Spark

The Book in Three Sentences

• Thinking back to one single previous bout of exercise motivates people to raise their exercise levels in the future.
• “One of the best ways of getting going is to set yourself some ‘If…then’’ statements.”
• “People generate higher intrinsic motivation when they ask themselves questions.”

The Five Big Ideas

• “Try to imagine some of the consequences ofnottrying hard to complete your project. How will you feel if you give up? What will it mean to other people? How much will you regret it in the future?”
• “Psychologists have found that people will go to quite incredible lengths to protect their own self-esteem.”
• “Identity changes are not just the result of increased motivation, they can also feed your motivation.”
• “One important key to imagining your future self is to think of the process as a journey.”
• “Monitoring progress consistently emerges from studies as key to making progress towards a goal.”

Spark Summary

• Step 1.Identify your starting point
• Step 2.Discover the change you want
• Step 3.Identify powerful internal and external motivations
• Step 4.Modelling
• Step 5.Getting Started
• Step 6.Self-affirmation
• Step 7.The backup plan
• Step 8.Engage other people (or not)
• Step 9.Self-compassion
• Step 10.A good mood
• Step 11.Envy
• Step 12.Fear
• Step 13.Anger
• Step 14.Avoid self-handicapping
• Step 15.Finding your individual motivation
• Step 16.Journey towards a new identity
• Step 17.The review

One popular model of change used by psychologists has five different phrases:

• Pre-contemplation.You are not even considering making any changes.
• Contemplation.You are at least considering a change.
• Determination.Your plans for action are coming along but you haven’t put them into action yet.
• Action.You are already part way through making a change.
• Maintenance.You are trying to make the change permanent.

Ask yourself: “What would be the advantages and disadvantages of making this change?”

At the heart of intrinsic motivation lie three factors, according to Professors Richard Ryan and Edward Deci, the theory’s authors:

• Competence.We want to be good at something—but it needs to be something we find just hard enough. Things that are too easy don’t give us a sense of competence.
• Autonomy.We want to be free and dislike being controlled. When people have some freedom—even within certain non-negotiable boundaries—they are more likely to thrive.
• Relatedness.As social animals, we want to feel connected to other people.
• “When we see someone take a particular series of action and achieve the desired goal, it gives us hope we can do the same.” (Matthew Syed also touches upon “motivation by association” inBounce)
• “Modeling can give us hope that we can learn, as long as we choose someone who is similar enough to ourselves.”
• “Studies have shown that just thinking back to one single previous bout of exercise motivates people to raise their exercise levels in the future.”
• “One of the best ways of getting going is to set yourself some ‘If…then’ statements.”
• “Turning a self-affirmation into a question is better than simply using a statement, research reveals.” (This study is also referenced inTo Sell Is Humanby Dan H. Pink.)
• “People generate higher intrinsic motivation when they ask themselves questions.” (See: “Quality Questions” inAwaken the Giant Withinby Anthony Robbins.)
• “Backup plans can actually help feed our motivation for our main plan.”
• “What feeds our motivation is knowing that we have a good chance of achieving the goal.”
• “Under experimental conditions, it is the people with backup plans that have more motivation for their task.”
• “The experiments do reveal one twist in the tail, though. As people get close to their goal, creating backup plans starts to demotivate them.”
• “One study of joining online social networks has even found that these can be beneficial in pumping up motivation ”

Here are three psychological strategies you might use to deal with despair:

• Self-esteem boost.Think about positive aspects of the self to boost confidence.
• Positive distraction.Think back to nice memories from the problem.
• Self-compassion.Think about the self with kindness and compassion, seeing the period of low self-confidence in context, without evaluating or judging it.

People who practice self-compassion find it easier to:

• See the possibilities for change
• Increase the motivation to change
• Take steps towards making a change
• Compare themselves with those doing better, to help motivate their change
• “When we are actually doing something we care a lot more about how it feels than when we are not doing it.”
• “One of the most useful aspects of a positive mood is it tends to make us feel more confident in our own abilities.”
• “There are at least two types of envy: malicious envy and benign envy.”
• “When another’s success feels served to us, we tend to feel a benign envy: one that is not destructive.”
• “What need cultivating is a kind of benign fear of what might happen if you fail to at least try and achieve your goal or complete your project.” (See: “Pain/Pleasure” inAwaken the Giant Withinby Anthony Robbins)
• “Try to imagine some of the consequences ofnottrying hard to complete your project. How will you feel if you give up? What will it mean to other people? How much will you regret it in the future?”
• “Research has shown that anger can make us push on towards our goals in the face of problems and barriers.”
• “Studies find that anger makes people more motivated for rewards.”
• “Whatever the source of the anger, it needs to be channeled in a positive and constructive way.”
• “Psychologists have found that people will go to quite incredible lengths to protect their own self-esteem.”
• “The first step in avoiding self-handicapping is noticing and cutting out the most obvious self-defeating behaviors, like not trying very hard.”

Think of a setback that you’ve experienced and ask yourself these two questions:

• Can I take responsibility for the setback (rather than blaming someone else)?
• Can I accept a poor outcome for what it is rather than trying to rationalize it away? This may hurt now but will produce greater motivation to change in the future.
• “It may not be until you make some progress towards your goal that your real motivations become clear.”
• “If we make steady progress, then slowly, almost imperceptibly, our self-image starts to change.”
• “Identity changes are not just the result of increased motivation, they can also feed your motivation.”
• “Research suggests that thinking about who you want to be in the future can increase optimism and motivation.”
• “One important key to imagining your future self is to think of the process as a journey.”
• “Monitoring progress consistently emerges from studies as key to making progress towards a goal.”

Recommended Reading

If you like Spark, you may also like the following books:

• Bounce: The Myth of Talent and the Power of Practice by Matthew Syed
• Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink
• To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Persuading, Convincing, and Influencing Others by Daniel H Pink

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