Why are some people more motivated than others in lockdown?

Image: Abhijit Bhaduri

I often get asked, how are you so proactive when the world is falling apart? How do you have the motivation to do so many things? Well, I can now give you a scientific answer instead of my narcissistic response. It’s all to do with the brain. Which seems obvious, but what you didn’t know is that slackers are actually just born as slackers. Ok, so that’s probably a brutal way of putting it but there is actually scientific evidence that suggests that ‘go-getters’ and ‘slackers’ are the way they are because of the amount of dopamine in different parts of their brain.

What is dopamine I hear you say? Well I’m going to tell you; we’ll start from the top.

Motivation comes from the part of the brain called the nucleus accumbens, let’s call this Mr T. If he was shouting at you to get your ass out of bed, you are almost certainly going to do it. Plus, if a guy that size can wear hooped earrings and fight off cancer, he’s quite frankly a badass. Mr T’s role is part of a reward circuit in the brain, so when we do something considered rewarding, like eating food or having sex, neurons are activated which releases dopamine.

Dopamine is a chemical signal that passes information from one neuron to the next and as it moves from neuron to neuron it bumps against various receptors. Imagine you buy a round of jäger bombs, these are the dopamine. You pass them back to several people, who are the neurons. Each person puts the jäger to their mouth and shots it, these are the receptors. It’s important to mention that levels of dopamine rise in both positive and negative experiences. These memories are stored to help us remember which experiences are pleasurable and which are displeasing. For example, you run in lockdown, you realise how horrendous it is, that memory gets stored and it discourages you from doing it again.

This route that the dopamine takes is called the mesolimbic pathway, this is important in determining pleasurable and rewarding experiences. Let’s call this our flight to Marbella; you are on a plane to a sunny destination. A route to sun and sangria, sounds perfect. High levels of dopamine gather in Mr T on the flight to Marbella. Yes, I did just say that. This triggers feedback in determining a reward for something we do. For example, you are lying in bed thinking about doing some exercise and you know that if you do a few sit ups then you can reward yourself with a glass of wine later. Dopamine is released before we receive the reward but encourages us to act.

Some scientists at the Vanderbilt University revealed that ‘go-getters’ AKA ‘sweats’ have higher levels of dopamine in the striatum and ventromedial prefrontal cortex. In English this means the reward and motivation part of the brain, which controls cognition and reward. Whereas ‘slackers’ AKA ‘lazy people’ have higher levels of dopamine in the anterior insula, the part of the brain associated with emotion and risk. This explains why some people aren’t as motivated in lockdown because high levels of dopamine gather in the emotion and risk part of the brain. In an already anxious climate, I can imagine it’s difficult to motivate yourself if your brain also feels anxious.

According to Entrepreneur, you can improve your motivation. They suggest you “identify primary sources of resistance”. Why do I sit on my arse all day? Why do I choose to watch a film in bed instead of going for a run? Identify the sources and look for solutions. Another way to improve motivation is to record and celebrate small wins. You got out of bed this morning? Have a glass of prosecco! Ok, so maybe celebrate in more appropriate ways, but you get the gist. One of the simplest ways to record a small win is crossing something off on a list. I can vouch for the satisfaction of crossing something off on a list, it’s honestly fantastic. Allegedly you can even improve motivation by eating particular foods, this includes yogurt, avocados, bananas and green tea. All the things you’re supposed to eat and drink anyway but don’t! Perfect.

Lockdown is pretty bad for everyone at the moment and I for one can ramble on about how hard it is to motivate yourself to do things. We can only do what we can, and I think we’ve all learnt how easy it is to waste a whole day. Some people will be ‘sweats’ all their lives and they were just born that way. Or they just eat a lot of yogurt, avocados, bananas and green tea.