<ul><li>Comparing ourselves to others was once a survival skill used to win the evolutionary race and reproduce.</li><li>Today, concerns about our adequacy can take different forms in each person.</li><li>A preoccupation with being good enough can also get in the way of connecting with others.</li><li>If we constantly feel insecure, we might try too hard to be liked, or be too afraid to put ourselves out there in the first place.</li></ul>

Self-Evaluation Hurts

<ul><li>Shift focus from self to others: build relationships and practice skills like compassion, gratitude, and forgiveness.</li><li>Develop "unconditional self-acceptance": realize that our self-standards may not be the ones we chose in the first place.</li><li>Try to be imperfect on purpose: missing an exit on the highway, singing in public, or not getting dressed up to leave the house.</li></ul>

How to Feel Good About Yourself

Are you stuck in constant self-judgment? In a new book, a clinical psychologist suggests a better way to feel good about yourself.

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

motivationandinspiration

Motivation & Inspiration

What to Do When You Never Feel Good Enough

<ul><li>Frame goals as an "end", not a "means".</li><li>Keep goals abstract.</li><li>Set "Approach" Goals, not "Avoidance" Goals.</li><li>Make goals intrinsic, not extrinsic.</li><li>Do something because you want to, not because you have to.</li></ul>

Define Goals Properly

<ul><li>Set a number - an exact number allows you to track progress and adjust effort.</li><li>A disproportionate number of runners finish races under the target they set for themselves.</li><li>Another good trick is to set multiple early deadlines.</li><li>Choose a target that's difficult, but doable.</li></ul>

Set A Target

<ul><li>The sunk cost fallacy is the human tendency to keep working on something simply because we've already invested in it.</li><li>This can be a negative because it can lead us to throw good money after bad.</li><li>With our goals, it can also be a positive.</li><li>By regularly reviewing your progress, you can activate the sunk-cost fallacy and resist the urge to quit.</li></ul>

Monitor Your Progress

<ul><li>Middles can feel like they're never going to end.</li><li>Two tricks to help: look back and flip perspectives.</li><li>Use weekly goals instead of monthly goals and stay the heck away from annual goals.</li><li>Perspective shift: think about who you are instead of how the project is going.</li></ul>

Beware The Long Middle

When we spend more time thinking about the future, we make better choices in the present.Think about the total effect of being the kind of person who routinely takes those easy ways out.A study showed that when a behavior is associated with an identity we don't want to hold, we are far less likely to keep engaging in it.

Think About Your Future Self

How do we get motivated? The latest research has secrets that can help us get going and get things done even when we don't feel like it...

productivity

Productivity

How To Stop Being Lazy And Get More Done – 5 Expert Secrets - Barking Up The Wrong Tree

Our motivation is our most valuable commodity. Multiplied only by action, its value fluctuates with how we invest our attention. In our world of exponential change and ever-increasing complexity, the power rests with those who act with self-determination and persistence.

Drive Human Behaviour

Why is it that we are all born with limitless potential, yet few people fulfill those possibilities?

Motivation can be experienced as either internal in the form of push motivation or external as in the case of pull motivationPush motivation is described in terms of biological variables originating in a person’s brain and nervous system and psychological variables that represent the properties of a person's mind.Pull motivation is understood as environmental variables that describe external sources of motivation, like incentives or goalsOur evolutionary history and our individual personal histories shed light on how our lifelong experiences shape our motives.

Types of Motivation

Needs are internal motives that energize, direct and sustain behaviour.They generate strivings necessary for the maintenance of life as in physiological needs, and for the promotion of growth and wellbeing as in psychological and implicit needs.The drive theory of motivation tells us that physiological needs originate in our bodies.As our physiological system attempts to maintain health, it registers in our brain a psychological drive to satisfy a physiological craving and motivates us to bring the system from deficiency toward homeostasis.

Drive Motivation

Goals, like mindset, beliefs, expectations, or self-concept, are sources of internal motives and are together referred to as cognition.As a cognitive mental event, a goal is a "spring to action" that functions like a moving force that energizes and directs our behaviour in purposive waysGoal setting translates into performance only when the goals are challenging, specific, and congruent with the self.Motivation at its best is spontaneous.Other factors such as ability and resources also influence performance, and there is no direct correspondence between goals and performance.

