Motivation Doesn't Work. Do This Instead. | Jocko Willink | Leif Babin | #extremeownership

you don't feel like working out it doesn't matter it's not part of the calculation it's up to you to get yourself up get some training in maintain your level of Fitness people get defeated by their alarm clock people's motivation gets defeated by their pillow people's motivation gets defeated by a donut that's what happens there are things that you learn in basic SEAL training that stick with you when it's cold when it's miserable when you don't want to be there there is something else that you can tap into that is much more powerful than your feelings

than your motivation and if you do that you're going to end up with freedom Joo how do I get more motivated obviously we get this question all the time for people that want to improve their motivation mhm well the fact of the matter is motivation doesn't matter doesn't weigh in carries no weight it's not part of the program really isn't it's just not part of the program being motivated is not part of the program and look going through SEAL training I I have often said you don't learn anything going through SEAL training you don't learn

anything it's just you're just gonna be wet cold and miserable but we talked about this on a recent podcast there are things that you learn in basic SEAL training that stick with you one of them is that motivation is worthless doesn't matter doesn't matter at all cuz what's going to happen going through SEAL training is you are going to do things that you 100% do not want to do at that moment so it's 3 o'clock in the morning four o'clock in the morning you've been wet cold and miserable you get dragged up onto the beach

you climb up onto the beach you get underneath your boat for seven minutes you're huddled up with your guys you're trying to create body heat to get a little bit of warmth and you start feeling a little bit of warmth and then instructors like get back in the water no one in that class wants to get back in the water zero people zero people want to get back in the water the motivation level to get back in the water is zero it might even be9 right it is low and guess what you're going to do

get out from under the the boat you're going to get back in the water so what you realize is that motivation doesn't matter at all what matters is the discipline that you're going to execute what you're being told at that time to execute now the other thing that's happening in Seal training is believe it or not you have a lot of freedom you have a lot of freedom in Seal training you get weekends off you get a lot of weekends off sometimes you get nights off you have time you can go right you're in the

most one of the most beautiful places in the world Coronado California there's stores out there there's little bars guys can go to then you go from Coronado you can get a a a cab back in the day you can get a cab now you can get an Uber or a LIF or whatever you can go right over into downtown San Diego now you got clubs you got bars you got things going on you got women you can chase around you can go all the way up to Pacific Beach there's colleges that pour into Pacific Beach

and there's all that Mayhem to get into and guess what if you want to go out and get into that Mayhem you can but that cost some people people some guys going through that training that costs them the ability to make it through training they either get in trouble or they're not ready for that fourmile time run on Monday morning but those Temptations are there and what protects you from those Temptations is discipline that's what it is so motivation isn't what we are relying on and we can't rely on motivation because like I said if

you and I got to get in the water to go conduct an operation the motivation to do that will be zero might even be-9 might be -12 might be negative a th000 and you know what doesn't matter you and I are going to go do what we have to do but going through SEAL training you're having stuff imposed upon you this is what you will do now in a lot of ways that's easier right it's easier to do that it's easier to get put in the water because you're being told to get put in the

water but what they do is you have those weekends off you have those times you can get in trouble you have a four Ed run there's no one that's there's no Pace setting as a matter of fact this is a reason they do this you don't have a watch on they don't let you have a watch and Seal training so you do a fourmile Tim run you have to mate a certain time you have to make a certain time you don't know how you don't know what the time is because you don't know what time

it is because you don't have a watch so you know what you have to do run as hard as you can same thing with a swim what do you do swim as hard as you can same thing with the obstacle course the the the motivation won't be there 3 and 1 12 miles into a fourmile Time run you're you're dying you feel like you're going to die what do you got to do you got to have the discipline to keep pushing otherwise you're not going to make the time so they develop this intrinsic discipline you

should carry into the teams so that you continue to stay on the path and it doesn't take a person telling you that you need to do something you do it anyways you don't do it because you're motivated you do it because you're disciplined and that's what we have in our in our mind what's interesting is in our minds we are the general the General on the battlefield in our minds we are the general we are also the soldier that has to execute that's what we have in our brains you come up with a plan I'm

going to work out today that's the general telling you to work out the soldier that's you also has to go and then execute on that that's the discipline and listen in a normal real military organization the lead ERS put out the word to the soldiers the soldiers have to execute otherwise everything falls apart it's the same thing in your mind the leader in your mind the general puts out the word on what needs to be executed it's you the soldier that has to go make that happen so you get trained just like you get trained

in Marine Corps boot camp or army boot camp or Navy boot camp that you're going to respond to those direct orders when they come you have to train yourself you have to train the soldier in your mind to obey those direct orders when they come and that is the foundation of discipline when you graduate from buds after you're going to that training and you have to use discipline to go out there when you're not motivated well then it's on you to maintain a high level of physical training and that was a that was a tough

transition for me I know it was for a lot of people because now you don't have an instructor in a blue shirt yelling at you or telling you to show up at this time uh to to go through a training Evolution you have to do it on your own and it's up to you to make maintain a super high level of physical fitness and that's a big transition because now all of a sudden it takes that that self uh discipline to get yourself up get get some training in you know go out and maintain your

