Get it Done: Surprising Lessons from the Science of Motivation

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It started well enough, reasonably paced. Plenty of examples and anecdotes and breakdown of the theory behind it all. set positive goals, as opposed to “do not do” goals; avoidance goals are chores that lead to thought suppression There are many problems with this book. The short review is that if you’d like a long lecture from a dishonest, uncreative, Liberal, Jewish-Puritan, this is the book for you. You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead pursue the things you love doing and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off of you.” P170 “It’s important…that you correctly judge the strength of the temptations you’ll face. As long as your expectations are well calibrated, you’ll be prepared to fight temptation off.”

I mean it wasn't as heavy on the theory part, but towards the end, there was a lot more examples of this type of motivation than this other one and they just became like a numeration and not quite a manual on how to get motivated. Whether starting a new diet, running a marathon, or gunning for a promotion, Get It Done illuminates invaluable strategies for propelling yourself in whatever direction you want to go—so you can achieve your goals while staying healthy, clear-headed, and happy. Fishbach argues that intrinsic motivation is decreased by extrinsic rewards because of how goals and activities are associated. At first, the goal of intrinsically motivated activities may be enjoyment or self-expression. When you add the reward, the activity becomes associated with getting the reward as well—a second goal. Fishbach argues that having multiple goals associated with an activity dilutes the importance of the activity in working toward the goal. She writes, In her insightful new book Get It Done: Surprising Lessons from the Science of Motivation (debuting January 4 from Little Brown Spark), Fishbach takes on the questions that plague us most:Marie and Pierre Curie discovered two elements on the periodic table: polonium and radium. In 1903, the couple jointly won the Nobel Prize in Physics. It was Pierre who insisted that Marie also be named, and Marie won a second Nobel Prize (this time in chemistry) on her own eight years later. Marie and Pierre Curie were able to make such incredible discoveries in part because they did it together. Their story tells us how two people can support each other’s motivation.

The reason that’s the case is that there are special, clearly marked points in time. It’s when you start doing something for longer that it becomes harder to maintain that enthusiasm. This is called the “middle problem.” I had this professor once who I really looked up to and they kept giving me these tasks that I didn’t think I was qualified for. And when I said, “Hey, I don’t think I can do this. I’ll probably need your help,” they said, “Jasmin, I wouldn’t give you these tasks if I didn’t believe you’d be able to do them and to do them well. I don’t want to see you fail. But I think you can do much more.” To this day, having a role model who believed in my abilities more than I did was the best motivator I could’ve asked for. I worked my butt off for that professor. i142855418 |b1160003006379 |dvlnf |g- |m |h2 |x2 |t0 |i2 |j70 |k220512 |n12-22-2022 00:45 |o- |a153.8 |rFIS We can use this principle to increase patience. All we need to do is introduce more time before the smaller-sooner option becomes available.One concept Fishbach discussed that I thought was cool was the concept of self-other overlap, i.e., the perception of a psychological overlapping between ourselves and others. People often conform to the group. You often internalize the views and goals of the people around you because they're part of you. This is why role models are so important: the middle problem: compare your next action to whichever is smaller: previous progress or future progress

P149 our draw to “middle options” as compromises can be exploited by adding artificially expensive options.

Setting the goal in the first place is perhaps the most obvious one, but as Fishbach explains, there are many ways in which people tend to get it wrong. One step we can take in goal setting is to focus on aligning our goals to our own intrinsic motivation. Another guideline in choosing a goal with staying power is to frame it as something you intend to do (an “approach goal”) rather as something you don’t want to do (an “avoidance goal”). Coming up with the goal is the easy part. The hard part comes with putting the goal into action and sustaining motivation during the slow or hard parts. To get over the agonizing middle when most goals fall flat, the author recommends these strategies: