How To Force Your Brain To Crave Doing Hard Things

science shows there's a hidden

motivation switch located deep in the

brain that unlocks a level of motivation

more powerful than money praise or fame

one that practically forces your brain

to Crave doing the hard work you keep

putting

off I'm ran Daris co-founder and CEO of

the flow research Collective and along

with my partner Steven Cutler we've

taught thousands of professionals how to

access flow States at will now picture

this you've set your alarm early

determined to start the day right when

it rings you hit snooze repeatedly last

night's enthusiasm has already

evaporated and the blanket weighs you

down like a concrete slab the day ahead

feels like an enemy to avoid instead of

a challenge to conquer at your desk the

cursor blinks and your to-do list stares

back at you you know you should work but

something inside you just won't

cooperate lunch comes and goes you tell

yourself you'll start soon but the

afternoon finds you lost in distractions

chasing trivial tasks while the

important ones Loom large and untouched

and the day ends and the weight of what

you didn't accomplish settles in as you

put your head on the pillow you feel the

sting of disappointment having fallen

short of the potential you know you're

capable of one more day if you

experienced this sort of depletion in

Drive know this you're not lazy

procrastination isn't the problem and

there's nothing abnormal about you the

problem is more than a lack of

motivation rather the issue is that you

lack a specific type of motivation which

we're going to cover in a moment and

we're going to cover a number of

science-backed solutions for how to

create Limitless motivation to do even

the most difficult laborious work and it

starts with upgrading your fuel source

so there's really two types of

motivational fuel one far out performs

the other the trouble is most of us are

stuck relying on the weaker of the two

extrinsic motivation comes from the

outside like money status and praise if

your fuel is extrinsic you act for the

sake of a reward extrinsic fuel works

but wains that's because for the brain

anticipation is more rewarding than

attainment dopamine which enhances focus

and motivation surges as we anticipate

something and plummets upon that thing's

attainment think of extrinsic rewards

like fossil fuels they come from forces

outside your control offering only a

temporary boost and unfortunately they

eventually run out intrinsic motivation

on the other hand comes from one's

inside it's made up of elements like

curiosity purpose and mastery if your

fuel is intrinsic you act for its own

sake and win with or without an external

reward you listen to the song to enjoy

the song not to finish listening to it

so think of intrinsic motivation more

like Fusion Energy the dominant source

of energy for the Stars within our

universe it's self- sustaining and

longlasting and Incredibly efficient

intrinsic fuel works better than

extrinsic Fuel and it compounds it makes

hard work easy leading to to an upward

spiral of skill development and access

to Flow State that optimal State of

Consciousness where we lose ourselves in

deep immersion within our work extrinsic

motivation can get you started but it's

intrinsic motivation that keeps you

going think of it like this a rocket

needs an extra booster engine to launch

but once it hits escape velocity the

booster falls off and it can cruise on

its remaining engines so how do you

upgrade your fuel source well it starts

by focusing on the five intrinsic

motivators curiosity mastery autotelic

purpose and autonomy and I'm going to

show you how to dial up each of these

intrinsic motivators for profound

Unstoppable levels of

motivation now I first felt the Deep

pain of a lack of intrinsic motivation

in my early 20s back in Ireland I was on

the academic path wanting to pursue a

PhD in Neuroscience researching optimal

States Of Consciousness and in my first

few years on this path I had enormous

insatiable Drive But as time went on

something began to shift my drive

started to Wayne wildly some days I was

reasonably driven but more commonly the

days started to feel like an endless

grind and I scratched my head wondering

what the hell was going on here and one

day while doing some research with my

current business partner Steven Cutler

he sent me a breakdown of the intrinsic

motivators the first one being curiosity

curiosity is the insatiable itch to

learn everything you can about your work

without it work ends when you leave the

office with it work is like reading a

book you can't put down for me on this

academic path to this PhD in

Neuroscience my curiosity was actually

really high it was all I could think

about I was gobbling up podcasts on the

topics of peak States Of Consciousness I

couldn't stop reading about them and

couldn't stop talking about this stuff

to my friends so when I read about this

intrinsic motivator in Steven's

breakdown I was confused about why my

drive was so flat then I read about the

next intrinsic motivator which is

purpose without purpose you're in the

proverbial Rat Race trading your life

for a paycheck in some faceless company

that exists just to make money when

purpose is present you're willing to

make sacrifices because the work is a

