Your "Motivation Problem" May Be Something Else Entirely

Written by a human, for humans, always.

So many people say that they want to change some aspect of their lives or to accomplish some goal...

But they fail to make progress.

One of the most common things you will hear people say when they struggle is that they "lack motivation".

Here's the reality that most people are unaware of...

Motivation is a brain problem...

And you really do not need motivation to make progress at something.

I can tell you from my own life that there are "many" days where I lack any kind of motivation...

Yet I make progress toward my goals.

You can ask most parents if they feel motivated to be a good parent...

And many of them will say they haven't felt motivated in a while...

But they still do it.

You can ask most people in business if they feel motivated to do their jobs...

And especially in today's world of excessive burnout, they will tell you that they definitely were not motivated...

But they still do it.

The reality is that "motivation" is a brain problem that is not really needed to move forward...

And to rely on motivation becomes an aspect of the Brain Trap...

Believing that the Brain is the solution to everything...

Including making progress toward our goals.

You do need your brain to help you out...

But there are usually other psychophysiological problems at play that actually get in the way of your brain being able to accomplish that...

And worse...

When you are unaware of them, they make you "believe" that you have a "motivation problem"...

When that does not really exist.

So, what else could your "motivation problem" be?

I have 8 other potential psychophysiological culprits for your "motivation problems"...

Which, if resolved, may allow you to make the progress you seek...

Even without any motivation.

The first is a lack of energy (Mg-ATP).

Our bodies run on mitochondrial energy, or Magnesium Adenosine Triphosphate (aka Mg-ATP).

The body, primarily through our Neurogastroenterological systems, does a (not so) simple calculation...

How much energy can be created versus how much energy is being expended.

If there is more energy created than is being expended...

We have a much easier time doing things in our lives.

But...

If we are expending more energy than we are creating...

The body goes into a lockdown mode...

And will seek out ways to subconsciously reduce energy expenditure.

What this means...

Is that your "lack of motivation"...

May simply be your body telling you that you do not have the energy to pursue that endeavor.

This ties very closely with our second potential problem...

Underdeveloped (or undeveloped) energy (Mg-ATP) pathways.

The body has a natural capacity to seek ways to use less energy where it is able.

One way it accomplishes this is by developing energy pathways...

Essentially making it easier on the body to do certain actions that we consistently do by making the pathways for those actions more efficient.

An example of this is what we call "habits".

When we do an action over and over again...

The body makes all the energy pathways more efficient to pursue that action again...

Until we reach a point where it is so efficient...

That it actually, physiologically speaking, is easier for the body to do that action than to not do that action.

So, interestingly, you can end up doing something so consistently that doing nothing ends up consuming more energy than doing that thing.

This is great when those energy pathways allow us to do things we "want" to do...

But...

They often become a challenge when we want to do something "different"...

Because the energy pathways toward that different path have not been developed.

So...

The body will naturally encourage us toward more developed energy pathways...

Making it more difficult to change and develop new energy pathways.

What this means is that we need to change the inertia in such a way that the new energy pathway can be built...

And less desirable pathways can begin to decay, as an energy pathway unused will begin to stop being enforced, just like an abandoned road will break apart.

Now, when we combine this with the first challenge already mentioned...

Building a new pathway requires available energy...

So if you lack energy...

Your body may actually be creating a double barrier toward where your brain wants to start heading.

The new pathway requires energy that you do not have...

And the alternative is already built...

So you may as well just continue doing what is easier to do...

Or so the logic of the body determines and supersedes the desire of the brain.

Your motivation problem here is just that you have not developed the energy pathways toward a newly desired action.

But we still have other potential challenges that exist.

Our third issue may be active psychophysiological barriers to change...

Specifically, excess cortisol, oxidative stress, and the active state of burnout.

When our bodies encounter stressors...

There are physiological responses that occur in the body.

Cortisol is created, which is, in theory, designed to help us overcome the stressor.

