book info

Book Title: The Motivation Myth: How High Achievers Really Set Themselves Up to Win
Author: Jeff Haden
Goodreads rating: 3.77/5
ISBN: 978-0399563768

book premise

This book, as the title suggests, is all about motivation. Specifically it goes into why motivation as the way most people understand it is incorrect, and how to set better goals.

The main premise is this: we gain motivation by doing. No matter how simple or complicated, how small or grand a goal is, it doesn’t matter if there’s no concrete routine that follows it. For example, if you want to lose weight, you can’t just write “lose 5 kg by March”. You have to set a system where you might want to walk five thousand steps a day, cut all processed foods from your diet, reduce amount of sugar you consume etc.

The reason why this works better is that the author analyzed the reason on why the “pros” or an athlete are successful, and he found that they never expected to be as successful as they are now. This is because they focus on their systems, not goals. Everyday without fail, they work a little bit on their goals until eventually they reach them.

Everyone has goals. The people who actually achieve their goals create routines. They build systems. They consistently take the steps that, in time, will ensure they reach their ultimate goal. They don’t wish. They don’t hope. They just do what their plan says, consistently and without fail.

Having an ambitious goal is fine, but we should forget them immediately. The reason is because you will always be lacking compared to your goal. If your goal is to lose 5 kg, if today you’ve only done half an hour of exercises and has yet to see any result, you won’t feel motivated.

how to set a good process

Set your goal
Search the internet and find a reasonable blueprint/routine that is specific to your goal. It’ll be better if you get the advice from someone who has done the exact thing you’re trying to do. I personally like to look on Reddit and YouTube.

Set aside decision anxiety and choose a reasonably promising routine
You don’t need to fret about whether the routine you chose is good enough. For now, we’ll focus on how you can implement a habit that will get you used to making progress towards your goal.

If necessary, customize your process to be extremely specific

Writing “Go jogging three days this week” on a Post-it doesn’t mean you have a process. What does “go jogging” mean? And which days will you run? How far? How fast?

Instead of “go jogging,” here’s what your process should look like: Monday: Run 1.5 miles. Tuesday: Stretch (list the different stretches) for 20 minutes. Wednesday: Run 2 miles.

A good process tells you precisely what you need to accomplish at every step along the way. That way you know exactly what to do, and you know when you have actually accomplished what you need to do.

Rework your schedule
We only have roughly 16 hours of time each day to do things. If you are trying to establish a new routine, some things must go. Maybe you should spend less time showering, maybe it’s scrolling YouTube that must go. Whatever it is, just be aware of the time you spend during the day and how much you can start allocating towards activites that contributes to your goal.

Map out your daily plan
I find time blocking really useful. You want to make sure you do something, no matter how small each day.

Your results may vary, so adapt accordingly
As time goes on, you’ll notice things that must be changed, perhaps even your own goal should be modified because you no longer deemed it worthy of pursuing. That is usually the case. Because you’ve done your best to work on it everyday, you’ll know more about yourself and you actually have the data to modify your process.

Maybe you aren’t trying to lose weight. That’s okay; what I lay out is a daily checklist. For some people, weekly schedules work best. That way they can adapt and adjust—slightly—as necessary in order to stay on track. For others, a daily checklist works best: They want to know exactly what they will do now, then next, then next. Following a daily checklist is the best way to stay perfectly on track. Which is right for you?

If you’re new to the process of following a process, use a daily checklist. That way, each time you tick off a box you get that immediate rush of feedback from success—and you’ll be excited about ticking off the next box.

what kind of goal is good?

The book also describe the type of goals we should try to pursue.

The best goals make you happy. To make it simple, answer these two questions.

“Are You Comfortable Financially?” “Are You Relatively Fit and Healthy?”

Your goal must benefit you on multiple levels. A goal that sacrifices some part of your life (especially health) is not worth it.

A good goal must be unquestionably measurable.

I left this requirement until last for a simple reason. The best goals usually start with a vague desire—get in better shape, lose weight, make more money, start a business, change professions, be happier—but then get distilled into a clear, specific mission.

