October 10, 2022

Below is a lesson from Washington Post on the value of effort, as well as our key learnings.

The Blue Courage team is dedicated to continual learning and growth.  We have adopted a concept from Simon Sinek’s Start With Why team called “Learn, Share, Grow”.  We are constantly finding great articles, videos, and readings that have so much learning.  As we learn new and great things, this new knowledge should be shared for everyone to then grow from.

The brain loves a challenge. Here’s why.

New research suggests we can train our brain to value making an effort and not just the outcome

By Richard Sima

As a rock climber, I fight against gravity while I scale the walls and their rocklike holds. But my arms invariably fatigue, my grip slips with sweat, and, sometimes, my nerves question whether I should stick to easier climbing routes.

Trying to do hard things is, well, hard. And exerting ourselves physically and mentally often feels bad.

Yet we seek out these challenges without any obvious extrinsic reward. I’m paying a monthly membership fee for the experience of flailing and falling in a rock-climbing gym.

Others go even further, scaling mountains, running marathons or even ultramarathons. And many people spend their leisure time exercising their minds on crossword puzzles, strategizing in board games, or playing video games.

Our penchant for doing hard things that make us feel bad is what researchers call the Effort Paradox. Trying hard is costly and aversive, but it’s something humans value.

Our brains constantly conduct cost-benefit analyses on choices and actions. When we are hard at work, the anterior cingulate cortex located near the front of our brain tracks our efforts, and its neural activity appears to be associated with how bad the exertion feels. These effort signals help our brain evaluate whether it’s worth it to keep trying or do something else.

Continue Reading Here.

Key Learnings:

• Effort Paradox -- Trying hard is costly and aversive, but it's something humans value.
• When presented with the choice of two cognitive tasks, people prefer to do the easier one and are willing to accept fewer rewards to avoid having to try harder, to include possible physical pain to avoid cognitively demanding tasks.
• Mental effort activates our "fight-or-flight" sympathetic nervous system, our pupils dilate, and our hearts beat harder. It feels bad and we tend to avoid it.
• Yet there's something about pushing yourself that seems to be valuable and enjoyable. One reason: the end product -- the harder you work, the more rewards you tend to get. 
• The ventral striatum (brain region, processes rewarding outcomes) is more strongly activated when we achieve something through higher effort than lower effort.
• The more effort - the more we tend to value it
• Rewarding the effort, not the outcome, prompts people to seek out more difficult tasks later, even without additional rewards later.
• We can learn to enjoy the journey regardless of the destination.
• How we value effort is determined by what we experience in every-day life.
• People who find meaning in their efforts tend to report higher life satisfaction and meaning.