Hello, listeners!
Welcome back to Social Skills Coaching on April 2nd, 2025.
Today's podcast is all about boosting motivation and taking action with our guest book "Motivation Triggers - Psychological Tactics for Energy, Willpower, Self-Discipline, and Fast Action" by Patrick King.
With Clear Thinking and Fast Action Book 9 as its motto—where you aim to become more likable, charismatic, and productive—this book is a treasure trove of techniques that will help unlock your motivation in all areas of life!
In this episode, we'll dive into the science behind starting tasks with enthusiasm instead of procrastination.
We’ll explore how to hack our brains and bodies for maximum energy while staying focused on goals.
The book provides strategies that tap into your evolutionary drive towards action by understanding psychological tactics surrounding motivation, willpower, self-discipline, fast thinking, triggers, habit loops, reward systems—all of which are essential to taking control over our minds and behaviors for success in all facets.
"Motivation Triggers - Psychological Tactics for Energy, Willpower, Self-Discipline, and Fast Action", is available on Amazon as both a paperback and an audiobook—and can also be found at iTunes or Audible to enjoy it anytime!
Visit the author's website: PKConsulting.com
Let’s get started by learning how we can transform our lives from complete apathy into full sprint, together!
Evolutionary psychology is a popular framework for understanding present-day human behavior in terms of our ancient past.
Evolutionarily speaking, behaviors and attributes develop only because they have historically improved our chances of survival as a species.
Expanding on Charles Darwin’s theories, thinkers and philosophers like Herbert Spencer began to imagine that social and psychological behaviors could also be understood in terms of their survival value, being retained by natural selection in the population at large.
Most of us would agree that millions of years of evolution has shaped humans into what they are.
What does this mean for motivation?
It means that we all possess “human nature”—the collection of physical, behavioral and emotional similarities we have in common with other humans because of our shared past.
This is what it means to be a human, in all historical eras, all countries, all contexts.
By understanding our biological and evolutionary past, we understand what we’re working with, and can devise a motivational strategy that respects where we came from.
Sounds great.
But what about the things that make us unique?
Your life history and personal experiences interact with these inherited evolutionary characteristics.
The external, environmental forces intermingle with the internal, personal ones.
Your final behavior is determined both by your inherited predispositions or human nature, and by your own unique experiences, culture, family upbringing, personality, and so on.
It’s the “nature vs. nurture” idea—and it’s not always easy to see what proportion has the most control over our behavior.
Today, most evolutionary theorists understand that traits—physiological or behavioral—are determined by a mix of factors.
Motivation is no different.
There is likely some portion of your current motivation status that is explained by innate, inherited factors, and some portion that is more malleable, coming down to your unique habits, history, personality, worldview, experience, and so on.
Evolutionary psychology is not without its criticisms.
The “universal motives”—for example the human incentives around fear, sexual behavior, hygiene, control and social interaction—are arguably not so universal.
Evolutionary psychology has been used to justify everything from economic greed and infidelity to racism and child abuse.
Its basic assumption that all behaviors in some ways benefit natural or sexual selection mean that even the most horrifying impulses in humans can be considered advantageous in some way.
The claim that modern observable human phenomena must have had some survival advantage in the past if they exist now is also simply false.
Nevertheless, how can an understanding of evolutionary psychology help us in our quest to develop our full potential?
Without getting carried away by the finer theoretical nuances, one thing is clear: as humans, we are shaped both by nature and by nurture.
This means that we are not mere robots doomed to play out a fixed fate, but also that we are not completely at liberty to define ourselves as we will.
For lasting personal development, we need to recognize our innate biological, physiological and evolutionary limitations—but that doesn’t mean we don’t have the scope to go far, far beyond these limits.
A simple example makes this clear.
We now know that intelligence is at least partly inherited.
In fact, it is not raw intelligence that is inherited, but a certain capacity or potential.
This can be thought of as a rough range over which an individual can be expected to express themselves.
Some people are born with wider ranges, some narrower; some people’s ranges reach impressive feats, other people’s don’t.
However, the degree to which we fulfil this inherited potential comes down to our environment.
If we grow and learn in an enriching and supportive environment, if we work hard, we find ourselves performing at the top limit of our inherited range, and vice versa.
What this means is that a person with mediocre “nature” can outperform someone blessed in his area if they end up maxing out their “nurture.”
We inherit a potential—but the extent to which we fulfil this potential has nothing to do with biology or evolution or culture or our families.
