Chimp Encounter

According to Professor Steven Peters, motivation is over rated and that commitment is what counts if you want to achieve your goal. In his book, The Chimp Paradox, he explains that the psychological brain is made up of three parts; the human, the chimp and the computer. Our Chimp, our emotional machine, lives in the limbic system, our human, our self, lives in our frontal lobe and the computer is basically the storage system for our thoughts and behaviours. The problem with motivation, Peters says, is that it appeals to our Chimp and our Chimp is emotionally driven. Learning to live with your Chimp is the key to success and happiness. According to Professor Peters;

‘ Having a Chimp is like owning a dog. You are not responsible for the nature of the dog but you are responsible for managing it and keeping it well behaved. This is a very important point and you should stop and think about this because it is crucial to yourhappiness and success in life.’

My Chimp’s name is Pedro and he’s highly motivated. He’s just so incredibly enthusiastic about starting new projects and plans, it’s unreal. Not so long ago he was motivated by the idea of getting fit and losing weight. He knew that he’d like the feeling of being fit, having more energy and looking younger and slimmer. Pedro decided he would get up early every morning and row at least 5K before breakfast, he would cycle to work every day and ride the long way home. On the way home he would visit the gym and do loads of resistance work (he was so motivated to go to the gym that he convinced his Human to pay a monthly membership!) and he would follow that diet that he saw on the telly with the protein shakes and loads of coffee with butter in, (he was so motivated to follow the diet that he made his human buy three tubs of protein powder. In different flavours, because Pedro knows what he’s like, he gets bored quickly and variety would help keep him on track). He made sure he had all the gear he needed and things looked very positive. All went well, but not for very long. Pedro’s motivation waned for all sorts of reasons like the weather, time pressures, pressing commitments like joining other Chimps for a drink in the pub, feeling a bit tired or maybe having to watch something good on the telly.

The plan was doomed to failure from the outset because Pedro’s human hadn’t worked closely enough with him and had failed to secure a commitment to see the plan through and reach the goal. The human and the chimp need to establish what exactly it is that they can commit to otherwise the goal is likely to be unattainable. According to Steve Peters;

‘Motivation is Chimp-driven. It is a feeling based on emotion. Motivation generally happens when there is a great reward to gain or when you are suffering so badly that you want things to change. Motivation is helpful to drive us on but it is not essential to success. It is unrealistic to expect to ‘feel motivated’ every day, no matter what you are doing. The problem with motivation is that it works on feelings from the Chimp and these can shift very quickly. Commitment, on the other hand, comes from the Human and does notdepend on feelings. Commitment means following a plan even if you don’t feel like it that day. For example, a surgeon can’t say halfway through an operation, ‘Do you know I just don’t feel motivated to finish this, so I’ll stop now!’ Motivation doesn’t matter; it is commitment that will finish the operation.’

Duck breast with Chinese vegetables.

So, am I committed to this goal of shedding fifty pounds before the summer? Can I keep Pedro from tucking into the staff room cakes and chocolates? Can I keep him focussed on the task at hand and out of the pub with the other chimps? Well, it’s working so far. And Pedro’s feeling pretty pleased with himself. In fact, Pedro’s a very happy chimp because he can see the results. Another four pounds lost last week, lots of lovely food, and he’s getting a lot of attention from other chimps. And he likes that. The test will come when the weight loss in some weeks may be disappointing. Will Pedro cope? That’s up to his human.

As Joan Rivers once said about her motivation to exercise,

‘I don't exercise. If God had wanted me to bend over, he would have put diamonds on the floor.’