Dr. Kentaro Fujita

We can grow.

We can improve over time.

And I think this is a really important lesson that often gets overlooked with these studies.

What you're saying is really interesting.

So let me caveat everything I'm about to say by saying it's all speculation.

I personally don't know of research studies that look specifically at movement, but everything that you're saying makes total sense to me because the root, the Latin root for the word motivation is to move, right?

So the motivation is supposed to be the energy force behind all of our movements.

It impels action.

So to me it makes sense that if I'm trying to motivate a particular behavior,

Being able to act would be – I mean it is essentially channeling my energy towards doing something.

I mean there are experiments that I can tell you a little bit about, Andrew, where to try to train self-control, they will have people –

quote unquote, approach or avoid an object with a joystick, right?

So if you see something that you're supposed to avoid, you pull the joystick back.

So you're creating psychological distance from the temptation versus on the things that you're supposed to approach, like the broccoli you're supposed to eat, you're supposed to move the joystick forward.

And there's some research that suggests that this kind of automatic, you're not actually moving, but you're taking action that's often associated with movement, that that can actually help improve people's self-control over time, help develop

such that, okay, for dieters, for example, the chocolate cake is bad, but the broccoli is good.

Having these movements towards the good stuff and away from the bad stuff does seem to improve self-control afterwards.

Again, the question is...

It's not quite what you're talking about in terms of actual movement.

I think there's also some research, again, I'm not exactly sure, but there's some research suggests that like if you fidget, you might learn better than when you don't fidget.