My War with Motivation: How I Learned to Win Without It

Welcome back to the Infinite Gold Podcast. You got myself, the host Anthony Goldner. I'm solo today for some Friday fuel. Hope everyone is having an amazing week, depending on when you're listening to this, and or an upcoming weekend if you you actually are listening to this on Friday. Today we are going to talk about the dreaded word that I dislike greatly, and it's not because I dislike the word, but I dislike the way it's used and how it's used way too often. And that word is motivation. Let that sink in for a little bit. Motivation is something that's technically an emotion, and the problem with humans is we have so many emotions and our emotions are like roller coaster rides. So you may be motivated one second and then not motivated the next second. You may be motivated one day, you may be motivated for a week, and then you're not motivated at all. It's almost as if like you on December 31st, January 1st, set off these goals for the upcoming year. And you're so motivated for it because it's day one, we got this going. Next, you know, a week later, you're not as motivated. Things start to falter. 2 weeks after that, you're really not motivated and you stop doing the things that you said you were going to do. You stopped acting on those goals that you have for the upcoming year. The reason behind that is, is you are so focused on being motivated to do things. We aren't always going to be motivated to do things. We need to be more disciplined with the things that we do. If you're motivated to do things, when you're not motivated, what's going to happen? You're not going to do things. When you're disciplined, it doesn't matter if you're motivated or not. You are disciplined to get the job done. You are disciplined to do the work. An example, this morning, we're preparing to fly out to Colorado for an amazing event. I'm very sorry if you're not going to be there. You definitely should be there. If you're going to be there, can't wait to see you. But this morning I woke up and I want to say I'm on what, 4 days? So I started Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. So today was day 5 of cold showers. I am never motivated to jump into a cold shower. I don't think 99% of the people who jump into cold showers or cold plunges are actually motivated to do it. We are disciplined to do it because we know all of the health benefits that come from it. But this morning I woke up and I just laid in bed and I'm looking, staring at the wall, kind of staring at the other wall, staring at the other wall, thinking about all the things that I need to get done today. And then I need to make sure that everybody's packed, everybody's ready to go, make sure our flight's good, make sure that the truck's ready to go, make sure that I get this podcast recorded, make sure I do quite a few things, and basically things just kept piling up, piling up, piling up. And it got to the point where I was like, you see, I just don't even have time to jump in the cold shower. Wow, do I really not have time to jump into a 3-minute cold shower? I'll actually be honest, right now I'm not disciplined to do it, and I'm— because I'm only on day 5. You don't get disciplined in something in 5 days. And I only do about 2 minutes, 2 and a half minutes of a cold shower. So Do I really not have 2 minutes, 2 and a half minutes out of my day to jump into a cold shower? Yeah, it's called priorities. It's called discipline. It's not motivation. Motivation is not going to get me into that cold shower. So I got out of bed. I told myself, stop being a little bitch and get into the cold shower. So that's what I did. Jump into the cold shower, hated every second of it, got out. Felt amazing. That's usually my ritual when it comes to cold showers. And I bet you there's a lot of you out there that have the same exact feelings when you're doing a cold plunge, doing a cold shower, is right before it you're like shivering because you have no clothes on now and it's still cold. And then you jump in and you're really shivering, you're really hating your life, and there's certain parts of your body that really don't like it. You, you know what I'm talking about. And then you're just like standing there and then you're kind of like trying to rub the skin, rub the cold water so that way you have a little bit of warmth. Yeah, you don't enjoy it. Not, not one second do I enjoy it. But then I get out and I'm like, whoo, I'm refreshed, ready to go. My blood pressure is a little bit up because it's trying to keep me warm. My pulse is a little bit up because I'm kind of freaking out and I'm trying to get warm. I feel amazing right now. So what did I do? I threw on some clothes, went downstairs, made some breakfast. Jumped on the computer, did some business work, and then I remembered that I have this upcoming race. Upcoming race of 290 miles of a bike ride in 4 days called the Police Unity Tour. We raise funds for fallen officers, and I'm like, I got to get a bike ride in before I get on the plane because I'm going to get on the plane and then we're going to land in Colorado around, what, 6:30 or so. I got to get a rental car, got to get— drive us to the place that we're going. There's not going to be a bike there. So I need to get my bike ride in. Well, again, am I motivated to get on the bike right now? Yes and no. I'm motivated for the ride. I'm motivated for the, the foundation that we're raising funds for. I'm motivated for the meaning behind it, but I'll be honest, my ass hurts. I have been riding a lot lately and I feel like my butt does not recover right now. And it's probably because I'm just riding and riding, riding. And that's what they say. You ask any cyclist, they're like, Yeah, you could have strong legs, you could have a strong mindset, you could have strong, you know, core and all that stuff. But the real testament of being able to ride long distance is can your butt withstand the long distance? And I 100% feel it right now. So again, sitting at the computer doing some work, you know, editing some videos, thinking about what I wanted to talk about with you guys today, thinking about this upcoming event, just really excited for it. And I'm like, do I really need to ride? What if I just, you know, do a bodyweight workout. Again, I was not motivated. So again, if I am just solely focused on that motivation factor of things, I would not have ridden. I would not have gotten on the bike. What happened? My discipline took over. I am actually very disciplined right now in my health and my fitness and my vitality, in my riding, because I have a competition, quote unquote, coming up. I have a reason to ride. I have a reason to be healthy for my family, for longevity, to be there for them, to be there for my friends, my network. I can't show up to Colorado unhealthy. If I showed up to Colorado unhealthy, that means I'm not going to have the energy, I'm not going to have the charisma, I'm not going to be excited to be there, I'm not going to be excited to be communicating with people, networking with people, because I'm just gonna be all sluggish. You got to make sure your health and your vitality is in Check. So threw on the bike shorts, jumped on the bike, and did a quick 35-minute ride. And I, when I do now quick rides, because I'm training for long distance, my quick rides have to be with my heart rate at least a 140+ for the average of the ride. The majority of it, I wanted to be around 160, 150, um, because I think after my last, uh, test, I want to say my max heart rate's around 185. So I want my heart rate up there because I'm not on the bike long and I have to get something out of it. Like, just coasting for 30 minutes on the bike is not going to do me justice at this point in time. Now, if it's a recovery day, yeah, so be it, but that recovery day still needs to be longer than a 30-minute ride. So went balls to the wall, hated about— I would say about quarter of it because I was not motivated. I was not ready to get on. So the beginning of it just did not feel good. About halfway through, started feeling good. Legs were good. And then the rest of the ride, I felt amazing. I just loved it. The sweat dripping down my face, the tingling of the, my calves, of my legs, of the idea of what I am accomplishing just helped push me. That's actually what helped motivate me. It helped create that exigent for wanting to do what I did. Got off the bike, legs were a little sore, a little jello, but again, I felt amazing. And we're gonna circle back. I was not motivated to get on that bike. It was the discipline factor that took over. And because I was disciplined to get on the bike, I got on the bike, I got off the bike, and I feel 1,000 times better. One thing that you need to know is if you're going through these kind of roller coaster rides of motivation, not being motivated, and the emotions around it, is you need to have the idea of the power of knowing. So you need to know the value and the benefit that you're gonna get out of doing whatever it is that you wanna do. So if you know that you wanna get healthy and you believe you wanna get healthy and this is what you kinda wanna be motivated to do is to, you know, get back into the gym, get back to working out, get back to eating healthy, well, you need to know deep down why you wanna do that and know the health benefits of wanting to do that. If you do all of that and you know all of that, that's what's gonna help you to accomplish those dreams and those goals. That's gonna actually help you be motivated to do it is when you know why you wanna do it. That's now the next key word, why. Why are you trying to do whatever it is that you're trying to do? Why do I wanna get into a cold shower every morning? 'Cause I'll be honest, I don't. Why I wanna do it is because I know all of the health benefits that come from it. I know that I've been training and working so hard on the bike and accomplishing those goals that I need to also be utilizing heat therapy as well as cold therapy. Heat therapy is easy, that's no problem. I jump in the sauna, you know, sweat, we all love that. It's the cold part that I need to start focusing more on and jumping into a cold shower is going to help me with those health benefits. So by me knowing why I'm doing it, that's what helps drive me into that cold shower. Same thing with the bike today. I didn't want to get on the bike, but me knowing why I am doing what I'm doing— I am doing this for a good cause. I can't stop at mile 70 when we have 30 miles to go because I don't feel good, I don't want to do it. No, I need to continue that extra 30 minutes— sorry, extra 30 miles to accomplish the goal. That'd be nice if it was only 30 more minutes for 30 miles, but we know that's not the case. So knowing why you're trying to do something and what is your deep-down why— and again, once you have all of that, that's what's gonna help you create that unsung hero that I talked about and that I love, and that's discipline. Being disciplined to reach those goals and those dreams. I'll backtrack a little bit, but when you know what you're why is and knowing why you're doing something, what that enables you to do is it enables you to create those kind of mini goals, those mini tasks, create those habits that are going to get you to that main dream and that main goal. If you're trying to be motivated to accomplish this extravagant goal of, let's say, making $1 million next year and you've never even made $200,000, that's an extravagant goal. You're not going— there's going to be times when you're not going to be motivated to do it because you don't even know how to get there because you've never been there. So there's going to be days when you're not motivated to do the work to get there. But what you can do is, is you can create mini goals, mini tasks that allow you to create habits towards those, which will allow you to get the discipline to accomplish those habits because you're creating habits that are small and minute that you can actually accomplish. So when you create those and you start tackling those and you start accomplishing those and finishing those, that's what's going to create the motivation. That's what's going to be like, holy moly, I've got this task, I've got this goal of making $1 million, and I broke it down into about, let's just say, monthly, uh, goals and habits. And I took those monthly and made it into weekly, and I made those weekly into daily. And this past, like, month, I've knocked out all of my mini habits, and I can see the progress. What's that now gonna create? Like, did you feel that excitement in you? Did you feel it in me? That's what's gonna give you that motivation to get to that next level. And then you're gonna have those days where you're not gonna be motivated, but you're still gonna tackle the habits. You're still gonna be disciplined to get the job done. So you're gonna get it done anyways. And you know what that's gonna end up creating? That motivation again, because you're like, holy moly, yesterday I was not motivated. I did not want to get up. I did not wanna do anything. I did not wanna make my sales calls. I did not wanna go work out. I didn't want to talk to anybody. I didn't want to do anything, but I did it anyways because that's what my habits tell me to do to reach my goals and dreams. And then that next day you're going to be so motivated because you're going to be like, whoo, wow, yesterday sucked. I got it done anyways. I actually got it done better than I thought I was going to do. Now I'm motivated. Let's keep going. Let's drive this force home and get to that next level. It's knowing why you're trying to do something, what you're trying to do, creating those habits. That's what's going to create the motivation. Stop going into anything, stop going into life in general trying to be motivated all the time because it's just not going to happen. And on top of that, stop waiting to do something when you're motivated because let's be honest, it's not going to happen. It's probably never going to happen. If you're waiting to do something until you're actually motivated, Well, you're probably never gonna start. You're probably never gonna do it because motivation doesn't just come out of thin air. It just doesn't be like, "Poop! Wow, there's motivation. I'm so happy to do the cold shower and to work out." No, doesn't happen and it's not going to happen. So to finish this off today, what I want you to do is I want you to reframe the idea of motivation and know that It's not just always going to be there. Change that reframe of motivation to the idea of achieving success, achieving the goals, those dreams, those— that vision that you have. Again, we need to add some more photos. So if you're watching this, you could see some of our photos for our vision board. We've got on there, we've got a house, we got a house in the snow, we've got, you know, speaking on stage, we got horses, we got a private jet, private helicopter, we've got our ranch. In the Midwest somewhere. I think I said horses. We've got our vacation home. We've got the old school Ford Broncos. These are all goals, dreams, visions that we have. And that looking at that will give you some motivation, but it's the discipline. It's the habits that are going to get you there. Just remember, you're never, and you're not always going to be motivated. Discipline is what's going to get you to that next level. To be disciplined, you need to have many habits and you have many goals, many tasks to accomplish every single day to get you disciplined enough to keep going. And when you do all of that, that's when you're going to be motivated to reach your goals. We've got a workbook coming out. It's going to be called the Infinite Gold Workbook. There'll probably be a fancy title that goes with it, but that's where we're going to dive deeper into motivation. We're also going to talk about optimism. And we're going to talk about various concepts that are going to help you get to that next level, creating those 1-year goals, those 1-year visions, those 5 years, creating a life that's going to get you to that level, creating morning routines, evening routines, monthly, weekly, all these routines and goals to get you to that next level. So definitely look out for it. Please, if you like what you're listening to, rate us, give us that 5 stars. And the one thing I would love for you to do, again, we don't do any ads, we don't do any of this. Please share this with a friend. Share this with somebody that you think is going to benefit from this. If you benefited from this, please share it along. Give it to someone that they can help with their motivation or help with various concepts. And again, if there's any topic that you'd like us to talk about, please reach out to us. Email me, DM me at the Infinite Gold Podcast or at my own Instagram, Anthony D. Goldner. Reach out to my wife, Bree Goldner. We would love to help you. We want to get you to that next level. And also, Don't forget, always go the final distance, always go the final percent, and we love you more. Take care.