Our next flow trigger is a rich environment. This a combination platter of three separate triggers: novelty, unpredictability, and complexity. All three drive dopamine into our systems and, as a result, catch and hold our attention much like risk.14 We’ll go one at a time.

This also means that these goals are my first filter. If a project comes my way, if it doesn’t advance these three missions, then it’s not for me. This is critical. It doesn’t do much good to do all this work to increase motivation, only to squander it on the frivolous. MTPs, utilized properly, aren’t aspirational, they’re filtrational: they weed

Intrinsic drivers are the opposite. These are psychological and emotional forces such as curiosity, passion, meaning, and purpose. The pleasure of mastery, which we feel as the sensation of a job well done, is another potent example. Autonomy, the desire to be in charge of one’s own life, is yet another.

Much of what remains visible is simply the stuff that scares us. Evolution shaped the brain for survival, so anything that could threaten that survival always grabs our attention. But what else is important for our survival? Our goals, and anything that can help us achieve those goals. Because the brain is a prediction engine and consciousness is a

The messages themselves are basic.5 In the brain, electrical signals have only one meaning: do more of what you’re doing. If enough electricity pours

Flow is defined as “an optimal state of consciousness where we feel our best and perform our best.”

“purpose-in-life” (the technical term) has been shown to lower incidences of stroke, dementia, and cardiovascular disease.16 Additionally, from a performance standpoint, purpose boosts motivation, productivity, resilience, and focus.

It was University of Rochester psychologists Edward Deci and Richard Ryan who first discovered this fuel.14 In the next chapter, we’ll get to know these scientists and their work even better. For now, just be aware that, in the mid-1980s, this duo introduced “self-determination theory” and, with it, their concept of “relatedness.”

“No pressure, no diamonds.”