It pushes us into a process to overcome those stressors, but those processes create a physiological exhaust known as Oxidative Stress, or Stress Damage.

When things are working appropriately...

The Cortisol decreases as the stressors are resolved...

And the body will remove and repair the Oxidative Stress.

That is...

"If" things are working properly.

But there is a large problem that is happening in today's world.

Stressors are increasing...

So Cortisol levels are rising above what the body can handle...

This is causing more Oxidative Stress than the body can remove and repair from...

Plus, the body is not lowering Cortisol levels "enough" overall...

Which begins to create a Vicious Cycle where Cortisol remains high, Oxidative Stress accumulates in the body...

And eventually we collapse into Burnout.

Here's the challenge...

To truly recover from Burnout...

Requires Cortisol levels to be "low enough"...

And requires specific nutrients in the body to remove and repair from Oxidative Stress...

While simultaneously "not" collapsing into complete disengagement and boredom.

(Which boredom and disengagement usually become physiological stressors; See Behavioral Enrichment studies, most often associated with animals but equally applicable to humans, to understand this.)

Then...

Assuming you actually do all of that correctly...

Which most people do not...

How long does it actually take to recover from Burnout?

A "minimum" of 3 weeks for "lesser" levels of Burnout...

To over a full year of intentional recovery in more extreme cases of Burnout.

Your "vacation" is not going to cut it.

But, especially in today's world, a large factor in what people believe is a "lack of motivation" may be an excess of cortisol and oxidative stress...

That has devolved into Burnout...

And because all change is itself a stressor...

Causes the body to deter us from making the changes we seek.

What else could be at play?

Our fourth potential factor is a Dopamine Addiction.

As humans, we like to feel good.

One of the ways this is accomplished is through Dopamine.

Various things in our lives can trigger Dopamine to be released...

And we often seek out things that create that "hit".

Here's the challenge...

Often, moving down new paths is challenging at first...

And the dopamine that "could" be created may take a bit of time and effort.

So we may not "feel" the hit immediately.

Plus...

There are many things in our lives that are designed, purposefully, to trigger Dopamine hits.

This occurs with phone notifications, junk food, and so much more.

So...

What happens is that certain things may create a higher consistency of Dopamine hits...

Which can become physiologically addictive.

If we become accustomed to a certain level of hits...

We may seek out Dopamine hits just to stay at that level of consistency.

But...

Because doing new things may not trigger the hits "enough"...

We feel "less interested" in those things, usually subconsciously...

And we are driven to pursue things that trigger the Dopamine hits, also usually subconsciously.

What you have assumed is a motivation problem may actually be a Dopamine Addiction Problem.

This will bring us to our fifth potential psychophysiological problem: a Nervous System Response.

As we go through life, we experience challenges.

Our Nervous System has its own neurological network...

Separate and interdependent with the Brain's neurological network...

That is designed to protect us and keep us safe as we experience these challenges...

Able to react and determine courses of action even before we consciously recognize what is occurring and come to logically come to conclusions.

As the Nervous System does this, it keeps "Aspects" of events stored in what are called "Memory Capsules".

These Aspects can be any sort of detail that occurs from these challenges...

An emotional feeling...

A color we saw...

A taste in our mouth...

The look of someone we saw...

Just about anything can be stored as an Aspect within a Memory Capsule.

The more challenging something is that we experience...

The stronger the Memory Capsule reacts in the future.

The more often we experience an Aspect through the challenges of life...

The stronger the Memory Capsule reacts in the future.

As the Memory Capsule encounters and reacts to Aspects more and more...

The neural network within the Memory Capsule grows...

And it can even grow to the point where it becomes a Trauma Capsule...

(Which does not need to meet the commonly held definition of "trauma" that we have come to talk about often in the world today.)

Even to the point where the Trauma Capsule can become experienced as physical pain, despite there being no physical damage in the area...

