Our brains are not designed to make an effort.
“I’ll do that tomorrow”, “I’ll finish later”, “I don’t want to”… It’s difficult to get back to the effort! Laziness is characterized by reduction or even avoidance of a stain. A phenomenon that is sometimes difficult to get rid of. “In neuropsychology, we do not necessarily speak of “laziness” but rather of “the tendency to minimize effort” i.e.e to “achieve a goal at a lower cost“ explains Dr Boris Cheval, doctor in neuropsychology of physical activity. What we call “laziness” is a natural phenomenon : “In terms of evolution, it’s completely normal that our brains are organized to save money.” This means that for a task that requires effort, he will have the reflex to choose an equivalent to achieve his goal using as little energy as possible. “There is a legacy of evolutionwe organize ourselves physical level and at mental level to achieve our goals easily and effortlessly.”
A naturally lazy brain
More than laziness, our brain pushes us toefficiency that is to say, doing as little as possible while having maximum results, it thus naturally maximizes the effort/performance ratio. “We call this efficiency “laziness” because often we won’t even make the effort, we will be “lazy”.” In everyday life, we can see this with our choices: “90% of the time, people take the escalators rather than stairs“ famous learns Boris Cheval. Our everyday objects and our technological creations also allow us to limit the slightest effort: electric scooters help us walk less, household robots like electric mixers help us cook and intelligent vacuum cleaners do the cleaning for us.
Addressing our laziness thus seems to go against the very functioning of our brain. “We must remember that it does not make sense for the brain at the neuroscientific level to seek effort but research is being developed to try.” According to Boris Cheval, the aim of research is toteach people to love the taste of effort. “One study showed positive results with people providing mental effort, such as a math exercise, by offering them a reward in the form of points, like a game that you win.” Behind this study lies the idea that we can train ourselves to appreciate effort. For that “we can teach people to appreciate the consequences some efforts” suggests the expert. Rewarding yourself for each task can thus be a key to motivation: “If I succeed in doing this, I will have the right to”, it is up to everyone to decide what could motivate them.
According to our expert, it is also possible to motivate yourself during the task at hand, with what he calls “intrinsic rewards” : “Certain tips will play on what we call the “affective experiences” of effort and will be able to make them positive.” Concretely, finish a task with the simplest will transform the last moments of the effort into a pleasant memory. The emotional memory of the latter will remain positive. Afterwards, listen to music during exercise can make the moment more pleasant, taking care to choose a playlist associated with positive emotions. Finally, the environment is important. If you have trouble motivating yourself for a workout, maybe practice it outside will make the moment more pleasant. Once again, it is up to each person to find what will make their task as painless as possible in order to want to do it.