Goal Motivation

Emotions are considered motivational states because they generate bursts of energy that get our attention and cause our reactions to significant events in our livesThey synchronize four interrelated aspects of experience:<ul><li>Feelings</li><li>Arousal</li><li>Purpose</li><li>Expression</li></ul>Different emotions elicit different action tendencies

Motivation and Emotion

Personality theory and research show that we are, in fact, motivated in different ways based on our personality traits.A high level of a particular trait will often make us act as the trait implies: we will be more open to experience, conscientious, extraverted, agreeable, and neurotic.We will be motivated by different incentives, goals, and activities but also choose to be in different situationsIf we exhibit characteristics at one end of a personality dimension we will seek out, create, or modify situations differently than do individuals at the other end of the spectrum.

Motivation and Personality

Change is rarely simple or linear.It is difficult to find the motivation to engage in activities that are not intrinsically motivating.What we need is to move away from extrinsically motivated action, e.g., when we have to do something because we fear consequences, and toward introjected and fully self-determined regulation, where we value the new behaviour and align it with other aspects of our life.Stage-based approaches to behavioural changes have proven to be particularly effective in increasing motivation toward the pursuit of difficult and non-intrinsically motivating goals.

Motivation for Change

<ul><li>Abraham Maslow believed that all psychological problems stemmed from a lack of meaning and anxiety about these needs not being met.</li><li>He warned us that when we set low aims for ourselves and do only as much as necessary to be competent, we set ourselves up for deep unhappiness in life.</li><li>When his students shivered with weakness at the thought of becoming remarkable, Maslow would recall Nietzsche's idea of the law of eternal recurrence.</li></ul>

The Motivations Of Abraham Maslow

<ul><li>Positive psychology brings attention to the proactive building of personal strengths and competencies, and these cannot be bad for motivation</li><li>The good life consists of deriving happiness by using your signature strengths every day in the main realms of living.</li><li>A meaningful life adds one more component: using these same strengths to forward knowledge, power or goodness.</li></ul>

Happiness Motivation

Understanding the principles of motivation gives us the capacity to find workable solutions to real-world motivational problems.Studying and applying motivational science can also help us reverse or cope with impulsive urges, habitual experiences, goal failure, counterproductive functioning, negative emotion, boredom, maladaptive or dysfunctional development, and a fragile sense of self.

A Take-Home Message

Some of our motives are biological, while others have personal and social origins. We look at motivation and the drivers of human behavior.

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

Motivation and What Really Drives Human Behavior

Though many people make the pursuit of happiness their life’s goal, recent research suggests that doing so may backfire and, ironically, lead to less happiness.Because life is filled with various challenges, people may be better off pursuing purpose than chasing passion, building the resilience and character needed to thrive.Uncovering our unique vocations may not only help us flourish as individuals but also as humanity.

Key Takeaways

We’ve all heard this before: To change the world, we need to use our passion as our North Star, and let our happiness be the measuring stick of our success. The truth is that happiness is not the goal of our human existence.Making happiness the goal of our lives is tantamount to embarking on a fool’s errand that is sure to leave us disappointed. In fact, recent research suggests that making happiness our life’s goal may ironically lead to less happiness and backfire in harmful ways.

Passion Or Purpose

Character is forged in the face of adversity. When that harsh reality sets in, it can leave happiness-seekers feeling hoodwinked, empty, and rudderless. The very adversity we often wish to circumnavigate has the potential to produce within us the grit, resilience, and character we need to flourish as human beings in an era in which machines are rapidly replacing humans throughout the global economy.People who pursued meaning in life not only lived longer but also experienced improved physical and mental health, greater economic prosperity, and resilience when dealing with change in life.

Finding Meaning

Happiness is not the goal, but rather a byproduct of living on what I call the “purpose path.”This requires “vocational courage” — gaining clarity about the work you were made to do and committing to it no matter what. This is more than simply attending to one’s passions — this is discovering and acting on one’s reason for being. Vocation is not a goal to be achieved; it is a gift to be received

The Purpose Path

This is the essence of vocational courage. It is recognizing when there is a gap between what you’re doing and what you believe you’re made to do. For some, it may mean <a href="https://hbr.org/2015/07/setting-the-record-straight-on-switching-jobs">switching companies</a> to work for a more purpose-driven brand. For some, it may mean going back to school to prepare for a different line of work altogether. It is having the bravery to pivot in a different direction when your soul knows it’s time — when your soul demands that you live an “<a href="https://onbeing.org/blog/living-an-undivided-life/">undivided life</a>.”

