The Ardent Axiom
Illuminating the Facts About Behavioral Health and Rising Above the Stigma
Part 02: Autonomy
Autonomy
Psychologists published a study in The Journal of Neuroscience, showing that when people believe they’re in control of their lives, they work harder and push themselves more. They earn more money and live longer.
In the research, the psychologists looked at the striatum of the brain, which serves as a way point between our pre-frontal cortex (where we make decisions) and the primitive basal-ganglia (where movement and emotions emerge). When the striatum is sluggish, decisions that we make with our pre-frontal cortex can’t connect with the action and emotion oriented basal-ganglia.
This means that while we can think about how something is correct, rational, or a desirable thing to do, we don’t feel driven to actually follow through on it.
Published in Trends in Cognitive Science (October 2010), researchers found that the more engaged with, and in control of, your actions and surroundings the more you experience the drive of self-motivation. The less decision making we do in our lives, the less motivated we become to do anything.
Motivation is a feeling and like all other feelings it may come and go, but taking control and becoming autonomous is a skill in self-direction. Developing this skill will require practice, but doing so can help us become focused and determined even when we have lost our motivation to accomplish our goals.
The process of taking control can start out as small decisions we make about our daily activities, such as the chores we do or errands we want to run.
This series is available free for download in PDF format and includes activities for more engaged learning: Motivation
The Ardent Axiom 