Based on a study released in 1997, motivations to quit smoking varies by age and sex.
The motivation to act, are classified into intrinsic motivations and extrinsic motivations.
Intrinsic
motivations are factors within that motivate someone to act. This
could include feeling good about yourself, concerns about your own
health, to challenge yourself etc.
Extrinsic motivations
are factors outside of the person that motivates them to act. This
could include social pressue or influence, rewards and penalties.
Understanding
what motivates a person to act is very important because that person
can then understand what's required to get them to take action.
In
this 1997 study, the researchers took two sample populations. Those
who volunteered to try and quit smoking and a standard population base
of people, who did not volunteer to quit smoking. The research shows
that the population based sample of smokers would be more motivated by
extrinsic factors to quit. This includes the now very public pressure
to quit, and factors such as costs. Volunteers had both intrinsic and
extrinsic reasons for wanting to quit. This makes sense, smokers who
don't volunteer to quit (but are clearly aware of the risk to the risk
to their health) will be more influenced by outside factors.
Within the volunteer sample, other interesting findings include:
Men were more concerned with their health (intrinsic) and social influence (extrinsic) than woman.
Woman were more concerned about self-control (intrinsic) and immediate reinforcement (extrinsic) than men.
Smokers
over the age of 55 were less concerned about their health and being
immediately reinforced than smokers under the age of 55. But they were
more concerned about having self control and social influences.
Quitting
smoking is an activity that many people commit to as a new years
resolution. It can also be one of the most difficult. Your challenge
is to try and quit smoking. Use the information armed above, to
understand what motivates you and use that as much as possible to quit.
Write
a tryary about your journey to quit smoking. Include whether you
have set a timeline, your strategy, products your using, high points and
low points.
Need some products to help you quit? Here are some ideas:
Quit Smoking
Friday, 10 January 2014
How To Start Exercising
In 2007 the results of an academic study were released, whereby 184
healthy college students in the US completed tests to measure motivation
and exercise. The intention of the study was to find out what
motivates people to exercise. In psychology, there are two types of
motivation.
So, if you’ve been thinking about exercise but just can’t get yourself going, start looking for external factors to motivate you.
Your challenge is to get into the habit of exercising. Try and get out 2 or 3 times a week and most importantly use extrinsic motivators to get you going. This could include finding some people to cheer you on, and rewarding yourself often. Another extrinsic motivator is to write a Tryary of your experience, including details of your exercise, how often your getting out, how your feeling and plans to keep it going and finally, sharing the Tryary with many people.
Article Citation:
Buckworth, J., Lee, R.E., Regan, G., Schneider, L.K. and DiClemente, C.C. (2007). Decomposing intrinsic and extrinsic motivation for exercise: application to stages of motivational readiness. Psychology of sports and exercise, 8(4), 441-461.
- Extrinsic motivators are factors outside of the person that motivates them to action. Common examples can include rewards for performance, penalties for not performing, competing with others, and having others cheer you on.
- Intrinsic motivators are factors inside a person that motivates them to action. This most commonly includes doing something because they enjoy it or to feel good about themselves.
So, if you’ve been thinking about exercise but just can’t get yourself going, start looking for external factors to motivate you.
Your challenge is to get into the habit of exercising. Try and get out 2 or 3 times a week and most importantly use extrinsic motivators to get you going. This could include finding some people to cheer you on, and rewarding yourself often. Another extrinsic motivator is to write a Tryary of your experience, including details of your exercise, how often your getting out, how your feeling and plans to keep it going and finally, sharing the Tryary with many people.
Article Citation:
Buckworth, J., Lee, R.E., Regan, G., Schneider, L.K. and DiClemente, C.C. (2007). Decomposing intrinsic and extrinsic motivation for exercise: application to stages of motivational readiness. Psychology of sports and exercise, 8(4), 441-461.
How To Build Your Creativity Muscles
In 1974 Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky published an infamous article called Judgment under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases.
The essential concept underlying the article is that our brains make
many value based judgements by using mental-shortcuts. For example, we
assess the probability of something in our minds without actually going
through the process of assessing the actual probability (what is the
likelihood of us getting hit by a bus if we J-Walk?).