An Undivided Life

Each of us has a vocation — a unique, worthwhile life’s work we are called to undertake at this moment in human history. So instead of orienting our lives around our passions and the <a href="https://hbr.org/podcast/2017/09/find-your-happy-place-at-work">pursuit of happiness</a>, let’s commit ourselves to listening to the voice of our vocation so we can understand who we should become and how we can contribute to human flourishing. It just might change the world for good.

Find Your Calling

Though many people make the pursuit of happiness their life’s goal, recent research suggests that doing so may backfire and, ironically, lead to less happiness. Because life is filled with various challenges, people may be better off pursuing purpose than chasing passion, building the resilience and character needed to thrive. Uncovering our unique vocations may not only help us flourish as individuals but also as humanity.

career

Career

mindfulness

Mindfulness

Why Purpose—Not Passion—Should Guide Young Professionals

Suppose you get a candle, some thumbtacks and some matches. Your job is to attach the candle to the wall so the wax doesn't drip onto the table. How would you do it?<ul><li>Some people try to thumbtack the candle to the wall, which doesn't work.</li><li>Some will try to light a match, melt the side of the candle and try to stick it to the wall, which doesn't work.</li><li>However, most people will figure out the solution after five or ten minutes.</li></ul>The key is to overcome what's called functional fixedness.

The candle problem

Building on the candle problem, scientist Sam Glucksberg divided participants into two groups: <ul><li>He asked one group to establish norms and averages for how long it typically takes someone to solve the candle problem.</li><li>In the second group, he offered rewards for finding the solution the quickest.</li></ul> It took the second group, on average, three and a half minutes longer.

The power of incentives

Businesses often use incentives to motivate people. If they want people to perform better, they reward them. But science shows that contingent motivators work only in some circumstances. For many tasks, they not only don't work but cause harm: It narrows focus and restricts possibility. Yet most businesses use extrinsic motivators, a carrots and sticks approach. And it doesn't work.

Extrinsic motivators don't work for creativity

Glucksberg did another similar experiment using the candle experiment, but this time the thumbtacks were left out of the box.  The result is that the incentivised group beat the timing for norms groups.  If-then rewards work well for tasks where there is a simple set of rules and a clear destination to go to. Rewards, by nature, narrow focus and restricts possibility. But they often destroy creativity.

If-Then rewards work for repetitive tasks

White-collar workers are doing more routine, rule-based work and less creative, conceptual work. Certain types of accounting, financial analysis or computer programming have become easier to outsource or automate. Too many organisation are making their policies about talent and people based on outdated assumptions. If we want high performance, the answer is not in incentives. We need a different approach.

Routine-based work can be automated

Intrinsic motivation is the desire to do things because they matter, are interesting, or part of something important. The new operating system consists of three elements:<ul><li>Autonomy: the urge to direct our own lives.</li><li>Mastery: The desire to get better and better at something that matters.</li><li>Purpose: The longing to do what we do as part of something larger than ourselves.</li></ul>

Intrinsic motivation

The traditional idea of management is compliance. But if you want employees to engage, self-direction will work better. It means paying people adequately and fairly, then giving them autonomy. For example, Atlassian, a software company in Australia, allow its engineers a few times per year to work on anything they want for 24 hours. The engineers then present the stuff they've developed to their teammates the following day. This worked so well that the company has taken it to the next level with 20% time.

How to motivate people

In a ROWE, people don't have schedules. They show up when they want and don't have to be in the office. They just have to get their work done.  This results in increased productivity, worker engagement and worker satisfaction, while turnover goes down.

Results Only Work Environment (ROWE)

Needing to feel motivated? Enjoy these inspirational Ted talks that will change your perspective and make your day better.

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Love & Relationships

communication

Communication

7 Days of Inspiration 

Many organisations are trying to improve performance using outdated assumptions. If we want high performance, the solution is not rearranging the wrong strategy. We need a new approach.

