Motivation is stupid
You don't need motivation to act
What happened
In September 2025 I was broke as shit I can't lie to you, I had so much free time but very little motivation to do anything, days went by, days turned to weeks and weeks turned to a month. I was still in the exact same spot I was in a month prior and I still could barely afford to feed myself. At this point in time I was borrowing money from parents, aunts, grandparents and friends to eat, pay rent, and put gas in my car to go to school. My ego was massive and I hated asking for help for anything, I gatekept my problems for as long as I could until my phone plan canceled on me because I didn't have enough money to pay for it, I lied to my family for a while and told them that my sim card just wasn't working to hide the fact I was broke and depressed however they eventually saw through the facade. And to add the cherry on top of it all, I was doing nothing to try and better myself because of how depressed I was and how little motivation I had.
The turn
October 14th 2025, this day was the hardest I have ever cried in my short adult life. A google photos notification popped up of a video I made when I was 15 years old. It was a half edited video of me talking about all of the things that I wanted to do with my life, all of the dreams and ambitions that I had that I let die because of having -$300 in my checking. But this didn't motivate me to start working and to start better my life because my dreams and ambitions have changed since being 15, I still want the cars and the houses and the money, but now I also have someone I want to spend the rest of my life with. My own inaction no longer just harms me, it harms the people I care about, so I just started working. Some days I was hyped as all hell to work on my business, trade more, or add to my skill set whilst other days I wished to just sit on my ass and fuck around all day, and to be fair the days where I would have enjoyed fucking around outnumbered the days I'm excited to work 9 to 1. No motivation at all to continue working, but I continued to work anyway because there were people counting on me, and I was counting on myself.
"Like the second time I got cut from the junior varsity Fightin' back tears, I promised to switch gears And said to myself "Whatever you do, you won't do it partially" From this day forward, I move with a new ferocity Ferrari coupe velocity, a fail-proof philosophy Success is in the effort, so if a nigga tried his hardest I'm at peace knowing God ain't deal it in this group of cards for me" — J Cole, Heaven's EP
The lesson
Motivation comes and goes, day in and day out in fleeting glimpses. Maybe from an Instagram reel of someone with a lambo talking about their successes with David Goggins in the back screaming "WHOS GOING TO CARRY THE BOATS, WHOS GOING TO CARRY THE LOGS". Or it comes at 2 AM after wasting your whole day and thinking to yourself that you really need to do better tomorrow. But tomorrow comes, habits stay, and progression isn't made. Even if you lock into a routine for a day or even a week due to straight motivation, it never lasts forever. Discipline is doing the things you do when you're motivated, even if you're dreading doing every second.
Dopamine is a drug delivered by short term motivation, the idea of improving your life is always sexier than actually doing it. But the result of discipline is always sexier than the results of short term motivation.