It is All Internal

            Imagine you are walking alone in the woods at night.  You see a large shadow and hear rustling sounds of a large grizzly bear.   You realize you’re in danger; within milliseconds, your parasympathetic nervous system releases a complex cocktail of catecholamines (adrenaline and noradrenaline).  Your digestive system slows down as your blood is diverted to your extremities.  Your breathing goes up, your heart rate goes up, and glucose reserves are spent super charging the muscles in your arms and legs.  Your whole body shakes with the unpleasant sensation of being terrified.  Your body is primed for immediate action like a tightly coiled spring.  The fight-or-flight response is one of the few instinctual responses humans still possess.

            The question is: Did the bear trigger the flight-or-fight response?

            Imagine the same scenario again, but this time there wasn’t a bear; it was just one of your friends in a bear costume playing a joke.  It was dark; you were walking alone; you were totally fooled.  Your parasympathetic nervous system activates the flight or fight response just as if it were a real situation… except there was no bear.  You may be so freaked out, you “accidentally” punch your joking friend; don’t feel too bad; he deserved it.

            Consider another scenario: A hiker is walking in the forest, a rifle shot came out of nowhere and killed him instantly.  This is the exact opposite of the previous situation.  The hiker was in a dangerous situation for several minutes before the shot, from the time the deer crossed his path and the hunter confused the hiker for his quarry.  The danger was real, but he never knew he was in danger.  In this case he may have died before his parasympathetic nervous system had a chance to activate.

            The flight-or-fight response is not something we consciously control, yet even this primal, instinctual system does not react to the “real” world; it acts upon our interpretation of the world. 

            In the previous chapter, we discussed a difference between extrinsic and intrinsic motivators.  Extrinsic motivation, such as rewards and punishment are reactions to events going on in the environment.   Except how do we know what’s happening in the outside world?  All our information comes through our 5 physical senses; eyes, ears, skin, nose, tongue.  These are translated into neural impulses, and sent off to the brain.  There it is interpreted by our mind.  We assume the world “we see” is the world “that is” because we have absolute faith in our perception.  Except the “real world” is far larger than what we can perceive.  Gamma rays, ultraviolet light, and radio waves are in your environment right now, but they are not part of your world because your body wasn’t designed to sense them.  Eagles can naturally see into the infrared as well as having a level of distinction that far exceeds the range of human vision.  Bats can “see” sound waves through echo location.  Sharks can smell blood miles off.  All these creatures interpret the world quite differently because they have different equipment to sense the world.  Your cat has no concept of colour, but they can see many more shades of grey, allowing them night vision.  They have no idea why you would be so mean to kick them in a pitch black room when they can see you perfectly fine.  Being mammals, cats learn that their human servants have some weird problem in low light, so they get out of our way as we blunder about looking for a light switch.  “Poor stupid humans.” 

            The world we experience is NOT the world that is.  The world that we know is a collection of neural patterns represented inside our minds.  In this way, all motivation, both extrinsic and intrinsic, are internal processes.

Why is this Important?

            If you are extrinsically motivated, you are pushed into action to gain a reward or to avoid a punishment that the results bring.  When you act from intrinsic motivation, you are following your desires.  Both forms of motivation are subject to your interpretations.  Thus, transforming extrinsic to intrinsic motivation is a matter of flipping a mental switch on how your represent things to yourself.  And this is easier to do than you think.

            The following exercise will show you a simple method to reframe an extrinsically motivated activity into an intrinsic one.  I recommend trying this with unimportant activities first.  Low importance activities have less mental attachments so they are easier to modify.  Once you become skilled at “flipping the switch” on a few unimportant activities you will be more skilled at using the technique for tasks which carry greater importance.

It’s Personal

            This tool is designed for personal productivity.  It is not a management tool to manipulate motivational patterns in others.  Intrinsic motivation depends on internal values, thus this process is about connecting what you do to what is important to you.  If your aim is to influence others in a positive way, I recommend that you master the technique for yourself first then show others a means of effective personal productivity.  The specific values they use, and the specific activities they change from extrinsic to intrinsic are always up to them.