Visit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more. Career analyst Dan Pink examines the puzzle of motivation, starting with a fact that social scientists know but most managers don't: Traditional rewards aren't always as effective as we think. Listen for illuminating stories -- and maybe, a way forward. The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. Follow TED on Twitter: http://twitter.com/TEDTalks Like TED on Facebook: http://facebook.com/TED Subscribe to our channel: http://youtube.com/TED TED's videos may be used for non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons License, Attribution–Non Commercial–No Derivatives (or the CC BY – NC – ND 4.0 International) and in accordance with our TED Talks Usage Policy (https://www.ted.com/about/our-organization/our-policies-terms/ted-talks-usage-policy). For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), please submit a Media Request at https://media-requests.ted.com

creativity

Creativity

videos

Videos

Visit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.

Career analyst Dan Pink examines the puzzle of motivation, starting with a fact that social scientists know but most managers don't: Traditional rewards aren't always as effective as we think. Listen for illuminating stories -- and maybe, a way forward.

The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. 

Follow TED on Twitter: http://twitter.com/TEDTalks
Like TED on Facebook: http://facebook.com/TED
Subscribe to our channel: http://youtube.com/TED

TED's videos may be used for non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons License, Attribution–Non Commercial–No Derivatives (or the CC BY – NC – ND 4.0 International) and in accordance with our TED Talks Usage Policy (https://www.ted.com/about/our-organization/our-policies-terms/ted-talks-usage-policy). For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), please submit a Media Request at https://media-requests.ted.com

The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know.

TED's videos may be used for non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons License, Attribution–Non Commercial–No Derivatives (or the CC BY – NC – ND 4.0 International) and in accordance with our TED Talks Usage Policy: https://www.ted.com/about/our-organization/our-policies-terms/ted-talks-usage-policy. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), please submit a Media Request at https://media-requests.ted.com

The puzzle of motivation | Dan Pink

It can be hard to disentangle whether effort is a cause or a consequence in a given situation. But we can look at effort through a feedback loop that looks like this:Effort > performance > pleasure > motivation > effort.

The Link Between Effort and Performance

In reality, one’s ability to put in an effort typically arises as a consequence of something, not as a major cause.<ul><li>To accomplish something, making an effort depends more on the right time and right place, rather than being the focal point. </li><li>It’s also a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy: If we believe in our abilities to accomplish something, we are more motivated, then we perform better, which feeds our belief in our abilities, and so on and so forth, leading to an ongoing cycle of effort-as-a-consequence.</li><li>Exerting effort is not always something that we can do over long periods of time.</li></ul>

Effort-Consequence Instead of Effort-Cause

The trick is to refrain from seeing effort as a cause or as a consequence, but rather as both. By seeing it this way, we can organize performance over the long term and generate an "addictive loop"—meaning a drive to repeat behaviors that are pleasurable by themselves.This approach counters the tendency to overestimate our ability to both make an undesired effort as well as resist the temptation of alternative pleasurable activities. An addictive loop approach avoids those two obstacles by aiming for activities that generate pleasure—hence our desire to make an effort, hence more activities.

Keeping Up the Good Work: Behavioral Loops and Pleasure

The role of leaders is to put in place a system of efforts-as-consequences, generating a spiral where outcomes get bigger and better as time goes on.<ul><li>Don’t neglect indirect activities that create pleasure, like giving feedback and offering training sessions. </li><li>Avoid a “no pain, no gain” mentality. </li><li>Grant people autonomy. </li><li>Leverage psychological drivers. For instance, the Pygmalion effect - people perform better just by feeling that their leader believes in them.</li><li>Orient discreetly through a gentle nudge. </li><li>Use social validation.  </li></ul>

Lessons for Leaders

Individuals can consciously organize themselves into performance-effort loops. <ul><li>Build an identity. Our actions tend to align with how we perceive ourselves and how others perceive us. </li><li>Make it a habit. Your brain is a creature of habit, and science has therefore identified habit formation as a key for success.</li><li>Be playful. Pleasure and play are linked—and if we frame something as a game, it can be more engaging and less depleting. </li><li>Break it down. If a large, long-term project is too overwhelming, break it into smaller tasks.</li></ul>

Lessons for Individuals

Such extrinsic motivation schemes—where effort is forced by external rewards—have been shown to lead generally to undesirable outcomes. While we can’t ignore them as short-term tactics, they only work in limited contexts, and only if properly inserted in a scheme balanced with intrinsic motivations.

