Live Imaging of Brain Shows We Can Train Motivation

When you hookup fMRI you can actually use live feedback to train motivation: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/30047755/
Personally, I don’t accept the conventional definition of motivation. It’s circular and self-refuting. There are actors and there are talkers. No one is always “motivated.” We build habits. We generate skills in accountability, reliability, and sense of duty.

Even the once-great hope that we could pin “motivation” or aggression on a genetic determinant has been thrown in the ash heap of intriguing but misleading scientific tropes: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/…/code-rage-the-warri…/. That was quaint.

The more productive question to ask is what WILL someone do. This relegates motivation to the space it should’ve long ago occupied: cute jargon. People, therefore, aren’t faced with a seemingly-impossible task of magically increasing “motivation” (whatever that is anyway). Instead, we accept their current level of drive and difficulties, and use intelligent strategy to meet people where they are.
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It could be 5 minutes. It could be one nutritional change. It could be daily gratitude journaling. All that matters is the person WILL do it. No try. No attempt. No sounds good. No exciting 6 week program. Just real and honest steps.

And to boot, keep in mind that neuroscience is showing we can train this motivation thing if you really want that too.