First Ingredient: Honesty

            The following exercise requires being honest with yourself.  Trying to fake yourself out, lie to yourself, deceive and manipulate your own unconscious mind to create an “artificial intrinsic motivation” will not give you the results you are looking for.  Artificial intrinsic motivation means you go through the motions without sincerity.  You still hold the belief that “real” motivation is attached to things in the “real” world.  Let go of this notion. 

            Reality, or what we think of as “real,” is often confused with familiarity.  We are familiar with an extrinsic means of motivation because we have thought of motivation this way for most of our lives.  They are familiar, therefore, they feel more real.  The first time you link an activity to an intrinsic motivator, it may not feel “real” because you are not used to thinking about it in the new way. 

            This is not a failure, it is actually to be expected.  It takes time for your brain to forge new neural connections.  As you practice transforming different tasks from extrinsic to intrinsic motivation, you will get better and better at it.  And with practice comes familiarity, and with familiarity these mental states will feel more “real.”

            Then you will start gaining all the benefits of using intrinsic motivation.  The quality of your production increases, you will be able to work for long periods with little to no stress, and your job satisfaction improves.  You may also feel a stronger connection to your personal purpose and an increase in self-esteem and confidence.  Within a short period, you will find your intrinsic link to be much stronger to your chosen activity than the old extrinsic link ever was.  You’ll be left wondering why anyone would use extrinsic methods to motivate themselves.

The Transformation Method

Step 1) Choose a Specific Task

            Think a bit about something that you typically procrastinate on.  This is any activity you have a “yuck” response, and it feels like you have to exert a lot of effort just to get started.  You have the ability to do this sort of job and have done it before, but you don’t like the job and lack any will to do it. 

            For the purpose of learning how to switch extrinsic to intrinsic, start with something small and specific; something that can be done in one step.  Large projects are covered in Chapter 8 and in reality large projects are just a series of little tasks strung together.  If you can change one little task from extrinsic to intrinsic, you can change two or three.

Write the disliked job down here:

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Step 2) Where You Are Now

            What currently has to happen to get you to do the above task?  Make a list of all the extrinsic motivators which come into play which force you to do the task.  Try to be specific about your external cues. 

            For example: “Time running out,” How do you know when your time is running out?  Are you looking at a calendar, do you get a message pop up on your iPad, do you hear about it from a friend, does your family scream at you?  What are the specific environmental cues that whip you into action? 

            Note: Most people start this exercise by focusing on negative consequences for not doing a job.  While negative consequences are stronger drives than positive ones, it is useful to be aware of the positive rewards for doing a task.  Make sure you include a mix of both extrinsic rewards and punishments on your list.

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Step 3) Ideal Outcomes

            Assuming you have to do this job, what are the ideal outcomes? There is the obvious outcome, for example washing the dishes means you have clean dishes.  But there may be many secondary outcomes (happy mother, no more worrying about it, and it is much easier to use a clean sink in cooking).  Any task you do can have multiple positive outcomes if you think about it.  Start with the obvious outcome but stretch yourself and write two or three less tangible outcomes that come because of finishing the job.  Think in terms of how it affects others (reputation, helping others) or how it affects yourself (personal satisfaction, health, self-image, skill development, and positive habit formation).

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            Take a break, go off and do something else for a while.  It is important to create a little mental space between step 3 and step 4.  Otherwise, ideas will bleed from step 3 into step 4, changing your values to be something that fits with your ideal outcome.  Values affect your life and override goals.  They determine what is important to you beyond any one goal or outcome.  So do something else for an hour before starting on step 4.

Step 4) Know Your Values

            Write 12 things you value in your life.  These values are not about the task at hand, they are things you value in your life (example: truth, love, money, family, health etc.).  An optional step would be to rank order these values from 1 to 10 to find out which are the most and least important values to you.  This isn’t necessary for this exercise, but it is useful to know how your personal values rank against each other when making decisions.

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Step 5) Relevant Values

            Consider how the outcomes of the job express your core values.  Read your answer in step 3 and circle all the values in step 4 that relate to the ideal outcome.  Every action you take reflects who you are.  When you look at a piece of art, you can see the personality of the artist embedded in the work.  That is what makes art special.  No matter how low or how irrelevant a task may be, the attitude you take towards it says a lot about who you are.