Or become so frequent that the Trauma Capsule rarely turns off.

Now...

If an Aspect even "resembles" something in relation to something that we are considering pursuing...

Even the thought of that Aspect can trigger the Memory or Trauma Capsule...

Causing us to physiologically seek to "escape" from what is triggering it.

In this respect, motivation is not the problem...

Your Nervous System may have stored something that it is determining may be too challenging for us...

Deterring us, subconsciously, from pursuing that path altogether.

Our sixth potential problem is Environmental Sheltering.

Every single thing we do...

Occurs in the context of the environment we are in.

Sometimes...

Our bodies can detect threats within our environments...

Sometimes in ways that our Brains cannot physically detect.

A subtle smell could trigger us...

Electromagnetic waves and a neurocardiological entrainment pull...

There are vastly more things that our bodies can become aware of than our Brains can keep conscious track of.

And...

If there is something that can feel wrong within an environment...

Our bodies may send signals throughout to seek out escape from that specific environment.

So your "lack of motivation" may not actually be a problem with the specific action you are seeking to pursue...

But rather, it could be a psychophysiological reaction to the specific environment that you are seeking to do it in.

If this is the problem you are facing, and you were to do that same thing in a different environment...

You would discover that doing the action is no longer a challenge.

Your psychophysiology may simply be trying to environmentally shelter you from something you are unaware of.

Then we can move to our seventh potential problem...

An Identity or Values Mismatch.

We all hold different Identities and Values in our lives...

Both known and unknown...

Actual and aspirational.

Sometimes there are things we seek to do...

Which do not seem to have a connection to any of the Identities or Values we are holding strongly to currently.

When there is no connection...

Or a connection that is not strong enough...

We tend to prioritize other things that are more aligned with our current Identities and Values.

This is frequently a subconscious demotivator toward new actions.

For instance...

Many people "know" that they may benefit from a diet...

But that new diet does not connect with them personally at the Identity or Value level.

However...

Their current diet usually has ties to emotional Values, family or cultural Values and Identities, and more...

Making it difficult to transition.

So, it may not be a motivation problem...

You may just currently lack a strong enough Identity and Value match to the desired change or action.

For our final psychophysiological problem...

You may have a missing human need that your psychophysiology determines is more important.

Often in life, our "Brain" might want or desire something...

But we "need" something different...

And because of that, our bodies will not "feel motivated" to do...

Sometimes anything...

Because we are lacking something our psychophysiology drastically needs.

For instance...

As humans, we need things like...

Companionship (platonic and familial primarily)...

Physical movement (which does not need to be extreme, but should incorporate most of the body)...

Novelty (we have a natural tendency toward growth and increasing our abilities, which means, over time, our challenges should become novel)...

And more.

When we lack these things...

Our psychophysiology is missing something that it determines is essential.

At first, it will push us toward behaviors that it "hopes" will attain these things...

But it is often limited by what we know or do not know, along with other psychophysiological challenges and blocks that might shape our behavior.

If we continue to go without these things...

Our bodies may, quite literally, begin to simply give up.

The "lack of motivation" has nothing to do with what you are trying to direct yourself to do...

It has to do with the body giving up because it continuously is not getting something that you need as a human being.

If you begin to give yourself these human needs in life...

You will frequently begin to discover that you are more motivated in life in general.

A fulfilled human life can lead to many great things...

And when we are not living as humans (such as experiencing life as a cog in a machine)...

Everything begins to feel pointless.

So, we need to start to understand what we "need" as humans...

And incorporate those into our lives...

Stop neglecting them.

One of these eight, or any combination of them, is often what prevents us from moving forward in our lives in the ways we want to.

We may perceive them as a "lack of motivation"...

But what is stopping us is not really motivation.

We do not need motivation to actually move forward in our lives...

But there are other psychophysiological things we do need...

And problems we need to be aware of...

If we hope to make the progress we seek in life.

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