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Willpower 101 (/learn/?category=Willpower+101)

YOUR 2 MINDS - THE

SCIENCE BEHIND
SHORT-TERM AND
LONG-TERM
MOTIVATION

Colin Robertson (/learn/?author=5416af3be4b0e4b35f92a05f) Search

· January 29, 2015 (/learn/short-term-and-long-term-
motivation)
CATEGORIES
There it is. That slice of cheesecake on the dessert cart that
Exercise (/learn/?
seems all so tempting! Despite your goals of health and
category=Exercise)
 category=Exercise)
fitness, it feels like your entire body is willing you to say,
“YES!! Eat the cheesecake!! Get it before the dessert cart Productivity (/learn/?

leaves!!” category=Productivity)

Dieting (/learn/?
Then another voice comes into the frame. It says, “But wait! category=Dieting)
This is a new year! And I promised myself that I would resist
Mindfulness (/learn/?
cheesecake!”
category=Mindfulness)

The internal debate ensues. Sometimes we give in to Willpower 101 (/learn/?

temptation. Sometimes we summon the willpower to resist. category=Willpower+101)

Achieving Your Goals

We all face this challenge. The short-term temptation could be
(/learn/?
unhealthy food, a distraction from work, or staying with friends
category=Achieving+Your+Goals)
for another drink. Whatever it is, we face a direct competition
with what we want to do and what we should do.

We should resist the unhealthy food to become the slimmer,

healthier self that we want to be. 

We should get our work done now so we won’t be stressed to

get it done at the last minute. 

We should close our tab, head home, get a good night’s sleep
and be productive tomorrow morning. 

However, doing what we should is not always easy. Part of

us wants us to be healthy, productive and build for a better
future. But another part of us wants us to indulge, kick back
and live for the moment. 

A situation like this is a reflection of two different parts of

our brain with competing desires, motivations and controls
over our final decision. 

THE PRIMITIVE BRAIN

Millions of years ago, our ancestors had very simple goals:

 1.    Find food

2.    Find a mate

3.    Stay safe from predators

These 3 goals were our key to survival and they were not
exactly easy. Back then humans were remarkably weak and
vulnerable creatures. We stood less than 5 feet tall. We did
not have the strength of a gorilla, the talons of an eagle, or
the teeth of a tiger. All we had to defend ourselves was our
superior intelligence. Over time, this resulted in our
brains developing to give us the energy and motivations to
meet our top 3 priorities.  [1
(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12383779)]

When we saw a chance of getting food, our brains gave us an

extraordinary level of energy and focus to help us hunt that
food down.

When we saw a chance of reproducing, our brains gave us a

rush of desire to ensure we did not miss the opportunity. 

And when we began to exert ourselves too much, our brains

gave us the motivation to rest so that we could conserve our
energy. 

These basic motivations were developed in what is called the

limbic system (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limbic_system)–
otherwise known as the “Primitive Brain”. Teach Goal Setting
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THE MODERN BRAIN
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Setting workshops.
After many years of navigating the wilderness alone, our
ancestors came across a novel concept – it will be much
easier to find food, find a mate and stay safe from predators if Sobha Hartland Properties
we create a tribe!
Visualization Of The Mind
So we humans started working together. This added a layer of
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complexity to our 3 primary goals. Now that we were part of a
OMR
tribe, we had to learn how to work together. This meant that
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we not only had to learn to communicate, but we also had to
learn how to control our actions. [2 Used Trucks For Sale
(http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.anthro.32.061002.093158)]
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Now there were socially acceptable rules we had to abide
by:  Kali

1. No stealing someone else’s food. Kaya Skin Clinic™

2. No stealing someone else’s mate. Luxury Property Marbella

3. No stealing someone else’s shelter. 

To abide by these rules, we had to develop a new level of

intelligence. We had to learn how to control the basic
desires of our primitive brain to eat as much as we can,
sleep with as many people as we can, and stay in the safest
possible shelter. Otherwise we risked being exiled from the
tribe and left to fend for ourselves.