            Let’s say you are procrastinating on painting a fence that needs to be maintained.  Your step 3 ideal outcome is “The fucking fence is done,” “My wife isn’t nagging me,” and “It is cleaner, but who cares?”  None of these are motivating.  Notice that all these outcomes are linked to extrinsic factors.  In step 4 we find three top values include intelligence, family, and creativity.  How can you change the ideal outcome to reflect these values?

Intelligence:  With a little thought, I could choose a new colour that better complements the house.  As we are planning on having the property re-evaluated, painting the fence may make us a lot of money.

Family:  Replacing a couple of rotten beams means the kids and the dog won’t escape.  This will keep them safe from crazy drivers on the road.  In addition, a new coat will prevent further rot and new holes.  I care about my children, and this is one less headache to worry about.

Creativity:  While fixing the fence I can easily nail a large section of plywood to it.  This can serve as a canvas area for the kids to paint on.  They can have fun, make a mess, and learn about painting and creative expression.  Then once per year I can easily slop another round of white paint over it and it will be new again.

Value                     Related Outcome

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            It may take a little time to think in terms of how outcomes relate to key values.  Thinking in a new way is like skill development; it takes time and practice.  Sometimes the first attempt is not going to be your best.  Take time with this (especially if it feels unfamiliar).  If you find you transform a miserable activity to feeling neutral about it; that is a big improvement.  If you have really thought it out and tied a very strong value to an outcome for doing that job, you may notice a subtle but powerful shift in your attitude.  You may find your ass on fire and feel a strong need to jump on that job right now.  This means you created a strong association between a value and an outcome.  Shit just got real.

            It is OK to run off and work on the job if you really want.  Just toss a bookmark on this page so you can find your way back here without much effort.

Mental Mechanics: Why This Works

            Ideally, we started with an “Aww fuck, I have to do X,” sort of job and by the end it became a “Wow!  I can’t wait to do X.”  WTF happened?  I would like to take a few moment to explain why this technique works.

Key Idea #1: All Motivation is in your Mind

            Realize that motivation (intrinsic and extrinsic) is a function of how you interpret the world.  Most people are passive in allowing their interpretations to be determined by the world around them, however anyone is capable of taking control and choosing to interpret things differently.  When you change how you see the world, you change your motivation.

Key Idea #2: Become Aware of Deeper Values

            Values are things you consider important.  They say more about your personality than the things that happen to you, or the environment that you grew up in.  The deeper values (aka higher values or core values) are fundamental ways you sort the world.  When you do an action due to intrinsic motives, it is because you are fulfilling one of these deeper values.

            Superficial values may relate to physical objects, but deeper values always relate to internal states.  If you find you have many material objects (such as a car, money, girlfriend, house etc.) on your value list, try to think of what internal state those objects lead to.  Say you value your “car.”  What internal state does a “car” give?  Perhaps driving an expensive car allows you to show off your success to your peers, so “car” is just a means of giving you a feeling of status.  Perhaps you like fast cars because it gives you a thrill of speed.  Now the higher value is a feeling of being in control, or excitement.  Perhaps you need a car because you can go where-ever you want and whenever you want.  So your love of your “car” represents the value of freedom. 

            Value for a physical object is rarely about the object.  It is only a means to fulfil a deeper value.  Deep values usually show up as ideas: such as love, truth, loyalty, freedom, adventure, security, service, patriotism, strength, health, happiness, creativity, humour, just to suggest a few examples. 

Key Idea #3: Mental Connections

            Consciously or not, you are learning throughout the whole of your life.  This means your mind is always creating new links between objects and information.

            Look around you now.  Every single object in your immediate environment carries a wealth of information associated to the object.  You know it’s name in all languages you are fluent in, you know the function, the state of an object, how to use it, the material it is constructed out of, and how fragile it is.  You even know approximately how much force and angles to throw it at a target, or even if the act is possible. 

