There's a tag on the canal bridge I cycle under each day going to the shop. Rough black letters saying NO GROWTH IN COMFORT. Somebody painted over it in February and I actually felt gutted, like I'd lost a colleague. Then last month it came back, messier this time, and I laughed out loud on my bike.

I think about that line when I'm afraid to try something new. Which is frequently. Started keeping a bread journal because my sourdough kept collapsing and I needed to see patterns. The first twenty loaves were bricks. Loaf thirty-one actually rose. I photographed it like it was a degree certificate.

The cycling helps too. Forty minutes of pedalling and my brain stops rehearsing worst-case scenarios about whether I belong in my course or if the younger students notice how long I take with the online portal. Movement quiets the static.

What small routine or random thing has unexpectedly kept you going? Not the big motivational gestures. The tiny almost embarrassing ones. I'm curious about the actual mechanics of how people stay in motion.

Back in the day, the saying “You become like the people you surround yourself with” was so true, but now that idea is starting to fade away.

I used to live in London for 12+ years, and life there was so fast that you could learn new things out of nowhere, simply because the people around you demanded it, just to keep up with the pace.

Then, a few months ago, I decided to go back to my country of origin. Fast forward to today, I’m hanging out with those people, but the topics, the thinking, etc. seem like I can’t learn new things from them (I keep my opinion to myself). I don’t want to sound bad, but I use the time with them to relax, and then I can easily learn new things, because nowadays information is spread widely and we don’t need to rely on just our circle to learn.

When we go out, most of them talk about cars (who bought what car, which car is easy to repair), new phones, and they spend most of their free time hanging out in coffee shops.

On the other hand, I really like to read, and the last thing I learned was about ETFs, and more specifically APs (Authorized Participants). APs are big financial firms that work as middlemen between the ETF provider and the market. When demand for an ETF grows, they create new shares, and when it falls, they redeem them. This “creation and redemption” process keeps the ETF’s price close to the value of what it holds, and it would be impossible to learn this by hanging out with my friends.

Nowadays, the people around you no longer decide what you can learn, because information is everywhere, and if you are curious enough, you can shape your future.

What’s the last thing you learned that your circle couldn’t have taught you?

We often measure progress by what we can show other people: a better job, more money, a degree, a relationship, a healthier body, or some visible achievement.

But what about the progress nobody sees?

The person who finally sets a boundary after years of saying yes to everything. The person who applies for another job after dozens of rejections. Someone who starts learning something new at 40, 50, or 60. Someone who gets out of bed and takes care of themselves during a difficult period.

None of these accomplishments necessarily comes with applause, recognition, or an immediate reward.

And sometimes, the hardest part of personal growth isn't making progress. It's continuing when you have very little evidence that your efforts are working.

I wonder how much motivation we lose because we're comparing our private struggles with other people's visible achievements.

Maybe progress isn't always about moving faster. Sometimes it's about changing direction, learning what doesn't work, or developing the courage to try again.

So here's my question: Have you ever looked back at a period when you thought you were going nowhere, only to realize later that you were actually making meaningful progress?

What changed your perspective?

I'd especially love to hear from people who started over later in life, experienced setbacks, or found themselves taking a completely different path than the one they originally imagined.

I can’t shake the feeling of being lost in my 30’s. My friend group has moved away and I live in a small town, where it has proven hard to make new connections. That also leaks into my dating life. I’m not sure if it is a change in algorithm or what, but the last 3-years I’ve struggled not finding anyone I’m interested in. The ones I am interested in are a minimum of 2h away and it’s been difficult juggling work with a dating life like that. The result is I’ve kind of given up a little. I’ve thought about moving a lot lately, but my parents are going through some health issues and I fear leaving them at this time. I also don’t love my job. I don’t hate it either, but I’ve had persistent thoughts about changing it and have recently applied to another program in another province just to see.