cause you care about and this resonated

with me tremendously on the academic

path my purpose felt really high I was

so passionate about what I was

researching knowing that if we could

figure out more about Consciousness

itself we could Elevate the quality of

The Human Experience for so many people

on Earth but I kept reading about the

other intrinsic motivators wondering at

this point why my drive was flat if

curiosity and purpose were high for me

the next one was Mastery math

is the pursuit of excellence and

continuous Improvement without this

drive you do just enough to get the job

done with it you're like a musician who

keeps practicing even after the

concert's over and here I realized wait

a second my Mastery Drive is low I can't

endlessly improve my ability to do the

activities within my academic work as I

read about the Mastery motivator I

thought hm maybe this is why my drive is

low then I came across the fourth

intrinsic motivator autot telicity which

is the love for the activities you do at

work audicity is derived from Greek

words meaning self-purpose it refers to

activities they rewarding in themselves

done for their own sake rather than for

an external reward with it you're like

one of those programmers you see in the

movies who just cannot stop programming

because they love the activity of coding

in and of itself without it you're like

an attorney who can't stand the actual

activity at the core of their work

reading trial cases that was me with an

Academia I didn't like designing studies

I didn't like crunching spreadsheets of

data was gathered from participants and

I realized that even though I loved the

topic I was studying with my curiosity

Drive being high and I found plenty of

purpose in it with my purpose Drive

being high the actual activities that I

did day to day hour to hour I hate it

it's one thing to love the idea of a

field it's another to love the daily

work it involves hour to hour so my

audicity was low too and it was now

becoming clear why my drive was sapping

down lastly the fifth intrinsic

motivator that I read about is autonomy

which is the feeling of being in control

of the when the how and the what of your

work without it you feel trapped like

someone else is pulling the strings with

it you choose what project to work on

how to work on it and what time a day

you do the work your work is truly your

own and in Academia for me autonomy was

basically at zero so I was stuck on the

academic hamster wield with three out of

my five intrinsic motivators flatlining

and the other two curiosity and purpose

being confined by the lack of autonomy

that I felt realizing this Clarity was

incredibly useful because I could then

look for a different Pursuit that had

just as high a level of curiosity and

purpose but also had high autonomy

Mastery and audicity so I used this

framework to identify a critical career

shift for me which was moving from

Academia to business I co-founded a

neuroscience-based research and training

business with my partner Steven Cutler

where my curiosity and purpose were

still just as is high with the study of

Consciousness and Flow State at the core

of what we do but Mastery audicity and

autonomy also went through the roof with

this career shift in terms of Mastery I

was reading books learning how to use

Financial spreadsheets and figuring out

how to recruit people to skill

development and Mastery possibilities

within business had no cap and any

Improvement I made improved the business

with immediate feedback occurring I love

the startup Hustle the creativity it

permitted and the clear results of the

work I put in which supercharged the

audicity intrinsic motivator and finally

I was in charge of when I worked what I

worked on how I approached it and how I

designed the whole business as we built

it there were no academic guard rails to

constrain me I had full unbounded

autonomy and within this business my

love for researching optimal States Of

Consciousness found a new expression one

where curiosity Mastery audicity purpose

and autonomy were finally aligned and

dialed up to their maximum

degree

now why are these intrinsic motivators

so powerful so potent for our Drive well

first having high levels in each

releases performance-enhancing

neurochemicals like neopine phrine

dopamine and acetal colon and they also

lower cognitive load both of these

mechanisms enhance focus and drive Flow

State this optimal State of

Consciousness where we feel our best and

function at our best and with INF flow

you get an additional Cascade of

neurochemistry indor orphin serotonin

anandamide and even oxytocin in group

flow States flood the brain now here's

the crazy part the intrinsic motivators

get you into flow they do but flow

itself then compounds your intrinsic

motivation this means that a virtuous

cycle can begin where the more motivated

you become the more flow you get and

since flow is the epicenter of intrinsic

motivation it compounds your motivation

even further leading to more flow and on

and on the cycle goes once you can get

in the vice grip of this virtuous cycle

where intrinsic motivation is feeding

flow and flow is feeding intrinsic

motivation you become unstoppably driven

this is why Titans of Industry like Elon

and Bezos can sustain extreme motivation

for multiple decades straight you see

