Motivation is Bullshit – Just do it

8 min readJan 11, 2021

Yeah, you read right, motivation is Bull Shit, contrary to all that you’ve heard so-called gurus of motivation, motivation is not gonna work if you want to do something, period and that’s my point of view and you can disagree with it but let me explain to you why I think so;

Our brains 🧠 are designed and our belief systems from millions of years of evolution protect us from things that could hurt us or damage us in any way, and that’s good! We’re really well designed to survive and that’s why we’re the most powerful specie on the planet earth right now to evolve and survive, if you don’t trust me just see COVID 19 as an example of how short take us to find a vaccine in such a short period of time and how fast we’ve adapted to this kind of life we’re living.

So our mind is programmed to in a short period near to mili seconds to stop 🛑 us from doing something that may hurt us, but now we are not in the jungle fighting dinosaurs or lions we’re in a completely different scenario and completely different way of life. Taking that into account our decision process takes small decisions that will move us forward on our careers our personal life, our marriage, our relationships with our kid, making a business or asking for a payroll raise exactly the same as if we were going to fight with lions, not everybody has the same belief systems but on a different range of danger taking decisions we’re quite similar as humans, so for example if you’re in a meeting and have a great idea instead of raising your hand and speak out loud you just think «oh maybe is not good to say this» and just stay quiet and don’t say it (it sound familiar to you?) or if you see a beatiful girl on the other side of the bar alone and you’re horny as hell instead of going to talk to her just stay on your place thinking how good will be to go there but your reptilian brain stops you to do it, or many many example, just presenting your ideas, or tint hour hai white as I’m doing right now (I’ll upload a picture soon) or nearly non real physical dangerous thing that could really hurts you. That’s why I think is bullshit and you should do something to stop from doing this in order to achieve «your dreams» whatever they are, period, and it’s easy but not simple so let me tell you a few tricks that helped me to reprogram my mind to do «risky things» instead of sitting down waiting for the right moment.

Tips and tricks

There are several ways to change that thinking pattern that tells your brain you’re risking your life and teach him is not dangerous, some are more radical than others so try the ones that suit you better. None of them are mines and I have learned from some interesting people that I found on the internet or books and I’ll cite them obviously if I remember exactly if not well I don’t think they are worried about me and this little Blog:

So as I said before you’re in front of a task or a decision or something you know you should do it but you’ve been procrastinating for a long period of time it doesn’t matter what it is but starts with the small ones, it’ll be better to start with the huge ones but you won’t act and be paralyze so let’s start like that:

1) Define the worst case scenario:

This is coming from the stoics philosophers but I’ve heard it from Tim Ferris, just grab a pen and paper or an excel or whatever to write down all the decisions you’ve been procrastinating and make three columns:

The decision or task you need to do
The worst thing that can happen if you do it
How to avoid that worst thing can happen
A price that you’ll have to pay if you don’t do it, decide it or whatever, or what will it looks your life in 5–10 years if you don’t act on it.

This will give you a huge perspective of what could happen, and the real risk of doing it, for example, and in my case just may be writing this blog:

Writing a blog about my way to approach life
Worst things can happen: Nobody reads it, people think about me who the heck I think I am to be giving advice being me (a little crazy person with a lot of traumas and paranoias), people start talking on my back about how crazy I am. More or less that.
How to avoid the worst thing that can happen: well in this case is nothing really to avoid because it’s gonna happen and I can’t control if the people are gonna read it or not, but I can make some spam wasaps, create a Facebook page, Instagram, or any media to promote it and improve my writing skills and yes! My English grammar. But can’t control what people are gonna think and statistically to win the presidential elections you just need only 51% of the population to approve you so that it’ll be a good KPI if 49% of people send me to spam it’ll still be OK keeping doing it. And that doesn’t happen yet only 1% write me back spam.
Which price I’ll be paying for not doing it in 5 years or 10 years: Well maybe I’ll regret not to try it, maybe just 2 or 3 people don’t benefit or have an impact on their life’s cause I didn’t take the time to do it, maybe I couldn’t be a writer that I wished all my life.

So when you see it like that looks rational and not that fearful to do it isn’t it? So I decide to do it and if one of you doesn’t like it it’s OK. I’m not gonna die :)

2) 5 seconds rule (From Mel Robbins)

Mel Robbins has been a great inspiration for me and also she is a great speaker and have high energy and positive levels so I recommend you to find her on the web and read his Job, one of her best sellers books it’s «The 5 seconds rule» and I talked about that technique on previous posts so you can go read it but to make the long story shorts what she proclaims is than our decisions are 5 seconds away from getting done because our brains are prepared to protect us as I said so you when you need to get something done or decided just need to count 5,4,3,2,1 and act, that easy but not simple, so just give it a try.

3) Stoic practices more extreme but really powerful

1) Fear of loosing something:

Well I think after doing this we don’t have or own nothing just have it and enjoy it but is easier to say than done so my first experiment was putting my older clothes dirty, broken, and scratched or painted, and go out to streets and have a walk, sit down on the subway 🚇 entry and just put my hat on the floor, to see what happens, and bring my guitar with me, and we’ll surprise I’m still alive, and after an hour or so just realized wasn’t that bad, people smile at you, some of them gives you money, and some others stop to talk to you to see how can they help you, so my most scarefull thing in mind for 49 years want that bad, people offer you help, clothes, money, food, or friendship, so I realized if I «lose everything» it wouldn’t be that bad I could still be alive :)

2) Fear of being embarrassed

I borrowed this from Tim Ferris also and it was really fun to do it, just dress yourself the most ridiculous you can’t imagine, I have a Zebra pijama and a Pair of red cowboy boots, so I put them on and go to make the groceries shopping, well it could sound crazy to you and it is but is funny as hell, you go out and surprise surprise, nobody gives a f*** about you, yes somebody looks at you for a second and keeps his or her way thinking about their own problems, some others laugh at you and wow you don’t die!!! but most people say good things to you like «hey good clothing» or starts dancing with you or things you can’t imagine :)

So the conclusion is then is hard really hard to die of embarrassing or losing all «you own»
So as I said motivation is garbage and fear is good when is good so the next time you have some situation that requires motivation instead of waiting to feel like it or the perfect moment JUST DO IT and if you’re fearful of it just give it a try to these techniques I wrote if you feel like it :) and see what happens.
And that’s all for today, I wish you a nice day today and the best.
And just remind you if you want to be updated (no spammed) of my new entries just subscribe to my newsletter on angel-rivera.com or if you have some doubts or want to chat just leave a comment below and I’ll ping you back as soon as I can.

Best and thanks if you get here
Angel Rivera