While there are several benefits to applying heuristics, Kahneman and Tversky spent a lot of their time highlighting how applying heuristics can actually hurt us. For example, anchoring can impact our decisions. Anchoring is defined as;
a cognitive bias that describes the common human tendency to rely too heavily on the first piece of information offered (the "anchor") when making decisions.
In other words if I offer to sell you a product and I tell you that my original price was $100 but I will sell it to you for $30 compared to me telling you that it used to cost $25 but I had to increase the price to $30, you would have a very different reaction.
Why do we take shortcuts?
Several reasons and this article goes into some details, but essentially we do it because our brains need to make sense of things, even when they actually don't make sense. To not do so would take too much of our energy. As it stands our brains can use up to 20% of the energy we expend.
What does this have to do with creativity?
Well, a simple Google search will highlight several articles and blogs highlighting the benefits of being creative and the academic community is pretty much in universal agreement that creativity can help everything from general well-being to helping people with autism.
The problem is that most of us do not employ our creativity skills on a daily basis because of the reasons highlighted above. Our brains are trying to conserve energy and prefer to use heuristics instead. However, being creative works much the same way as any muscle in our body. If you don't use it you lose it.
Your 5th challenge is to start practising your creativity skills. Choose at least one of the suggestions below (or come up with a suggestion yourself) and apply your creativity to these suggestions. Write a Tryary of your experience:
1. Come up with at least 5 different uses for a coke can
2. Make up a story based on the following intro: Once upon a time there was a donkey named Frank...
3. Come up with a contest idea to get people excited about a boring product (such as toothpaste or batteries)
4. Create a new Disney character to hang out with Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofie.
5. Come up with a crazy and new concept for a restaurant
6. Create your own recipe
If you need help with becoming more creative, this book, is an easy read that will fill your mind with amazing suggestions to become more creative.
While there are several benefits to applying heuristics, Kahneman and Tversky spent a lot of their time highlighting how applying heuristics can actually hurt us. For example, anchoring can impact our decisions. Anchoring is defined as;
a cognitive bias that describes the common human tendency to rely too heavily on the first piece of information offered (the "anchor") when making decisions.
In other words if I offer to sell you a product and I tell you that my original price was $100 but I will sell it to you for $30 compared to me telling you that it used to cost $25 but I had to increase the price to $30, you would have a very different reaction.
Why do we take shortcuts?
Several reasons and this article goes into some details, but essentially we do it because our brains need to make sense of things, even when they actually don't make sense. To not do so would take too much of our energy. As it stands our brains can use up to 20% of the energy we expend.
What does this have to do with creativity?
Well, a simple Google search will highlight several articles and blogs highlighting the benefits of being creative and the academic community is pretty much in universal agreement that creativity can help everything from general well-being to helping people with autism.
The problem is that most of us do not employ our creativity skills on a daily basis because of the reasons highlighted above. Our brains are trying to conserve energy and prefer to use heuristics instead. However, being creative works much the same way as any muscle in our body. If you don't use it you lose it.
Your 5th challenge is to start practising your creativity skills. Choose at least one of the suggestions below (or come up with a suggestion yourself) and apply your creativity to these suggestions. Write a Tryary of your experience:
1. Come up with at least 5 different uses for a coke can
2. Make up a story based on the following intro: Once upon a time there was a donkey named Frank...
3. Come up with a contest idea to get people excited about a boring product (such as toothpaste or batteries)
4. Create a new Disney character to hang out with Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofie.
5. Come up with a crazy and new concept for a restaurant
6. Create your own recipe
If you need help with becoming more creative, this book, is an easy read that will fill your mind with amazing suggestions to become more creative.
How To Stop Making Harmful Decisions
How To Stop Making Harmful Decisions
Has this ever happened to you?
You get in the car to drive from some location to your home and before you know it you’re home.
You then ask yourself: How did I get here?
If this has happened to you, you’re not alone. This happens to most people on a daily basis.
What’s happening is you’re in a state of consciousness defined as level 1 by philosopher David Rosenthal and a host of psychology scholars.
First off though, what is consciousness?
