Motivate yourself with visions, goals and willpower | Hugo Kehr | TEDxTUM

[Music] well imagine you have kissed a frog and he grants you one wish one wish to cure one of the ails of mankind which one would you choose hunger illness war but of course the problem is if you choose hunger there was to be illness and if you choose illness there was to be war well if I had one wish I would choose to cure demotivation with a magic tool that allows me to motivate people whenever I need I could motivate everyone to solve the most pressing problems of mankind and we'd always have the maximum energy for it well of course there is no frog no magic to cure demotivation but there is a new model that helps us understand the reason for the motivation and it's much easier to find a cure once we know exactly why was sometimes demotivated well the new model is pretty straightforward and easy to apply let me ask you some questions to demonstrate what do you associate with the term head well you may think of eyes nose and ears but most people also associate head with rational thinking reason what we find important now what do you associate with heart well most people associate heart with emotional feelings perhaps intuition and what comes to to your mind when you see this little illustration head and heart well you may think of balance or quite the contrary conflict and some people think of a decision the need for a decision now this is pretty much what we find in our research at the term school of management here head is associated with our goals and values our so called cognitive preferences so what we find important and hard is associated with our unconscious motives that lead to effective preferences or we really like we also find that the overlap section is associated with harmony and well-being but what if the two circles are don't aligned what if either heart ahead are left out well research has shown that discrepancies between head nod reduce our well-being they lead to stress and burnout and they make it harder to reach our goals in fact even if you reach the goals that are not supported by your heart this may not lead to happiness it's more like so what I've ticked that box what's the next goal and if you do that for 20 years pursuing goals then that has nothing to do with you you may come to the stage where you say to your partner honey I'm just going to buy a pack of cigarettes and off you go and you'd never be seen again so how do we deal with discrepancies between head and heart well this leads to another facet of the model willpower well I guess you're all familiar with the term willpower but what exactly is it when do we need willpower and when don't we need for willpower can you think of an example most people would say you need willpower the moment things get difficult when I struggle when I have to do something that I don't like but at only did willpower when I have to do something that I like so you could even say you need willpower the moment your motivation stops a lot of willpower is needed for big tasks for example a marathon especially if you have to get through the last few kilometers so how does this relate to the head and heart model well willpower is needed here head but not heart something is important to me but it's not pleasurable think of doing the dishes pumping up your bicycle tire overtime work these things are important but they're not fun exerting willpower can mean using positive fantasies for example how good will I or others feel when the bike runs well again when the works being done I call this willpower type 1 now type 2 willpower is needed here in this sector heart would not hit so something has our emotional support but it's not aligned to our cognitive preferences you may experience this as a temptation for example spending excessive time on the internet smoking cigarettes cheating on your partner willpower is needed here for example negative fantasies what if I don't get to work done on time because I wasted it on the Internet what is my partner found out about the infidelity no willpower is needed here in the overlap sector because there is no internal conflict now this will power the magical weapon the magic that allows us overcome all sorts of internal conflict if this was the case we could basically ignore all discrepancies between head nod and always use the sheer force of our willpower well unfortunately this is not the case research has shown that willpower can be ineffective think of the difficulty is to stick to a diet or to stop smoking it is strenuous and unpleasant well it's not fun to not eat a tempting chocolate cake and it's a resource just like money that can be used up let me illustrate this with an example from our research we created a conflict between head and heart and the idea was that dealing with this conflict would require willpower and this willpower would then be lacking for other subsequent tasks we select the participants with a low-power motive who do not like to influence and control other people and we ask these people to play the role of a very strict father who overly controls his son no you must not play this theater group oh please study I said no we thought that people with low power mode if wouldn't like their task they would need willpower to play the straight father after the role plane we gave our participants a second self-control task they had to keep a straight face while watching a very funny movie and those were the low power mode if they cracked up laughing so you see that discrepancies between head and heart can or require willpower and this willpower is then lacking father tasks some researchers have come up with the idea with metaphor of willpower as muscle the idea being that just as a muscle that is used up by training you can use up your willpower so discrepancies between head and heart require willpower and this willpower can then be lacking father tasks now what if there is an overlap between and heart in other words our cognitive preferences are aligned with our affective preferences well this is the zone of our intrinsic motivation and I guess most of you are familiar with the concept of intrinsic motivation we are intrinsically motivated when we do something for the sake of doing it because we like it well here in the sector is our extrinsic motivation something is important to us perhaps we expect a big reward but it's not pleasurable it's not supported by our emotions and as stated we need willpower whenever we are extrinsically motivated now here in this sector hard would not hit so something has our emotional support but it's not aligned to our cognitive preferences to our goals so there is the potential for intrinsic motivation but we try to suppress it think of spending excessive time on internet cheating on your partner you name it okay so this is basically what we need to know about head and heart but there is a third component to our motivation that is also pretty important shouldn't be neglected imagine the following scene a guy's playing tennis he seems highly motivated so head nod is not an issue here but he misses the ball he likes what he does he finds it important but he keeps missing the ball what is this tennis player lacking exactly skills and abilities so we need to add a third circle to the model and true be consistent I call it hand and is also metaphor it stands for our skills abilities experiences actual related knowledge head heart and hand well this is actually quite an old triad it goes back to your own Heinrich Pestalozzi a famous Swiss educator in the early 19th century but of course the comprehensive not model is new I call it the 3 C model the three components of motivation the 3 C model suggests that ideally all three components are fulfilled but what can we expected this is the case what is the optimal motivation Csikszentmihalyi