Throw Down the Crutches

If you really want to achieve, you have to throw down the crutches.

You have to be a big girl or boy and toss down the fears, the excuses, and the external motivators.

Yup.

The goodies and the trinkets and the goal prizes are not going to get you what you really want.

Only you can get you what you really want.

It's time to stop playing "Little Suzie was a good girl and gets a treat" and start playing "Little Suzie wants 20 f***ing pull-ups." Little Suzie needs to dial herself in and focus.

See, you can't settle for the crutch of external motivation.

It won't be enough when things get really hard. Every person who has done something of merit in this world did it because they felt compelled by something inside them, not by some carrot dangling over their nose as they were led around by someone else.

What's that mean to you? A lot. Listen up:

YOU have to want it more than anybody else. 

Because YOU are what is left at the end of the day, all alone, with your decisions and your fears.

There's no prize or reward or goodie that can really soothe your soul, quiet your mind, make peace within you.

External motivators are like drugs or alcohol. They make you feel good for a little while and then they're gone. And then you need the next hit or drink to survive the new set of pain that will come. And the pain always comes.

Better to find that motivation within yourself.

Figure out why you are not achieving what you want in this life – in the gym, in your job, in your relationships. Yeah, you're going to have to dig deep. Really think about things. Sort some sh** out. But you can get there.

And then, armed with internal motivation, you can achieve again and again and again.

Or you can just keep aiming for the next prize. The next goodie, the next trinket, the next empty victory.

Why not just do the work and take your best shot?