Avoid Forced Effort

Viewing effort as part of a feedback loop could help us enjoy the process.

How to Get Hooked on Making an Effort

We all know exercise is good for us. It offers documented <a href="https://www.verywellfit.com/breathing-and-exercise-2704426">health benefits</a> and is probably one of the best tools we have to fight <a href="https://www.verywellfit.com/best-workouts-if-youre-overweight-3495993">obesity</a>, some types of cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and other chronic illnesses. At the same time, it can be hard to put that knowledge into practice. There are so many different suggestions on the types of activities and the ideal frequency, it can lead to information overload and overwhelm.The most important thing to know is some exercise—any type of exercise—is better than no exercise.

Exercise: What We Know

The wonderful thing about exercise is that you don't need much to get the benefits. Even just a few minutes a day can improve your health and well-being. Here are just some things exercise can help you do:<ul><li>Boost your mood</li><li>Give you more energy</li><li>Help you sleep better</li><li>Increase bone density</li><li>Improve your confidence</li><li>Improve your quality of life</li><li>Lose weight</li><li>Reduce stress</li></ul>

Benefits of Exercise

Use the FITT acronym to remember the exercise variables you can change to avoid plateaus and to keep your body challenged:<ul><li>Frequency: How often you exercise</li><li>Intensity: How hard you exercise</li><li>Time: How long you exercise</li><li>Type: The type of exercise you're doing (e.g., running, walking, etc.)</li></ul>

The FITT Principle

When you work out at a sufficient intensity, time, and frequency, your body will improve (called the Training Effect) and you'll start to see changes in your weight, <a href="https://www.verywellfit.com/how-to-use-body-fat-percentage-calculator-3858855">body fat percentage</a>, cardio endurance, and strength. When your body adjusts to your current FITT levels, it's time to manipulate one or more of them.

Body Development: The Training Effect

If you've been walking three times a week for 20 minutes and you've stopped seeing improvement, you could change your program in one or more of the following ways:<ul><li>Frequency: Add one more day of walking.</li><li>Intensity: Add short bursts of jogging, speed walking, or hill training.</li><li>Time: Add 10 to 15 minutes to your usual workout time.</li><li>Type: Do a different activity, such as cycling, swimming, or aerobics.</li></ul>Changing any of these variables every four to six weeks can help you keep that training effect going.

Optimizing Training Effect

In order to improve your strength, endurance, and fitness, you have to progressively increase the frequency, intensity, and time of your workouts. A simple way to stimulate your body is to try different activities. <ul><li>If you normally walk on the treadmill, try riding the bike which will use different muscles and allow you to burn more calories. </li><li>If you've been doing <a href="https://www.verywellfit.com/strength-exercises-for-the-biceps-1231100">biceps</a> curls with dumbbells, change to a barbell.</li></ul>

The Overload Principle

This principle is just what it sounds like. It means your workouts should be specific to your goals. If you're trying to improve your racing times, you should focus on speed workouts. If your main goal is simply health, fitness, and weight loss, you should focus on total body strength, <a href="https://www.verywellfit.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-cardio-1229553">cardio</a>, and a healthy diet. Make sure your training matches your goals.

Specificity

Cardio exercise is any rhythmic activity performed continuously and can include activities like <a href="https://www.verywellfit.com/walking-4157093">walking</a>, <a href="https://www.verywellfit.com/how-to-start-running-the-absolute-beginners-guide-2911191">running</a>, aerobics, cycling, swimming, and dancing. Cardio strengthens the heart and lungs, increases endurance and burns calories, which helps you lose weight. While you should always stick with a cardio program that fits with your fitness level, there are general guidelines for cardio programs based on your goals.