a hungarian researcher who works in the state's study people with optimal motivation tango dancers surgeons chess players he asked these people how you feel while performing a task and they all get pretty much the same answers they said I'm fully concentrated on my task there is no self monitoring the time flies and I think I'm in full control over what I'm doing chicks Mei call this experience flow and he suggested that flow is the secret to happiness now what is your flow activity at which activity do you personally regularly experience flow a threesome all suggest that all three components need to be fulfilled for flow to happen check this out for yourself and do you have the skills and abilities for your flow activity yes so Hannah's fulfilled head do you find your flow activity important I guess so so ed is also fulfilled and I'm pretty sure that your heart is also in it in fact research has shown that it is critical for flow that our heart is in it so what can we do in practice to more often achieve flow and intrinsic motivation to make sure that whatever we do it has the emotional support needed well I would like to illustrate this with an example perhaps you have a project in mind that you intend to realize could be something from your private or your professional life maybe you want to renovate your flat or you prepare a long backpacking trip I will use the example that I try to open up my own startup business now I suggest a two-step approach first check your motivation and then second find appropriate support well to check our motivation I can use the 3d model I call this the 3c check to find out about your head you can ask yourself is it really important to me to open a startup is it aligned to my personal goals what is in for me are their goal conflicts perhaps other important goals and what is the goal behind the goal why am i doing this well to find out about your heart you may want to close your eyes imagine all the things that need to be done to open up a startup business develop your product find some partners find the right clients try to really see these things happen this leads to emotional reaction react and then answer these questions do I really like a project what parts of the projects are fun and pleasurable what other parts are less fun are their belly aches or fears and to find out about your hand you can ask yourself to have the skills abilities for this task for this project that successfully real are similar projects in the past so you see how the 3c chap can can help you analyze your motivation now come step to find appropriate support well let's assume the situations like this you found out your 3c check that you really find it important to open the start up and your heart is also in it you'd love to do it but you're not sure about your skills and abilities well here you can try to find a coach a trainer perhaps a personal assistant and maybe by networking you find some people the right people to help you now what is here in this sector um you'd really love to open a start up you have all the skills and abilities needed but you're not sure whether this is the right thing to do maybe because there are other important goals you might may think of you want to stay with your current employer and a stable income so here you should try to increase your goal commitment by convincing yourself with better arguments maybe find new incentives perhaps a new tax advisor and you can try to resolve conflicts by reprioritizing goals now what is here in this combination you find the project really important and you have all the skills and abilities needed well most people wouldn't hesitate any longer they would just go for it imagine in the company your boss he would be really happy if he found out that you find a project really important and you have all the skills needed we tend to ignore the heart while this combination is why we are sometimes not motivated to pursue our own important goals this is why managers fail at reaching their targets this is why companies fail at implementing change they all ignore the emotional component but here's the thing we cannot ignore the emotion component we know that this combination needs willpower and we know that willpower is a costly resource and we know the chances are high that we may so what can we do here well find support avoid negative self motivation if I fail I'll be doomed find new motivators if you are a social person try to find some friends and to open the start up together and you want may want to try to develop a compelling vision your personal vision why are you doing is it I just opening this startup for the money create a bigger picture real vision has the potential to engage your heart well in here the optimum motivation all three components are fulfilled here you can really trust your self-management in a company I'd say you can now delegate the project to your coworker but you may want to make regular check-ups because the boundary conditions may change so this is how the 3c check can help you enhance your motivation and make it more likely to succeed I strongly recommend using a 3c check as part of your daily routines in fact it even works with children well I have a few more minutes left and I would like to use them to address another important issue that is related to our motivation let's assume you have the choice between doing something that you really like and something else have you really disliked what would you choose but of course this is a no-brainer in fact it is a classic motivational principle that people approach pleasure and avoid pain this seems to be true for all animals even amoeba we call this the hedonic principle well then of course our reality is much more complex sometimes we do choose goals that we don't like we go to the dentist even if we know it may hurt we prepare for a stressful exam instead of just watching TV so why is this well this is a philosophical question what leads to a better life always trying to maximize pleasure or foregoing pleasure and striving for something higher why should power loss become ourselves let's get back to the head and heart model heart stands for our current needs and fulfillment of our current needs leads to pleasure and instant gratification but then there is also the head what we find import but had all our stands for a cognitive capacity to anticipate future needs so the student may think which study programs do I need to complete before I find a job the employer you may think how much money do we need to save before I retire so we have the capacity to anticipate our future needs and we can also suppress our current needs because of higher anticipated needs this is why we go to the dentist even we know it may hurt now this is an amazing skill of ours a skill that needs to be used wisely know exactly well let me give you my message in a nutshell develop your personal vision the positive motivating picture of your future use this vision to find the really important goals in your life apply the 3c check to shape these goals so they have a maximum of emotional support and then pursue these goals with some minimal help from your willpower it is not so difficult to achieve success in some way but this is the key for its success that also makes you happy disclaimer I have a great dentist and it never hurts and my partner knows everything [Applause] [Music]

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 608,736

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Germany, Life, Achievement, Anthropology, Brain, Career, Control, Decision making, Goal-setting, Happiness, Life Development, Life Hack, Mindfulness, Motivation, Personal growth, Positive Thinking, Social Science, Society, Success, Work

Id: iuIisjRIcVI

Length: 17min 1sec (1021 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 09 2017