Instant Action = Instant Motivation
Lack of motivation is stalling your career? What if so told you that action isn’t the effect of motivation, but the cause of it?
What separates successful leaders from those who can’t seem to be able to make it?
If you worked with us before, you already know that where everyone fails, you don’t have to.
Now, it is time to learn about the second most powerful tool that separates those who win, from the rest.
Doing things.
Most people don’t do anything, unless they are forced to, or unless it is a biological urge: they will seek opportunities to eat, socialise, sleep, and have sex.
If they are forced to work (because that’s the only way to eat, socialise or have sex) they will work, and they will try to put minimum effort into it. They won’t do anything more than a bare minimum, unless they are being closely supervised or watched…
Most humans will only commit to action if they feel a certain level of motivation. And they only feel motivation when they feel a biological pressure or a strong emotional need.
For example: students become “motivated” to study for the exam when they’re afraid of the consequences. Some might only pick up and learn to play a piano when they feel it will get the attention of people they want to play for, etc.
Most of us feel like we’re not quite motivated to achieve something we’ve set our sights on.
It’s totally normal!
We are great in talking ourselves out of acting: overthinking, procrastinating, delaying, testing what we can get away with, etc.
We commonly mistakenly assume that the following process is true:
Emotions → Motivation → Action
However, the transformative changes and actions we most require in our lives are catalysed by negative emotions that simultaneously impede our ability to take action.
For instance, an individual seeking to reconcile with their parent may experience emotions such as hurt, resentment, and avoidance, which are opposite to the necessary actions required for reconciliation (confrontation, honesty, and communication, etc).
Similarly, if you want to lose weight, you may be burdened by the shame regarding your physical appearance, making visiting a gym and limiting food intake to evoke the very emotions that had previously kept you sedentary.
Feelings suck. They are your worst advisor.
Past “traumas”, negative expectations, and feelings of guilt, shame, and fear often serve as motivators that prevent us from taking the actions necessary to address our problems. This is a form of emotional reasoning.
Remember: Not acting prevents you from being happy, healthy, thin, strong, desirable, successful, positive, attractive and rich.
Because most people talk themselves out of doing, they are often also unhappy, unhealthy, fat, weak, negative, unattractive, poor failures…
The “Do Something” Rule
Your emotions lead to lack of action. But your actions create emotional responses that will motivate your future actions. The correct order of events in your brains is actually as follows:
Action → Emotions → Motivation
Enter The “Do Something” Rule, my accidental brainchild from my consulting days.
Picture this: you’ve paid me to be here, so why not just do something? Anything! I’m not picky.
The magic of this principle? Once you take even the tiniest step, you’re like, “Hey, I did that! Maybe I can do more.” And voila, motivation is born. It’s like sending yourself a pep talk without the awkwardness of actually talking to yourself.
I’ve put this principle to the test in my own life, especially with my online ventures. Working for yourself is like being your own boss, but with the added bonus of no one to blame when you procrastinate. It’s thrilling, really. The first few years, I’d spend weeks doing nothing, just because I was too anxious to do anything. Genius, right?
But then I realised that forcing myself to do something, even the most mundane task, made the big stuff seem less daunting. Need to redesign a website? Start with the header. Before you know it, you’re knee-deep in the project, feeling like a productivity superhero.
Facing a daunting project? Just start with an outline. The action itself is the magic potion. Motivation and inspiration will follow.
You might have heard this idea in other forms—“failing forward,” “ready, fire, aim.” But no matter how you spin it, it’s a handy mindset. Success isn’t about knowing everything; it’s about taking action. You can be clueless and talentless, but without action, you’re just sitting on the sidelines. So, go ahead, do something. Anything.
Creating Motivation
Willpower is finite. Motivation comes and goes. Inspiration can strike when you least expect it and leave you high and dry when you need it the most.
So whatever you call it—motivation, willpower, inspiration—you need to put effort to maintain it. Otherwise, it will fizzle out…
The “Do Something” Rule is one way to do this. It helps you get the ball rolling over and over again.
The key to success? Simply commit to focus on starting, and that’s it. Even if you can only do it for 10 seconds.
Below are a few more tips on staying motivated in the long run.
1. Create a Ritual
You might think doing the same thing every day is as thrilling as watching paint dry while waiting for a funeral. But you’d be mistaken.