            You access information so quickly that you are not even aware you are doing so.  You don’t even think this to be particularly remarkable as you do it all the time.  Computer science researchers and teams of engineers spend years attempting to replicate human functionality in robots.  After years of research and thousands of prototypes, they have a much greater appreciation of how complex they human neural system really is.  There is a reason why your brain is capable of a billion, billion operations per second.  Your body is the result of 4.3 billion years of evolutionary effort.  The design of your whole system from body to brain to mind to soul is truly a miraculous creation.

            Beyond physical properties, your mind also links all experiences, feelings and evaluations to an object.  If a cockroach runs across your hand, you will pull back your hand quick with a strong “yuck” response.  A baby who has never seen a cockroach before, may become interested in it.  It may try to catch it, smack it, or eat it.  The baby doesn’t have any associated experiences with this “cockroach thing” and part of growing up is being interested in everything and testing the environment to build the basic cognitive maps adults take for granted.  As adults we have hundreds of thousands of mental connections for every object, person, place, action, and idea that you have interacted with.  Even after we have built these maps of associative links, we are constantly updating them as we gain new experiences.

            In chapter 7 we looked at how the ability to learn and alter these associations is an evolutionary superpower, yet most people never realize it.  Humans value things based on exclusivity; if everyone has it then it is not thought of as valuable.  As everyone has a brain and a mind and has the ability to learn, people don’t see it as something which is uniquely special to being human, so that ability is forgotten about and becomes a background process for most adults.  They may spend years working on a career towards financial success, but mental development is only an afterthought.

            Your conscious mind can take control of any automatic system in your body, including how you wire your links between information and objects.  You may have never done this consciously, but you have done it every day of your life since you were born.  You are already a master without being aware of it.  The only difference in this exercise is that you are taking conscious control of the process and wiring it to your advantage. 

Key Idea #4: Tie a Task to Multiple Values

            How you represent a job has a massive effect on motivation.  When we see no value in a task, you can’t help but drag your feet and be unenthusiastic.  No one wants to do a pointless job.  Yet the only reason that a job is “pointless” is because you don’t see any positive value in doing it. 

            As soon as you connect the results of a task to a core value, you become intrinsically motivated.  The more values you connect with the task and what it produces, the stronger the internal pull to do that job.  Connecting one or two values may feel a little motivating, connecting four or five strong values can make you a dynamo of activity. 

            As you increase the number of internal “Whys” to do a thing, you will discover you have more enjoyment in the activity, and greater satisfaction when it is done.  The task no longer becomes meaningless drudge work, but a reflection of who you are.

            Authors note: When you assign 10 to 12 values to a task it can become an obsession.  “Obsession” could be thought of as a pathological level of intrinsic motivation.  All other activities are placed on the back burner and all time and drive is devoted to the obsession.  This imbalances your life and is both mentally and physically unhealthy.  So please use this method with moderation.

The Difference Interpretation Makes

            People in the same boat can have fantastically different interpretations, and from those interpretations have a very different experience of the world.  A group of workers were building a church.  Cutting, moving, and positioning stone slabs is normally a strenuous job, however the sweltering heat of the sun compounded with low pay and made the job down right hellish.  Many workers hated the job, but due to a shortage of work, they felt they still had to do it.  There was a lot to complain about.

            One young man had a very different attitude than his fellows.  He worked harder than others, he was diligent in his assignments and produced high quality work.  He also volunteered to put in extra time when he could. 

            The priest who contracted the workers for the church was so impressed with his dedication, he brought some extra water to him to ask why he was so diligent.  The man seemed surprised by the question.  He said that he was building a house of God, a centre point of the community, a place for baptism, marriage, and funerals.  Hundreds would congregate here for all the great points in their life and hundreds more would come to commune with the divine.  This is a place that would endure and serve the community hundreds of years past his death.  He was ecstatic to serve God in developing such an important monument.

            The sun was equally hot for all workers and they were all paid the same wage.  Logically, they should all have the same sort of experience.  Yet the difference in interpretation changes everything about that experience.  To most of the workers it was a long hard slog of never ending work in a hellish heatwave for a small wage, while a man in the exact same situation was experiencing divine reverence, serving his community, and felt that his very important work was part of creating a lasting legacy.