It has to do with us and with the choices we make, right here and right now.
In the rest of this chapter, we’ll be using current knowledge about the limits and potentials of our biological selves to inform our efforts at becoming more motivated.
By understanding what motivation looks like on a physiological level, we give ourselves the best possible chance to perform optimally, and take control of ourselves on a behavioral and emotional level.
Understanding our nature, we are better able to optimize our nurture.
We’ll look at the full complement of what humans have inherited from their evolutionary past, such as our neuroscience and biological rhythms.
Because once we understand the “matter,” we can more intelligently move on to “mind over matter.”
So far, we’ve spoken about motivation causing “behavior” without looking too closely at what that behavior is.
Motivation is expressed—not just through decision-making but through our language, gestures, and facial expressions.
Motivation can vary in intensity and quality, and play out cognitively in our thoughts and attention, and in our emotional engagement with what’s in front of us.
We tend to think that motivation is purely an abstract, psychological state of affairs, but in fact motivation is embodied, with several psychophysiological expressions.
When you’re motivated, you’re also physiologically aroused, with a resulting hormonal profile, for example increased levels of cortisol.
Your heart and blood vessels may respond to a challenging task as much as your mind does.
Your pupil size, blink-rate and eye movements may show subtle changes to keep up, and tiny electrical changes flash across the surface of your skin.
Your entire musculature, skeletal structure, and facial expression can shift with changing stimulation and stress levels.
We shouldn’t be surprised by the fact that motivation is not just a brain state—the brain is, after all, just one part of your body.
Your neural activity will flow depending on your motivational state, recruiting every part of your brain.
With a fuller view that acknowledges the body, motivation can be seen as an ebbing and flowing state of arousal that expresses itself through thoughts, emotions, and behavior.
All of this expression is directed toward one end: achieving the goals that come with satisfying our needs.
Researcher Sung-il Kim proposed a model in 2013 to bring these disparate processes together.
Kim’s process consisted of three subprocesses: first building motivation, then sustaining motivation, and finally the process of regulating motivation.
Generating motivation is driven by the expectation of reward, and activates the ventral striatum in the brain—a largely automatic and unconscious process.
The next step, however, is to sustain motivation, and this comes down to making decisions based on value judgments, and evaluating the effect of certain behaviors against your goals.
During this process, the striatum and orbitofrontal cortex are recruited.
Behaviors that reinforce the value of what you’re doing are invaluable in sustaining motivation.
Receiving encouragement from external sources such as friends and support groups, and even grading yourself on your progress, are both good ways to keep motivation going.
For the final step, motivation is regulated consciously via cognitive and goal-directed control.
For these, we need high-level cognitive skills—planning, adapting, monitoring, etc.—which are associated with the anterior cingulate cortex of the brain.
Using these skills to track your progress and engage in future strategy selection are good ways to regulate your motivation.
You may decide to join a training course initially because of the (probably unconscious) associations of the course with better work performance.
You maintain your interest and motivation during the course by appealing to more formally stated values: you work hard, you care about professional development, you don’t like quitting (and also it would be a bit embarrassing…).
Finally, you regulate this behavior by regularly finding ways to use what you learn at your job, to check in with your progress on the course, and so on.
These three steps work seamlessly together, suggesting a way that behavioral aspects of motivation can be mapped onto neurophysiological aspects.
Like the model we considered in an earlier chapter, motivation stitches together antecedent conditions from our environment that stimulate us to generate a motivation toward something, and then these motives (emotional, cognitive or needs-based) help strengthen this motivation and maintain it, so that the desired goal is met when we take appropriate actions toward it—i.e.
there are changes in your behavior, physiology, or levels of engagement inspired by your new motivation.
Most motivation models contain these three rough elements: a. initiate—the instigating stimulus or generation of motivation, b. persist—the building and sustaining of this motive, and c. organize—the regulation that comes with seeing actions play out in the world toward certain goals.
By understanding these three separate components of the motivation process, we can diagnose motivation problems, by asking if any of these areas are lacking somehow.
If we only focus on one of these aspects or processes, we may be missing important issues elsewhere, or overlook opportunities to improve.
Whether we frame motivation in terms of a “flow” state, an expression or management of drives, a question of ego development or arousal, a psychological phenomenon or purely biological and based on survival, or consider it in terms of needs, one thing is certain: motivation is multifaceted.
