JoyLynn Hailey Reed, Ph.D.

We all know what motivation is, right? If we are trying to eat healthfully and we turn down French fries, we tell friends we are motivated. If we exercise, we are happy that we are motivated. But do we really know what motivation is and understand how it works?

Philosophers and psychologists have studied motivation for hundreds of years and learned that it is complicated but not mysterious. We can understand motivation and use it to our advantage. The next time you say, “I’m just not motivated to exercise,” you could realize that motivation is not an on/off switch like a light.

So, what IS motivation. There are so many ways to define and explain it but let’s start with this:

· Motivation = What you expect to get from something + What you value about it

If we are talking about healthy eating, we might say:

· Motivation for healthy eating = Feeling energetic + Valued because energy lets me make it through the day

If we are talking about exercise, we might say:

· Motivation for exercise = Looking leaner + Valued because I like to get compliments

We become less motivated when either we don’t expect to get anything from our efforts or we don’t put a high enough value on what we will get. Thinking about the healthy eating example, if we do not believe that eating healthy foods will give us more energy, we do not have a reason to do it. Or, maybe we believe that choosing good food will energize us but we think we already have enough energy every day. If either of these thoughts is true, we won’t worry about eating healthy food.

Just as most people won’t buy a product they don’t want or need, most people won’t do something that doesn’t give them a valued result. The problem is that most of us feel guilty for the “shoulds” that we don’t do instead of realizing that those things are not what we WANT to do.

Is there something that you would like to be motivated to do? To accomplish it, start by analyzing your thoughts about it. Ask yourself these questions:

1. What exactly is it that I want to do? Remember that specific motivations are better than general ones. For example, “I want to walk for 20 minutes today” helps with motivation more than “I want to exercise.”

2. What will I get that will make me happy or make my life better in some way? For example, “if I eat more fruits and vegetables, I might not have to take as much medication as I take now.”

3. How much do I value that outcome? Is it worth my time and effort? For example, “I definitely want to spend less money on prescriptions every month so I can save for a trip.”

The next time you think about something you “should” do, analyze your motivation and decide whether it would give you a valuable outcome. This can free you from feeling guilty and let you focus on what you ARE motivated to do.

Tip: Get a motivation notebook where you can write down the things you think you “should” do and keep track of their outcomes and how much you value those results. This step can tell you a lot about what motivates you.