Neuroplasticity of Motivation and Discipline

Siim Land (0:04)

What's going on? Welcome to the Body Mind Empowerment Livestream. My name is Siim, of course, and today I wanted to talk about something different, something still related to your personal development and to your success in life overall.

The most common theme that I get when I'm working with other people and when I'm also looking at some of the people in the social media industries as well is that they talk a lot about motivation and inspiration. They get inspired by some sort of a video, some sort of a quote, motivational quote, or some motivational speaker, like let's say Gary Vaynerchuk or Anthony Robbins. Yeah, I love those guys, don't get me wrong. I love Gary Vee, I love Tony Robbins. But the problem is they still get triggered into being motivated. They have to watch this video, they have to watch the livestream, they have to read this quote or read this book just to feel inspired, which is another form of reactive behavior if you think about it. There's a difference between being reactive and being proactive. Reactiveness is about responding to external cues, the signals you receive from your environment and that is going to initiate this routine that you're going to begin to follow. For instance, in terms of nutrition, you smell the aroma of some donuts and then you get the sugar cravings.

And you watch this video about this motivational speaker and then you get inspired.

SPEAKER_2 (1:48)

This could be the greatest time you ever live if you control what you focus on, if you find a more empowering meaning.

Siim Land (1:54)

On the other hand, there's the proactive behavior, which is about initiating motion or taking action yourself. You're the one who is going to go to the gym. You're the one who is going to read the book yourself, yourself because you feel obligated to do it for being responsible for your growth and personal development.

Motivation is fleeting. Motivation comes and goes like the wind. It can disappear as fast as you get inspired. You're going to feel motivated, but even after a few minutes, you're already distracted again. You already lost your self-control.

When you look at the state of the Western society at the moment, then motivation is also like a huge privilege. You shouldn't feel motivated. You shouldn't feel inspired. You should take ownership over the things that have happened to you. You should take ownership over your thoughts and actions and then take action yourself to show initiative. All right, I'll give it a try.

SPEAKER_2 (2:58)

No, do or do not. There is no try.

Siim Land (3:02)

Yeah, motivation is fleeting. It's not always guaranteed.

All days, they're not created the same.

Sometimes I don't feel like waking up in the morning. Sometimes I don't feel like working out. Sometimes I don't feel like staying consistent with my nutrition or even, you know, working on some of my projects that I'm dealing with. Oh shit, what am I gonna do? Am I going to stop doing them? Am I going to give in to my inner feeling or resistance? Am I going to start to procrastinate? Definitely not, you know, because I've made a deal with myself. My self identity won't allow me to give in. I've made a deal with myself that's telling me that I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to give in to this temptation. I'm going to stay disciplined. I'm going to stay consistent because I know that ultimately on the macro level, it's the right thing to do.

SPEAKER_2 (3:57)

Discipline is your best friend.

Siim Land (3:59)

Because when you think about it, the small things we do every day, they're like the building blocks of who we become in the future. It's neuroplasticity. Whenever you're doing something every day, like whether that be brushing your teeth, waking up at particular moments of the day or exercising or even, you know, having those moments of procrastination, then they're all actually patterns. They're all patterns of neural connections that happen in your head.

I recently heard this quote, you're not responsible for the first thought that you get, but you are responsible for the second thought and the action you take afterwards. All of us, we get distracted from time to time. We all get these stimuli, different reactive components from our environment that trigger us into certain behavior. The difference is that there's between those things, between the stimulus and response that happens to us, there's this empty space that Victor Frankl talked about as well. Between, in that space lies our growth and our freedom. It's where we can choose our response. There's the initial event that happens, and then there is the story that we tell ourselves. And for instance, in the example that I just gave about having this self-identity of being disciplined and consistent, then the event is definitely there.