My main concern is I’ve felt like I’ve been in limbo for years now and I’ve felt very aimless about where my future is heading, particularly in companionship. Dating is really rough in my city and It seems I’m not the only one to think so since it has been a common theme on our subreddit. But I’ve also really felt the lack of community. I want to do things and go to events. I’ve tried myself and I just can never mame any new connections.

Most people think motivation comes first for you to do stuff. I wait for the good morning to come to do stuff.

But it never comes.

One Tuesday I had something to do but no motivation, so I started a timer for ten minutes and promised myself I will quit when it rang.

I didn’t quit.

I worked for two hours, and then time later, motivation came.

That one stupid timer changed how I work.

I learned that motivation happens after you start, not before.

I run a successful company in Miami and I can no longer wait for that good morning to come, and some of my best work has come on days I felt completely flat.

What actually gets you moving on the days you feel nothing at all?

At the start of last month, I had an objective of going to bed on time every night of September. A very ambitious goal for someone who struggles of bedtime procrastination, but I was committed and motivated.

Everything went according to plan until the last week of the month when I started to feel this is done and I achieved my goal. Then I started to feel like it doesn’t matter, I already made it when in reality I did not. I know it’s silly to have such a goal because building a habit doesn’t work like this (and btw I’m very proud of myself for the 27 nights), but it still bothers me that the month wasn’t perfect like I hoped for. So to the question: how to stick committed to my goals when it feels like I almost already made it?

Look at the excuses you come up with for reasons why you failed to complete a task. If a large amount of money would have motivated you to complete the task, then it was simply a matter of motivation.

Saturday morning lifting motivation 🙂

https://youtu.be/v79hGgLvF4E?si=-hmbtZJSwYkf7kc2

7:25 "Words like integrity, honor, discipline, and character are lost in society"

RIP

Not my video

The way to balance ambition with the human need for joy is to realize that ambition will give success, achievement, pleasure, name, fame, money, power, but it will not give eternal happiness. If we truly want lasting joy, happiness, bliss, then we have to evolve from achievement to fulfillment and contentment and then to Enlightenment. Fulfillment gives peace, Enlightenment gives purpose. Otherwise, we will only have pleasure, and we will never be truly happy.

I noticed something embarrassing about my motivation: I could work on a goal for weeks in private, but the moment someone started expecting me to follow through, I wanted to stop doing it.

It wasn't even criticism. Sometimes it was the opposite.

I'd mention that I was learning something new or working on a personal project, and someone would say, "That's actually cool. You should keep going with that." Suddenly, the thing I'd been enjoying felt like an obligation I'd accidentally signed up for.

I started noticing it in small ways. I'd avoid opening the project when I knew someone might ask about it. I'd postpone working on it the evening before meeting a friend. If nobody remembered what I'd told them, I'd feel this weird sense of relief.

The uncomfortable part was that I genuinely wanted the result. I wasn't pretending to care about the goal. I just seemed to lose some of my willingness to pursue it once it became something other people could measure.

For a while, I thought the solution was to tell more people about my plans so I'd have accountability. But that sometimes made me focus more on how I'd explain my progress than on the actual work. I'd mentally prepare an update before I'd even done anything worth updating them about.

What helped was making a few small changes.

First, I stopped announcing goals while they were still vague. Instead of telling someone I was going to get good at something, I'd mention the specific thing I'd been practicing that week. It made the conversation less about a future version of me and more about what I was actually doing.

Second, when someone asked how it was going, I tried answering honestly without turning it into a report. "I worked on it twice this week, but I got stuck on this part" was enough. I didn't need to make the progress sound impressive or promise to do more next week.

Third, I started keeping some goals completely private, not as a secret or a rule, but simply because I enjoyed having something in my life that didn't need an explanation.

The counterintuitive thing I've found is that accountability doesn't always make me more consistent. Sometimes it makes me perform consistency. I start worrying about looking committed instead of figuring out what would actually help me continue.

