Brian Johnson explains why motivation requires both valuing an outcome and believing you can achieve it. Using weight loss as an example, he shows how motivation equals value times expectancy: if either drops to zero, motivation dies. The episode ends with a reflection exercise to identify what you want to change and boost whichever component is holding you back.
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another Heroic Plus One. In our last Plus One, we talked about why I think people don't change their lives. In short, I said that most people never turn up the heat high enough to hit that activation point where they really, really want something enough to really, really go for it. Now, I wrote that after my AM meditation. After I finished it, I headed out to connect with the fam. Now, as I was doing the dishes after breakfast, I realized that In addition to really wanting something to change in our lives, we also need to really believe we can make that hoped-for future a reality. Then I thought of the old-school motivation equation we've chatted about a number of times in the past. I've got links to Plus Ones you can check out and a Philosopher's Notes for more. The short story in solving the procrastination equation, Pierce Steele tells us, If we want to have high levels of motivation, we need to start by getting 2 things right. First, we need to, as we discussed, really want it. He says we need to value the outcome we're after if we want to be motivated to go after it. For example, for someone looking to lose weight and get their waist-to-height ratio to healthy levels, they'd have to make the connection between the excess weight and their increased morbidity risk. They need to really value their optimal health and see the benefits of optimizing it, etc. But that's not enough. Peirce tells us that we also need to believe we can achieve the thing we want to experience. He calls that expectancy. In short, if we don't expect to be able to achieve the outcome we value, our motivation will suffer. Today's Pause 1. What do you want to change in your life? Pick something. You got it? Good. Now, do you really want and value it? Can you see the positive benefits you'll experience? If not, rethink whether you really want it or if it's just a bit of a should. I repeat, your motivation won't be consistently high unless you really want and value it. Assuming you do value it, do you really think you can get it? We need to have a high level of expectancy, or again, our motivation will be weak. I mean, who consistently goes for something they don't expect to achieve? Value times expectancy. How's yours? And how can you dial each up a little more today?
