Is it possible to have CONSTANT motivation?

Psychology and Self Improvement
1

Is it possible to have constant motivation?

I’m not talking about the fluttering feeling of “let’s do it!” that most weak men feel every once and a while. I’m not talking about going onto some “motivation.com” website where I can read some motivational quotes and feel good about myself. I’m talking about the constant feeling of mind-flexing that lasts for an entire lifetime. Is it possible?

I’ve come so close. I’ve gotten 7+ days of non-stop, painful focus and 5 hours of sleep that left me exactly where I wanted to be every single night. However, this intense form of motivation comes and goes – usually in 3 day increments. It’s 3 days of intensity, then 3 days of mediocrity. If I ever give in subtely to laziness anytime throughout the day, it seems like it sets me off completely. For example, I’ll blank out for 30 seconds while reading a book and then boom, I start to feel guilty and get horribly messed up throughout the day.

What’s the method?

Is it the “duty” to work method? i.e.: “I don’t give a shit how I ‘feel’, I’m just going to do it regardless.”

Is it the “just want it intensely and then you’ll do it” method? Where you focus on how much you want something done and then you just do it?

Or what, what is it?

All I know is reading a damn book, watching a damn movie, and then having a 4 hour burst of motivation is not what I’m talking about here.

It’s not a feeling I’m after (the feeling of “let’s do it!”). It’s the willingness, the willingness to fight against all pain and laziness to do something 100% that never ends until death – is this even possible?

2

I think a lot of it comes from being in good physical condition. If you are in good physical condition things are much easier and less stressful than otherwise.

I noticed that I used to hate the work I had to do when I was out of shape (all mental work) but once I got in shape I enjoyed all the little subtleties. I know a guy who work 20 hours a day, sleeps about 4 and has been doing so for about 20 years now.

He has gotten so many things accomplished it’s mind boggling. He’s really the leader in his field, one year he was actually voted Silicon Valleys hardest working man (which is saying a lot). He said the key is that he’s in great shape. According to him, he can run 15 miles straight without stopping. He also said that he never ever ever ever has fast food/caffeine/sugar.

I don’t know, must work though because the guy is a monster (figuratively speaking).

3

I think a lot of it comes from being in good physical condition. If you are in good physical condition things are much easier and less stressful than otherwise.

I noticed that I used to hate the work I had to do when I was out of shape (all mental work) but once I got in shape I enjoyed all the little subtleties. I know a guy who work 20 hours a day, sleeps about 4 and has been doing so for about 20 years now.

He has gotten so many things accomplished it’s mind boggling. He’s really the leader in his field, one year he was actually voted Silicon Valleys hardest working man (which is saying a lot). He said the key is that he’s in great shape. According to him, he can run 15 miles straight without stopping. He also said that he never ever ever ever has fast food/caffeine/sugar.

I don’t know, must work though because the guy is a monster (figuratively speaking).

I would second that advice and make some additions.

Something else is to thoroughly enjoy the process of whatever it is you are doing. So it’s not enough to want to have written a great book, you must enjoy writing. An architect can’t just draw a nice, artistic elevation drawing without also adding framing layouts and electrical diagrams. I find that the more people enjoy every aspect of what they do, the more easy it is to stay motivated.

That unfortunately is not a luxury everyone has throughout their entire lives so there will likely be some drudgery in most our lives . In those circumstances I find that it helps to decide what has to be done in the next day, week, month, or year and then commit myself to doing it. For me that internal commitment becomes a religious commandment so I seem to accept the discomfort as a necessary step in the process of gaining values.

It is also important that goals be realistic. People generally have a tendency to over estimate how much they can do in a day and underestimate how much they can accomplish in a year. Because of that, many people set themselves up for failure pretty consistently. The repeated “failures” cause them to lose motivation rather quickly.

4

It is also important that goals be realistic. People generally have a tendency to over estimate how much they can do in a day and underestimate how much they can accomplish in a year. Because of that, many people set themselves up for failure pretty consistently. The repeated “failures” cause them to lose motivation rather quickly.