this in every field though Einstein's

lifelong curiosity led to groundbreaking

discoveries like the theory of

relativity and Mari Cy's curiosity and

purpose led to pioneering radioactivity

research and two Nobel prizes van Go's

audit created iconic and celebrated

works of art and athletes like Michael

Jordan and Serena Williams were driven

by Mastery and autonomy earning Jordan 6

NBA championships and 23 Grand Slam

titles for Williams so what do all these

Peak performers have in common well

their intrinsic motivators are locked in

and maxed out consistently with

intrinsic motivation feeding flow and

flow feeding intrinsic motivation back

the cycle compounding on itself decade

after decade ratcheting their drive up

and up and up over time so let's dive

into these five intrinsic motivators and

untangle them a little bit more for you

in a way that allows you to start

thinking about how you can dial each of

these five up within your professional

life to access Unstoppable motivation so

curiosity what you explore you've likely

had times when you're supposed to be

doing something else but your mind keeps

wandering to that one fascinating topic

wherever your mind drifts is a compass

to your curiosity curiosity is not just

wanting to know it's a feeling of

needing to know and in fact as Mii chmi

The Godfather of Flo put it the flow

concept itself was developed as a result

of sheer curiosity it was the fruit of

pure research motivated only by the

desire to solve an intriguing puzzle in

the mechanism of human behavior from a

neurological perspective curiosity

activates the brain's reward system

releasing dopamine which increases

attention and pleasure in learning

Mastery what you improve this is the

ability to endlessly improve at what you

do if you've ever gotten really into a

sport one of the things that wrapped you

up within it was likely The Thirst to be

better today than yesterday that's

Mastery ever rewatched that killer

presentation that you absolutely crushed

just to analyze your craft or spent an

evening journaling breaking down a

recent Project's successes and failures

you don't just want to relive the wi you

want to understand how to make the next

game even better so master is about

skill acquisition and it releases

dopamine and endorphins the biochemical

markers of progression these

neurotransmitters set up a feedback loop

that enhances Focus as skills improve we

seek out greater challenges leading to

an upward spiral of growth and

engagement this involves the challenge

skill balance a trigger for Flow State

with flow being the Pinnacle of

intrinsic motivation Auto telicity the

third intrinsic motivator what you love

you know the feeling of working late not

because you have to but because you want

to that's audicity the line between work

and play starts to blur audicity is also

at the heart of Flow State indeed in the

original research back in the 1970s flow

is the standin word for autotelic

experience or activity as chiii observed

in the Flow State subjects that he

studied with high audicity you behave as

if what you're doing is the most

important thing in the world the fourth

intrinsic motivator purpose is what you

impact purpose takes Auto tocity and

applies to a bigger cause or Mission

Beyond yourself it's the belief that

what you do with your work within those

activities that are autotelic for you

contributes to something bigger

something outside of yourself you've

probably had jobs that you were good at

maybe even passionate about but

something felt missing you found

yourself in a row where you question if

any of it really mattered without a

sense of purpose your job is just a

collection of tasks the meaning found in

purpose leads to Greater persistence

despite challenges it makes your job not

just a paycheck but a mission it's a

neuro chemical game Cher too ramping up

levels of oxytocin and serotonin key

players in Social bonding mood stability

and long-term well-being autonomy the

final intrinsic motivator is what you

choose autonomy is that feeling of

ownership that sense of this is mine

remember the freedom of tackling a

project your way without someone

micromanaging or controlling or even

influencing every step think about that

side project at your job where there

were no strict guidelines just an

objective you could design it delegate

decide the approach and suddenly work

felt like play well that's autonomy

being engaged it's the agency to pursue

your Curiosities autotelic activities

and purpose which all drive up your

focus and increase positive emotion our

brains are wired to thrive when we have

a say in our actions now let's explore

exactly how to max out each of your

intrinsic motivator so you can harness

this kind of power so first you want to

identify where you currently stand with

each intrinsic motivator with your work

in mind consider how many of these five

intrinsic motivators are built in and to

what extent let's take each motivator

one at a time again here so curiosity

how many times over the last 30 days did

you have the desire to read watch or

listen to content related to your work

outside of your formal work hours to

boost up your curiosity motivator if

it's low or if you know it could be

higher you need two things number one

leverage from learning this means that

