed at it so here's how to crank the knob of the Mastery drive up identify all the skills and subskills that will advance your long-term goals at work as a result of you mastering them then learn and practice those skills explicitly with deliberate practice as if you're a professional athlete or musician that is practice the skill on the the edge of your comfort zone and correct your mistakes continuously until you habituate new behavior on a neurophysiological level and if you can't

actually get better at the skills involved in your work you may need to consider a career shift entirely choosing something that has unlimited possibilities for Mastery baked deep within it now audicity in the last 30 days how often did you spontaneously dive into one of the core activities within your work without any obligation without a deadline or formal work hours or meeting pushing you just you deciding I kind of feel like doing this now another way to assess your audicity level is to ask how often have you found that when you weren't doing one of

the main activities within your work you were craving to do it in Academia my passion for the day-to-day research tasks was low but as an entrepreneur in and outside work hours I kept working learning how to do sales and marketing and figuring out how to manage and lead people so here's the counterintuitive and simple way to boost audicity don't Focus solely on what you like to do in and of itself instead consider a simpler question what am I good at because here's the thing you're naturally much better at some things than others you have innate

strengths that make certain tasks feel less like work and more like play to you uniquely and it's easier to build a career around things you are uniquely good at around strengths than things you happen to love doing for example if all you like doing is playing video games might be a little tough to make a viable career out of that so the key here is to trust that if you do things you're good at over time you will Forge Auto tocity within those activities that's because the research shows that strengths are a trigger for flow

and the more time you spend in an activity while in flow the more you come to love that activity now purpose the next one so the first thing to do here is a gut check ask yourself at a basic level does the organization I work within or the work I do have an obvious purpose attached to it at all and secondly is that a purpose I can get behind and feel good pouring my life force into if so it's a good starting point if not if you're stuck in a role or with a company that

doesn't align with your values or anything you actually find meaningful you may need to switch careers entirely however if there's even a glimmer of purpose that you can connect with in your current work here's how to amplify it positive psychology research shows that a well articulated purpose and a clear correlation between that purpose and your work drive up both motivation and job satisfaction so start by distilling your life's Mission into one laser focus sentence for instance Advanced technological innovation for Global good then every day next to each work task identify how it links to your

purpose and lastly we've got autonomy so think about over the last 30 days the degree to which the how the what the why or the when related to your work felt like it was something in your control something you chose for example could you decide whether to work on Project a or Project B or choose whether to start your day in the morning or later in the afternoon could you work on it in your own way without being supervised or micromanaged now there's two ways that you can increase autonomy one way is perceptual the other

is literal first I want you to zoom out and swap the current context of your work into a context that you have owned and determined that means making the kind of crappy low autonomy job or role that you may have right now one part of a key step within a broader life trajectory a life trajectory you are choosing and designing because even if the thing you're doing right now is low autonomy by you betting it within a bigger Journey that you're shaping and controlling yourself you boost autonomy in the present by making it a stepping

stone to a broader stairs that you've designed this makes a low autonomy role like being a junior sales rep higher in autonomy at the macro level because all of a sudden you're learning the skills you need to start your business in 3 years time or whatever your life Journey entails now another counterintuitive way to increase autonomy is through exercisable autonomy or what we like to call Fu autonomy you've heard of of Fu money same principle here gain fu skills and Fu Network and Fu knowledge this will create a backdrop of choice a backdrop of optionality

that allows you to pursue other options at any given moment and thus Thrive as a result of it you can stop what you're doing and exercise this autonomy anywhere at any time this takes the edge off whatever lack of autonomy you feel at work because you know you can bounce and get something equally good or better at any moment and the best part is you don't need that autonomy to boost this intrinsic motivator at work most of your work doesn't require autonomy but you need a high degree of autonomy within a narrow part of it

so focus on the smallest part of your work life that you can control without question and outside of work spend an afternoon per week on something you do fully own it's really all the autonomy you need and it's doable to land that amount of autonomy so start with whichever intrinsic motivator is lowest and then Juice It Up raising one motivator can give you the energy required to raise the rest if you measure each motivator on a scale of 1 to 10 the goal is to boost each intrinsic motivator by five points per year until you

hit 50 where you're maxed out on each of the five intrinsic motivators and then you want to sustain at that level but you do want to know that these won't always remain in Balance you'll always be upgrading your motivational stack based on what your work requires or the natural es and flows and shifts that occur within your working life and as you upgrade your motivational fuel source from extrinsic to Intrinsic you make it easy to pinpoint the reason for dips or surges in your motivation if I ever find myself wanting to Lounge in bed in

the morning for multiple days in a row I know it's because something is off within my intrinsic motivational stack because even through illness grief and life's natural turbulence when my motivations are aligned I'm eager to engage with work every day eventually you'll be able to check in to each of these five intrinsic motivators as easily as you can feel your own heartbeat and course correct as needed and when you upgrade your fuel source like this you end up going to bed so excited to wake up in the morning that you feel like a kid on

Christmas Eve and working hard becomes irresistibly easy like a video gamer you can solve complex problems for hours on end exerting like crazy yet feeling no conscious effort on top of that as intrinsic motivation increases extrinsic motivation actually dissipates which is a good thing that's when the magic happens because extrinsic motivation can make you a slave to arbitrary success metrics external rewards the fear of failure you also fall prey to feeling like you never have enough extrinsic motivation makes the Journey To Success a constant grind turning every achievement into a short-lived High quickly replaced by

a new craving or worry but once intrinsic motivation takes over you become Untouchable the need for external sources of pleasure and happiness derived from outside variables starts to melt away which makes you less likely to be manipulated by external Rewards or to behave and make decisions influenced by things like money status and Punishment one way you can think about this is that you almost develop the this Zen Warrior like trait where you have the Detachment of a monk with the engagement of a warrior you're detached from the trappings of the external World money status Fame

but obsessed and engaged with the work itself without being swayed by what others think or expect from you and this is a Sublime imperturbable mode of Consciousness where you want nothing but the desire to be in flow engaging in the work itself as the Godfather of flow Mii CH samii put it this is autot motivation because its goal is primarily The Experience itself rather than any future reward or Advantage it may bring this state of self-containment makes you increasingly immune to the types of suffering that derail so many lives the intrinsically motivated monk-like Warriors Chase

Mastery over money purpose over position audicity over Applause curiosity over Conformity and autonomy over approval as you level up your intrinsic motivation you'll tap into Flow State with way more frequency but to cleanly enter an exit flow every day without burning out it also requires mastering the flow cycling you can click here to learn [Music] how