Next to the health advice I’d probably place this number 2. Micheal Jordan said he never set goals for himself that were unattainable. When he was young he would just try to improve his dribbling or shooting rather than say try to make the NBA. I have tried this myself and I have found it a lot easier that way. If you set attainable goals then you can actually see a way to accomplish it it makes less fantasy and more working and more motivation in the process.

This is a time I think thinking in concretes is very helpful, most people seem to dwell on the abstract as far as their goals go but getting a good understanding of the steps you can see is much better than trying to become a billionaire.

5

Good advice FatDogs12, but I think some terms need to be clarified. One should not set unattainable goals, if they’re truly unattainable. However, I figure that by “unattainable” you mean extremely long-term and aspirational.

I think long-term aspirational goals are good, but that the problem arises when that’s all one has. If all one has are long-term goals, it can be demotivating because they seem so daunting and because one does not make much progress relative to such a goal. So, one needs to figure out what the first few steps are, and focus on those. The immediate goals are more clearly achievable, give one the ability to measure progress and thereby give one motivation. The long-term goal lends meaning and motivation.

6

Good advice FatDogs12, but I think some terms need to be clarified. One should not set unattainable goals, if they’re truly unattainable. However, I figure that by “unattainable” you mean extremely long-term and aspirational.

I think long-term aspirational goals are good, but that the problem arises when that’s all one has. If all one has are long-term goals, it can be demotivating because they seem so daunting and because one does not make much progress relative to such a goal. So, one needs to figure out what the first few steps are, and focus on those. The immediate goals are more clearly achievable, give one the ability to measure progress and thereby give one motivation. The long-term goal lends meaning and motivation.

Yeah that is a good clarification. Very long term goals can be cause a lack of motivation as you said. I think sometimes if a person has a long term goal in which they will have an unrealistic shot at it can really ruin their life. I know a young guy of 17 who is telling me that he knows he will make it in the music business. He says he has to be positive to achieve. Well it’s true that having a positive attitude really helps but even still his chances are quite small

7

Is it possible to have constant motivation?

…

What’s the method?

I think the advice given, love the doing, and sustain good health are both valuable. Love the doing is something that will motivate you big time. So, it would be valuable to learn to love doing something, if you want to be passionate about it.

I’ve noted that people who have lots of energy and have a resilient physiology, are more likely to do well in life. Energy level is a great big positive in goal pursuit.

I’ll give you a few ideas that have helped me.

First, you won’t be 100% motivated 100% of the time. Human psychology just doesn’t allow for it. So, what you need is to regimen yourself to a schedule, and stick to it religiously. Write out your goals for the day, the week, and the month and keep updating them regularly, since goals will change continually, because your projected ability to attain them and their direction are both changing continually.

I have a saying 8+! or stagnate which means that when I have a project to do I demand that I put at least eight hours a day into it every day for a sustained period. The “or stagnate” part is to remind myself that the only way I make progress is by working at it. If I don’t work, I’m doing nothing to advance the project. And by the “+” part, I mean that it would be better if I can do more. I also keep a log of the hours I worked, and look over it every so often to see that I am doing what is necessary, and if I am, that gives me a psychological boost. If I’m not, that gives me a psychological kick to work harder.

As to motivation itself, there is an equation I came up with which I think sums up motivation. How motivated you’ll be depends on two factors: 1> V, the value to you of the goal you’re seeking, and 2> D, the difficulty level of attaining the goal.

So, Motivation Level = V/D

The higher the value, the greater the numerical value of V. The higher the difficulty level, the greater the numerical value of D.

So, for example, if you like chocolate bars, and there is a chocolate bar available in a dish across the room, you’ll probably be motivated to get one out and eat it. However, if the chocolate bar is on top of a mountain top, there is virtually no chance you’ll go for it.

Now, if the woman of your dreams is on the mountain top, you’re far more likely to learn how to climb a mountain, and then climb it. If she’s on the other side of Neptune, then there is little chance you’ll pursue her. This dove tails with SoftwareNerd’s point about pursuing outrageously difficult goals.

And, echoing what others have said, break down your goal into reachable sub-steps. Each climb of a step will get you closer to your big goal, and charge yourself more. If the first break down isn’t enough, break the sub-steps down into more steps until you are able to achieve each step within a reasonable frame of time. This, in effect, helps reduce the D value in the equation. The more you can reduce the D, the more you’ll be motivated.

