Finish First, Unveil Afterward
I can no longer find the reference, but I recently read of a study that showed that the brain-chemical rewards of satisfaction from talking about our intention to do a project are the same as the feelings of satisfaction that we receive from completing a project. The lesson was to finish first and then unveil it afterward, so as not to sabotage your drive.
This was consistent with my life experience. When I was a boy, I would get the neighborhood kids involved in projects of vast ambition, such as an RC car racing track, or a circus, or a backyard theme park made of cardboard. A week later I would forget the plan ever existed because I was busy drawing up detailed schematics of my latest life's work, and assigning a role in it to everyone who would listen. I don't think very many of them ever stopped going along with it, because on balance dreaming and planning is fun. However, I eventually remembered some of my abandoned plans with embarrassment, and could no longer muster the sincere belief that is a crucial component of my glowing enthusiasms. I didn't get back in the saddle until my late twenties, when I figured out how to subdue my attention span. I now cajole, distract, and bribe my brain into avoiding shiny distractions. Well, mostly.
The study on announcements is the latest trick I've learned. That is why I have not already blogged about the paying assignment I have been working on for a week. In another week it's scheduled to be done, and I hope I'll be allowed to show it to you. Until then please regard it with skepticism for the sake of my clever mind-trick. In fact, I might be violating the new lesson just by saying this much.
I would just like to say it's satisfying, and I wish I knew how to get more work with projects of this nature. It feels refreshing to get paid to do a project that I like and approve of; to get paid to do something that is easier to start than to stop. I think the last time this happened was six or seven years ago, and I don't remember it ever happening before that.
Comments
sarahmichigan on Jul. 10, 2009 1:27 PM
This really rings true for me in terms of writing projects (specifically creative writing). If you talk about it too much, you lose the energy to complete it. i think that's why I and other creative types dread being asked the (perfectly reasonable, to other people) question, "So what are you working on now/what's it about?"
mmetrumpington on Jul. 11, 2009 2:37 AM — possible link?
I'm not sure if any of them are exactly the study you were talking about, but there are a few links of this sort in the Frontal Cortex blog by Jonah Lehrer this week. (Frontal Cortex is one of the 70+ blogs on scienceblogs.com) Todays post was about the dopamine circuits involved in identifiying future rewards, ie the pleasure circuitry works before the reward is received, based on conditioned expectation, while the reward itself actually elicits no pleasure from these neurons.
atropis on Jul. 11, 2009 4:17 AM
sounds about right. good find.
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