Why getting going is easier than staying going

Remember back to the day when you first decided to pursue the CFA designation? You had probably been talking with CFA charterholder friends and envying their cool jobs. Or maybe you had been reading some financial news and the CFA charterholders quoted sounded just a little more informed than the rest?

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Contents

• Failing motivation means DOPAMINE DEFICIT

• How to get it back

• Do It Now to Make 2021 Your Year

You got stars in your eyes and maybe a stomach flip and you found out how to register and you got the confirmation of your registration and you told all your friends and the books arrived and you tore open the box and sat right down and started? Remember how exciting that was remember how everything seemed to be falling into place for your future with a big career?

You don’t feel that way anymore?

Now you’re spending time wondering if the exam will be held on the scheduled date, or learning to play chess, or trying to study but just sitting and looking at the words on the page.

Your self-worth and self-esteem are shaky. You begin to question yourself, your capability, and your ability to stick to anything. You get into a pity and loathing spiral that makes working at Starbucks seem like a good alternative to trying to pursue a finance career.

You’ve got a dopamine deficit. That rush you felt when you first signed up was the hormone hitting your reward center in your brain and you felt invincible with the hope and expectation. And there’s no hope and expectation left only the scattered crumbs of your dogeared notes.

How to get it back: Create a new reward path

So you want to fall in love with your goal again? You need to boost your dopamine. Get that novelty rush of excitement back in the plan.

You can do it but you will have to put in some effort to do it. Your first blush of excitement was driven by the novelty, the newness of your quest. Now you’ve opened the books and spent a few of the hard hours and gotten up early and studied late and experienced a lot of the not-fun part of the journey.

You have to find the reward path from here forward. The past is the past. Your future awaits.

Rather than just grinding it out for another few hundred hours, set your game plan on a new reward system that juices your dopamine and lifts your spirits. You might find any number of ways back to that feeling.

Here are a few suggestions to get you moving.

• Write down or take out your list of all the ways your life will be improved once you gain the CFA charter

• Add or subtract from your original list to update to today. What has really changed since you first thought about the program or wrote this list.

  • (Nothing has changed? Well then get going!)

  • (You no longer believe this to be true? Then stop immediately and do literally anything else.)

• Bring to mind what you thought about yourself when you first decided to pursue the CFA charter. What vision did you have for how the process would change you personally? Has that changed?

  • Would you gain status?

  • Would you make more money and buy a fast car?

  • Would you gain an expertise that gave you more control over your environment?

• Devise a game to get you started. Set targets no longer than 2 weeks out. Reward the targets. (Rewards don’t have to be tangible.) Experiment with a few things. Find something that feeds your reward center for keeping going now that you are started again.

  • Find a buddy who claps for when you meet the target, or

  • Simply get gold stars and paste them on your monitor.

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When the novelty of any task wears off, you need to keep going. The finish line only gets closer when you take the steps. If you don’t make the steps, you stay where you are, and even though not true, the finish line seems further away.

To get moving and stay moving, find the reward tricks that work for you. Adjust as needed. Pass the CFA exams and achieve every other goal in your life with this same method.

Want to know how effective your current study approach is? Take a 2-minute survey and get your score.

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