a little while back I was walking on my
way from home from school to home when I
suddenly realized that it had a 1000
word paper do the very next morning so
in a panic I ran home I sat at my desk
and I stared blankly at my computer
screen to be perfectly honest I wished I
could be anywhere but here doing
anything but this so i sat there like a
rock waiting for magic to happen waiting
for inspiration to just hit me
unsurprisingly it didn’t now as any
reasonable person and my position would
do I told myself you know what you
should take a short five-minute break no
less no longer before I knew it I was
knee-deep into this and a whole lot of
this
they say that optimism is telling
yourself and managing to convince
yourself that you can watch a full
20-minute episode of Netflix in less
than five minutes well if that’s true
that I’m quite an optimist but all
seriousness I think this is a classic
example of the trade-off between
motivation and procrastination and it
goes a little bit like this you keep
procrastinating and procrastinating
until one day something gives maybe you
pull one too many all-nighters and then
you suddenly realize that you just can’t
afford to keep putting your work off to
the last minute whatever it is you
realize that your intent and your
actions don’t meet so you make the
resolution to commit to something new
and it might work for a few days maybe a
few weeks or maybe even a month if
you’re lucky but chances are sooner or
later you’ll end up relapsing and then
the all-too-familiar feelings of guilt
anxiety self-loathing will set in and
what do you do you go back to your
resolution and so the process repeats
and it repeats you’re basically like
Tarzan swinging from vine to vine from
the person you used to be and the person
you want to be so why is it so hard to
stay resolute on a resolution well
there’s a simple answer and a not so
simple answer so start with a simpler
answer simply put motivation is finite
so when you’re saying when you say your
goals way too high often times you run
out of motivation too quickly so I’ll
start with a personal example if I told
myself that I wanted to wake up every
morning at 4 a.m. and exercise for 45
minutes every day I may wake up bushy
eyed every morning for two days but two
weeks later we know that that motivation
will be replaced by and I’ll do it later
what’s the problem here I set my sights
too high what you really need to do is
tell yourself you know what I’ll wake up
at 5:00 and I’ll exercise for 10 minutes
every day and then you do that for a
week once that habit is formed you make
that into 15 min
and then 20 minutes and so the habit is
formed if you start small and work and
form that habit and then you work your
way up it’s a lot easier so I’ve given
the simple answer so what’s the not so
simple answer because the answer is not
so simple I’ll take some help from a
study that was conducted by professors
from MIT Carnegie Mellon and the
University of Chicago the study was
quite interesting it looked at the
effects of extrinsic rewards on
individual performance what they found
was that people completed tasks the best
when they did them for their own sake
when they did them because they enjoyed
them not because they wanted an
extrinsic reward now at the time this
was groundbreaking because why do people
exercise because they want to get fit
and it’s that end goal which motivates
them to exercise right or so we thought
what this study tells us is that the
most important thing to maintaining a
habit is getting buy-in from yourself
it’s not enough to just enjoy the
outcome you have to enjoy the process
and only then will the outcome follow
think about it think about examples from
your own personal life that time when
you wrote that essay or you submitted
that assignment that you were really
proud of did you write it on the back of
a napkin in the five minutes before the
deadline just because you want it to get
it over with
or did you work tirelessly at it did you
work so hard that you didn’t even notice
the time going by that is what
motivation is when you’re so emotionally
invested in the process that the outcome
ceases to become important if you look
at people who are truly motivated they
don’t need to force themselves out of
bed every morning to do work they just
work and it just comes to that but you
might be asking sure it may come to
certain people but what if I’m not one
of those people well here’s the thing
right motivation is a skill and like any
skill it can be taught and it can be
learned what this study told us is that
the key secrets to motivation is
changing a little thing about the task
or assignment that you
given so that it becomes a little less
tiresome a little bit more enjoyable
here are a few examples if you want to
exercise skip the treadmill maybe go
outside for a run and that’ll make it a
little less hard for you to exercise
every morning if you want to get that
homework or that assignment done on time
don’t lock yourself in a room and do it
alone at a desk maybe find a group of
friends and do it with them or do it do
your homework in a different location so
that your work is a little bit less
monotonous and look I don’t profess to
be a master of the art of self
motivation I like any other person
watch my fair share of cat videos and
I’m still trying to find the perfect
balance but what’s the message here the
message here is that self motivation
when done right can be truly
transformative because it enables us to
find that inner spark so that we enjoy
every little thing we do in our lives
I’ll leave you all with a quote from
Carl Jung one of the world’s leading
psychologists he who looks outside
dreams he who looks inside awakes thank
you