Also make sure you conscientiously work on having a positive attitude toward your goal and the thrill of achieving it. Try to put in your mind how much you’ll value getting there. Write down the things that you’d value most about the goal, and why it would be a great thing for you to achieve it. Visualize how good it’d be to achieve it. Put it in front of you as a reminder. This will help increase the V value of the equation above, thus increasing your motivation more.

There is also sheer will and drive. Put your will power to work, and be determined to reach the goal come hell or high water. Actually, will power will be necessary every step of the way. I’m talking about a heightened level of determination.

Those are just a few things that may help you.

8

If she’s on the other side of Neptune, then there is little chance you’ll pursue her.

Wait…now, that depends entirely on the girl. :wink:

9

Just thought of something interesting as I was reading this…

There are two types of motivations: one is motivation from enjoyment, and the other one is motivation from fear or desire to avoid pain.

An example of motivation from fear: motivation to study for tests because of the fear to fail, which will affect self esteem.

An example of motivation from enjoyment: playing a computer game, succeeding at tasks in the game and getting a boost to self esteem.

You should ask yourself, what type of motivation do you want to achieve: is it any type of motivation, anything that will get the job done? or is it the second type?

Just working like a dog round the clock is not an ideal. The ideal would be to maximize your enjoyment.

In a way that I cant explain yet, I know that one’s right orientation in life should be to achieve enjoyment, and not about living up to one’s standard of a hero. Doing the second, if you are rational, will follow from doing the first, if you are rational.

If someone does things because he wants to be a man who does those things, and not because he enjoys them, he is not selfish. It is not enjoyment that he seeks, but a sort of indirect satisfaction from achieving self-esteem by acting according to those rules that he accepts as good.

So the best this person can hope to achieve is what I would call a “robot’s self esteem” which is measured by the amount of tasks per day, or rules followed per week.

I actually used to have that idea going on in my life. I didn’t like the tasks that I needed to do, yet I based my self esteem on tasks per day, or efficiency per week idea.

Now I don’t have that cycle going on in my life anymore, but I find that my efficiency is still tied to my self esteem. And even doing tasks that bore me, yet accomplishing them, can raise my self esteem. I need that feeling of efficiency in action daily, and if I don’t get it on certain days I feel empty in a way.

Knowledge of being efficient is important for psychological serenity - you just need to watch out to have the tasks you do be the right ones for you, and not some arbitrary tasks for the sake of doing something efficiently.

10

In a way that I cant explain yet, I know that one’s right orientation in life should be to achieve enjoyment, and not about living up to one’s standard of a hero.

I think you’re saying that while Objectivists are neither hedonists nor religious, yet – speaking very, very loosely – the hedonists have the right approach but have no idea how to execute their “plan”. Or, one might say (again loosely) that the hedonists have a better emotional approach.

11

I think you’re saying that while Objectivists are neither hedonists nor religious, yet – speaking very, very loosely – the hedonists have the right approach but have no idea how to execute their “plan”. Or, one might say (again loosely) that the hedonists have a better emotional approach.

Yes, this is what I mean. The difference between a hedonist and an Objectivist (an ideal Objectivist) is in their desires. A hedonist’s desires are random, while an Objectivist’s are rational, are about achieving rational values.

So now the question becomes; how does one reach the state that their desires are the achievement of rational values?

If you look at Atlas Shrugged, all the creators there (like Dagny, Francisco, Galt etc’) are very passionate about their job. They love it like their own baby, and nothing can keep them away from it. That’s constant motivation.

The source of the motivation for them is their enjoyment from working, and not some self-demand to fulfil a quota of efficiency.

The question at hand, for them, is “what is needed to make this work?” and then the efficiency matches that answer. And not “how much do I need to work so I can feel satisfied from knowing that I’m productive?”.

12

I just happened upon a Forbe’s article that is related to this topic that I found very… er… motivating. :lol:

“For the Love of the Game” discusses intrinsic motivation, its benefits and measurement of it by employers. Interestingly, measures of intrinsic motivation correlate to income potential even after correction for IQ.

