If you are someone who struggles with keeping up motivation, or if you find yourself watching videos, taking out books, or reading articles about the best ways to practice or study, look no further.
What Qualifies Me?
I know the struggle. Whatever reservations you have for putting in that constant effort, or for whatever barriers you face in maintaining your motivation, I have been there. I have a serious case of ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) which prevents me from consistently supplying the adequate levels of dopamine required to keep my attention from swaying. I have dealt with the condition my entire life, and I found that not even medication could have an effect on me. However, I always managed to stay productive through one way or another. Though my ability to stay on track was variable, there was one thing that always brought me back to my work and studies…
Passion.
That’s great. But how does one go about controlling or regulating passion? I have tried every other technique under the moon. I watched motivational videos every morning. I created systems designed to reward success and punish failure. I gave away my laptop for an entire semester (It worked for awhile, but I actually made myself depressed by secluding myself that way. And I am not a emotional person!) All of it gave temporary results with long-term disappointment. I am qualified to help you because I was finally able to find a way to help myself.
Cultivating Your Passion
I see a lot of articles talk about “Flow” or “Passion”, but that’s only one side of the equation. We can talk for years about how much your Flow can help you do amazing things, but eventually we need to understand the most effective route towards harnessing your Flow when you need to complete that project or start that ambition. For that, we need to better understand the flow of dopamine…
So let’s ask a more concrete question. Why are you currently reading this article? The answer is that it provides value, however, actually identifying potential value from the article has more to do with your flow of dopamine once we redefine what we mean by “value”. For some, it may be valuable just to compare the article against some others, without any intention of using the information contained therein. For others, they may be filling a quota of reading for the day that provides their value to them (And yes, it could also be that you simply find the words engaging and look forward to reading to completion, and that would be the most direct form of value that instigates the constant release and flow of dopamine.) By simply observing ourselves in our natural state, we can see that our flow is dictated more by what we personally define as valuable. This leads us to our first possible solution.
Hack Your Definition of Value
What is it that you value the most? Maybe if you’re reading this article you’re not entirely sure of that. Start by looking at the reason that you’re still reading. If the answer is that you’re actually looking to improve your work ethic and learning abilities, then that is a perfect launching point. Why do you want to improve these abilities? What would you like to accomplish by being able to learn better or faster? Is it competitive? Do you want to do research, master certain skills? Whatever the reason, that gives you a base level of value that is consistent over time.
However, broad long-term value such as mastering skills or building yourself to some ambitious paradigm of success and fulfillment is fleeting in the moment, and often results in just a shot of dopamine rather than a continuous flow. This kind of value is more like gold in that it is a less fluid commodity, and more useful for long-term wealth building. What we need is a currency that is more fluid than gold, comes in shorter packets, and allows us to use it whenever we need it. Gold is a naturally occurring resource, just like our ambitions. But we need to assign currency that has artificial rather than intrinsic value, just as countries assign artificial currency.
Now that we better understand it, it may be easier for us to agree that we need to create value for ourselves that is based on but not equivalent to our intrinsic values. For you as the reader, maybe the easiest and most accessible way to create this value is to take advantage of the initiative that drives you to read this article. Take advantage of the fact that you want to become better at learning, and use that to create a simple system that feeds value into your desire. Reward yourself for taking steps every day towards the completion of your intrinsic values. Reroute your ambition towards the
steps rather than the top of the stair case.
Let’s discuss how.
Create a simple method to track and measure progression towards your intrinsic values. I have created methods in the past, but the most effective methods are the simplest. I should clarify something important. This method will be one of possibly many (depending on the individual) in a hierarchy of checks and balances. This will be your most basic system to track the basic existence of your continued efforts. As a result, it should be your absolute simplest method. Create something akin to a Habit Tracker, where you check in every day to report that you completed habits such as “Wake Up At 6 AM”, or “Check All Habits” or “Use Your Calendar”, noting for example that the Calendar is another part to the major overall system.Create a slightly more complex method for centralizing your productive behavior.
For me, Google Keep provided a great way to stay on top of things through a central organization hub.
I create permanent notes such as a “Morning Routine” where I check-off behaviors that I think would be productive towards starting off the morning well and being accomplishing things at such an early time in the day. I also created “Quick Ideas”, “Focus Tasks”, “Writing Ideas”, “Weekly Goals”, “Big Goals”, “Reading List”, “To-Do Tasks”, and more. The fun of using Google Keep is that it provides a fantastic visual for all of your notes, especially when you add a relevant picture to the top of your note to really make it stand out. Of course, you can use anything as a central hub, such as Trello, or any other kind of organization space. Just make sure to add checking your daily hub to your basic habit tracking system for accountability!