level of Fitness uh on your own and and that's something that uh it's the motivation is often not there because uh particularly when you're training and there's things that are happen you're traveling and it's harder if you don't have access to your regular gym or it's not super conven venient if you're out on the road you got to wake up early if you got early training Evolution you got to wake up even earlier to get up and get your your workouts in but that's something you have to do and it takes tremendous selfis one to

do that in the SEAL Teams I remember often when we're out shooting or we're at a demolition range and we're blowing things up you know we're jumping uh and and it's easy to look at yourself and think I can't believe I get paid to do this this is such a fun job and it was the best job in the world but we used to joke about the fact that we had kind of a what we call the 20 minute rule of like when you're on a boat uh you know in in high seas in cold

water or you're you're riding in a helicopter it's really cool for 20 minutes if you're diving you know at night time under the ocean and it's you know pitch black and there's ships going over the top of you it's really cool for 20 minutes and then two and a half hours later you're still doing it and it and so it is you might be motivated in the first 20 minutes to to like oh this is really cool this is really neat this is fun uh this is something that I kind of dreamed of doing or

something that I maybe saw in the movies or on TV shows but that motivation is immediately waning and so you got to do that for hours and hours where when it's cold when it's miserable when you don't want to be there um and it's it's requires discipline to push through uh and that's what makes all the difference in the performance for your own individual performance and the performance of your team yeah and and that's why that training is so hard they're they will 100% get through whatever level of motivation a human being has they will

they will burn through that and get to where there's only thing that's left is discipline the only thing that's left there's no there's nobody at day four of hell week that is like I said sitting underneath a boat they get told to get back in the water not one of those people want to get back in the water and do hey do they stand up and say who yah and run back in there and act like they are yep 100% or not 100% but some guys false motivation I I was all about that false motivation

they're telling me to do something that's going to suck I'm going to act like I want to do it let's go but they get through they burn through that that motivation of everybody in that class that's why so many people quit and cuz you think about it 20 minutes it's gone right that's your that's your assessment even if it's something that you love doing you love whatever you love going on an op and going on patrol you love doing that cool maybe you're a person that it's fun for an hour 3 hours 5 hours 7

hours 12 hours one day so they're going to keep doing that to you until you get to five five and a half days of things that suck and they burn through every the the class motivation collectively is zero at the end what you end up with is people that are going to do what they are told to do because they are disciplined that's what you end up with and that's what you need that's the way you know you can't negotiate you don't negotiate with an instructor and say hey uh maybe can we go in a

little while I'm kind of warm right now you don't get to do that and clearly you don't get to negotiate in combat and that's what it boils down to there is going to be times in combat situations you know when there's gun fire in the street and someone's got to go out and lay down cover fire there's going to be times where people say oh I can die when I step out of this Alleyway I don't want to do this right now and he's got 15 20 other people relying on him putting down that cover

fire you can't have someone that says I'm not sure if I'm motivated to do this right now what you need is someone that is going to execute what they need to execute through pure discipline fear is overcome hesitation is overcome it's not overcome by motivation it's overcome by discipline that's what's that's the that's why it trumps all these emotions that are floating around in people's head I'm scared I'm I'm afraid I'm nervous I'm hesitant I'm not sure if I want to do this I'm second guessing all those little things they're just overridden by one thing

and one thing only discipline and that's what it's going to take so that's why that training is hard and that's why the result is guys that can go out on the battlefield and they are going to deliver they are going to execute no matter what they come up against that is the discipline so what does that mean to a normal person that doesn't need to go into extreme cold conditions or doesn't need to go into combat situations well guess what what's strange is people get defeated on a daily basis by things that are much less

significant I mean infinitely less significant people get defeated by their alarm clock people's motivation gets defeated by their pillow people's motivation gets defeated by a donut that's what happens that's the reality of the situation is people the will that people have gets defeated by a donut that's what happens and they end up in terrible situations they end up not healthy they end up having having problems they're not physically capable all that starts with their will and their motivation being overcome by a donut so what you have have to do is you have to start to

recognize that there is something else that you can tap into that is much more powerful than your feelings than your motivation and that is discipline you can apply this discipline look you have a project that you're that's do at work that you don't feel like working on right now doesn't matter that you don't feel like working on it right now you you impose discipline on the situation and you do what you're supposed to do you have a exercise you have you need to workout this morning you haven't worked out yet you wake up in the

morning you need to go work out you don't feel like working out it doesn't matter doesn't matter that you don't feel like working out doesn't matter it's not part of the calculation discipline overrides that discipline trumps your feelings and that is what you need to apply as a person as a normal human being no matter what you're doing in your life you need to let discipline be your guide not how you feel that's what we need to do and if you do that you're going to end up with freedom you're going to end up with

freedom across the board discipline equals Freedom that's what I have been saying for for a long time it is 100% factually true if you allow your feelings to dictate what you do you will end up being a slave to your feelings at a minimum but if you utilize discipline in your life you will end up with the ultimate freedom in everything that you do so that is why you as a person out there doing your job whatever that job may be impose discipline in your life it will set you free