While lots of folks have talked about the rational connections you can use to develop motivation, I think an important last step is habituation of what you know to be good behaviors. That is you don’t have to consciously develop motivation each and every time you need it be making the rational connections, if you also work to automate behaviors that you know are generally helpful. Take this as sort of a Ben Franklin’s “early to bed, early to rise” philosophy.

13

Yes, this is what I mean. The difference between a hedonist and an Objectivist (an ideal Objectivist) is in their desires. A hedonist’s desires are random, while an Objectivist’s are rational, are about achieving rational values.

So now the question becomes; how does one reach the state that their desires are the achievement of rational values?

If you look at Atlas Shrugged, all the creators there (like Dagny, Francisco, Galt etc’) are very passionate about their job. They love it like their own baby, and nothing can keep them away from it. That’s constant motivation.

I think even they needed leisure, Ifat. In my experience, you can’t have your motivational switch turn on all of the time. This is why discipline is a value, because it keeps you working and keeps you from drifting when you aren’t fully motivated. A great deal of motivation comes from making progress, achieving, if you aren’t making progress, or you’re going backwards, your motivation is likely to wane, so you need to get through those points.

But there is also this, sometimes you have to generate passion for something, because you haven’t got it. You like the subject, but you’d prefer loving it, and so you want to learn how to love it. I believe this can be done by working at something hard and getting good at it, and make your work uniquely your own.

But, “love of doing” is definitely the best thing for motivation. :lol:

Btw, an additional element I could have added to my posting above:

Another thing I like to do is recharge my batteries, which means do something leisurely or different every so often to break a pattern. In fact, pattern breaking helps your creativity, because it often brings in fresh new ideas, which can motivate you. B)

14

In my experience, you can’t have your motivational switch turn on all of the time

Screw motivation. I think what I’m really talking about (contrary to my misleading title) is WILL. Sure, you’ve brought up discipline, but what about how to frame my mind to maximize it? I have discipline to work 80% of my potential it seems on a constant basis, but not enough to maintain that 100% (at least not for spans of more than 3-6 days). What should I be doing? It seems I’m stuck in this constant cycle of 3-6 days of mediocre performance 3-6 days 100% performance. And it used to be cycles of 1 day of 100%, 12 days of 80%, and I’m not exactly sure how I improved (ie, it wasn’t systematic, it was more organic).

Bleh, does anyone know what I’m talking about here?

15

In my experience, you can’t have your motivational switch turn on all of the time

I agree with you. from my own experience, I also get that we cannot have constant motivation. because I know for sure human is fluctuating, it means, sometimes we have very high spirit to get our dream but sometimes we can sometimes go down because of some depression.

However, we still can maintain our motivation by doing some strategies. for most people to maintain motivation, we need to write down our dream in a book. It is also have a date when we want to achieved that. so It seems like dateline target. If we go down for some reason, we can take a look again about our dream and visualize that we want it so bad, then our motivation will rise again.

16

I think what I’m really talking about is WILL… how to frame my mind to maximize it? I have discipline to work 80% of my potential it seems on a constant basis, but not enough to maintain that 100%. What should I be doing?

Bleh, does anyone know what I’m talking about here?

I think so.

It’s not a feeling I’m after (the feeling of “let’s do it!”). It’s the willingness, the willingness to fight against all pain and laziness to do something 100% that never ends until death – is this even possible?

What’s the effective difference? If you had a constant “let’s do it!” feeling, wouldn’t you constantly be willing to fight?

17

This is a great thread and I am glad to see it on here. I am a big fan of over-ambitiousness and would have no issue adding to my goals building a space ship and flying to Neptune for the girl of my dreams. In fact I work a lot with the Lifeboat Foundation which ultimately seeks to build self sustaining space stations to spread human civilization out in order to mitigate the threats posed by cataclysmic events. I literally want to see these space stations built, as a long term goal. I have too many goals to even list and was pleased to see the other day in The Romantic Manifesto “There ought to be no limit to the ambitions of the rational man” Some of these goals are short term, some medium range, some long term. I tend to rank all my goals out according to their range of time and their likelihood, so while I have a near term goal of designing and building a motorcycle, and this is not an unlikely accomplishment, helping to build a space station and getting humanity to spread among the stars is a very long term goal and not very likely, but that doesn’t mean I wont pay attention to it, and consider it occasionally.

