Maintain a consistent level of motivation with random intermittent rewards
We all have an image, from movies or elsewhere, of the junkie who is writhing in agony at the prospect of not being able to get a hold of his next fix. It’s a sad and pitiable image of a person being held a prisoner of their own biological needs and mental shortcomings. We even think that we’re nothing like that, but we’d be wrong.
Addiction to hard drugs is something that seems not to have any parallels to everyday activities like being on our phones or even exercising. But there is one dimension in which an important analogy can be drawn: the release of dopamine and how it affects our motivation. Let’s use a more pleasant example — eating a delicious chocolate chip cookie. When we eat the cookie, there is a release of dopamine that “rewards” us for a pleasant experience. But along with the congratulatory dopamine hit, the nervous system creates a desire to repeat the experience. The problem is that to experience the same level of satisfaction, you need to increase the dose each time. This is analogous to when you become the recipient of a new “like” to a picture you posted. This is one of the mechanisms at play that keeps you glued to your phone.
You might say that you rarely indulge in sugar and have already deleted all social media Apps from your phone. Well done. But the same mechanism is at play in reducing your motivation as you pursue more lofty and noble goals. Imagine you set yourself the goal of running a 10k. This goal can be subdivided into several workouts. One of the key reasons many people quit such goals has to do with how often they reward themselves for completing a workout. Similar to our cookie example, if you reward yourself after every workout, even if it’s just a mental celebration, you end up with a desire to outdo yourself with each successive celebration. This is unsustainable and leads to feelings of pointlessness. So what to do?
Flip a coin. If it lands on heads, celebrate. If it lands on tails, don’t celebrate. It’s that simple. By “celebrate” I don’t mean you ought to crack open the champagne after a successful workout well before the completion of your goal. It can be as simple as a warm mental congratulations or, if you need something more real, a little dance or some TV. It’s fine to give yourself a respectful pat on the back even when you land tails — just don’t overdo it. What this does is temper the release of dopamine making it a sustainable motivator. By using a coin to make your decision, you ensure randomness and occasional long gaps of little dopamine release, recalibrating your system. This is similar to only eating cookies once in a blue moon — each time feels special.
Although it may be impossible for some goals, you should use the coin even when it comes to the completion of the goal itself. Just ran that 10k after a gruelling 3-month workout plan? Flip the coin. If it lands tails, just skip this one. Have a meal, go home and get on with your day. This may seem somewhat harsh but the same dopamine system used to motivate you along your 10k journey is the same system that keeps you reading, building meaningful relationships and gets you up in the morning to get to work. The important thing here is longevity and sustainability.