I still think sharing goals can be useful, especially when someone can offer practical help or when another person genuinely depends on me. I just don't think every personal ambition benefits from becoming a public commitment.

I'm still figuring out where the line is between healthy accountability and feeling watched, because sometimes the same person can help me keep going with one goal and make another feel strangely heavy.

Has anyone else noticed their motivation change after telling people what they're working toward? Did sharing your goals help you follow through, or did keeping them private make it easier to actually enjoy the process?

I have been trying to start a business or make money outside of my day job for a while now. I have tried and failed at everything from crypto, options trading, consumer goods, iOS apps, affiliate marketing, faceless social media (YouTube, TikTok), etc. It has been a rough road to say the least, and I think the realization didn't fully settle with me until I sat down to write this post.

My aversion to putting myself out there had me trading options for a few years thinking I could make easy money hiding at home pressing a couple of buttons. I lost a lot more than I would like to admit. I really regret not putting that money and time into my own business back then, with the lesson being that there are no shortcuts.

I tried dropshipping, which also failed. Cold ads just don't work when you have no community and no identity. I also built an iOS app, which I felt proud of at the time, but I again spent 0 time creating a community and too much time creating something that nobody knew existed or cared about.

Around the same time I was also working on starting a couple of CPG ventures: a chocolate brand and a RTD beverage. The trademark registration for my chocolate brand got opposed by Mars and the one for my drink got opposed by Nestle. I had already spent thousands on branding, molds, formulation, samples, legal, etc. When the oppositions came in I had essentially 0 goodwill, and I decided that spending money and time defending a ghost brand was not smart.

I kept trying to build things without anyone knowing who was behind them. But every day it seems more like building a community is the right way to get people to see what you make.

I am starting something new and, after some very expensive lessons, I will do it differently. I am determined to make it work, mainly because I dream of having my own business and hopefully creating something that has a positive impact on people's lives.

I cheer for the small side, most of the time, whether it is a team I have never heard of or one person taking on something a thousand times bigger, and when they win it feels a bit like a personal win.

So I wanted to find out how often it actually happens, and whether the numbers could get more people to believe that a Goliath, whatever yours happens to be, can be beaten. There is a line I keep saying to myself these days, and it has really helped me move.

I can do anything, and it will work out.

The perfect setup can stay on the wish list for a while. A clear patch of floor and a few familiar exercises can be a starting point. Today’s goal can simply be to finish one manageable workout with what’s available.

I recently fell sick and I'm on the last day of my meds. They just make me so freaking sleepy and drowsy I have no motivation to do anything at all. Im on unpaid leave from work to do this studying but idk im just not able to at all. All I want to do is sleep and eat and watch TV and sleep again that's it. Im not able to do my household chores as well. I know I'm supposed to study and work hard but for some reason I'm just not able to. I just feel so tired and drained. I need some motivation pls.

I just turned 18 and life has been hard, I can't focus on studying for a long time because of my health issues, and now that I am 18, I don't know what I should do

These days I wake up around 5 and spend an hour building small tools before the workday starts. Things like a PIA questionnaire helper I wanted to exist. Funny thing is it didn't start as a motivation strategy. I'd just gotten tired of doomscrolling the GO train commute and arriving at the office already feeling behind. Now the habit carries me on the mornings I don't feel like it, which is honestly most mornings. Still haven't figured out the evenings though. What part of the day actually feels like yours?

I kept wondering why I could work hard on things that mattered to other people but felt strangely stuck on goals I chose for myself.

The uncomfortable part was realizing I wasn't actually lacking discipline. I was constantly asking my goals to justify themselves before I gave them any attention.

I noticed this pattern when I started learning a new skill. I would sit down at my desk around 8:30 PM, open the notes, and within five minutes I was asking myself questions like "Is this really useful?" or "Will this even matter six months from now?" I wasn't avoiding the work. I was putting the work on trial every single time I started.

