The Art of Motivation: The Cookie Method & The Locus of Control

Are you willing to put in the effort it takes to be who you want to be?

It is always fun to dream up our goals but doing the actual work is usually where the fun stops. It requires time, strength and motivation but all of this eventually runs out, and you are left with voices of doubt and uncertainty. How do we then keep pushing forward?

In 2020 I pulbished my first book. For a decade I had tried and failed at this task but then something changes. Throughout the whole process I was questioning myself: “Why am I spending time on this? Should I not focus on something else that could improve my career? Does any of this matter in the end or am I deluding myself?” It is hard to stay motivated but the trick is keep going. In the following post I will discuss the experience of progress and motivation by pointing out 2 perspectives on motivation. It demonstrates how Motivation is not something that simply occurs to us but is in fact something rooted in our mindset.

I will begin with the “cookie jar method” from David Goggins’ book Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds (2018)[i]. For some people the relationship between motivation and accomplishment is linear. You feel motivated, you do and then you accomplish. However, in my experience it is more circular. Accomplishment is also a feeling and a fuel because it works as an example of what one is capable of. It allows you to feel that your target is attainable. Goggins writes that you have remind yourself how tough you are and the things you have already accomplished. When you feel like giving up look into the “cookie jar” which is place (either in your mind or maybe even a real cookie jay) where you store all of the things you endured, overcome and achieved. By tapping into this, you reminded yourself that success is possible because you have done it before[ii]. Use it to reset your mindset.

However, it is not enough. Changing your mindset is related to how you understand your effort. Let us talk about “The locus of control”[iii]. In psychology this term that refers to how strongly people believe they have control over the outcome of situations in their lives. There two types: 1) External, which means that one is not in control of one’s failure and success because they believe that it is external factors that determines it. 2) Internal, it is the opposite because one is then attributing success and failures to one’s effort.

If you belong to the first group, motivation is almost futile because your actions are rendered meaningless and the outcome is just a matter of chance (determined by genes and environment). Even failures are just impersonal events. They are like trees on the road you can’t move. There is nothing to fuel you. If you belong to the later, you understand that efforts and accomplishments are related. Your efforts have an outcome, and that outcome is either success or failure. More importantly, if you do fail it is only a step in your progress, not the end of it. The failure is knowledge and it means that something is not working one way, so you can try another. Change your effort and different results emerge. Find your own rhythm and remember that every step you take is progress. Effort is simply the repetitive act of trying.

Always remember that failures are the not opposite of success. If you are failing, it does not mean that you are not succeeding. It means that you are learning. Language is a funny thing, and I will differently make a port about the impact of discourse on our motivation and accomplishment but for today I would like end this post by reminding people that success and failure are often presented in a binary structure but in its core it makes no sense to put these words next to each other. Accomplishment is a step and failure is a stepping stone but success is the finishing line.

When you are setting goals, remember to break your goals into these steps and stones too. That is how I accomplished my goal for this year. I published a book because I finished writing it. I finished writing it because I wrote a page, a verse and a word over and over again.

Everything you do, it matters. It only stops mattering when you stop trying.

References

[i] Goggins, David, Amazon Link https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1544512279/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1544512279&linkCode=as2&tag=brainboosteds-21&linkId=c8f3c1107af8d0d2b2a3d3ca73c7c3ac [ii] Brain Boosted Blog: https://brainboostedshop.com/blogs/blogs/the-cookie-jar-method [iii] Website: https://www.edglossary.org/locus-of-control/