the knowledge you gain as you learn

something it has a positive impact upon

your work you learn something new

implement it and you can see tangible

positive results from having done so the

second thing is immediate feedback from

learning which is a flow trigger this

involves seeing the direct consequences

of your applied learning ideally in real

time back when I was in Academia I

didn't read about study design because

if I had it wouldn't have made a

difference I wouldn't have gotten any

better and it wouldn't have actually

sped up my progression however when I

switched to business I consumed five

business books a week and this is

because everything I learned and every

single model or Insight I had resulted

in tangible breakthroughs in the

business that day often hours after

reading which then further compounded

the Curiosity motivator so for the

Curiosity motivator to be high by

learning something and applying it to

your work something meaningful has to

happen you need to see a direct coupling

between cause the learning and effect if

this isn't happening now change

something within your work such that

investing in learning results in the

maximum amount of immediate feedback or

positive impact and progression possible

next up is Mastery looking back at the

last month to what degree did you feel

the desire to endlessly improve at the

skill set that's required for your work

and to what degree will that make a

difference to your ability to succeed at

it so here's how to crank the knob of

the Mastery drive up identify all the

skills and subskills that will advance

your long-term goals at work as a result

of you mastering them then learn and

practice those skills explicitly with

deliberate practice as if you're a

professional athlete or musician that is

practice the skill on the the edge of

your comfort zone and correct your

mistakes continuously until you

habituate new behavior on a

neurophysiological level and if you

can't actually get better at the skills

involved in your work you may need to

consider a career shift entirely

choosing something that has unlimited

possibilities for Mastery baked deep

within it now audicity in the last 30

days how often did you spontaneously

dive into one of the core activities

within your work without any obligation

without a deadline or formal work hours

or meeting pushing you just you deciding

I kind of feel like doing this now

another way to assess your audicity

level is to ask how often have you found

that when you weren't doing one of the

main activities within your work you

were craving to do it in Academia my

passion for the day-to-day research

tasks was low but as an entrepreneur in

and outside work hours I kept working

learning how to do sales and marketing

and figuring out how to manage and lead

people so here's the counterintuitive

and simple way to boost audicity don't

Focus solely on what you like to do in

and of itself instead consider a simpler

question what am I good at because

here's the thing you're naturally much

better at some things than others you

have innate strengths that make certain

tasks feel less like work and more like

play to you uniquely and it's easier to

build a career around things you are

uniquely good at around strengths than

things you happen to love doing for

example if all you like doing is playing

video games might be a little tough to

make a viable career out of that so the

key here is to trust that if you do

things you're good at over time you will

Forge Auto tocity within those

activities that's because the research

shows that strengths are a trigger for

flow and the more time you spend in an

activity while in flow the more you come

to love that activity now purpose the

next one so the first thing to do here

is a gut check ask yourself at a basic

level does the organization I work

within or the work I do have an obvious

purpose attached to it at all and

secondly is that a purpose I can get

behind and feel good pouring my life

force into if so it's a good starting

point if not if you're stuck in a role

or with a company that doesn't align

with your values or anything you

actually find meaningful you may need to

switch careers entirely however if

there's even a glimmer of purpose that

you can connect with in your current

work here's how to amplify it positive

psychology research shows that a well

articulated purpose and a clear

correlation between that purpose and

your work drive up both motivation and

job satisfaction so start by distilling

your life's Mission into one laser focus

sentence for instance Advanced

technological innovation for Global good

then every day next to each work task

identify how it links to your purpose

and lastly we've got autonomy so think

about over the last 30 days the degree

to which the how the what the why or the

when related to your work felt like it

was something in your control something

you chose for example could you decide

whether to work on Project a or Project

B or choose whether to start your day in

the morning or later in the afternoon

could you work on it in your own way

without being supervised or micromanaged

now there's two ways that you can

increase autonomy one way is perceptual

the other is literal first I want you to

zoom out and swap the current context of

your work into a context that you have

