where two of them might need some
further contemplation we’re talking
today about empowerment and we are
working around an explanation whereby
something that enables you to do more to
achieve more makes you more capable and
perhaps even pursue fulfillment in the
world and depending which psychologist
or spiritual leader you happen to ask
fulfillment often comes from helping
other people find their fulfillment so
imagine what kind of beautiful world we
could live in if everyone was for
there’s one thing that can make you more
capable every time you do it and prevent
you from losing some of the capability
as you age and him by you longer the
crease and keep you in the game a bit
longer pursuing fulfillment a bit longer
and helping other people a bit longer
and that thing is movement so what
counts as movement most of our minds
leap immediately to wearing lycra and
getting sweaty feeling bad and paying
for the privilege some of us sleep to
grassy ovals and running around chasing
a ball with our friends well they both
count not many of us leap to walking
through our place of work walking
through our neighborhood gardening
housework but those things count and in
fact as you sit there where you are
right now seemingly motionless important
parts of you are moving your heart’s
pumping blood around your body your
lungs draw in every important breath
so I want to have a little alliterative
story which explains how I got to this
point 4 months ago playing the sport
that I love I hurt myself as you do snap
my Achilles I can’t advise it and every
person I met going through A&E and all
the various stages would ask me the same
question what are you doing playing
sports at your age and this is my life
but I didn’t have an answer I research
Sport and Exercise out maybe I was in
pain but I couldn’t answer the question
and now I can I want to walk you through
how I now answer that question it comes
in three parts so we have our own
mnemonic everything’s change there we go
mnemonic my videos we have our own
mnemonic to remember that message we
have to envisage an American college
sports team called the carpals with a
very unusual logo and we’re cheering for
them so we’re going to shout go car
palms but that will help us remember the
important message of this talk which
goes in three neatly aligned phases
making us feel bad about not moving
doesn’t work there is a difference
between good and bad motivation and we
then there are other things that we get
from moving other than just not getting
ill that are actually really valuable so
the first two letters are that guilt
only hurts motivation and we’ve heard
the message two out of five australians
if you ask them in a survey say they get
enough exercise when you attach a miter
one out of five australians actually get
enough exercise own some of them
probably attached it to their dog he’s
seeing this guy and yet when we hear
that message we don’t leap out of our
why not we momentarily feel bad and I do
too by the way in fact something else
happens and my good friends Alison
croazia University of South Australia is
currently examining exactly this whereby
when you see an empty basketball court
and a ball bouncing sadly across it or
an empty oval with a discarded water
bottle on it you don’t leave pound of
your seat and do exercise and you hear
those stats many of us like don’t get
enough exercise you think ah good I’m
normal it sets the norm and hey we’re
all like this completely
counterintuitive but that seems to be
what’s happening and we’ve known this
for a while and we still keep trying the
same message so that’s bad motivation
and when they’re no sales marketing
executive would sign off on that
campaign there’s a thing that nobody
else really has and you don’t have it
either and you should feel bad about
that all for the small cost of lots of
your time and effort no change the
channel I don’t want that advert
so we’re selling exercise and movement
wrong which leads to distinction between
good and bad motivation we’ve been doing
it wrong all this time and we’ve known
for 40 years the difference between good
and bad motivation most of us leap when
we think of motivation to carrot and
stick there is a punishment which is
undesirable and that’s the stick and a
big stick is more motivating and there
is a carrot which is desirable and
that’s the reward and that’s motivating
the juicy other carrot there more
motivating but there’s actually a common
denominator in that equation and it’s
the person being motivated is not the
person holding the carrot or the stick
we know we’re being manipulated and we
actually react to that so back in 1971
Edward DC was doing experiments where he
would leave people in a room to do a
very boring computer game for far too
long just in the corner was a magazine
and he would say okay there you go oh
I’m gonna leave the room for a while get
on with it people who were paid
remarkably little did the experiment
people who were paid a little bit too
much see Edward yep I’ll do this he was
watching so he knew exactly any timed
how long and the more money you pay the
more likely they are through reading the
magazine and it keeps happening and they
did it with more modern computers
leaving a window open in the corner with
a chess game and the second they’ve left
the room if you pay them too much money
Oh Jess of solitaire or whatever so we
know we’re being manipulated with a
carrot or a stick and where we act
against that because it’s not coming
from inside of us and that’s the best
type of motivation they call it
intrinsic motivation and it’s something
we barely ever pay attention
and the only easier way I can think of a
finding what that is and what you will
therefore find fulfilling is to ask the
question if you didn’t have to pay a
mortgage and pay bills and buy food if
those things were looked after what
many of our answers it leap straight to
a dream job which still involves earning
money and we have to start again it’s a
hard question to answer and movement
empowers you one step closer to being
able to answer that question and it’s
