Most motivational “experts” knowingly teach total BS. Here are 3 science-backed ways to motivate yourself.

So you want to know how to motivate yourself…

Do you know what most motivational “experts” hope you’ll never find out?

The stuff they teach is total BS if you actually want to know how to motivate yourself.

When was the last time a motivational poster changed your life? (“You know what, yes, I WILL dream a little bigger today!”)



Does seeing this on your newsfeed help you reach your goals?

Never. OK, then how do you get — and stay — motivated?

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How motivation actually works

Motivation comes in waves. Some days we hop out of bed, ready to take on the world. We start big projects, dream big dreams, and know that FINALLY we’re going to accomplish something.

But then, tomorrow comes.

We sit down in the same place we sat yesterday — where we were on fire and ready to go and… nothing. We look at our Netflix queue or go and buy a cup of coffee. We can’t seem to get that spark back.

That is how motivation works. So, if we rely on motivation alone, we are setting ourselves up for failure.

What can we do instead?

One of my mentors, BJ Fogg, who runs the Persuasive Technology Lab at Stanford, says we should assume that our “future self” is going to be lazy with no motivation. We need to set up systems to make achieving our goals as easy as possible — even when our motivation is low.

In other words:

Motivation DOESN’T work. Systems do.

Here’s how to use systems to keep yourself going even when motivation slumps.

How to motivate yourself step 1: Plan for failure

Successful people aren’t luckier than most people. But they do try more things, and they’re willing to fail. If you’re a top performer, chances are you’ve figured out how to motivate yourself.

For example, my good friend Tim Ferriss was rejected 26 times before a publisher finally accepted his idea for The 4-Hour Workweek (that later became a New York Times and Wall Street Journal best-seller).

Almost anyone who’s been successful has a similar story of failure before triumph.

But the difference between average and top performers is that average people are blindsided by failure and give up when it strikes.

Top performers, on the other hand, actively seek out failure because they know success is on the other side.

BJ Fogg and I sat down and talked about how we can use failure and “motivational waves” to our advantage so when others tire out we can have a system to follow through.

How you can start using the principle of “motivational waves” right now:

Make a list of everything you need to get to accomplish your goal. Then, set up those pieces to make it impossible to fail.

Here’s an example what that might look like:

BJ Fogg wanted to drink more tea. So he bought all the tea, an electric kettle to boil water, and set everything up in easy reach on his counter. Even when he felt like drinking something else, it was right there and a no-brainer to make.

I was trying to form a gym habit. I’d get up in the morning planning to go, but after a few minutes decide not to. I discovered that if I put my gym clothes and my shoes next to my bed, I would put them on first thing and by that point, I “might as well” just go.

Chandler Bolt of The Productive Person wrote 365 Thank You notes last year by pre-stamping and adding address labels to batches of 50 cards. By keeping the cards close by, he was able to make it easy to write and send the cards with or without motivation.

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How to motivate yourself step 2: Put it on your calendar

Imagine playing in a basketball game against LeBron James. We have the best shoes, the most expensive pair of athletics shorts, a fancy headband, and the greatest jersey in the world. And he has no shoes, ripped shorts, and a dress shirt. Who would win?

It sounds ridiculous but we play this same game against motivation every day.

The tools don’t matter as much as we think.

Novices LOVE to focus on productivity hacks, apps and tools. It’s easy — and frankly, more fun — to play with new shiny tools than to simply do what works.

But usually, the fundamentals — things like a simple calendar, pen and paper — work as well if not better than some app.

Take a look at a sample of my calendar system.

See how it’s not a super advanced set of apps. I purposely make it easy on myself so I can follow through and easily update it.

EXECUTION is more important than the tactic itself.

How you can start using this motivation system right now:

Decide ahead of time and map out your schedule for the week either on paper or in a simple calendar system.

Set an alert in your calendar or on your phone to review this every week. Keep thinking ahead and you’ll never be caught off guard or pressed for time.

How to motivate yourself step 3: Develop laser-guided focus

In the video above, BJ Fogg talks about “competing motivations” — sometimes even our best efforts are thwarted because something else comes along.

Sometimes these are external distractions: an emergency comes up, we have family demands, and work gets busy.

But, just as often, we cannibalize one goal by shifting focus to another. The result? We don’t make much progress on either.

Developing FOCUS and being able to put some ideas on hold is a skill that almost guarantees we make progress on what matters.

Let me show you what I mean. One of my close friends, Noah Kagan, a former employee of Mint and Facebook and the founder of AppSumo, showed me the power of having laser-guided focus — he was able to start not one, but two multi-million dollar businesses that continue to see growth year after year.

He does this by setting one big goal at a time.

Watch Noah explain here (pay particular attention to 3:56 where we talk specifically about how he sets his goals):

How you can use this motivation system right now:

Pick your number one goal. Is it earning more money? Getting in shape? Finding your Dream Job? Grab a pen and paper and write it down. Really do this now. This isn’t a silly “thought exercise.” We’re doing this to commit ourselves to one course of action and follow through.

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BONUS STEP: Test and Adjust

Setting up systems is the best way to motivate yourself. And to maximize impact, we have to find the best system for us and then adjust if it’s not working.

To help you shortcut the process, I asked some of the world’s top experts on productivity, business, and fitness to share the simple experiments they’ve run that have lead to extraordinary results in their lives.

You can see all the results in this free guide:

You’ll learn tests that achieve massive results like:

How to change your body composition with one 20-minute workout a week

How to text message important people (and girls)

How to increase your impact with a photo

How to triple your productivity by testing how you measure success

How to increase your gym attendance by 300%

How to triple your learning rate with one simple switch

How to increase your energy level in one week

Download the free guide below!