We all have things we want to accomplish in life, but having goals or knowing we should be doing something is often not nearly enough to get us to actually sustain our efforts in getting where we want to go. On this episode of Being Well, we explore how to maximize our motivation so that we can be who we want to be and accomplish what we want to accomplish.
Today on Being Well, Forrest and I explore how to optimize our motivation. We distinguish motivation from discipline, liking from wanting, and describe how our brain’s reward circuitry works. We then explore how to best frame our outlook so we can feel relaxed, diligent, and uninhibited from being who we want to be and accomplishing what we want to accomplish.
Key Topics:
- 0:00: Introduction
- 2:05: Expanding our view of motivation and distinguishing from discipline
- 5:30: Why don’t we just want the things we know are good for us?
- 11:00: Creating unity between our biology and cognitive processing
- 15:50: Neurological overview of motivation
- 21:30: Distinguishing liking from wanting
- 25:35: Natural variations in dopamine metabolism
- 28:55: How people with lower levels of dopamine can stay motivated
- 33:35: Updating the reward value of your experiences
- 37:20: Being, doing, and having
- 43:05: What has helped Rick stay diligent and let go of resistance
- 46:40: Practical how-tos for interacting with the dopaminergic system
- 50:35: Letting fish be fish
- 52:30: Recap