tied up with motivation because
intrinsic motivation is this little
quiet voice inside these three things
you see before you are what draw out
that voice anything where I can make you
feel more competent you’re improving you
can see you’re improving and you feel
you’re improving that draws out your
intrinsic motivation makes you feel more
competent if I can make you feel more in
control and you have choices and you’re
not the victim of life but you’re
actually influence in life that’s
motivating they call it autonomy and of
course human beings we need to be around
other human beings we don’t have sharp
claws sharp teeth no big shell we’re not
particularly dangerous on our own our
strength is in numbers and so we’re
actually hardwired to gravitate to being
around other people and we like them to
recognize us and Noah’s and like as
approve of us we really are hard-wired
to like that and it’s one of the reasons
we’ve done so well in the world we don’t
just stop when we have food and water
and safety we carry on and we explore
and we play because we’re seeking more
competence more autonomy and more
relatedness any task i can give you or
you can choose the lets you feel those
three things is much more motivating and
i won’t need any carrot or stick to make
you keep doing it so guilt only hurts
it’s mainly an extrinsic motivation
external
the good motivation comes from within
and it’s sustainable and it keeps going
you feed that flame and that leads us to
being able to answer the question when I
was in hospital and I love running
around but I’m being asked why do you do
that you crazy old man I had intrinsic
motivation my colleagues didn’t the
answer is it’s not just to avoid dying
so of course exercise if we could make
it into a pill would be the best
preventive medicine in the world it
prevents heart disease it prevents
diabetes it prevents some forms of
cancer it helps you recover quicker from
some forms of cancer it’s astonishing it
reduces all kinds of mental illness
better than the best tablets that we
have to give people it’s an amazing
medicine but the benefits of course are
far more than just physical even if we
go beyond the tissues of our body and a
recent conference concluded by the way a
medical conference concluded that every
organ in the human body responds
positively to exercise that’s a big
thing I think but you’re also learning
skills it’s our main vessel for
interacting with the world around us so
every time I do something I generate
feedback and that makes me learn more
about my world that’s really valuable
information I shouldn’t undervalue that
mechanism for learning skills that said
exercise and movement is about more than
just calories burned or skills learned
you’re still getting more out of it when
I’m exercising I feel good I get the so
called runner’s high endorphins are
released the way that chemicals are
affecting my metabolism is changed
insulin acts differently after I’ve been
exercising I get a sense of self-esteem
because I’ve done things I didn’t think
I could do
and that’s nice so I get emotional
benefits and physical benefits and
mental benefits because I’m actually
solving complex problems when I’m moving
we shoot up steps we go over uneven
terrain we throw a ball between each
other and any robot we’ve so far built
can’t do those things simultaneously
we’ve built one that can go upstairs
we’ve built one that can go over and
even terrain but not together and it
can’t then pick up a ball and flow it to
its friend we’re solving really complex
problems and the best example is
learning to drive where most of us found
that extremely challenging and of course
now it’s very easy we can have our phone
on and maybe beating our breakfast all
at the same time but we take it for
granted that child who’s dropping blocks
or knocking them over of building them
up and then knocking them over
repeatedly is learning about the world
and solving complex problems in their
world learning spatial reasoning and we
have research happening right here with
Professor Tom Lowry showing the spatial
reasoning is the best precursor of
subsequent mathematical ability it’s
really important mechanism for learning
and of course there are social benefits
we’re out there when you move out into
the world you meet people we play on the
same teams as people when I moved here
to Canberra joining a sports team
doubled my number of Facebook friends in
no time the same people who offered to
help me when I was injured by the way
it’s a really good thing to do there’s
even an idea that roughhousing and the
way kids play rough with each other is
learning about what other people will
tolerate and how your actions influence
other people so it’s a really important
Avenue again for learning about the
social world even ethics cheating morals
all of that I learned through movement
and movement offers as endless
opportunities to learn all of these
things
I can play sport yes I can exercise yes
I can mind fully garden many many
options I can do DIY very skillful tasks
are involved and so there’s a nice
challenge in here which is that you can
find the answer I don’t have to give you
the answer that you’ll just feel better
you can become little scientist
yourselves and there’s another really
nice piece of research happening at
Wollongong Christie and Swan finds that
going into some tasks without a clear
goal I must achieve my half an hour a
day I must achieve a certain level of
fitness actually if you just go in and
say let’s see you what I can do let’s
see how far I can go let’s see how this
feels is actually a better form of goal
more sustainable or intrinsically
rewarding sort of goal so you can
explore and then if you’re inspired to
move more you can spread the message
because you’ll remember this mnemonic so
when you leave this room and move out
into the world you can move more you can
move differently you can move mindfully
you can move better and when your friend
looks at you and says you’re crazy why
are you doing this you can answer them
with go car poems [Applause]