The Advantage to Loosing Status

            Many people feel they are too important to peel potatoes, scrub toilets, or do other undesirable activities.  When you believe there are jobs beneath you, you reason that these lesser jobs are for lesser people.  You are too important for menial work.  On the other hand, you must also believe that there are jobs above your pay grade; greater jobs for greater people.  You have bought into the idea of status.  This is a carryover from the caste systems where social positions were determined at birth and were unchangeable.

            Even in this enlightened age, it is hard for a janitor to move into an executive position.  As soon as H.R sees a person worked 10 years as a janitor they think, “What could this guy know about management?” and pass him over for another candidate.

            Working at the ground level, a janitor has the opportunity to socialize with many different workers from many different departments in a company.  As a janitor is perceived to be “lower status” few workers feel threatened in talking about company policy, procedures or personal feelings.  A friendly, long-term janitor often has a ground floor understanding of company that most senior-level executives never have access to.  Perhaps this janitor spent the last 3 years reading management books and cultivated more raw knowledge than a person with several degrees.  But alas, they never had the money to afford a university education, so they never got credentials.

            Universities usually cover one text book in a 3 month semester.  However an enthusiastic, intrinsically motivated reader can cover 6 to 8 times as much information in the same time. 

            Yet human resources thinks 10 years as a grunt worker means you will always be a grunt worker.  So they choose a senior manager from a different industry because he has the “status” of having university education and a position with a similar title.  Many multi-million dollar companies have crashed and burned because leadership positions were given to those with “status” rather than an actual working knowledge of the industry and the company.  Something which the janitor may have in spades.

            Interestingly, the sort of people who are insulted when asked to do menial work are the same who feel intimidated when talking to celebrities.  They easily can make budget decisions when the bottom line is a few thousand dollars, but freeze up when asked to make a multi-million dollar decision.  Buying into “Status” means you are pigeon holing yourself with limitations that ultimately don’t serve your interests.  Why should your attitude or activities be determined by an external society imposing external values on you?  Become conscious of the external pressure that status imposes on your thinking.

            There are so many remarkable people in the world, but hats off to Queen Elizabeth II.  As a queen she is of the highest status in society.  Like all people of status, she is surrounded by sycophants who try to bolster their status through their relation to her.  Yet Elizabeth II, rarely uses her title as “Queen” to get things done.

            Journalists who interviewed her often have the unusual experience of being the total centre of her world.  Elizabeth II has a remarkable ability to focus her attention so completely on others that she imparts a feeling of important to others from that attention.  No one is too small, and no one is too great.  She has developed a personality, which had no need to lord her status over others and became unfettered by it.  And because of this extraordinary level of respect she imparts to others, it is hard not to respect, honour, and love the Queen.

            Let go of self-importance and understand that no job is too big nor too small to do.  Similarly, all people are just people.  No one is too big or too small for you to interact with.  “Status” and “Importance” exist only inside your mind.  Why should you be any different when you interact with a movie star or a beggar?  You are still you.  Why is it any different to make a million dollar decision or a decision of a few thousand dollars?  You are still you.

All Jobs are Important

            If you believe it’s important to have a positive attitude towards important meaningful jobs, then look at lesser jobs as practice for cultivating that positive mental attitude.  Napoleon Hill, author of “Think and Grow Rich,” gave many lectures on the philosophy of success.  In one event, only a few people showed up, possibly due to bad advertisement.  Yet he performed as if it were an auditorium filled with thousands.  His attitude was entirely intrinsic; every time he gave a talk, he would give the best he could, for in doing so he became that much better for the next time.  What an awesome attitude!

            Little jobs are going to show up far more frequently than grand decisions.  The attitude that you have toward menial jobs becomes the attitude that you take toward big jobs.  Anything that you practice become stronger as your brain is optimizing neural pathways all the time.  We often apply this to skill development, however the same is true for personality traits, emotions, and attitudes.  The more you use it, the stronger it gets.  

            If you look at all jobs as a means to develop your attitude or your skill, all jobs become important.  You no longer need to think about whether a job is above or beneath your “status.” All jobs become a reflection of your personal brand of excellence.  And if your standard is the very best each time you give it, those multi-million dollar, once in a life time decisions becomes far less intimidating.  After all, you have already practiced giving your best thousands of times before.