Create mental links to other effective systems through your central hub. When I created my Morning Routine note in Google Keep, I made sure to add tasks such as completing an item on my Focus Tasks, checking the calendar to stay up-to-date on the week, and working on my To-Do List. That way, this one note acts as a central linking point between three different systems (that aren’t too complicated on their own) so that I am constantly aware of what I should be doing to stay productive. Feel free to implement this strategy in several areas. It may be ambitious to put everything in Morning Routine if you think that you may not be able to wake up in the morning, so you should also consider making an Evening Routine that factors in the possibility of early morning failure.
Create systems designed to organize and simplify your productivity. This can be as simple as keeping a physical notebook in the same place every morning so that you can study more effectively when the time comes, or as complex as identifying and installing mobile or web applications designed to help you with every task in your system. For example, if you want to practice the piano every morning and you’re in the middle of creating a song, you might want to use an application that allows you to save and hear what you have produced. Or maybe you want to use Evernote to track all of your notes digitally and easily reference back. Whatever the case, make sure that your system organizes and makes starting your task easy and effective.Revise whenever needed. I was very happy when I made the system, but I knew that it wasn’t necessarily the final product. Maybe eventually I will replace the entire system with a simple notepad and pencil when I properly build up my work ethic to where I focus better that way. However, creating artificial value this way in the beginning may be important for some who have trouble and need help building their work ethic now. Having some structure that works and is not too difficult makes it fun to follow a system and become productive. So even if you have had a bad experience with making systems for yourself, you should give this a try while keeping in mind the important aspects of what we have covered.
That said, if you are like some who simply cannot rely on a system to build their work ethic for them, I have advice for you as well. The system above is merely one example of many possible approaches, and in reality you do not need a system at all to become productive. Simply identify your own personal way to hack your Flow and direct your dopamine, and you will have more natural way and understanding of acquiring motivation. There are some crucial ingredients that you will need to accomplish this state of nirvana.
Identify Your Purpose
I may be a student of mathematics, but I have a deep belief in God. I believe that God has made everyone of us for a specific reason. Whether you are a devout christian or a nonbeliever, I think we can at least agree that there is something special in all of us that directs us to one path over another. Some people lean towards arts, others towards the sciences. Some people want to help others, or teach, or learn, or perform. Regardless of your calling, we all have one. Your first step to having constant access to your state of Flow is to identify what you were made to do.
Assume you could learn anything instantly. If you were placed in a room right now by some robot overlord and told to choose your profession or be destroyed for lack of function, what would you choose to do for the rest of your life? You only have a few seconds to decide. If you cannot answer that question, then you have just answered mine. You have nothing that motivates you, so how could you possibly build motivation or break your limits in learning? You have to find something that you are willing to fight for. That is your first assignment.
If you were able to answer that question, then you’re ready to move on to the next step. Once you are sure of what you want to do for the rest of your life, break it up into its smaller pieces. What do you have to learn before you become a master of your ambitions? What steps do you have to take? What steps can you take right now? Become aware of what it takes to succeed so that you aren’t discouraged in the future. If your ambition is worth fighting for, the road should be rough. There was never a successful story that came without hardship, challenge, or demand. Such a story has no plot. If you find that at the end of your accomplishments your story could not be told as a legend, then you need to rethink your ambitions.
Finally, once you have identified yourself to the standards laid out above, you are able to unlock your state of Flow without much more study. You should simply understand that your state of Flow comes when you exit your comfort zone. It comes when you have been backed to the wall with a deadline or a challenge that truly tests the extent of your abilities. It comes when you have something intrinsically yours, such as a project that you want to complete or a deadline that you set for yourself, and your ability is truly tested. This is a game. The best gamers in the world wouldn’t be the best without challenging games to push them to their limits. Give yourself a game that pushes you beyond your limits. Learn to do something you never knew was possible. Learning chess? Challenge yourself to defeat every member of the chess club before the end of the month. Learning the guitar? Schedule a performance for your friends and book one of them to sing alongside you. Learning to paint? Replicate the most popular piece of art from your favorite artist. These are gateways to your state of Flow, and you are guaranteed to access it constantly once you commit yourself to the challenge.
Master Flow
The body is composed of muscles and the brain is no different. As you begin to access your state of Flow more and more, your brain will adapt to the flow of dopamine and regulate it more consistently. You will find that the floodgates will open and never close. The more you access the state, the more easier it will become to access it. I am in the middle of experiencing this phenomenon, as I have never felt as productive as I have for the past few months. My state of Flow has improved more as I have accessed it, and find it unnecessary to challenge myself as I had to in the beginning. My mind naturally finds the challenge and embarks on the journey. I do not think, I simply find what I want to learn and I learn it.
Comments