POWER SONGS: IGNITE YOUR MOTIVATION,
FOCUS & CONFIDENCE IN 30 SECONDS OR LESS
Ignite Your Motivation, Focus and Confidence
Article by Jentana Lee Dabbs
Photo Credit: Hailley Howard
Magazine: Issue #21
Have you wondered how to trigger motivation and focus immediately and then keep it going? What about when you needed to write that article, clean the house or focus on reading something? Then there’s confidence, have you needed confidence to do a presentation, interview or talk to someone?
Numerous researches are proving that the key to triggering this quickly is through music.
Why?
Music has been shown to trigger memories, emotion and the most important dopamine in our brains which is responsible for motivation and focus. In addition, music releases endorphins in our brains, which is the feel good chemical, that is the same chemical released when we feel love, have sex, foods we crave and eat chocolate.
Listening to the right type of music is like rewarding our brains with something pleasurable, in fact, when our pleasure signals are lit up in our brains, we’re more able to stay focused and motivated at the task we’re doing. In the book “Drive”, by Danial H. Pink, he tells about a study that was done with monkeys in the 1940’s, the monkeys were given a puzzle to do and to the amazement of scientists, the monkeys stuck with doing the puzzle with complete focus and motivation, not because they were anticipating a reward, but because the act of doing the puzzle was triggering the pleasure center in their brain, causing them to stick to it.
Music stimulates pleasure.
Listening to music can do the same thing, while doing a boring task such as cleaning or reorganizing, because it’s rewarding our brains with pleasure, making us more able to stick to and complete the task we’re doing.
Music can give you a rush of unstoppable confidence.
A new study finds certain types of music, especially tunes with a heavy bass beat, such as 50 Cent's "In Da Club," Queen's "We Will Rock You" and 2 Unlimited's "Get Ready For This,” can make one feel more powerful. This sense of confidence and ability, the researchers add, can subsequently shape the way we think and behave.
Different music for different moods.
It’s important to take constant inventory of how a specific song affects your mood and mindset. Play around with lots of songs, artists and different genres knowing that all music is a powerful tool you can use to alter your perceptions at a neural level. Personally, when I’m writing and studying, I listen to mellow jazz or anything soothing with only music and no lyrics, when I want to clean the house, I listen to upbeat Broadway musicals that can trigger my emotions and when I want to feel powerful, my favs are Roar, Let It Go and Girl On Fire.