Unlocking Self-Motivation (part 2)
In our last post, we discussed what kind of mental frame works best to achieve goals. In this blog post, we will be discussing the action steps needed to remain on the path and how to come up with the right action steps so you don’t get side tracked on your way to your goals.
Strategy: The Driver Behind the Wheel
Understanding your purpose is just part of the equation. Going back to the car analogy: if motivation is the fuel, then strategy is the car driver and the quality of the engine. Having a well-defined goal and a plan is impressive—most people barely get there. But if you really want to set yourself up for success, you need to have a deep and personal relationship with the thing you are striving for.
Strategy without purpose is aimless wandering. Purpose without strategy is wishful thinking. Together, they create a powerful force that carries you through the inevitable obstacles and setbacks. Your strategy should account for your weaknesses, leverage your strengths, and align with the reality of your daily life.
Building Your System: Making It Work in the Real World
Now that you have your purpose and your sub-goals, it's time to create a system that actually works. This isn't about willpower—it's about design.
Design Your Environment for Success
Your environment is constantly voting for or against your goals. Make it easier to do the right thing and harder to do the wrong thing.
Want to go to the gym in the morning? Sleep in your workout clothes and put your shoes by the bed. Want to stop scrolling social media at night? Put your phone in another room and replace it with a book on your nightstand. Want to eat healthier? Don't buy junk food at the grocery store—you can't eat what isn't there.
The goal is to reduce friction for good habits and add friction for bad ones. Every small barrier you remove from your desired behavior and every small obstacle you add to your undesired behavior shifts the odds in your favor.
Create Implementation Intentions
Instead of saying "I'll work out more," create specific if-then plans: "If it's Monday, Wednesday, or Friday at 6 am, then I will go to the gym." Be equally specific about obstacles: "If I'm tempted to skip the gym, then I'll commit to just showing up for ten minutes."
These if-then statements remove the need for in-the-moment decision-making. You're not asking yourself whether you feel like it—you're simply following the plan.
Measuring Progress Without Losing Your Mind
Tracking progress is essential, but it's easy to become obsessed with metrics in unhealthy ways. Here's how to strike the balance:
Track Inputs, Not Just Outputs
Focus on the behaviors you control, not just the results you want. Did you go to the gym three times this week? That's a win, regardless of whether the scale moved. Did you write for thirty minutes every day? That's success, even if you don't feel like you wrote anything good.
Results lag behind behavior. If you're consistent with the inputs, the outputs will eventually follow.
Use the Two-Day Rule
Life happens. You'll miss a workout, skip your meditation, or eat an entire pizza. That's fine. The rule is simple: never miss twice in a row. One slip is a mistake. Two slips is the beginning of a new habit. Get back on track immediately.
Review Weekly, Not Daily
Daily fluctuations are normal and often meaningless. Review your progress once a week. Did you stick to your sub-goals most days? Great. Did you fall short? What got in the way, and how can you adjust?
When Your System Breaks Down: Handling Failure and Setbacks
Here's the truth nobody wants to hear: your system will break down. You'll have a perfect week followed by a disastrous one. You'll be on fire for two months and then completely fall off for three weeks. This isn't failure—it's being human.
Normalize the Struggle
Stop treating setbacks as catastrophic failures. They're data points. You're running an experiment called "my life," and some experiments don't work out as planned. That's valuable information.
When you stumble, ask yourself: What happened? Was I too ambitious? Did my environment change? Did I lose sight of my why? Am I genuinely exhausted and need rest, or am I making excuses?
The Comeback Protocol
When you fall off track, follow these steps:
Acknowledge without judgment. "I haven't gone to the gym in two weeks" is a fact, not a character flaw.
Identify the obstacle. Was it time? Energy? Loss of purpose? Changed circumstances?
Start smaller. Don't try to resume at full intensity. If you were going to the gym four times a week, come back with twice a week. Build momentum before ramping up.
Reconnect with your why. Revisit the emotional reason you started this journey. Has it changed? Does it still resonate?
Adjust your system. Maybe your original plan wasn't realistic. That's okay. Design a better system with what you've learned.
Remember: compassion isn't complacency. Being kind to yourself about a setback doesn't mean giving yourself permission to quit. It means acknowledging that you're human, learning from what happened, and getting back to work.
Navigating Real-World Obstacles
Let's address the excuses we all make—and how to overcome them.
"I don't have time."
Yes, you do. You have time for what you prioritize. The question is whether this goal is actually important to you. If it is, you'll find ten minutes. Start there. Ten minutes of movement. Ten minutes of writing. Ten minutes of learning. Once you've proven you can be consistent with ten minutes, expand from there.
Also, audit your time honestly. How many hours do you spend on social media? Watching TV? Those aren't bad things, but they reveal where your time actually goes. You have time—you're just allocating it differently than you claim you want to.
"I'm too tired."
Fatigue is real, and rest is essential. But sometimes "I'm too tired" is your brain's way of avoiding discomfort. Here's the test: commit to starting for just five minutes. If after five minutes you're genuinely exhausted, stop. No judgment. But most of the time, you'll find that starting generates energy.
That said, if you're consistently exhausted, something needs to change. You might be overtraining, undersleeping, or trying to do too much at once. Scale back and focus on one or two key habits rather than overhauling your entire life.
"Life is too chaotic right now."
Life is always chaotic. Waiting for the perfect moment means waiting forever. The question isn't whether your circumstances are ideal—they never will be. The question is whether you can do something small despite the chaos.
During stressful periods, don't abandon your system—simplify it. If you can't meal prep for the week, can you make one healthy choice today? If you can't go to the gym, can you do ten push-ups? Maintaining a thread of consistency through difficult times is more valuable than perfection during easy times.
"I've tried before and failed."
Good. That means you have data. What went wrong last time? Did you try to change too much at once? Did you lack a clear why? Did your environment work against you? Was your goal actually someone else's goal for you?
Past failure isn't evidence that you can't succeed—it's evidence that your previous approach didn't work. This time, you're building a better system with everything you've learned.
Bringing It All Together
Creating lasting change isn't about heroic willpower or waiting for motivation to strike. It's about understanding yourself deeply, clarifying what truly matters to you, and then building a system that makes the right choices easier than the wrong ones.
You are not lazy. You are not broken. You are not lacking something fundamental that successful people have. You're simply human, which means you respond to your environment, your habits shape your behavior, and your emotions drive your decisions.
Work with your humanity, not against it. Design your life so that the person you want to become is the path of least resistance.
Start here, start now:
Identify one ultimate goal that genuinely matters to you.
Dig until you find the emotional reason why it matters.
Choose one tiny sub-goal you can do today.
Design your environment to make that sub-goal effortless.
Do it. Not tomorrow, not Monday, not when you feel ready. Now.
And when you stumble—because you will—remember that the system isn't about perfection. It's about returning. Every single time you return, you're building the most important habit of all: the habit of not giving up on yourself.
Your future self is watching you right now, hoping you'll take that first step. Not a perfect step. Not a giant leap. Just one small, deliberate action in the direction of who you want to become.
What will you choose?