This new level of intelligence was self-control. It caused us to

think about our higher goal – staying the in the tribe – and not
let our basic desires compromise it. This led to the
development of the pre-frontal cortex
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prefrontal_cortex) – otherwise
known as the “Modern Brain”. [3
(http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4899-6776-
3_43)]

YOUR 2 MINDS

In today’s society, we are still motivated by these 2 sections

of the brain.

The primitive brain motivates us to “hunt down that

cheesecake” because it still believes that its fat and
sugar will help us survive. It will also give us desires to buy
things associated with sexual images because we
subconsciously believe it will increase our chances of
reproducing. And it will motivate us to rest and conserve our
energy, rather than going for a jog. 

Then it is up to our modern brain to override these

motivations to accomplish our higher goals. Its job is
to control our desire for cheesecake so we can be healthy,
to control our desire for cheesecake so we can be healthy,
the same way it was its job to control our desire for others’
food so we can remain in the tribe.

This is why it feels like we have 2 minds. This is why there

will always be an internal debate between our short-term
desires and our long-term goals. Our primitive brains
still believe that food, sex and rest can be a matter of life and
death. So it is up to our modern brains to think about the
consequences of those desires and control them.

HOW TO HELP YOUR MODERN BRAIN

Let us assume that if you are on this site, you are looking to
enhance your willpower and give more control to
your modern brain. 

To do so, I have listed 4 practical ways that you can help

your modern brain and accomplish your higher goals:

1 . D O N O T S E T O U T T O C R E AT E H A B I T S

In trying to accomplish goals, many people set out to create

better habits. A habit is a behavior that you have done so
often that it does not require thought. This is useful for things
like flossing and remembering to lock the front door, but
when it comes to accomplishing higher goals, habits can
actually be dangerous. 

Because habits require no thought, we form them in the

primitive brain. If we try to create habits to achieve our long-
term goals, we are essentially putting our short-term brain in
charge, rather than our long-term brain.

This is like choosing a repeated arsonist as the head of fire

safety rather than the fire department chief! The primitive
brain's deep-down motivations are completely opposite to
what we’re trying to accomplish. Yet, we are giving it more
authority than the modern brain who is the most qualified!

2 . AU T O M AT I N G G OA L D E D I C AT I O N

Instead of automating our behaviors, we want to automate

Instead of automating our behaviors, we want to automate
our dedication to our goals.

Automating your goal dedication is about setting triggers and

reminders of your overall goal. This can be accomplished by
following a plan to write down your goals everyday
(http://www.forbes.com/sites/85broads/2014/04/08/why-you-
should-be-writing-down-your-goals/), create goal reminders
(http://www.uklifecoaching.org/goalreminder.php) or increase
your self-awareness (http://www.willpowered.co/learn/no-
progress-without-self-awareness).

What’s the difference between this and habits? Let’s say

your goal is to eat healthy so you create the habit of bringing
a healthy lunch to work every day. This will work most of the
time, but what happens when your colleagues invite you out
to lunch? In that case, you now have a full menu of options
and your primitive brain is in control of the choice!

If you were to automate your goal pursuit, however, you

would make a pre-commitment
(http://www.willpowered.co/learn/the-hot-cold-empathy-
gap) that you will always choose the healthiest option for
lunch. Now it is not an automatic behavior, but an automatic
choice. Whether you eat in the office, at home, or at a
restaurant, you commit to always choose the healthiest
option. Doing this helps guide you while also keeping the
decision-making in the hands of the modern brain. 

3. BUILD THE MUSCLE

One of the best ways to improve your modern brain's power

is to practice making the right decisions. It sounds strange,
but our willpower is like a muscle.
(http://www.willpowered.co/learn/willpower-is-a-muscle) When
we face temptations and make a conscious decision to say
“no” we literally strengthen our willpower. 

