I’m not sure, but I like David Goggins’ take on the subject:
- There is no hack.
- There’s no “motivation” that suddenly appears and does the hard parts for us.
- It requires getting up and doing things over and over, and that process involves suffering. Sometimes the choice comes down to suffering while not improving ourselves vs. suffering while improving ourselves. The feelings are bad either way, but the latter choice offers potential.
- Mental strength comes from doing things we don’t want to do over and over and over.
- The brain has to understand that “this is what we do” so that it sees the hard work as being the new normal. He talks a lot about not giving the brain any choices other than doing it.
- He has mentioned that he hates to run and stretch, but he does it every day, because doing things he doesn’t like to do builds mental strength.