Last week, I wrote about how motivation is unreliable, how the emotional self often wins, and how the real sequence is decision first and motivation later. I believe all of it! I could talk about it for hours.
And yet I still snoozed my alarm on Thursday.
There’s a gap that nobody really talks about. Understanding why your brain fights you doesn’t automatically stop it from fighting you. Knowing the science doesn’t make 5am feel any easier.
There’s a difference between understanding a problem and actually solving it.
Just like me setting my alarm on Wednesday night, people have good intentions. But good intentions don’t always become action, whether that’s hitting the snooze button, skipping the session after work, or picking up the easy but unhealthy ready meal for dinner.
Off the back of the last article, hopefully, you’ve had some time to give yourself clarity around your decisions.
Today, it’s about making sure that happens. Here are a few simple ways to move yourself forward and start building momentum. The focus is on keeping things convenient, removing friction and making progress feel natural.
Spoiler: the gap between knowing what to do and actually doing it is almost always smaller than it feels.
Why Starting Is the Hardest Part
Think about the last time you were mid-workout and seriously considered leaving early. Really stopping, not just scaling back, but walking out. It probably didn't happen. Once you're moving, something takes over. You find a rhythm, and you get it done.
Now think about the last time you genuinely debated whether to train at all. That probably happens a lot more often.
This isn't a coincidence.
Starting requires you to overcome inertia. To shift from rest to motion. To go from thinking about training to actually doing it. That’s a lot harder than continuing, riding the momentum you’ve already created.
Let Environment do the Work your Willpower Can’t
Before we get stuck in, don’t underestimate how much controlling your environment can help you achieve. Momentum isn’t just about your motion; it’s also about removing friction.
Here's the thing about 5am: your rational self, the one that set the alarm, packed the bag, and genuinely meant it, is barely online. Your emotional self, on the other hand, is extremely good at one thing: keeping you comfortable right now. Like really, really good at keeping you comfortable.
Trying to win that argument through sheer willpower is a losing game. The emotional self will win almost every time, not because you're weak, but because that's how the human brain works at 5am when it's cold and the bed is warm.
So stop trying to win the argument in the moment. Win it the night before instead.
Your rational self is at full power at 8pm. Use that. Pack the bag and put it by the door. Put your phone across the room so getting up to turn the alarm off is already half the battle (this is big for me). I’ve even seen apps that require you to complete a task, such as taking a picture of your toilet, in order to turn your alarm off.
Embarrassingly simple. But that's exactly the point. They shift the path of least resistance before your emotional self even wakes up.
Simple Doesn’t Equal Ineffective
We often resist simple solutions because we've been putting something off for so long that we want the answer to feel proportionate, a big revelation that justifies why it took this long.
But the solution doesn't have to be complicated to be effective. Sometimes, the most effective thing is the most obvious thing done consistently.
So let’s challenge that idea!
4 Simple But Effective Ways to Shift into Momentum
1. Shrink it until the resistance disappears
Even with the bag packed and the phone across the room, there's still that moment. The negotiation. The not-so-quiet voice makes its case for staying put.
For me, when that alarm goes off, and the snooze button is looking oh so inviting, I've learned that the only way to beat it isn't to be stronger, it's to make the ask smaller.
All I have to do is get up.
I'm not trying to get to the gym. I'm not even trying to get dressed. Just get out of bed, and the rest will follow once I'm vertical and awake.
And when the negotiations start, because they will, every time, I've stopped trying to argue back. Instead, I have to quieten my mind.
I count. 5… 4… 3… 2… 1…
On 1, I get up.
By the time my brain catches up, the hardest part is already done.
Because here's the truth: once you're up, the decision gets a lot easier. It's not that the resistance disappears entirely; it's that you're making it from a different place. Awake, moving, out of the warm, and from there, the gym is usually just the next obvious step.
Most sessions aren't hard to finish. They're hard to start. So make starting as small as it can possibly be.
2. The 10-Minute Trick
What if the alarm isn’t the issue, it’s getting to the end of a long work day, and the last thing you want to do is get to the gym?
The same rule applies: shrink the resistance.
Tell yourself you’ll go just for 10 minutes, and if you’re still not feeling it, you can go home.
Chances are, once you’ve gone to the effort of putting your activewear on, started warming up and got into your first set, you won’t leave. You’ve created enough momentum that you’ll likely get the majority of, if not all, of your session done. But knowing you can leave makes starting feel less heavy.
Imagine there’s a huge boulder you’re trying to push down a hill. The first few pushes are the hardest. Maybe even a little pebble might get in the way. But if you get it going, get some momentum to support you, the rock starts moving faster and faster, the pebbles are nothing, the effort you need to put in is almost gone.
10 minutes is easy to manage mentally. And more often than not, 10 minutes becomes a full session.
3. Do it Once
Sometimes what you need is proof that you can do the hard thing.
Just like going to the gym for 10 minutes seems like an easier challenge than going for an hour, committing to your plan just once in a week seems easier than nailing it every single day.
Rolling with the early morning example, getting up once at 5am seems easier than getting up at 5am every single day.
So commit to doing it just once, and then you can let yourself sleep in the rest of the week.
Every action, rep or early morning wake-up becomes evidence that you can do it again.
You might find that doing it once or twice is enough to get the ball rolling and create momentum to continue.
4. Find an Accountability Buddy
If you can’t rely on yourself, rely on someone else!
Here's something worth understanding about the emotional self: it's surprisingly selective about who it lets down. It will happily let you down at 5am without a second thought. But let down a friend who's already at the gym waiting? That's a much harder sell.
The emotional self is wired to protect social bonds. It cares deeply about what other people think, about not being the one who cancels, about not wasting someone else's time. You can use that.
If you have someone you're meeting at the gym, a friend you're committing to walk with, or even someone you're checking in with over text, you've just made not showing up cost something real. Not just to you, but to someone else, which changes the calculation entirely.
It doesn't have to be training either. Committing to cook healthier meals with a partner, joining a group class where people notice when you're absent, or even just telling someone your plan out loud, all of it raises the social stakes just enough to tip the balance when your emotional self is making its case for the couch.
TL;DR
(Too long, didn’t read)
- Changing behaviour doesn’t come from following an instruction manual; it comes from experimenting.
- Start by testing your own hypotheses and noticing what actually works for you.
- Don’t aim for perfect execution; aim to close the gap between intention and action.
- Willpower at 5am is unreliable; rig the environment when willpower is strong
- Make the ask as small as possible; focus on just getting up, and the rest will follow
- 10 minutes is enough to get started; momentum does the rest
- If you can't rely on yourself, rely on someone else; accountability changes the calculation
And if that doesn’t work, then maybe it’s the plan that’s the problem. And that’s what we’ll be turning to next.
For now, it’s your turn.
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