Rituals work. You pick a behaviour or a bunch of them to do at a specific place or time—or both, if you’re feeling fancy—to kickstart your journey toward your goal. Soon enough, all you need to do is start the ritual, let inertia take over, and watch the magic happen.
Sit at the same desk, at the same time, each day. That can be all it takes to kick off a long stream of work. Changing working environment is surely exciting. But it is mostly distracting. People who ritualise work get few times more work done in the same amount of time (which is also one of the key reasons why “open plan” offices are such a failure of productivity).
Before you know it, the ritual becomes its own little universe, a sacred time and place that feels just as crucial as your goal. Attempting to do things without the ritual is like putting a fish on a bike - possible, but pointless.
But don’t get too hung up on the details. Some people see a successful person eating the same breakfast or wearing the same outfit every day and think they need to clone that routine. Spoiler alert: you don’t. The key is having any ritual that gets you moving in the right direction.
The rest will sort itself out. Seriously.
2. Remove Distractions. Ruthlessly.
Nothing has ever made societies more stupid than social media.
Picture this: The first thing in the morning, you are bombarded with Instagram memes, an email from your boss, and unread group texts from last night. Messages from “friends” that add little (or none) positive value in your life.
It’s like a never-ending stream of notifications. Nothing must be more important than the snapchat oatmeal açai breakfast bowl that you just posted (conveniently forgetting about the fast-food nuggets and fries you had for lunch yesterday).
Oh, and there’s this odd message from that friend from high school you accidentally added to facebook 12 years ago.... And your grad school What’s App Group Chat! Who broke up with whom, and where to get drunk next week….
Ok, news! After all, it’s already been 10 minutes from waking up… A politician said something again. Must have been designed to stir up your emotions, because now you are agitated, angry or excited… And the weather forecast for today, tomorrow, and next Thursday? New match on Tinder!
And of course a reminder that you haven’t done 10,000 steps today…
If you are cognitively strong, you are now out of your mental reserves, starting to build up cortisol, driving up your anxiety and fuelling your fears before you even get out of bed…
No wonder you can’t make any progress with life, with work or in your relationships…
By the way, if the description above resembles what your days look like… read this article now: Information Diet.
All of this might seem like a harmless little fun, but distractions are rarely harmless. They hack our vulnerabilities and give us quick bursts of dopamine that feel good in the moment, but they destroy your brain (and life) in the long term.
Distractions feel good, but they’re sapping your motivation to do things that might not feel good in the moment, but would add up to something much greater and more meaningful in the long run… if you ever had a chance to do them.
Calling someone with an offer, is much harder than thinking about it.
Speaking to a distressed partner is more difficult than texting them an emoji.
Giving someone constructive feedback is harder than thinking how bad they are at something…
Going for a silent walk is much more demanding than scrolling through social media feeds with your thumb on one hand and Tall Spiced Latte held in the other…
See the pattern?
3. Be honest with yourself
Now the hard part: time to take a look at your life and figure out what are the things that are holding you back:
Struggling to exercise? Perhaps it might be helpful to reflect on your belief about your future health, or reflect if you enjoy the activities that you are doing.
Not happy with your relationship? Well, it is not necessarily about your partner… Perhaps your needs have changed? Perhaps you want your partner to be someone else?
Can’t motivate yourself to work? Perhaps you are in the wrong career? Perhaps you chased money, instead of finding something that aligns with your passions and values?
See the pattern? All of those require you to confront some uncomfortable truths about yourself.
So, these are the moments you have to not only face, but embrace. Instead of turning away from discomfort, turn towards it. That’s when things get real. You might need to make adjustments. Just be very clear about what it is that you really want.
The 5-second rule
Here is one that can help to take action. The 5-second rule was popularised by Mel Robbins. It is a simple, yet effective way to break free from overthinking or hesitation. When you feel fear or doubt creeping in, count backwards: 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… and take action immediately.
This technique works because it interrupts the “background script” running in the amygdala, and shifts control from the “reptile” brain to cortex, where rational decision-making happens.
Studies show that hesitation amplifies distress, while immediate action stops or significantly reduces cortisol-mediate response.
The 5-second rule, when applied consistently, has been shown to rapidly increase your cognitive reserves as well.
You can visit our Iron Mind toolkit contains over 90 scientifically validated tools and hacks to your brain and the brains of others.