The best goals are binary: They’re so specific you can’t help but know whether you have achieved them or not. They’re also based on an activity, not a hard-to-quantify state of mind or state of being.

We should also try to work on as small number of goals possible, preferably just one.

That means the key is limiting the number of goals you try to achieve at one time. Remember, you can be a serial achiever: You can achieve this goal, then that goal, then that goal. Focusing on one or two goals doesn’t mean you’re giving up on other goals; focusing on one or two goals means you’re much more likely to actually achieve those goals—and then, later, one or two of your other goals.

I find that this is a really good observation. Say you want to learn Spanish, if you focus for just a month to build a routine/habit to learn the language it’ll serve you much better in the long run. Even just reading a page a day, or watch one episode of a telenovela per week without subtitles will eventually compound and you’ll make considerable progress in no time. We often overestimate what we can do in a day, and underestimate what we can do in a year.

The key to learning is to make small, smart changes, evaluate the results, discard what doesn’t work, and further refine what does work. When you constantly modify and refine a skill you already perform well, you can perform it even better.

learn from the pros

The author tried to study why professionals are able to be such a high achiever. He tried cycling and trained with a professional athlete. The athlete pushed him hard to get him ready for a cycling event:

Within moments my heart rate had soared to 160 beats per minute, flirted briefly with the 170s, and finally settled firmly into the 180s. (Because in theory my maximum heart rate should have been no more than 170 or so, 184 beats per minute was what exercise physiologists generally call “high.”)

My vision tunneled. I felt that nauseous and woozy “I’m about to faint and that’s actually cool with me because lying on the ground sounds really, really appealing” feeling. Before I did, though, fatigue made a coward out of me, as fatigue is wont to do . . . and I stopped about thirty feet from the top of the hill. I sagged over my handlebars and managed to glance sideways at Jeremiah’s heart rate monitor. It read 125 beats per minute.

The key lessons from this chapter is for most of our goals there has been a blueprint somewhere. If you want to lose weight, there’s a million genuine advice from fitness coach. If you want to learn math, there’s so many books and advice on Reddit. You get the point. The only thing left is to actually implement them in our daily life. It won’t be easy, but it’s really simple.

Pros will help you stop believing that making a few small tweaks will somehow change your life. Pros will help you stop believing that you can just do a little bit more of what you have always done and somehow that minor change will make all the difference. I stopped trying to just think positively. I stopped setting only reachable goals. I stopped thinking I could somehow “hack” my way to success. I didn’t do all the stuff we’re told to do . . . because all the stuff we’re told to do never, ever works.

Everyone has a different life circumstances but the big picture will always be the same, someone who’s very muscular clearly has a habit of going to the gym. To some extent, if someone claims that a person who’s very successful are in their position because of privileged background it’s true. But each of us is born with our own sets of privileges. Even being alive is a privilege. Decades ago, it’s normal for people to have six kids because only two of them will make it to their twenties. If you’re reading this right now, you can speak English, you have internet access, you can read, and you have spare time to read this instead of let’s say, having to work hard labor jobs to be able to eat tonight.

if you want to accomplish what the pros have accomplished, you don’t need a coach. You need a pro. All you have to do is choose people who have accomplished things that you wish to accomplish and follow their leads.

Stop comparing yourself with yourself. Stop comparing yourself with the people around you. Go see a superstar in action. Whether it’s a speaker, a musician, a performer, an athlete, or an entrepreneur, find a way to expose yourself to exceptional skill, exceptional expertise, and exceptional talent.

And here is the conclusion of the book. Very concise advice that we can all learn from especially as of I’m writing this it’s the beginning of the year.

Don’t tell me your goals. Don’t tell me your dreams. Tell me your plan…And don’t be afraid to dream big, because now you know how to plan big…And never, ever forget that even the most successful people started out just like you.

If you’re feeling low, put your head down and focus on your process. You’ll improve—and you’ll gain the motivation you feel you lack. Your dreams are important, but your plan is what will allow you to achieve your goals and live out your dreams. Don’t wait for motivation. Get started. Work your plan. When you do, you’ll find all the motivation you need.