Top 3 Ways to Increase Motivation by Expert Doctors

Are you looking for ways to increase motivation?  If so, then you are a member of a much larger group than you probably realize.  Many people suffer from low motivation.  Often when I discuss this topic with patients, the response is that their motivation is not what it should be.  “I have to drag myself out of bed in the morning.”  “I have trouble getting the things that I need done every day completed.”  These are typical comments.

Why Just Pushing Yourself Does NOT Work

“Just push yourself and you will get through it.”  “You are just being lazy.”  Comments like this often accompany low motivation.  We might hear them from other people.  However, many of us find we are saying this to ourselves.  If you just push a little harder, you will get through that low motivation slump.  This is what you tell yourself.  But as you have come to realize, pushing yourself for a short time is not a long term fix.  In fact, pushing yourself often depletes your motivation more in the long run.

A few months back, I was working with a young gentlemen named Nathan.  Nathan came to me originally with a long history of gut complaints.  Through our work together, it became obvious that his gut symptoms were accompanied by lack of motivation and enjoyment from life.  Were they related?  In short, yes.  They were related.  I will show you how in just a moment.  But here is what you want to know.  Nathan had begun to think low motivation was his normal.  No one had ever shared that there is a specific reason that he had complete control over.

The Obvious, but NEVER Mentioned Reason for Low Motivation

“There is something wrong with me.”  “I am getting old.”  “I am just not as good as I used to be.”  These are all the nonsense statements that we tell ourselves when our motivation is low.  Why?  Because you don’t know about dopamine.  Dopamine is your motivation brain chemical.  In your quest for ways to increase motivation, if you overlook dopamine, your search will never end.

You have a brain chemical imbalance.  It’s called low dopamine.  In fact, many people have brain chemical levels that are not ideal.  Stress, toxins, poor diet and and lack of benefit from your probiotics, the gut bacteria, all contribute to these brain chemical imbalances.  Yet, no one talks about this.  This makes no sense as low dopamine is probably the most established reason for low motivation.  At best the option of a medication is offered, but that is not a solution.  So, let me show you the solutions that I recommended to Nathan that he routinely started to implement to change is motivation, and gut.

How to Simultaneously Boost Motivation and Fat Burning

If you want to stimulate your brain, you have to move your butt.  Can we all agree that water, food and air are all essential to human life?  Good!  Now let’s add one more to the list.  Exercise.  If you don’t move, your body falls apart.  Not just the muscle and bones.  But your brain also.  Moving around is without question one of the best ways to increase motivation.  More dopamine, the motivation stimulating chemical, is created.

I can already hear your asking, “What type of exercise should I do?”  Here is a short guideline list for you.

• Some is better than none.
• Routine is key.  This is a lifestyle.  Not an event.
• The harder you exercise, the more your body produces dopamine.
• Too much exercise can overuse your dopamine.  We call athletes that lose their motivation over-trained.
• Keep your exercise reasonable, 3-4 days per week, 15-30 minutes

Ways to Increase Motivation Better than Medications

I want you to make a connection.  If you have low motivation, you have low dopamine.  The two always go together.  Always!  The next logical question of course is, how do you increase dopamine?  Let me give the good news first.  Your body makes dopamine.  Bad news is you only make it when you have the building blocks to make it with.

If you have taken a medication to increase motivation and it only worked for a limited amount of time or the dose had to be increased continuously, it was linked to your production of dopamine.  Without your body’s production of dopamine, the medication has nothing to work with to be effective.  Whether your goal is to continue using a medication or avoid them altogether, giving the building blocks to make dopamine is a must.

If I don’t share with you the building blocks, I am certain you would be able to find at least enough motivation to throw something at me for holding back the info.  Rest assured, I want you to have endless motivation and be able to tell others how you regained it.  Here they are.  L-tyrosine is the primary building block.  But you also need other support nutrients to make dopamine production efficient.  These include B6 and L-Dopa.  Of the ways to increase motivation, this has been a proven combination for so many of my patients.  In fact, just yesterday a nutrition colleague commented how anytime she wanted a boost in motivation, this was her go to.  Actually it is my personal go to from time to time as well.

Nathan’s Secret Revealed

Throughout Nathan’s journey trying to fix his gut, no one ever told him that his low motivation was linked to it.  This is one of the most over looked reasons for low motivation and brain chemical imbalances in general.  Your gut, more specifically the probiotics, or gut bacteria, are a primary site of dopamine production.  They don’t produce a small, insignificant amount.  They produce a lot.  If the probiotics are not producing dopamine, you are missing out on one of the most sustainable ways to increase motivation.

Probiotics that can make it to the lower portions of your gut should be initially supplemented to increase levels.  After that, they require being fed high quality fiber from foods with lots of color.  Let’s sum this recommendation up by saying more vegetables.  You will not go wrong eating more vegetables to make your probiotics highly efficient dopamine producers that will help fire up your motivation.  If you want to amplify the effects even more, avoid toxic herbicides and pesticides in non-organic foods that kill probiotics.

Bonus – One of the Easiest Ways to Increase Motivation

Do nothing.  Just do it at the right time.  Wait, what?  Doing nothing is one of the ways to increase motivation.  Yes.  When should you be doing nothing?  At night, when you are asleep, ideally for 8+ hours.  If you want to boost your motivation and produce more dopamine, sleep is essential.  If you are awake when you should be asleep, you are not restoring dopamine levels.  You are depleting them.  The more dopamine you deplete, the lower your motivation will be.

There you have it, the expert tips that I use to help patients consistently overcome low motivation, one dopamine boosting step at a time.