What people don't get about motivation

Motivation is the ability to keep one thought in your mind for a prolonged period of time

This post is based on Dr K’s video. There might be some typos here since I am sort of dumping.

1. Motivation is within the mind. How to get motivated?
People try to duplicate what 'motivated' people seem to do from the outside. This leads to thought patterns like 'just do it'.

2. Wanting it more is not motivation
What does it mean to be disciplined in someone's mind? If you go and ask them this, they may reply with ‘yes’ or ‘no’. But it’s that that thought is there in their mind that I have to do this.

But from outside, we think they ‘just’ get up and do it every day

Popular observations from outside:
a) They want it more
b) They are disciplined

3. We can see it from the outside but we don't know what is happening inside.

4. Dr. K says "Motivation is the ability to hold a thought in your mind for a prolonged period of time"

e.g You ask someone about their new year resolution. And their motivation is just super high. 2 weeks later it's still good. 2-3 months go by and motivation decreases. They get bumped by new thoughts. Thought bumping replaces it.

This is crucial to understand. The thought bumping is what causes you to lose motivation.

5. Weird statement 1 : Procrastination is your mind's ability to motivate you. Mind trying to put a thought steady into your mind.

Dr K gives the following example: I have after a few days. But I wake up in the morning and in my mind, the thought to play World of WarCraft 3 is there. I say goodbye test and start playing WoW. In such scenarios, we actively try not to think about the test.

The day before the test, we can't push it away. And in this way, thought dominates our heads. And we study in panic mode.

6. People who are actually motivated, don't feel like they are disciplined. They don't wake up with a fire in the belly.

You ask them What's in your head? They: I gotta go to the gym man.

Put something in the centre of the mind and keep it there.

Is there a science to back it up? YES.

Why give stimulants to people with ADHD? To allow them to hold a single thought.

Meditation is one way. e.g Trataka meditation

Another way that I can think is obviously doing the thing. Doing/practicing it will keep it in mind. Scheduling it and doing it at least once, maybe not zeroing out on it.
Have a peer group or friends who are also involved. Accountability?
Engineer your environment that it somehow stays in your mind and once I catch momentum, usually it stays.

Personal observation: Although, as a vata constitution person by test and experiencing, I start getting bored and / or anxious after spending a certain amount of time. Then, I can rotate tasks. And do 2-3 other tasks and then head back to first.
That way I can get over anxiety too.

The only way to learn motivation is to see inside your mind. You cannot learn it from outside.


Q. What if focusing on the thing I need to do gives me anxiety?
That is incorrect. What is giving you anxiety is the outcome of the thing you need to do. If the thought I am holding is going to the gym, what gives me the anxiety is if I go to the gym, people will think I will be out of shape. Anxiety is a powerful thing to bump motivation.

Here, you are not focusing on "going to the gym". Instead, you are focusing on something else. The thoughts what people will think about you.

Anxiety keeps you away from the task. It is the biggest hammer.
It keeps the consequences in the mind.

Q. Can't think of any goal outside the next dopamine thing

Goals have nothing to do with motivation. People who are motivated to take the action. They are thinking about the task. Devoting yourself to the task at hand and not the goal.
If your motivation is based on hedonistic dopamine, then you are not getting it.

e.g Oh I wanna smoke a pot. Then you smoke the pot. And you are done and it goes away. And another thought comes in. Oh, I wanna eat Cheetos. It is in your mind for sometime and then goes away.

You just keep cycling through random thoughts and then i am gonna do this. And then you call yourself unmotivated. You are not able to hold one central thought in the mind.

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Once you understand this principle, a lot of shit reduces to this statement.

Q. How do I develop self-discipline to accomplish my goals?
Wrong. Long term goal and self-discipline are based on observing other people.
If you ask them, they may say ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

Discipline is not a thing in your mind. It is an emergent property from other things.

The reason no one finds self-discipline is because it’s not real. The question is false.
And then you say that you suck.

And next time you decide to go to gym, mind will be like “You are not disciplined. You suck. Thought again gets bumped away. And you probably don’t go”

Dr. K wakes up in the morning and asks himself, what do I need to do today?
My observation : This shows his present-focused mindset too.

What is your long term goal? To lose 50 pounds in gym. It won’t help. Well it will for sometimes. But if the thought is “I need to go to the gym”, then you will go.

Cultivate the thought into your mind. You just need to get it to sit in your mind.