The weird thing was that I never did this with small things. I didn't ask whether washing dishes was aligned with my purpose. I didn't question whether taking a walk was going to change my life. But anything connected to a bigger goal had to prove it deserved my energy first.

After noticing it for a while, I changed a few things:

I stopped judging goals during the early stages. I gave myself a rule that I wasn't allowed to decide whether something was worthwhile while I was still a beginner at it. A lot of things only become meaningful after you get better at them.

I also started measuring progress by whether I showed up for the process, not whether I felt excited about the outcome. Some of my most useful sessions were the boring ones where I almost talked myself out of starting.

The biggest surprise was that motivation didn't always come from finding a stronger reason. Sometimes it showed up after I had spent enough time doing something to understand why it mattered.

I think a lot of advice says to find your "why" before you begin, but I've noticed that can become another form of procrastination. Sometimes the reason appears after the repetition, not before it.

I'm still catching myself doing this. There are days when I want certainty that something will pay off before I invest in it, and that habit is hard to notice because it feels responsible.

But I've started trusting that some things need room to become important instead of needing to prove their importance immediately.

Has anyone else noticed that they lose motivation because they keep asking a goal to prove its value before they've really given it a chance?

I'm in deep shambles, man.

I've spent 8-9 months doing brokerage in Dubai Real Estate. I've tried so hard, but I've wound up closing nothing.

For the past 3 months, I've been looking and applying for SDR jobs because I'm very good at cold calls, doing discovery, basically what you'd expect from a proper salesman. But when there's a geopolitical crisis at hand, the reality is that not many people are looking to invest in a piece of land, apartment, or villa where turbulence has hit. Transactions have fallen drastically. And I don't have the relationship equity a seasoned broker does to survive this market.

I've had direct meetings with investors off a cold call man, we have real discussions, and their arguments make perfect sense to me. Ultimately, I realised if I had chosen to lie then maybe I would've made some money but that doesn't sit right with me. I enjoy solution crafting and what this real estate game is, what I've experienced, it's just not viable.

I feel I haven't been given the right support nor guidance. The entire time I hit it off with a prospect on these calls, I keep realising, "if only I were selling something else, I would've made enough to finish my degree". Most prospects in my pipeline tell me they'll be exploring next year. My inventory produces no leads despite being listed online.

I'm really stuck.

And the worst part is nobody wants to give me an interview for an SDR role either. I've cold-called AEs and been well-received, but to of no avail. they don't owe me a job, obviously. they'll ask me to forward my resume and they'll pass it on.

The only ones that have interviewed me are offering commission-only roles, and once again I'm going to be in that hellscape but at this point, I'm considering it because if I can succeed selling a brand new start-up, maybe it'll save me for the future.

And I keep looking for stories similar to mine, but I just can't find anything tangible, so I'm asking if anyone has a story of someone who's faced such circumstances and succeeded. Please share them with me. This has honestly been one of the worst 8-9 months of my life.

Dans cette vidéo, nous allons explorer les secrets pour développer une discipline et une productivité exceptionnelles, essentielles pour batir un business prospere et atteindre I'independance financiere. En adoptant un mindset de réussite et en cultivant une motivation intense, vous pourrez surmonter les obstacles et atteindre vos objectifs. Le développement personnel est au coeur de cette quéte, et nous allons discuter de stratégies pour améliorer votre force mentale, votre persévérance et votre ambition. En tant qu'entrepreneur, = est crucial de posséder des qualités de leadership et de comprendre I'importance de la discipline et de la motivation pour atteindre le succes. Nous allons également aborder les sujets de richesse, de liberté financiere et de stratégie d'investissement, afin de vous aider a réussir dans la vie et a atteindre vos reves. Avec les bonnes techniques et une attitude positive, vous pourrez développer un succes mindset et acquérir la liberté financiere que vous méritez.

https://youtu.be/eYqOUUb4XxI?list=PLbsoG6T3MIlY