Ashley ChandlerFounder + CEO at The Teenage Guide

Motivation follows action, not the other way around

23 Oct 2026 · 1 min

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In this motivational monologue, Ashley Chandler challenges the common belief—especially among high school and college students—that motivation simply appears when we feel like it. She argues that most of the time, we do not spontaneously feel motivated to start assignments, projects, conversations, or setting boundaries. Instead, she emphasizes the necessity of deliberately building consistent, even "boringly" regular, habits and routines. By maintaining these habits, we can effectively re‑program our brain, biochemistry, and self‑beliefs, allowing us to recall our true capabilities and desires, which then generates genuine motivation to act. The core message is that action, driven by habit, precedes and creates motivation, not the reverse.

Chapters

But particularly what I notice with high school and college is there is this myth that somehow we are just gonna feel like it. Like we're gonna feel like doing that assignment that we actually don't wanna do, or that project, or we're gonna feel like having that conversation or, you know, setting that boundary. No, that is a myth. 9 times outta 10, we actually don't just feel like it out of the blue. We have to create habits that enable us to trick our brain and our biochemistry and our beliefs into truly, I think, re-remembering who we really are, what we're capable of, what we actually wanna do, then we feel like it. It's kind of like chicken or the egg. We have to be boringly consistent with our habits and our routines so that we then feel like taking the action.