[Applause]
way from home from school to home when I
suddenly realized that it had a 1000
word paper do the very next morning so
in a panic I ran home I sat at my desk
and I stared blankly at my computer
screen to be perfectly honest I wished I
could be anywhere but here doing
anything but this so i sat there like a
rock waiting for magic to happen waiting
for inspiration to just hit me
unsurprisingly it didn’t now as any
reasonable person and my position would
do I told myself you know what you
should take a short five-minute break no
less no longer before I knew it I was
knee-deep into this and a whole lot of
this
they say that optimism is telling
yourself and managing to convince
yourself that you can watch a full
20-minute episode of Netflix in less
than five minutes well if that’s true
that I’m quite an optimist but all
seriousness I think this is a classic
example of the trade-off between
motivation and procrastination and it
goes a little bit like this you keep
procrastinating and procrastinating
until one day something gives maybe you
pull one too many all-nighters and then
you suddenly realize that you just can’t
afford to keep putting your work off to
the last minute whatever it is you
realize that your intent and your
actions don’t meet so you make the
resolution to commit to something new
and it might work for a few days maybe a
few weeks or maybe even a month if
you’re lucky but chances are sooner or
later you’ll end up relapsing and then
the all-too-familiar feelings of guilt
anxiety self-loathing will set in and
what do you do you go back to your
resolution and so the process repeats
and it repeats you’re basically like
Tarzan swinging from vine to vine from
the person you used to be and the person
you want to be so why is it so hard to
stay resolute on a resolution well
there’s a simple answer and a not so
simple answer so start with a simpler
answer simply put motivation is finite
so when you’re saying when you say your
goals way too high often times you run
out of motivation too quickly so I’ll
start with a personal example if I told
myself that I wanted to wake up every
morning at 4 a.m. and exercise for 45
minutes every day I may wake up bushy
eyed every morning for two days but two
weeks later we know that that motivation
will be replaced by and I’ll do it later
what’s the problem here I set my sights
too high what you really need to do is
tell yourself you know what I’ll wake up
at 5:00 and I’ll exercise for 10 minutes
every day and then you do that for a
week once that habit is formed you make
that into 15 min
and then 20 minutes and so the habit is
formed if you start small and work and
form that habit and then you work your
way up it’s a lot easier so I’ve given
the simple answer so what’s the not so
simple answer because the answer is not
so simple I’ll take some help from a
study that was conducted by professors
from MIT Carnegie Mellon and the
University of Chicago the study was
quite interesting it looked at the
effects of extrinsic rewards on
individual performance what they found
was that people completed tasks the best
when they did them for their own sake
when they did them because they enjoyed
them not because they wanted an
extrinsic reward now at the time this
was groundbreaking because why do people
exercise because they want to get fit
and it’s that end goal which motivates
them to exercise right or so we thought
what this study tells us is that the
most important thing to maintaining a
habit is getting buy-in from yourself
it’s not enough to just enjoy the
outcome you have to enjoy the process
and only then will the outcome follow
think about it think about examples from
your own personal life that time when
you wrote that essay or you submitted
that assignment that you were really
proud of did you write it on the back of
a napkin in the five minutes before the
deadline just because you want it to get
it over with
or did you work tirelessly at it did you
work so hard that you didn’t even notice
the time going by that is what
motivation is when you’re so emotionally
invested in the process that the outcome
ceases to become important if you look
at people who are truly motivated they
don’t need to force themselves out of
bed every morning to do work they just
work and it just comes to that but you
might be asking sure it may come to
certain people but what if I’m not one
of those people well here’s the thing
right motivation is a skill and like any
skill it can be taught and it can be
learned what this study told us is that
the key secrets to motivation is
changing a little thing about the task
or assignment that you
given so that it becomes a little less
tiresome a little bit more enjoyable
here are a few examples if you want to
exercise skip the treadmill maybe go
outside for a run and that’ll make it a
little less hard for you to exercise
every morning if you want to get that
homework or that assignment done on time
don’t lock yourself in a room and do it
alone at a desk maybe find a group of
friends and do it with them or do it do
your homework in a different location so
that your work is a little bit less
monotonous and look I don’t profess to
be a master of the art of self
motivation I like any other person
watch my fair share of cat videos and
I’m still trying to find the perfect
balance but what’s the message here the
message here is that self motivation
when done right can be truly
transformative because it enables us to
find that inner spark so that we enjoy
every little thing we do in our lives
I’ll leave you all with a quote from
Carl Jung one of the world’s leading
psychologists he who looks outside
dreams he who looks inside awakes thank
you
[Applause]
Please follow and like us: