Aaron Doughty explains how a spontaneous trip to Sedona helped him dramatically boost his motivation. He argues that most people recycle the same thoughts daily, leading to habitual emotions, and that breaking this pattern requires changing one’s environment, diet, and information intake. He describes booking a hotel in Sedona, enjoying the striking scenery, and using the journey to practice time‑blocking for deep work. During the drive he listened to Robert Greene’s Mastery audiobook, consuming a quarter of it, and plans to finish it quickly. Doughty also highlights the power of novel reference experiences, such as night‑time hiking and stargazing, which provide fresh sensory input and break routine. He ties together these tactics—environment shift, focused work periods, stimulating content, nutrient‑rich food, and new experiences—as practical, repeatable methods to boost motivation and productivity.
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Look at that natural light. So this video is gonna be on something a lot of people ask me, and that is how to become more motivated. Now, a lot of times people will say that they just don't have the motivation or they just don't feel inspired to do certain things or to progress their life or become the greatest version of themselves. But what I found is that one of the easiest ways of doing that is is changing the environment. So one thing that I did kind of randomly is I decided like 2 days ago that I would just book a hotel in Sedona. I live in Vegas, so driving to Sedona is about a 3.5, 4-hour drive away, and that I would come here also because many people have told me, they've said, you would love Sedona, totally your cup of tea, whatever that means. But what I decided to do was to come here and I will say that it has been amazing so far. I want to show you guys just a quick view behind me so you can see the kind of view that I have. Literally, it's like everywhere that I go, every time I get a little bit higher, there's a totally new view, but it's just as awesome. The views are amazing here. Well, remember also that what neurology shows is that on average we think about 60,000 to 70,000 thoughts a day, and that of those 60,000 to 70,000 thoughts, over 90% of them are recycled from the day before, which means that we're creating the same type of emotions. We're continuously having the same type of experiences, and we're constantly being creatures of habit. Well, the way that we get out of that and the way that we think new thoughts is by changing our environment. Now, sometimes this can be as simple as changing the— where you actually are, but it could also be maybe changing the diet, changing what you eat. You may notice that if you eat more nutrient-rich foods, you have more energy. You may realize that when you do begin to go out and see the world, that then you have a different type of inspiration. One of the main reasons I went on this trip to begin with is because I wanted to power— it's called time block. I wanted to just focus on one or two things for maybe 5, 6 hours at a time, and I've been able to be extremely productive. But not only that, I've got even more motivation, even more inspiration, because I'm actually somewhere that I really enjoy being. But also it's about the time that you use. So one thing that I did on my way here, it was about a 4-hour drive coming here, 4.5 hours depending on how fast you drive. But one thing that I did is I put in an audiobook. I listened to about 4.5 hours of an audiobook on my way here. Awesome book, by the way. It's by Robert Greene. It's called Mastery. He talks and takes some of the masters of arts, you know, the last like 1,000 years, like da Vinci or a couple other people as well, and kind of explains their life and how they got to that mastery. And it was— I learned so much in that drive here. Now it's something that you can choose how much value you get out of it based upon how much you put into it as well. So I've been able to not just be productive in the sense that I've had time to time and power block, but I've also made the most of even my drive here. And I've, out of a 16-hour audiobook, I've already listened to over, over a quarter of it. And when I go home here in a couple hours, I'll listen to another quarter of it. I have almost half a book done in a day and a half. So the idea is to change your environment, change what you're listening to, change the type of information that you're absorbing. Could even be the food that you're eating. And then understand that the more you do that, the more you stimulate yourself, the more that you're actually really going to feel motivated. So motivation is about understanding that the more we change our environment, the more that we become spontaneous and just decide that we're going to go places, we'll get signs of that too. Even as I'm with you guys right now, synchronicity. That's me. Oh yeah. Another part of understanding how we can stimulate ourselves is understanding how we can make new reference experiences. So last night it was like 9 or 10 at night. It was really dark. I decided that I was going to come here. I didn't come all the way up here because it was so dark, but I decided that I was going to do something that I haven't done before, and that would be like going hiking at night, for example. And it seems like something that could be maybe scary. You don't know what's going to happen, could be dangerous. But I just, you know, I didn't push the limits too far, but I decided that also I wanted to see the stars because living in Vegas, What kind of stars do we get? We get a bright city. You don't really see the stars here. It's amazing the kind of stars that you see. So making new reference experiences, trying new things, stimulating yourself in a new way, changing your environment, changing the diet that you eat— those are all powerful ways of becoming more motivated and understanding that you can draw the state from within by changing your environment and changing the way that you view your environment. So Hope you guys enjoyed this video. I'm going to go get to a little bit more hiking. Might do another video, we will see. Other than that, much love everybody.
