Exercise Scientist’s Masterclass On Motivation, Habits & Discipline - Dr Mike Israetel - #970

**Chris Williamson** (0:00)
I wanted to talk about the science of well power, habits, motivation, some of the busiest of topics at the moment. Why do you think this is such a popular area of discussion for people on the Internet?

**Mike Israetel** (0:13)
You know, I'm really happy that it's a popular area of discussion on the Internet. The Internet has plenty of stuff on there that was kind of just junk. Most of my stuff, for example, what am I really mostly about? Vanity, you know, that sucks. But it's really awesome that so many people, at least by search volumes, would be interested in motivation and habits and willpower because that tells me that people are doing two things. One, recognizing that they want success or to achieve some goals. And two, is recognizing that their motivational structure is a potential limiting factor to that success. And so if you're like, things in the outside world are important, and I'm going to try to architect myself to be better at them, man, it really is a great thing and really does set you up for a significant amount of more success than you would. If you never ask the question of like, how do I get maxing motivated? I mean, you just kind of assumed that you were like, whatever motivation level you have, that's just kind of what you're doing. Like it's kind of default. I had a situation today, I was earlier, I was working on my next book. Yes, it's an adult novel.

**Chris Williamson** (1:27)
Can I be on the cover?

**Mike Israetel** (1:28)
It's a gay adult novel.

**Chris Williamson** (1:29)
I'm on the cover.

**Mike Israetel** (1:30)
Yeah, I thought your people already signed it. There's two clones of you on the cover, making love, love, I don't mean lust, I mean love, Chris. You can feel the love. Anyway, I digress.
I was writing and it took me like a minute or two to really get in the groove. A few times during that, one specific time during that minute or two, I was like, oh, my stupid brain, get focused already, what's wrong with me? I have super bad attention deficit or I suck. Then I was like, oh, wait, wait. First of all, that was dumb because it was just a matter of getting in a flow state. It's always rocky to first. But second of all, now I'm thinking about it like, okay, there's ways to improve your attention span. If I just said, well, this is my limitation and this is just who I am, okay, fine, I'll get some stuff done. But if I ask the next question of like, okay, I know that my ability to focus is a limiting factor in my success, so is my motivation, etc. How can I attend to those factors and do at least two things? One, kind of understand the world of those factors to at least kind of speak the language, which is something we're going to figure out how to do today, and two, take what I need from that, and try really junior league implementing it in my life. And then if I do that, hey, maybe I'll have some more success. Then I can come back, refine the process, and do better things.

**Chris Williamson** (2:42)
It's interesting that nobody, very few people, would say, well, this is the deadlift that I have. This deadlift that I have, it's kind of a part of my sense of self. It's very closely tied. I had this when I started working with addiction coach.
Addiction coach on-

**Mike Israetel** (3:00)
Oh, I thought you was going to be on some other shit. What for, bro? You're like, what not for, man? Austin rips you up.

**Chris Williamson** (3:06)
Slinging it. When I started working with my speech coach, Miles, some of my friends said, well, dude, you're going to lose the way that you speak. What about your natural speaking cadence? I thought, well-

**Mike Israetel** (3:22)
Addiction coach, that's got to be like nails on a chalkboard level of-

**Chris Williamson** (3:25)
I imagine so because in his opinion and in my opinion too, there are more and less precise ways to make words come out of your face. In the same way as you're saying, hey, you're a saxophone player or a singer, and you've started working with a teacher, but what about your natural way? It's like my natural way of playing the saxophone fucking sucks. That's why we practice. The natural way that I deadlift this just the bar or this bar plus five pounds on either side. But for some reason, I think, when it comes to internal stuff, willpower, habits, discipline, because you can't see it because it feels inbuilt in a way. It feels like it's part of your sense of self. And I think that that limits maybe people's understanding of how much they can move that and lift the ceiling.