Do you struggle to get out of bed in the morning? Is your diary jam-packed? Is it hard to find a sense of purpose? Are you world-weary? Find out how you can leverage different (re-)motivational levers and rediscover what gives you a buzz.
Do you feel overwhelmed day and night? Do you care less and less about checking the boxes in your to-do list… which is getting longer by the day? Ayelet Fishbach advocates capitalizing on the lessons of behavioral psychology to stop the downward spiral of demotivation while there’s still time… and to rediscover your appetite for what you do. First, go for goals that really whet your appetite and try to create a context that makes pursuing them an attractive proposition. Next, explore the mechanisms that will help keep you going when you’re faced with the siren call of weariness, the temptation to ease off, and the danger of being snowed under by having to handle several things at once. Last but not least, use the positive potential of collaboration to the limit: you will be stronger… together!
Based on
Get It Done, Surprising Lessons from the Science of Motivation, by Ayelet Fishback (Little, Brown Spark 2022)
Identify desirable goals…
It’s hard to be motivated if your goals aren’t consistent with your form and fitness at a given time: tackling Everest with a broken leg is… dangerous!
Be kind to yourself: remember that a “good” target doesn’t have to involve pain or be a chore. Before swinging into action, define your goals in terms of the benefits they will bring rather than the costs. And prioritize abstract, inspiring and meaningful narratives over very concrete descriptions, which will only put you off what you’re setting out to accomplish.
Let’s say you’re looking for a new job: it’s better to think of your goal as “I’m exploring career opportunities” rather than “I’m reading job postings”. Likewise, positive goals are more stimulating than negativity. So, let’s say you want to lose weight: it’s better to phrase the process as “I want to eat healthily” rather than the negative judgment “I’m not going to stuff myself with chips”.
Marianne graduated from HEC in 1998 and is now a freelance journalist specializing in management and higher education. What really fires her up is the human dimension and she is c taking a psychology course at Rennes 2 University.
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