If we hope to grasp the concept and optimize our own motivation, we need techniques that acknowledge its complexity.
Motivation is not just about the cognitive aspects of the brain.
It’s about the rise and fall of arousal across the entire organism.
Consider the following example: A man takes up bodybuilding.
The answer to why he does this is complex.
Biologically and evolutionarily speaking, as a man he has more muscle mass than a woman, more testosterone and a complement of evolved behaviors that emphasize strength and physical prowess.
Emotionally, he was bullied as a teen and now derives satisfaction of his self-esteem needs by proving to others that he is capable and even intimidating.
Neurologically, he gets a massive dopamine and serotonin rush every time he trains, and a wide range of brain regions and neurotransmitter pathways are activated as he cements this habit, forming positive associations in his reward centers.
Socially and culturally, he forms friendships with other bodybuilders that fulfil his needs for affiliation and belonging, and often gets compliments on his physique.
You get the idea.
There is no single motivation for this man’s decision to initiate, sustain and organize his bodybuilding behavior—rather, motivation takes on many different forms and guises.
The environment can instigate interest or generate a motivation that can be sustained on multiple levels, mediated by biochemical and neurological agents, and finally revealing itself in the form of concrete behavior.
How do we use this information to our advantage?
We acknowledge and work with our biology.
It’s never a matter of sheer willpower or a few magic hacks, but more a question of taking conscious control of the physiological processes that underlie our motivation, so we can achieve the goals we want to.
Just like the man who took up bodybuilding, we have many factors motivating us.
We just need to know what they are before using them to our advantage.
Practically, you can take a few steps to make sure you’re not setting yourself up to fail before you’ve even started.
It’s old advice, but get enough good quality sleep.
Properly resting your brain is non-negotiable for optimal motivation, and no amount of external incentivizing will overcome a body and mind that’s simply exhausted.
In a similar way, avoid extreme caloric deficits or excesses—i.e.
eat moderately.
Maintain stable sugar levels with plenty of whole grains and fiber to slow digestion—the idea is to prevent your attention dipping into survival concerns when you need it to focus on something better!
Make sure you’re getting enough vitamin D, do aerobic exercise regularly and re-evaluate your general environment—are there any relationships, behaviors or untreated conditions (including things like depression) that are sapping your motivation?
• Evolutionary theory has taught us that most of our behaviors have come about because they ensure that we survive with changing times.
Yet these natural endowments from nature are complimented by individual traits that make us unique.
We can use this dichotomy to motivate ourselves by realizing where our strengths and weaknesses lie and developing them accordingly.
• Motivation can be seen as an ebbing and flowing state of arousal that expresses itself through thoughts, emotions, and behavior.
To incorporate these disparate elements of motivation, Sung Il-Kim has suggested a tripartite framework that can help us utilize each of these components of motivation.
According to this framework, there are three parts to cultivating motivation: generating it, sustaining it, and regulating it.
By following this trajectory, we fire up the relevant parts of our brain that motivate us, which has a corresponding physiological effect that arouses us into action.
• Three factors play a large role in helping you generate, sustain, and regulate motivation.
These are your dopamine levels, circadian rhythm, and exercise.
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Host: And that's the end of another episode from Social Skills Coaching.
I hope you found our conversation about motivation triggers in "Motivation Triggers Psychological Tactics for Energy, Willpower, Self-Discipline and Fast Action" insightful.
Join Patrick King as he continues to explore ways we can harness the power of evolutionary theory, individuality, and psychology to enhance our personal growth journey in his book "Motivation Triggers".
As always, if you have any questions or feedback about today's episode, please feel free to reach out via email at [email protected]
Before we sign off for the day, I want to leave all of my listeners with a simple yet powerful call to action.
Motivation is not an elusive state that comes and goes without our input - it can be cultivated through understanding where your strengths lie and how you develop them accordingly.
By incorporating key factors like dopamine levels, circadian rhythm, and exercise into your daily routine, we can improve motivation for personal growth while also enhancing productivity in the long run.
Remember to take actionable steps today towards improving one aspect of yourself that needs development - be it a skill or personality trait- so you may continue growing as an individual every day.
As always, join us again next week on Social Skills Coaching for more conversations about how we can enhance our personal growth journey and become the best version of ourselves in all aspects of life – from social skills to motivation triggers that help drive actionable change towards success!
Till then, stay inspired.
This is your host signing off - but never say goodbye until next time on Social Skills Coaching!
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