The Motivation Myth: How High Achievers Really Set Themselves Up to Win

by Jeff Haden

In both scenarios, I spent a lot of time trying to motivate myself. I’d been told success was all about mind-set, and I wanted to lock in the optimal psychological state before the rubber met the road.

But motivation is really a result. Motivation is the fire that starts burning after you manually, painfully, coax it into existence, and it feeds on the satisfaction of seeing yourself make progress.

There is only one recipe for gaining motivation: success. Specifically, the dopamine hits we get when we observe ourselves making progress.