Dr. Dawn-Elise Snipes explains how dopamine drives motivation and offers seven concrete tactics: list the benefits of what you're avoiding, break tasks into 15-30 minute chunks, pair unpleasant work with something you enjoy, and find an accountability partner to keep you moving.
You. Hey there, everybody, and welcome back to this video on seven ways to increase your motivation. I'm your host, Dr. Donnelly Snipes. Motivation is the desire to do something. And dopamine is your motivation chemical. So you got to have dopamine that in adequate levels in order to be motivated, but you also just have to have a desire, a cognitive desire to do something. And with everything that's going on and all the things that we're bombarded with lately, it's hard to get motivated because a lot of times we already feel exhausted, we already feel drained, we already feel overwhelmed, so it's hard to see where we want to go. And it's hard to get the energy, which you get from dopamine, by the way. It's hard to get the energy to get up off the couch to do it. So how can you increase your motivation? Make a list of all the ways that doing the behavior will improve your physical health, your comfort and sleep, your mood, your attitude and outlook, and your relationships. Now, not everything is going to increase or improve all of these things, but even simple things. For example, mopping the floors. For me, I'm a big person with floors. Mopping the floors. Well, when I have the dust up off the floor and all the cat dander and everything, I actually do sleep better because my allergies aren't as aggravated. So that's good. My mood is better because I get really grumpy when I see cat furballs everywhere. My attitude and outlook. Well, if I'm not sitting on the couch, noticing all this junk on the floor that needs to be mopped and I can think, then I can think about what else I could do with my energy instead of thinking about, oh, I gotta get up and mop. I don't want to, but I got to. And relationships. Well, I tend to be in a much better mood around the house when it's not a mess, when the floor is at least swiffered, if not mopped and the flat surfaces are all cleaned off. So it does improve my relationships. It reduces a lot of friction and tension if the floor is mopped. If the floor is swiffered. Now, it doesn't mean that I expect other people to do it necessarily. I can do it because I know it'll make me feel a lot better if I don't come home to dust bunnies. So something as simple as swiffering or mopping the floor can actually improve a lot of areas of your life. It can reduce your anxiety, improve your energy, improve your outlook. So make a List of all the ways that doing the behavior will improve those things for you that can help you increase your motivation. It's like, okay, you know, I can see a reason to do this and then identify all of the drawbacks to doing the behavior and address them. I know that seems counterintuitive, but the drawbacks are going to be gnawing at the back of your head. The drawbacks to mopping the floor are, you know, it takes energy, I'm gonna get sweaty, and I've got to lug the mop, buck, mop bucket around, and I'd really rather be watching television. Let's just call it what it is. Okay, those are the drawbacks. How can I address them? Well, I can have the television on while I'm mopping, that's one thing. So I'm still getting it. I can use one of the mops that has the little portable sprayer on it so I don't have to lug a mop bucket around. That's number two. And, you know, I don't have to do it at 50 million miles an hour, so I don't necessarily have to get sweaty. So identifying the drawbacks and eliminating them can also help with your motivation. I could also say to myself, well, the sooner I get this done, the sooner I can sit on the sofa and watch whatever TV show, program that I want to watch. Other ways to increase your motivation. Break large tasks into small chunks. Instead of thinking, I've got to clean the whole house or I've got to write this whole report or study 14 chapters for this exam, break them into small tasks, things that you can do, ideally 30 minutes or less. You know, if a pizza can arrive in 30 minutes or less, what can you do while you're waiting for that pizza? So break the large tasks into smaller chunks, and then you can just whittle away at it. Do 15. This was something I learned when I was in graduate school. Sometimes you might dread doing something, but if you get up and you actually start doing it, it's the inertia of that keeps you from getting started that's worse than actually doing it. Most of the time once you start doing it, it's like, okay, this isn't so bad. So you do it for 15 minutes. If after 15 minutes you're still miserable, then stop. Most of the time, you're going to find that that 15 minutes came and went and you didn't even notice it. Combine unpleasant tasks with pleasant ones. Take a friend when you go to the gym or watch your favorite program. While you're on the elliptical, at the gym, if you don't like house cleaning, put on your favorite music and, you know, dance like a crazy person while you're, while, while you're cleaning. Whatever it is that you're not wanting to do, that you hate doing, try to combine it with something that you like. When I do mundane tasks at the office, a lot of times I'll get my, my phone out and I'll put on a show or a comedian that I like listening to. So it makes it less onerous. Make sure there are sufficient Frequent Rewards we are by nature motivated by things that are rewarding. When we get a reward, our brain says, oh, I like that. And then it secretes dopamine and dopamine says, let's do that again. So it's important to keep that dopamine up, to keep that motivation up, to keep the rewards coming. Now, you don't have to reward yourself every time you wash a cup, but it's important to make sure that if you start feeling like your motivation is waning that you make sure that there are sufficient rewards. Telling me you're going to give me a quarter to clean the house, that is not a sufficient reward. So what would be a sufficient reward for whatever task and how can you make that happen and finally get a battle buddy for support and accountability? This person doesn't necessarily have to be with you to do it. So for example, if both of you are going to try to start eating healthier or going to the gym, well, that's great. But you hold each other accountable. You talk to each other each day and check in and go, well, how's it going? Did you get this done? And you offer each other words of encouragement. Not only does that other person help help you hold yourself more accountable, but having that other person there provides social reinforcement for what you're doing. If the videos on this channel have been helpful helpful for you, please support us in our mission to make high quality, practical tools available to everybody. You can donate@docsnipes.com donate join the channel@docsnipes.com join or purchase a thanks on videos that you like. Motivation is essential for everything from folding the laundry to changing a behavior. Motivation is often reduced when something is difficult or unpleasant. These tips are based in basic principles of behavior modification and can help you shore up your resolve for just about anything. Other videos you might find interesting motivation docsnipes.com motivation list I've actually done a lot of videos on motivational enhancement and motivational interviewing Sometimes you're not motivated because you're depressed. So Docsnipes.com depression list takes you to a series of videos that I've done on identifying whether you're depressed and things that you can do in order to start moving towards recovery. If you're a Counselor, there's a CEU course on motivational enhancement@allce.com Motivation CEU.
