Not needing anybody to motivate you is one of the most liberating feelings in the world.
- You get to exercise—without needing a trainer, accountability partner, or motivational video.
- You get to eat clean—without needing a meal-planner, slap from a loved one, or body goals video.
- You get to work—without needing external incentives, pushes from your peers, or threats from your boss.
Having self-motivation saves time, money, and energy.
But, it also takes time, money, and energy—particularly at the outset. At the times when all you want to do is utilize the motivation that can be taken from surrounding external sources. When all you want to do is dive in while you’re hot.
But, here’s the trick: you have to resist that urge.
The same way the lumberjack must resist the urge to chop the tree with a dull axe.
See, most people just grab the axe and start hacking away. And they burn themselves out, fail to make much progress, and curse the axe for not being good enough.
When what’s really required isn’t hacking—but sharpening.
When you take the time required to sharpen the mind and internalize principles that are intrinsically motivating, you’ll be free of the external needs altogether.
And you’ll start chopping through days worth of trees while everybody else is still cursing their axe.