Types Of Exercises: Cardio

Strength training works the body in a different way than cardio and is equally as important for good health and weight loss. With strength training, you lift weights (dumbbells, barbells, resistance bands, machines, etc.) to strengthen the muscles, bones, and connective tissue.Strength training builds lean muscle tissue, which raises metabolism helping you to reduce body fat9 provided you're also keeping your calorie intake in line. If you are new to resistance exercise and intimidated by using weights, bodyweight exercises, like squats, pushups, and planks, are a great way to start.

Types Of Exercises: Strength Training

<ul><li>Choose eight to 12 exercises, targeting the major muscle groups (lower body, chest, back,shoulders, biceps, triceps, and abs).</li><li>For beginners, do one set of eight to 16 reps of each exercise to fatigue. More advanced exercisers can do two to three sets.</li><li>Train each muscle group two to three non-consecutive days a week.</li><li>Work each exercise through its full range of motion and use good form.</li></ul>

Strength Training: Important Guidelines

While stretching is often the most overlooked exercise, it's important for keeping us agile as we get older. And, unlike the rigors of cardio and strength training, it's relaxing and it feels good.<ul><li> Stretching can be done anytime throughout the day, but it's also important to stretch after your workouts, especially if you have any chronically tight areas.</li><li>Yoga workouts are a great way to both stretch your body at the same time you build endurance and promote relaxation and stress-reduction. </li></ul>

Types Of Exercises: Flexibility

<ul><li>Do static stretches with a focus on tight areas, such as the hamstrings and lower back.</li><li>Hold each stretch for about 15 to 30 seconds and do two to four reps of each stretch.</li><li>Stretch a minimum of two to three days a week. Even better would be every day.</li><li>Stretch within your range of motion. Stretching shouldn't hurt.</li><li>Stretch your muscles when they're warm (after your warm-up or, even better, after your workout).</li></ul>

Stretching Guidelines

While we often focus on getting in as much exercise as possible, rest and recovery are also essential for reaching your <a href="https://www.verywellfit.com/how-to-set-exercise-and-weight-loss-goals-for-beginners-1229580">weight loss and fitness goals</a>. While you can often do cardio every day (though you may want to rest after very <a href="https://www.verywellfit.com/ways-to-add-intensity-to-your-workouts-1231603">intense workouts</a>), you should have at least a day of rest between strength training workouts.Make sure you don't work the same muscles two days in a row to give your body the time it needs to rest and recover.

The Importance Of Resting

While it's important to know basic exercise guidelines and principles, the most important step in starting an exercise routine is exploring the idea of motivation. Without that, all the advice in the world won't do you any good.Motivation doesn't just happen. It's something you make happen each and every day. If you have multiple reasons to exercise, you'll always have something to get you moving, even when motivation is hard to come by. The hardest part of exercise is getting started. If you can get that far, you've won half the battle.

Finding Motivation

<ul><li>Consider how much energy you'll have to get more things done.</li><li>Imagine how relaxed you'll feel after a workout.</li><li>Promise yourself a reward for completing your workout.</li><li>Remind yourself how good you'll feel by following through.</li><li>Remind yourself of your weight-loss goals.</li><li>Remind yourself that this workout is necessary to reach your goal</li><li>Think of a future event to get ready for (a wedding, a vacation, etc.).</li><li>Think of all the diseases and illnesses your workout could protect you from.</li></ul>

Motivating Tips

The ABC of Exercise and how to find motivation.

Get a guide to getting in shape for beginners that explains what you need to know about cardio, flexibility, strength training, and more.

health

Health

exerciseandfitness

Exercise & Fitness

A Guide to Exercise for Beginners

First pick your goals, then figure out which motivation hacks to use on the subtasks that lead to those goals—and then use far more of them than you need, so that you not only succeed, but that you do so with excitement and joy.
The Formula: Motivation = (Expectancy x Value) / (Impulsiveness x Delay)
<ul>
<li>Expectancy = confidence of success.</li>
<li>Value = how rewarding a task will be when you finish it & how fun it is when you’re doing it.</li>
<li>Impulsiveness = distractibility, how likely you are to put a task off and do something more pressing.</li>
<li>Delay = how far off the reward seems to be.</li>
</ul>

The Hack Technique

By increasing Expectancy or Value, or decreasing Impulsiveness or Delay, you hack motivation.

The will is a process of making personal rules for ourselves that will help us reach our goals, and how much willpower we can muster is precisely how good we are at setting up these personal rules so that we prefer to keep our rules than break them.

