Two Secrets to Motivating Yourself

By Leo Babauta

I’ve written about motivation a bunch of times before here on Zen Habits, but the more I learn about it, the more I realize that motivation isn’t that complicated. Sure, there are numerous tactics and strategies I’ve used with success. But it really all boils down to two things.

And those two things are so deceptively simple that you might decide to stop reading after I name them: 1) make things enjoyable and 2) use positive public pressure.

It’s Motivation, Not Discipline

First let’s back up a little bit. A number of readers have emailed me about sticking to their goals, anything from exercise and eating right to being organized and productive to creating new habits; and have said they simply lack the discipline to stick with things for very long.

But what is discipline, really? It’s mostly an illusion, in my experience. When people say that someone has “discipline”, as I’ve written about before, they really mean he has the motivation to stick to something.

In a previous post I used the example of someone in the military, a typical case of someone who is said to have discipline. This military man might get up super early, fix his bed neatly, go on an early-morning run, do a bunch of other exercises, and generally do a disciplined job throughout the day.

But is that just because he’s disciplined? I think it’s mostly because he’s in a situation where there’s public pressure (both positive and negative) to do all of the things listed above. If he doesn’t do them, he might get yelled at or look bad in front of his peers. If he does them, he’s an exemplary soldier.

There’s also the fact that after awhile, these things become pleasurable for him. He gets a sense of satisfaction out of staying in shape and keeping things neat. He enjoys the early morning. He feels good about being conscientious about his job.

So in the end, it’s not some vague quality (“discipline”) that allows him to stick to these habits, but rather the two secrets of motivation: positive public pressure and enjoyment.

What I Learned From My Experiences

Over the last few years, I’ve been experimenting with achieving various goals, from waking early to exercising to eliminating my debt and living frugally. And what I’ve learned has repeatedly taught me that these two key motivation principles are all you need.

I’ve learned other things as well, but the more I stick to my goals, the more I realize that it’s these two themes that keep repeatedly surfacing. It’s almost eerie, actually. Just a few goals as illustration:

• Marathon. Right now I’m training for my third marathon, in Honolulu this December. As I’ve stuck with the toughest marathon plan I’ve ever undertaken, I’ve marveled at my ability to keep at it. But it’s not hard to figure out why: I’ve publicly committed to doing this marathon and I’m really enjoying the running!
• Blogging. I’ve now been blogging for almost two years, making Zen Habits one of the longest-running projects I’ve ever stuck with. I’ve worked on many projects before, but they are usually completed within a year. Anything longer is usually intimidating to me. But it hasn’t taken discipline to stick with blogging. It’s something I really enjoy and the added bonus of positive public pressure that has motivated me to stick with it.
• Writing a book. A couple months ago, I finished the manuscript for my book, The Power of Less. I will admit that I had some trouble writing this book, with the demands of publishing two blogs, training for my second marathon and preparing for my wedding. I got the book done with both forms of motivation; pressure from my publisher to turn in the manuscript and the enjoyment I got from writing the book once I was able to clear away distractions and focus on the writing.

Now let’s take a look at the two motivational tools and how you can use them to your advantage.

Positive Public Pressure

While pressure is often seen as a bad thing, if used properly, it can actually be a good thing. It’s important that pressure not be applied in a negative way or too intense. Keep things positive and at a manageable intensity and things will move along nicely.

Some examples of how to use positive public pressure to motivate yourself:

• Tell all your co-workers you’re going to achieve a goal and report to them regularly on your progress.
• Email your family and friends and tell them about your goal and ask them to keep you accountable. Email them regular updates and tell them about your progress when you see them.
• Post your goal and a chart of your progress up in your office or other public place.

Enjoy Your Goal Activity

You can motivate yourself to do something you don’t like to do by using positive public pressure as motivation. But if you really don’t enjoy it, you’ll only be able to keep it up for so long. And even if you could do it for months and years, is that something you’d want to do?

But what if it’s something you really want to achieve but you don’t enjoy it? There are ways to find enjoyment in most things; the key is to focus on the enjoyable parts.

Here are some ways to use this motivational principle to your advantage:

• Having trouble motivating yourself to write your blog? Look for topics that excite you. If you find things that you’re passionate about, writing becomes easy.
• Having a hard time exercising? Find exercise that’s fun for you. If you don’t like running, try soccer, basketball or rowing. If you don’t like to lift weights, try doing some primal workouts where you flip logs, jump through tires or go hiking.
• Is eating healthy food a challenge for you? Find healthy foods you love, experiment with new recipes and have fun testing them out.

Find the enjoyable parts of any activity and focus on those. In time, you can really learn to love them. If not, switch to something you do love and stick to that. These two principles, especially when used together, can be powerful motivators and in most cases, they’re all the motivation I’ve ever needed.