How Motivation Really Works

What IS motivation?
Motivation is a mysterious brain-based state that stimulates and directs our goal-oriented behavior. At its core, motivation is based on emotions - our desire to have positive emotional experiences, and to avoid negative emotional experiences.

But the question of what serves to actually motivates us is where huge individual differences come into the picture. Truthfully, we each have our own unique ideas about what is positive, and what is negative.

Physiological Needs and Motivation.
The easiest type of motivation to understand is the desire to satisfy our basic physiological needs like hunger, thirst, and avoiding pain. But even these fundamental motivations are conditioned. For example: Anorexia nervosa is a cultural disease related to the view that an extremely lean body is more attractive than a full-figured body.

Peak Performance Motivators.
Top performers have unique control over their motivation, and have developed the ability to motivate and inspire themselves at will. For example, top performing athletes people are successful because they control their mental states. Because of their level of mental control, they can motivate themselves to practice their skills day after day, and to commit unconditionally to their coach.

Developing More Motivation.
The good news is that elite-level motivation is a learnable skill. But contrary to popular assumptions, this is far more that the result of positive thinking. The higher levels of motivation are directly tied to your brain states and mental contents.

In terms of brain states, this refers to the actual combination of your brainwaves. In terms of mental contents, the reference is to your combined beliefs, memories and personal expectations - all of which are glued together to form what psychologists call your self-concept, or self-image.

Unfortunately most of our parents and teachers were not trained as motivational coaches, and have no concept of the damage that can be done with criticism and lack of support. Hence many of us grow up believing we have shortcomings and limited capabilities.

If you are experiencing motivational shortcomings, nine times out of ten this is directly related to your early childhood mental programming. This mental programming then creates brainwave configurations in your brain that can depress your motivation. The only real answer is to reprogram yourself from the brain-out.

If you truly have a personal desire to get past what holds you back and leap forward, I invite you to come check out this our programs we offer on our website.