Book Review: The Motivation Myth by Jeff Haden

1. I thought motivation was a prerequisite to starting a tedious learning process—a spark necessary to get me going. But motivation is really a result. Motivation is the fire that starts burning after you manually, painfully, coax it into existence, and it feeds on the satisfaction of seeing yourself make progress.

2. Humble beginnings can create the perfect foundation for success, because starting at the bottom creates almost endless opportunities to enjoy small successes.

3. There is only one recipe for gaining motivation: success. Specifically, the dopamine hits we get when we observe ourselves making progress. Not huge, life-changing successes. Those come all too infrequently, if ever. If you want to stay motivated, if you want to stay on track, if you want to keep making progress toward the things you hope to achieve, the key is to enjoy small, seemingly minor successes—but on a regular basis.

4. Accomplishing something, no matter how small the task, makes us feel better about ourselves. That’s why to-do lists are so popular. Incredibly successful people set a goal and then focus all their attention on the process necessary to achieve that goal.

5. Motivation and confidence gained in one aspect of your life can spill over into other aspects of your life. When you feel good about yourself in one way—when you achieve some degree of success in one aspect of your life—you tend to feel better about other parts of your life as well.

6. Talking to your friends and family about your goals can sometimes be a big mistake. Research shows that people who talk about their intentions are much less likely to follow through on those intentions. You already got a huge kick out of people thinking of you as a trail hiker (example) . . . so now you’re less motivated to actually be a trail hiker.

7. Success → Motivation → More Success → More Motivation → More Success = Becoming

8. When you create a routine, embrace that routine, and see the results of that routine, you stop negotiating with yourself. Your routine isn’t something you choose to do; it’s just what you do. And you stop making choices that don’t support your goals.

9. To reach a goal, do not focus on the goal. The key is to set a goal, use it as a target that helps you create a plan for achieving it . . . and then do your best to forget all about that goal. 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.

10. Studies show that twenty minutes of exercise improves your mood for up to twelve hours. Research also shows that exercise boosts energy; why not take advantage of a natural energy surge when you probably need it the most?

11. Keep a journal to monitor your habits (eating, financial, procrastination). The Hawthorne effect works: When we know we are being observed, we instinctively change our behaviors. If you have to write down what you are doing, you may change your behavior so you only have positive things to write down.

12. The average person will need to put in about forty hours a week for five years to become highly accomplished in their chosen pursuit. It’s incredibly difficult to perform at an extremely high level in very different—and sometimes conflicting—pursuits. Get to the 90 or 95 percent level in any pursuit and you will be extremely successful and will feel incredibly good about yourself.

13. Generalists trump specialists in today’s professional landscape. Change occurs quickly. Skills that are valued today are obsolete tomorrow.

14. The best goals eliminate the pain of regret. As we talked about before, some of the worst words you can say are “If I had only.” A quote often attributed to Jim Rohn goes, “There are two types of pain you will go through in life: the pain of discipline and the pain of regret. Discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons.”

15. 6 Steps to Having Willpower: 1) Eliminate as many choices as possible. 2) Make decisions tonight so you won’t need to make them tomorrow. 3) Do the hardest things you need to do first. 4) Refuel often. 5) Create reminders of your long-term goals. 6) Remove temptation altogether.

16. “Discomfort is growth,” Tyler says. “To constantly improve, and to be more resilient and adaptable, whenever there is a fork in the road, choose discomfort over comfort and you will grow.

17. The most effective people apply the same framework to the decisions they make. “Will this help me reach my goal? If not, I won’t do it.” And that means you don’t need to rely on willpower or motivation, because you made the choice before the choice was ever presented to you.

18. Working your number is based on consistently doing, over and over and over again, the things that make the biggest difference in your life. When you put in the work, your rate of return on your number steadily increases. Putting in the repetitions, while trying to increase the quality of every repetition, is fundamental to steady and lasting improvement.

19. Your biggest limits are self-imposed—but those limits are the easiest to overcome. 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. When you spend time with a superstar, when you try to do what the pros do, that experience will automatically ratchet your own internal limits to a higher level.

20. The key is to find ways to delegate or streamline all the tasks that distract you from doing what you do best, because when you do more of what you do best, you achieve more—and your career or your business or your personal life naturally flourishes.

21. It’s very hard to make massive gains in skill and performance and talent, especially overnight. But it is pretty easy to make tiny changes through a strategy termed “aggregate marginal gains.” The “1 percent advantage” works incredibly well for one simple reason: Small improvements add up to a major overall improvement. Ever so slightly streamline your morning routine, the way you handle e-mail, the way you handle voice mail, the way you schedule appointments . . . and soon you can free up thirty minutes of your day so you can (you guessed it) do more of what you do best.

22. Symbols of success are often a mask. The playing field is always more level than it seems. If you have doubts or fears, you’re not alone. Everyone else has, or had, the same fears. 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. Don’t wait for motivation. Get started. Work your plan.