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Growth Mindset: Self Motivation

How to Turn on the Part of your Brain that Controls Motivation:

This article was fascinating. It talks about a study that was done that stuck people in an MRI and asked them to motivate themselves, lighting up the part of the brain that controls our motivation. When they were just laying there and told to get themselves psyched up, they were not able to do it. But once they were shown some sort of meter that helped them to visualize the part of the brain being activated, they were better able to motivate themselves as they saw their successes. 

This seems consistent with what I already knew about humans - we tend to be more successful and encouraged when we see signs of success, even if they're very small. We have a strong ability to latch onto even the smallest of things and using them to push ourselves to a goal. 

It seems consistent with the reasoning behind having mantras - we can self motivate if you try something often enough, and really think it's working. Mantras serve to help us focus on one thing, and that then gives us the clarity of mind and takes much of the pressure away, so that we are better able to take care of the task at hand. 

Because of this article, I'm going to try and focus more on the little things that go right in every day life. Those little victories are sure to be motivating, and giving myself the ability to visualize success, no matter how small, will hopefully lead to more motivation to do things for which I'm not as sure I'll achieve success. 

I thought this meme was appropriate for this post, as a large part of the self motivation is talking to yourself and getting yourself hyped for what you need to do. 
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Comments

  1. Simran DemlaApril 7, 2019 at 4:34 PM

    Alena,

    Your self-motivation post is totally right. It's hard to stay motivated sometimes, but science and technology can really change things up. The meme you put is so cute. I like how it relates to both the article and your main idea! I hope that the article helped you because you talking about it motivated me! Great job! I loved this!

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