owned and determined that means making

the kind of crappy low autonomy job or

role that you may have right now one

part of a key step within a broader life

trajectory a life trajectory you are

choosing and designing because even if

the thing you're doing right now is low

autonomy by you betting it within a

bigger Journey that you're shaping and

controlling yourself you boost autonomy

in the present by making it a stepping

stone to a broader stairs that you've

designed this makes a low autonomy role

like being a junior sales rep higher in

autonomy at the macro level because all

of a sudden you're learning the skills

you need to start your business in 3

years time or whatever your life Journey

entails now another counterintuitive way

to increase autonomy is through

exercisable autonomy or what we like to

call Fu autonomy you've heard of of Fu

money same principle here gain fu skills

and Fu Network and Fu knowledge this

will create a backdrop of choice a

backdrop of optionality that allows you

to pursue other options at any given

moment and thus Thrive as a result of it

you can stop what you're doing and

exercise this autonomy anywhere at any

time this takes the edge off whatever

lack of autonomy you feel at work

because you know you can bounce and get

something equally good or better at any

moment and the best part is you don't

need that autonomy to boost this

intrinsic motivator at work most of your

work doesn't require autonomy but you

need a high degree of autonomy within a

narrow part of it so focus on the

smallest part of your work life that you

can control without question and outside

of work spend an afternoon per week on

something you do fully own it's really

all the autonomy you need and it's

doable to land that amount of autonomy

so start with whichever intrinsic

motivator is lowest and then Juice It Up

raising one motivator can give you the

energy required to raise the rest if you

measure each motivator on a scale of 1

to 10 the goal is to boost each

intrinsic motivator by five points per

year until you hit 50 where you're maxed

out on each of the five intrinsic

motivators and then you want to sustain

at that level but you do want to know

that these won't always remain in

Balance you'll always be upgrading your

motivational stack based on what your

work requires or the natural es and

flows and shifts that occur within your

working life and as you upgrade your

motivational fuel source from extrinsic

to Intrinsic you make it easy to

pinpoint the reason for dips or surges

in your motivation if I ever find myself

wanting to Lounge in bed in the morning

for multiple days in a row I know it's

because something is off within my

intrinsic motivational stack because

even through illness grief and life's

natural turbulence when my motivations

are aligned I'm eager to engage with

work every day eventually you'll be able

to check in to each of these five

intrinsic motivators as easily as you

can feel your own heartbeat and course

correct as needed and when you upgrade

your fuel source like this you end up

going to bed so excited to wake up in

the morning that you feel like a kid on

Christmas Eve and working hard becomes

irresistibly easy like a video gamer you

can solve complex problems for hours on

end exerting like crazy yet feeling no

conscious effort on top of that as

intrinsic motivation increases extrinsic

motivation actually dissipates which is

a good thing that's when the magic

happens because extrinsic motivation can

make you a slave to arbitrary success

metrics external rewards the fear of

failure you also fall prey to feeling

like you never have enough extrinsic

motivation makes the Journey To Success

a constant grind turning every

achievement into a short-lived High

quickly replaced by a new craving or

worry but once intrinsic motivation

takes over you become Untouchable the

need for external sources of pleasure

and happiness derived from outside

variables starts to melt away which

makes you less likely to be manipulated

by external Rewards or to behave and

make decisions influenced by things like

money status and Punishment one way you

can think about this is that you almost

develop the this Zen Warrior like trait

where you have the Detachment of a monk

with the engagement of a warrior you're

detached from the trappings of the

external World money status Fame but

obsessed and engaged with the work

itself without being swayed by what

others think or expect from you and this

is a Sublime imperturbable mode of

Consciousness where you want nothing but

the desire to be in flow engaging in the

work itself as the Godfather of flow Mii

CH samii put it this is autot motivation

because its goal is primarily The

Experience itself rather than any future

reward or Advantage it may bring this

state of self-containment makes you

increasingly immune to the types of

suffering that derail so many lives the

intrinsically motivated monk-like

Warriors Chase Mastery over money

purpose over position audicity over

Applause curiosity over Conformity and

autonomy over approval as you level up

your intrinsic motivation you'll tap

into Flow State with way more frequency

but to cleanly enter an exit flow every

day without burning out it also requires

mastering the flow cycling you can click

here to learn

[Music]

how