Willpower

<ul><li>Make a tiny achievable goal that you can’t forget to do.</li><li>Track your success doing this goal.</li><li>Give your goal a completion date.</li><li>Once you complete your goal, up it to a bigger goal.</li></ul>Focus on input based process goals (write for five minutes) rather than output-based results goals (write one page). And keep the required inputs minimal at first.

The Success Spiral

The four most expensive words in the English language are, “This time it’s different"

<ul>
<li>Precommitment: Using a commitment device to choose now to limit your options later, preventing yourself from making the wrong choice in the face of temptation. Putting money on the line, publicly announcing your goals, etc.</li>
<li>Burnt Ships: List out all of your possible distractions, and then make it so that it’s impossible to do those things when you want to be working toward your other goals. This saves you from having to use willpower to resist them.</li>
<li>Rejection Therapy: Get over your fear of starting things by going out and trying to get rejected by asking for odd things from people.</li>
</ul>

The Playbook Of Motivation Hacking

Imagine your ideal day. What do you do? Whom do you talk to? Where do you go? Pick a few goals that will bring you closer to that ideal day.Make a list of every crazy goal you can think of. Then rate each goal on three factors: how much the goal excites you, your probability of success if you tried as hard as you could, and how long it would take in hours. Sort them by excitement x probability of success / time and pick the most efficient goals.Imagine you’re another person more competent than yourself who has just dropped into your current life at this moment with none of your issues.

Exercise: Goal Picking

<ul><li>Challenging (motivating and exciting)</li><li>Specific (not abstract)</li><li>Immediate (avoid long-delayed goals and focus on what you can do now)</li><li>Approach-oriented (as opposed to avoidance goals)</li></ul>If you track your happiness during activities, you’ll get a more accurate picture of how much you enjoyed it without giving in to the peak-end effect.

The CSI Approach

<ul><li>Get excited about a skill</li><li>While you’re excited, make time and hack up motivation to practice it</li><li>Learn how to practice it from reading or from a teacher</li><li>Start doing it right away</li></ul>Whatever goals you pick, you should have some way of measuring the results. Many goals are about making you happier, so make sure you’re measuring your happiness.

How To Learn Any Skill

<ul><li>Success Spirals: Win at something small then keep leveling it up</li><li>Vicarious Victory: Hang out with motivated people</li><li>Mental Contrasting: Visualize the success you want to have and then contrast it with where you are now</li><li>Guarding Against Excessive Optimism: Don’t get trapped by the planning fallacy</li></ul>

Increasing Expectancy

<ul><li>Find Flow</li><li>Find Meaning: Look for ways to connect tasks to major life goals</li><li>CSI Approach goals(mentioned above)</li><li>Optimize Your Energy</li><li>Productive Procrastination: If you can’t do your main work, get other little tasks out of the way</li><li>Create Rewards: When you succeed, celebrate it, by congratulating yourself or giving yourself a treat</li><li>Focus on Passion: Know what you’re passionate about and steer your life towards those passions</li><li>Task Trading: If you don’t want to do something find someone who will trade that task with you</li></ul>

Increasing Value

<ul><li>Make a recommitment</li><li>Burn your ships</li><li>Set goal reminders</li><li>Timebox your tasks</li><li>Build useful habits</li><li>Schedule play before work, so you know when you’re taking a break</li></ul>

Reducing Impulsiveness

<ul><li>Break your goals down so the ends feel nearer</li><li>Let yourself plan fallaciously so you’re more motivated</li></ul>

Reducing Delay

To precommit is to choose now to limit your options later, preventing yourself from making the wrong choice in the face of temptation. Publicly announcing your goal is a common form of precommitment.

The motivation hacker learns to steer his life towards higher Value and to have fun demolishing boring necessities in his way.