Consciousness is the quality or state of being aware of an external object or something within oneself. It has been defined as: sentience, awareness, subjectivity, the ability to experience or to feel, wakefulness, having a sense of selfhood, and the executive control system of the mind.
Simply this means that you are aware of your actions and everything else around you.
Level 1 is part of a theory called a Higher Order of Thought (HOT). Dating back to Aristotle, the theory states that there are two levels of consciousness.
According to the academic article, Consciousness: Being aware of your mental states, this means that;
consciousness is a two-tiered affair. One's mind is engaged with the world, as a driver's obviously must be, but that engagement is not conscious until one becomes aware of it. The nonconscious mental activity of driving is made conscious when the higher order awareness of it kicks in.
One of the main criticisms is that the HOT theory does not explain how a person goes from level 1 to level 2. And if there is no causal relationship, how can one claim that they are two parts of one state; Other critics questions whether these are states of consciousness at all.
Whatever the debate in that World there is no denying that there is a distinct difference between the two states of awareness; In the first state you’re doing things that actually take an effort but is mostly done on autopilot (the fact that you’re actually doing something active separates it from a subconscious state). In the second you’re aware of your thoughts and actions and even have the ability to purposely change your actions.
But the naysayers do have a point: How does one move from one level to another?
While I’m not a psychologist or philosopher, and while I don’t have the answer about how a person switches between the levels by themselves, it’s in my humble opinion that outside influences will help you.
What does that mean?
Well here’s an example; What position are you sitting in? If you’re like most people, I just moved you from level 1 to 2 with a simple question. You are now aware of how you’re sitting because of an outside influence (namely me!).
Now again in my humble opinion, I believe that a lot of the assumptions we make in life, live in level 1. Some of course live in our subconscious. Assumptions are important as it represents a shortcut our brains take to conserve energy.
But left unchecked, assumptions can be dangerous.
To use a well-known example, Coca Cola changed their formula for Coke in 1985, which studies showed customers preferred in taste to Pepsi. When released to the public, however, it cause a massive customer backlash and became one of the worst marketing disasters of all time. Their error: Assuming that their existing formula didn’t have the loyal following that it clearly did.
In the same vain people make errors daily because they assume something. Now a lot of assumptions of course make sense. If it’s January and you’re in Alaska, it’s probably safe to assume that the weather will be cold. But other assumptions need a higher level of awareness and that’s where the outside influence can help move you from level 1 to level 2.
Your 4th challenge is to challenge an existing assumption. More specifically, the assumption that retail prices cannot be negotiated. For the next three purchases you make, try and negotiate a discount, or perhaps negotiate something to be added for free. Write a Tryary of your experience, including how successful you are.
Has this ever happened to you?
You get in the car to drive from some location to your home and before you know it you’re home.
You then ask yourself: How did I get here?
If this has happened to you, you’re not alone. This happens to most people on a daily basis.
What’s happening is you’re in a state of consciousness defined as level 1 by philosopher David Rosenthal and a host of psychology scholars.
First off though, what is consciousness?
Consciousness is the quality or state of being aware of an external object or something within oneself. It has been defined as: sentience, awareness, subjectivity, the ability to experience or to feel, wakefulness, having a sense of selfhood, and the executive control system of the mind.
Simply this means that you are aware of your actions and everything else around you.
Level 1 is part of a theory called a Higher Order of Thought (HOT). Dating back to Aristotle, the theory states that there are two levels of consciousness.
According to the academic article, Consciousness: Being aware of your mental states, this means that;
consciousness is a two-tiered affair. One's mind is engaged with the world, as a driver's obviously must be, but that engagement is not conscious until one becomes aware of it. The nonconscious mental activity of driving is made conscious when the higher order awareness of it kicks in.
One of the main criticisms is that the HOT theory does not explain how a person goes from level 1 to level 2. And if there is no causal relationship, how can one claim that they are two parts of one state; Other critics questions whether these are states of consciousness at all.
Whatever the debate in that World there is no denying that there is a distinct difference between the two states of awareness; In the first state you’re doing things that actually take an effort but is mostly done on autopilot (the fact that you’re actually doing something active separates it from a subconscious state). In the second you’re aware of your thoughts and actions and even have the ability to purposely change your actions.