Comparing all my short and long term goals leads me down paths which are conducive to all of them. So in the process of pursuing a short term goal of the motorcycle, I am working toward a long term goal of learning all the skills I require to make just about anything (metal casting, composite construction, machining, welding, etc) a skill set obviously required in order to build a space ship to fly to Neptune! The most likely scenario will be accomplishing the motorcycle and the ability to make almost any material structure, but hey, if I get to build a space ship, that’s totally cool as well.

Similarly, in the process of working with the Lifeboat Foundation, I research everything I can about space stations designs (as I designed and wrote up most of the technical description of their “Ark I” design), get to actually design a reasonable projection of what said space station might be like (I did all the design and 3D animation / modeling of the space station) get professionally skilled in 3D animation and paid while doing it (how many people get to say their job was designing a space station!), and ultimately I work toward (making a little bit of progress) the ultimate long term goal of seeing technologically advanced scientific civilization spread out among the stars.

So my advice on goals is to rationally prioritize them, but don’t be afraid to have overly ambitious ones. Keep an eye out for things conducive to short, midrange, and long term goals, definitely concretize progress in those goals, try to work toward each of your major goals a little bit each day (or week)

As for motivation there have been a lot of great suggestions and comments made here. Im glad to see so many people working hard toward goals, on many other Rand inspired forums I don’t see very much of this. I always say in the back of my mind “every single moment of your life you choose to think or no think, to act or not act, to grow or stagnate” (similar to other sentiments expressed here) Even so, I get unmotivated at times, so I look for ways to combat that. Variety helps, I may work on my motorcycle for some time and get frustrated, so usually I’ll switch to something else, some research, an animation I am working on, or just a different project in general. Then when I go back to the original problem, I am refreshed and ready to take it on again. I also try to pay very close attention to hints at changes in mood, and I try to do things to deflect those changes, listen to some great music, (Ode to Joy is a good one) re-read the “I am” speech from Anthem, or something like that. The earlier you stop a change in mood the easier it is. If you let it go too long, it seems to perpetuate itself, and you get completely unmotivated. Even in those cases though, sometimes absolutely forcing yourself to work, no matter how difficult it is, ultimately leads to some begrudging idea or insight that instantly re-motivates you (Rearden realizing the different bridge design is a great concretization of that, I have had it happen many times to me)

So for remaining motivated I try to do things which prevent the decrease of motivation (like variety) and also keep an eye out for things that hint that I might be about to get unmotivated, and I try to combat those mood swings before they get too pervasive. Ultimately, even in the most un motivated moments (it is psychological difficult at times to have so many long term goals) usually just going to bed refreshes me.

In all this, I have sought ways to absolutely maximize the time available to me. Books on tape and Audio Lectures are absolutely great, if you haven’t gotten hooked on these things I definitely recommend it. I routinely work on my bike while listening to a lecture (Or Atlas Shrugged about 1/year, read by Kate Reading, an amazing performance, which definitely helps to keep me motivated) I have found I can competently listen to something intellectually stimulating while doing some visually demanding work, and I can do both simultaneously very well. So I often do 3D animation or drawings / sketches while listening to lectures / audio books. Over the last few weeks I have trained myself to be able to listen to lectures *while* I was at work doing my normal day job (computer tech / engineer) and I am even now able to read / respond to emails *while* listening to a lecture / book. Something that was very very difficult at first and gave me a few very unproductive work days, but now is awesome, I am not bragging here, but sharing a way to maximize productivity, I think anyone normal human could do this. I have read that NASA technicians during the Apollo machines could listen to, and process, 5 conversations simultaneously. I am able to do 2 now. I also used to get my news from the radio in the morning drive, but often was frustrated at choosing between whatever book I was listening to and getting the current news, concurrently I also noticed a lot of time in the day which I could be listening to something intellectually stimulating, while shopping for groceries or even walking to and from my car, so I added a small MP3 player to my repertoire, now I enjoy listening to the news AND a lecture (the NPR news information content is very low anyway, they yap about stupid things ½ the time) or even just a book or lecture and some nice music as well, I have found it’s very easy to pay attention to both.