To improve the strength of your modern brain you can

follow any of the 10 exercises listed here
(http://www.willpowered.co/learn/strengthen-your-
(http://www.willpowered.co/learn/strengthen-your-
willpower). You can also simply become more mindful of
yourself and your decisions. Much of our life is spent on auto-
pilot, so simply taking a moment to pause and think
about why you are doing something can increase the control
of your modern brain. [4
(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10457761)]

4 . M A K E A C O M M I T M E N T T O A H I G H E R G OA L

Our ancestors had a higher goal of being a member of the

tribe. This goal helped them make the right decisions even
when they were the most tempted. They did not need to
create a habit, they just needed to have a strong commitment
to that goal. [5
(http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005ERIRZE?btkr=1)]

This same principle holds true for our goals as well. In many
cases you don’t need to have a specific behavioral response
to avoid a temptation, you just need a higher purpose.
Whether that purpose is your health, being a good role model
for your kids, or a dream to believe in.

Making a commitment to your goal will help you deal with

challenges that you could never foresee coming.
Scientifically, this commitment calls your modern brain into
action when it gets challenged. When you are inevitably tired,
stressed, or tempted, thinking about the greater purpose will
help your modern brain make the right decision. [6
(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19455377)]

THE ULTIMATE SAY

No matter how much willpower you have, your primitive brain

will always give you motivations and desires to act on the
short-term. But your brain developed so that you never have
to follow these desires.

The modern brain developed as the ultimate decider of our

actions. It controls our desires and decides what is best for
our long-term survival. No matter how much we wanted to
steal another tribe member’s food, we always had the ability
to control that desire and choose not to act on it.

In today’s society this means that the voice in your head that
says “resist the cheesecake”, “don’t procrastinate” and “put
on your running shoes!” always has the ultimate say in what
you do. 

This does not mean that it is going to be easy to resist

those temptations. If it were easy, we would not have an
obesity epidemic and 95% of the population would not admit
to being procrastinators [7
(http://www.amazon.com/Willpower-Rediscovering-Greatest-
Human-Strength/dp/0143122231)].  

But it is empowering to know that no matter how much you

feel like you cannot resist a short-term temptation – you can.
In those moments when you feel like you are helpless to give
in, remember your brain evolved to make sure that you
always have the willpower to do what is right. [5
(http://www.amazon.com/Willpower-Instinct-Self-Control-
Works-Matters-ebook/dp/B005ERIRZE/ref=sr_1_1?
s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1422363299&sr=1-
1&keywords=the+willpower+instinct)]

CONCLUSION

It seems that whenever we come across a temptation, our

mind splits in 2. Part is motivating us with all of the reasons
that we should give in, the other giving the rational reasons
why we should resist.  

This phenomenon occurs because of the desires of 2

different parts of the brain – the limbic system (primitive brain)
and pre-frontal cortex (modern brain). Each will give us
different desires and motivations, but the ultimate decider of
our actions is the modern brain.

We may be tired, we may be tempted, and we may feel

helpless to give in to our short-term desires. But we are
always in control of our ultimate actions. It may not be easy,
always in control of our ultimate actions. It may not be easy,
but your modern brain will ensure that you always have the
willpower to make the right decision.

STRENGTHEN YOUR
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Sources

1. Wise, R. (2002). Brain Reward Circuitry. Neuron 36.2:

229-40
2. Dunbar, R. (2003). THE SOCIAL BRAIN: Mind, Language,
And Society In Evolutionary Perspective. Annual Review
of Anthropology, 163-181.
3. Irwin, L. (1988). Comparative Neuroscience and
Neurobiology. Boston: Birkhäuser.
4. Muraven, M., Baumeister, R., & Tice, D. (1999).
Longitudinal Improvement of Self-Regulation Through
Practice: Building Self-Control Strength Through
Repeated Exercise. The Journal of Social Psychology,
446-457.
5. McGonigal, K. (2012). The willpower instinct: How self-
control works, why it matters, and what you can do to get
more of it. New York: Avery.
6. Suchy, Y. (2009). Executive Functioning: Overview,
Assessment, And Research Issues For Non-
Neuropsychologists. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 106-
116.
 116.
7. Baumeister, R., & Tierney, J. (2011). Willpower:
Rediscovering the greatest human strength. New York:
Penguin Press.

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