Why Motivation Matters and Why It’s Not Always Easy to Maintain
- Brainz Magazine
- May 7
- 5 min read
Debra Jane Wales is a coach, somatic and yoga movement educator who helps people live with more freedom and ease. Debbie's mission is clear as day: To help you move closer to yourself and to feeling UN-stuck, your way, the way it's supposed to be!
Motivation has always been a hot topic of discussion; From How to motivate, be motivated, and stay motivated, through to why we aren’t motivated. We hear words like procrastination, perfectionism, self-sabotage, and equate those with words like less than, negative, lazy, resistant, and stuck.
We hear statements like ‘Getting it done’ and effort, and equate those words with better than, positive, open, team player, and persistent.
There are countless motivational workshops, events, workplace solutions, therapists, and coaches abound attempting to help you find that “Motivational Verve.” There are 3 steps, 5 steps, how to’s or The dummies way, all convincing you we have what you need to get the job done. Not that I’m negating my own role in this equation, but.
If motivation was as simple as that! ( Hmm, we would all be motivated all the time)
It’s also a fact, if we are not motivated to change something or do something, there’s very little we can do to change, because motivation is the force behind both personal and collective life satisfaction, it influences human behaviour and helps us achieve our dreams, aspirations, and importantly mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual health and care.
Basically, we wouldn’t have a life without being motivated
Yet often when someone is not motivated, the underlying assumption is you are trying to trip ourself up, or just plain lazy. Think about this, though.
Nobody wakes up and says, “Oh, I’d like to self-sabotage today”(On purpose)
And people didn’t come into the world being lazy. Yes, there are those people who may (seem) to want to do nothing, but given that the brain has an inbuilt survival mechanism, it’s clear that humans were never created on purpose to be lazy.
Going back to our ancestors, had they been lazy and self-sabotaged, we would not be here. “Hey, Wilma. I think I’m in the mood for a little wrecking of my life today. How about I stay in our straw bed - forget about hunting for our food and we all starve?” I’ve said this before, they made wise choices so we could survive.
So while it may appear that some people want everything for nothing or want to do nothing, where there's a lack of motivation, it usually has a deeper meaning, and while motivation is a huge topic with many variants, let me stay with the reason it can be hard.
On a deep level, motivation is necessary for how we respond to changes in the environment and how we adapt to the constant demands of threats and opportunities. Think Covid, war, trauma, for example. It is linked to our physiological state, namely the nervous system. Therefore, its impact on our personal and professional lives is colossal.
Given that motivation is linked to our physiology, when it and we are depleted, our well-being and functioning will suffer. Think chronic stress, health issues, relational, professional, etc.
The kicker is that when well-being and functioning are suffering, motivation is depleted. I call this “The Motivation Circle of Doom.” I will be bold again and say when we are unmotivated, there is always something else behind it unless you have made a conscious choice, “I could not care less about my job,” “They could fire me today.”
So, how does the nervous system come into this?
Motivation salience: How the brain chooses what we pay attention to. It is not possible to take in consciously all the stimuli, so our brain chooses which is important to survival and success.
Success to the brain is not how much money you make, and how many followers you have, but something that became important to you somewhere in your consciousness. Success to the brain is survival and safety, to pass on the passage of life.
Three important neurotransmitters in this role are
Dopamine
Considered the reward system and part of the pleasure and reward. Though I’ve written in a previous article, the intention of dopamine from an ancestral standpoint was to seek reward to stay alive.
Dopamine is important for learning, decision making, and responding to salient reward or punishment, to name some. IF dopamine is disrupted in the brain, the ability to change is decreased, and more energy is required.
Importantly, the capacity to distinguish between salient and nonsalient outcomes is diminished. For example, at work you may see a colleague unresponsive to tactics of reward vs no reward and presume they are a not a team player or don’t care. OR you feel hot, and the normal response is to do something to cool down, yet it is not on your radar. You remain hot. These examples can be substituted for anything.
Serotonin
Mood regulation and connection to sustained motivation.
The amount of serotonin in the Central Nervous System is associated with the ability to delay gratification, and decreased serotonin levels, which accompany many mood disorders, and mental, emotional health conditions, including chronic stress, increase impulsivity, and delay discounting, therefore making it harder to reach goals and stay discounted.
Norepinephrine
Necessary for alertness and arousal, and influencing motivational drive, the level of norepinephrine released in the Prefrontal cortex of the brain is proportional to the level of salience for particular stimuli. Therefore, more norepinephrine is released when something is highly desirable vs low desirability. When the physiology is struggling, people's level of salience for anything is hindered by all the processes above.
Important to remember that all of these need to be working together to work effectively! From the level of the physiology and nervous system, what influences motivation?
Genetics and personality.
Neurodiversity, mental, emotional, and physical health issues, conditioning, learning, trauma, chronic and toxic stress, to name some.
Environmental and social factors. For example, trauma, education, financial issues, relational issues, social support, and external rewards and punishment.
Without going too in-depth here, when the body and brain are in overwhelm and toxic chemicals are being released, it’s very difficult to make a conscious choice until they are metabolised. IF a person is in overwhelm much of the time due to the above, there is very little left to do anything consciously.
Things you can do to improve motivation
Practice self-management techniques such as mindfulness, meditation, yoga, somatic movement, and physical activity.
Give yourself regular breaks.
Prioritise sleep and rest.
Avoid overextending on tasks.
Seek social support.
The main takeaway of this article
Have compassion for yourself and give yourself a break if you are struggling to find the drive. You are human and it’s not always easy out there.
When you see a colleague, a friend, a child, or a human who seems unmotivated, remember you don’t know everything. You don’t know what they are holding together or how, what they have been through and how.
If we can all find a little compassion and avoid any ‘go to presumptions’, we can reach those goals sooner and better with more harmony, coherence, and possibility for ourselves and the world.
On a personal level, if you feel you have lost that drive and motivation, reach out for professional help and guidance. What’s vital is understanding what is the underlying cause or the unmet need.
Read more from Debra Jane Wales
Debra Jane Wales, Certified Coach and Embodiment Teacher
Debra Jane Wales is an embodied life coach, somatic movement and yoga educator who helps people dissolve the hard places or mental and cultural constructs that deter them from living a freer life. Diagnosed Autistic with ADHD and having overcome numerous horrific Traumas and a suicide attempt, Debs' mission became clear as day. To help you move closer to your True self and to feeling UN-stuck, your way. The way it's supposed to be!