I have also tried reducing the total amount of sleep I need, giving me more hours per day to work. The first poster mentioned the guy who works 20 hours per day and sleeps only 4, I am always skeptical of claims like that, but being in better shape definitely helps, but it doesn’t seem entirely impossible from my experience. Eat better, don’t eat before you go to sleep, do some exercises right before going to sleep, etc. I have found lately that I need less sleep now that I sleep less, which is odd. I go to bed about 2 or 3 am every weeknight now and wake at 8 to work the day. I used to make sure I was in bed by 12 or 1 at the latest, and was still tired throughout the day. Now, with less sleep, I am less tired consistently throughout the week. I have also used Modafinil and Adrafinil with promising results.

Ultimately, I think I am about 75% as productive as I could be, best case scenario. If you read about the lives of people like Tesla or Newton, you see that almost every single waking moment of their lives were productive, these people were probably operating at 95% maximum potential. But neither had a love life or even romantic interests, and Einstein’s most productive years were those where he was living in a different country than his wife. So to be as productive as you could possibly be, one would have to forego a lot of other things in life you might find value in, but conversely often times in the long run these things might help you achieve your long term goals better (Tesla could have certainly used some more rational influence throughout the second half of his life) So in pursuit of your goals don’t become a productive robot with no human values.

18

It’s not a feeling I’m after (the feeling of “let’s do it!”). It’s the willingness, the willingness to fight against all pain and laziness to do something 100% that never ends until death – is this even possible?

Occasional relaxation is a requirement of proper neurological function. No one can focus on just one thing for an unlimited time.

Then there is the matter of sleep. When you are asleep you are not focusing on an objective. And there is not non-fatal way of putting off sleep indefinitely.

Then there are the natural needs of the body. When bowel, bladder and stomach bid, you think of going to the bathroom. or the refrigerator. However brief, this is a breach of focus.

So my answer to your question is: No.

Bob Kolker

19

I want to chime in on this topic, because I feel like a god at the moment.

You know how people like Franco and Galt, Rand describes them as feeling like if any problem were presented, as long as they had their reason, they could break though it with the force of ten men? That’s like me, baby. I feel unstoppable at the moment. There was a short moment when I felt a bit confused and unsure, but I worked a way out and I feel even better.

I’m going to remain fairly ambiguous, in the hopes that someone else feels this way and knows what I’m talking about. I feel like my heart is elevated inside my chest, and my mind is more focused than any drug could manage. I have goals set, which I’m working may way out to achieve. I’ve got goals which I’ve just achieved, aspirations that I’m painfully close to.

Along with all the work I’m getting done for my exams, I’m also in love. And it’s a love that, well, you know how Rearden felt trapped with Lillian, but then he met Dagny, and when he finally realised why he was worthy enough for her, a huge weight was lifted? It’s like that for me right now, except I’ve left the girl that was making me miserable, and I’ve made myself worthy enough for the girl who embodies my values.

Is constant motivation possible? The answer is: one never looses one reason, though one can loose their focus. Always maintain your focus, accept no substitute for your own judgement, and you will always get your way back to your motivation.

20

What an awesome thread.

I’m going to wake up at 5am tomorrow and stretch for 5 minutes and then go for a walk or half jog in some areas for 20.

I’m a sloth right now and its about time I rid of it.

However I fear the “I’m going to do X…” and come tomorrow I press the snooze on my alarm clock, wake up strolling to the kitchen in search of coffee, and too lazy to make any good food so I put a pie in the microwave and end up feeling like I’m on 20% for the rest of the day.

I guess I should focus on the day after tomorrow, I think this will be the hardest, to make it a habit…

Sure you can wake up at 5AM after 5-7 hours sleep and go for a jog feeling like a drunk, but its the next day that’s harder and I should focus on tomorrow as a given, that I’m going to do what I say.

By the way there’s a reason to all this, I don’t exercise outside of working at a supermarket and I’ve had 2 weeks off with the chicken pox, I figured all this lazing around makes me feel out of sync and I just want to be a morning person long term anyway (I’ve always been 2am-11am sleeper/etc).

#edit: I think this initial activity should make me productive all day, it tends to do that with me, and 5am is like a magic number for productivity – maybe it’s those fibonaccis.