Scott

“After that basic-needs line is crossed, employees want intrinsic rewards. They want to be in control of their own time (autonomy), they want to work on projects that interest them (curiosity/”
― Steven Kotler, The Art of Impossible: A Peak Performance Primer

“Don’t kick yourself while you’re down We can’t talk about tackling low mood without talking about self-criticism and self-attack. Low mood increases any self-criticism or self-attack that we already do. It’s very easy to tell someone to just stop being hard on themselves. But when something has been a habit from a young age, just telling yourself to stop is not likely to cut it. We can’t stop those thoughts arriving. But we can build our ability to notice them and respond in a way that gives them less power over how we feel and behave. We can use the same skills that we covered for catching thought biases and getting some distance from them. This helps us to recognize that those thoughts are emotion-loaded judgements, not facts. Bring to mind someone you love unconditionally. Now imagine they were speaking about themselves the way that you speak to yourself. How would you respond to them? What would you want them to have the courage to see in themselves? How would you want them to speak to themselves instead? This task is one way to help us access that deep sense of compassion that we often show to others but neglect to show for ourselves.”
― Julie Smith, Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before?

“How we think is not the whole picture. Everything we do and don’t do influences our mood too. When you feel down, all you want to do is hide away. You don’t feel like doing any of the things you normally enjoy, and so you don’t. But disengaging from those things for too long makes you feel even worse. The loop also occurs with our physical state. Let’s say you have been too busy to exercise for a few weeks. You feel tired and low in mood, so exercising is the last thing you want to do. The longer you avoid the exercise, the more you feel lethargic and low on energy. When you are low on energy, the chance of exercising goes down, along with your mood. Low mood gives you the urge to do the things that make mood worse.”
― Julie Smith, Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before?