But the naysayers do have a point: How does one move from one level to another?
While I’m not a psychologist or philosopher, and while I don’t have the answer about how a person switches between the levels by themselves, it’s in my humble opinion that outside influences will help you.
What does that mean?
Well here’s an example; What position are you sitting in? If you’re like most people, I just moved you from level 1 to 2 with a simple question. You are now aware of how you’re sitting because of an outside influence (namely me!).
Now again in my humble opinion, I believe that a lot of the assumptions we make in life, live in level 1. Some of course live in our subconscious. Assumptions are important as it represents a shortcut our brains take to conserve energy.
But left unchecked, assumptions can be dangerous.
To use a well-known example, Coca Cola changed their formula for Coke in 1985, which studies showed customers preferred in taste to Pepsi. When released to the public, however, it cause a massive customer backlash and became one of the worst marketing disasters of all time. Their error: Assuming that their existing formula didn’t have the loyal following that it clearly did.
In the same vain people make errors daily because they assume something. Now a lot of assumptions of course make sense. If it’s January and you’re in Alaska, it’s probably safe to assume that the weather will be cold. But other assumptions need a higher level of awareness and that’s where the outside influence can help move you from level 1 to level 2.
Your 4th challenge is to challenge an existing assumption. More specifically, the assumption that retail prices cannot be negotiated. For the next three purchases you make, try and negotiate a discount, or perhaps negotiate something to be added for free. Write a Tryary of your experience, including how successful you are.
What Really Motivates Us
In the mid 1990’s, two Swedish economists ran an experiment
with the objective of trying to settle a longstanding debate about donating
blood.
Will more people donate blood if they are offered a reward?
The economists found 153 female volunteers interested in
donating blood and split them into three groups. The first group would not receive anything
for donating blood. The second group
would receive a modest sum for donating and the third would also receive a
modest sum, but with the option to donate it to a charity.
What they found was
quite interesting. The % of people who
actually donated blood was the lowest for the group that was offered
money. In other words, more people will
donate blood for altruistic purposes than for receiving a reward.
This experiment was
identified in the book Drive by Daniel Pink. The main point of his book is
that the existing model of motivating people through rewards and punishments
don’t work anymore.
This is because people are intrinsically motivated to act when it comes to doing things such
as giving, or critically thinking, or being creative or really doing anything
that’s not assembly line type work.
This is also the reason why open source projects such as
Wikipedia and Firefox are so successful.
People aren’t being paid to contribute to these projects; they are
contributing because they are internally motivated to do so.
This revelation can have profound impacts on how businesses
are run, how governments illicit actions and how aid organizations (such as Red
Cross) motivate people.
However, it is important to note that not all people are motivated
to do the same thing. One person will be
more driven to donate blood, while another will be more motivated to volunteer
their time. It depends on the person’s
preferences.
While people are intrinsically motivated as per Daniel Pinks
book, it is important to bring up the point of altruism. Defined as an:
Ethical
theory that regards the good of others as the end of moral action; by
extension, the disposition to take the good of others as an end in itself.
The main point of altruism is that people don’t expect
anything for their action. There is
longstanding debate about whether true altruism exists, because it is well
documented that people are internally rewarded for performing acts of
kindness.
-
Increased positivity
-
Less Social-Anxiety
-
Lower Blood Pressure
-
Higher levels of happiness
While the debate is philosophical in nature, the main points
are that there are clear benefits to performing acts of kindness and that we
are intrinsically motivated to do that.
With these in mind, your third challenge is to perform three
random acts of kindness within the next week and write a Tryary about your
experience.
Here are a number of ideas to help you:
-
Help someone load or unload groceries
-
Buy coffee for the person behind you in line
-
Donate to charity
-
Sign up for a volunteer opportunity
-
Visit people at an old age home
-
Donate your old books to a library
-
Send a meal to someone has lost a love one
-
Buy gifts for children in a hospital
-
When you receive good service, go out of your
way to provide feedback to their boss
Send a thank you note (not an email) to someone
who had a profound impact on your life
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