If Motivation Worked, Your January Would Look Very Different

Jan 26

JANUARY 26, 2026

Plans don’t alter identity, and effort alone can’t override who you’ve been. Identity shifts when commitment and environment make the old version unsustainable.

Audit your environments. Choose at least one commitment this year that requires the version of you that you say you want to become.

Motivation is the most unreliable friend you have.

It shows up loud at the beginning.
Sends inspiring texts.
Promises it’s all in this time.

Then disappears the moment you’re tired, uncomfortable or when Netflix asks, “Are you still watching?”

Motivation isn’t bad.
It’s just flaky.

And yet we keep building our business and lives around it like it’s dependable. Especially coming out of the first month of the year.

The problem with motivation (according to research in behavioral psychology, not just me) is that:

Motivation predicts intention.
Environment predicts behavior.

In other words, motivation helps you want to do something.
It does almost nothing to help you actually do it when friction shows up.

Studies on habit formation and follow-through (including work on implementation intentions and identity-based behavior) show that people don’t change because they feel inspired.

They change when:

The cost of not acting becomes real
Their environment removes easy exits
Their identity is on the line

Motivation loves the idea of change. Your nervous system loves staying alive and unembarrassed. Guess which one usually wins?

Motivation lives in the future. Have you noticed?

“I’ll start when things slow down.”
“This is just a busy season.”
“I know what I need to do.”

All true.
All harmless.
All perfectly safe.

Because as long as change stays hypothetical, nothing about you has to change.

No awkward conversations.
No risk of failing publicly.
No letting go of the version of yourself people already recognize.

Which leads to the question January quietly avoids:

If I say I want change… what am I protecting by not taking action?

I will tell you, it’s probably not a lack discipline.

It’s a strange, misplaced loyalty to things like:

Being seen as responsible
Being liked
Being competent
Being “the dependable one”
Or avoiding a past failure you never want to repeat

So motivation spikes… but action stalls.

It’s not that you don’t care. It’s because caring would require risking something that currently feels non-negotiable.

Motivation doesn’t challenge that.
Stakes do.

What moves people isn’t hype, clarity, or the perfect plan.

It’s consequence.

It’s when not acting costs you:

Your self-trust
Your integrity
Your ability to keep believing your own promises

This is why accountability works.
Why deadlines work.
Why environments matter more than willpower.

And why people change faster on retreats, in communities, or under real pressure than they ever do alone with a vision board.

Motivation asks, “Do I feel like it today?”
Commitment asks, “Who do I become if I don’t?”

Now for the part we don’t like to admit.

Motivation feels good because it doesn’t ask anything of you.

It lets you rehearse a better future without confronting what has to die for it to exist.

Change doesn’t start when you feel ready. It starts when staying the same costs more than moving.

Key Idea

Motivation creates intention. Stakes create movement. Motivation is unreliable because it disappears under pressure. Real change happens when identity, environment, or consequence removes the option to stay the same.

Takeaway

Stop asking how to get more motivated. Ask what you’re quietly protecting… and what structure or stake would make avoiding change impossible.

Build your Movement

If motivation vanished tomorrow…what would still move you to act?