"This is your field guide to getting yourself to want to do everything you always wanted to want to do"--Page [4] of cover.

books

Books

"Moderation in all things," they say. That may keep a society together, but it's not the protagonist's job. The Motivation Hacker shows you how to summon extreme amounts of motivation to accomplish anything you can think of. From precommitment to rejection therapy, this is your field guide to getting yourself to want to do everything you always wanted to want to do. I wrote this book in three months while simultaneously attempting seventeen other missions, including running a startup, launching a hit iPhone app, learning to write 3,000 new Chinese words, training to attempt a four-hour marathon from scratch, learning to skateboard, helping build a successful cognitive testing website, being best man at two weddings, increasing my bench press by sixty pounds, reading twenty books, going skydiving, helping to start the Human Hacker House, learning to throw knives, dropping my 5K time by five minutes, and learning to lucid dream. I planned to do all this while sleeping eight hours a night, sending 1,000 emails, hanging out with a hundred people, going on ten dates, buying groceries, cooking, cleaning, and trying to raise my average happiness from 6.3 to 7.3 out of 10. How? By hacking my motivation.

Nick Winter

The Motivation Hacker

Our ability to follow through on our best intentions, such as getting into a new habit or changing our behaviour, doesn't depend on our reasons or our convictions that we should do it. It doesn't rely on our willpower or knowing the benefits of a particular behaviour. All it requires is to show up consistently, even if you do it poorly.

Show up

Motivation comes and goes. When motivation wanes, we tend to follow the path of least effort. However, new behaviours need lots of effort. This is because we find change really hard. The harder something is to do, the more motivation we need. To help start a new habit, you'd have to be willing to be bad at it. Strip the thing you want to do into something so easy you could do it every day. It might mean going for a one-minute run or eating one piece of lettuce on your sandwich. You will start feeling a natural desire to do more when you  consistently keep at it.

Better-than-nothing behaviour

When we get started on a new habit, we're creating a neural pathway in our brain for a new habit, making it likely to succeed in something more involved later on. But be aware, the moment you think you "should" do more is the moment you introduce force and negotiation. So the moment it requires more motivation, you might fail. The whole idea behind the better-than-nothing habit is that you only need to do a little consistently to become better than your previous self.

Taking the first step

You know how resolutions often go: you set a goal and start strong ... then the motivation runs out and feelings of frustration and shame creep in. The struggle is real -- but what if it doesn't have to be? Sociologist Christine Carter shares a simple step to shift your mindset and keep you on track to achieving your grandest ambitions.

habits

Habits

The 1-minute secret to forming a new habit

<ul>
<li>Toxic leadership is the main reason why employees leave their jobs. In order to become truly exceptional, those in charge must practice empathetic leadership.</li>
<li>Empathy is the ability to feel what another person is feeling. It is the ability to put yourself in the other person’s shoes in a big and meaningful way. It is to experience their emotions.</li>
<li>Emotional intelligence is the ability to understand and manage your own emotions, as well as the emotions of others. Empathy is absolutely critical to emotional intelligence.</li>
</ul>

Empathy in a Remote Team

We live in an era filled with information. Thus, without emotions and the ability to sense, understand, and respond to these emotions, any level of understanding and connection is impossible. In today’s business world, we have tools and methods for the efficient exchange of information, but these leave out a massive amount of what makes people human. Research has shown that empathy is essential at work, and when it comes to remote work, the critical need for developing both emotional intelligence–and expressing it in the form of empathy–is imperative to its success.

Why Empathy Is Important

Encourage formal and informal meetings, demonstrate your listening abilities and show care. You can use technology to enhance virtual meetings to feel more close and connected. One has to assume a positive intent and work closely with the team, getting a full idea of their workday, life and the challenges they face.

How To Be A More Empathetic Leader

We are all biased. People tend to approach situations with preconceived notions. It helps people feel prepared for situations. It helps people to feel in control and more comfortable. But preconceived notions, assumptions, or biases make it difficult to listen fully. Work on identifying them and challenging these biases to improve empathy and become more inclusive of different perspectives.

Identify And Challenge Your Biases

The highest-performing teams have one thing in common: psychological safety. It is the belief that you won’t be punished when you make a mistake. <ul><li>Approach conflict as a collaborator, not an adversary.</li><li>Ask for feedback to illuminate your own blind spots. Open up for suggestions and ideas from your team and take time to reflect on them.</li><li>Commit to developing a psychologically safe culture. Discuss shared “team rules” openly.</li></ul>

A Safe Place

With technology, you can scale empathetic leadership development to optimize collaboration for stronger team effectiveness.

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Ishank R