Hacking your motivation
Motivation is one of the most important things you need to learn to hack.
When you're motivated, you're laser-focused.
With motivation, no one can stop you.
With motivation, there are no limits.
Here's how to hack your motivation:
1. Identify your goal
What is it that you really want? Be specific:
- find a job?
- buy a car?
- build a startup?
- go on vacation?
- lose weight?
- getting your company funded?
2. Now visualize yourself achieving this goal
Try really hard to see yourself living your life after achieving this goal.
How is your life different?
Think about how it feels.
Think about why that is important to you.
Do you get goosebumps?
Does your heart skip a beat as you see yourself in that situation?
Great. Remember how that feels. That is your goal.
From now on, all you're doing is building what needs to be built to get there.
Building What Needs to Be Built
It's not easy - don't get me wrong.
What does it mean to "building what needs to be built?"
It means doing the work:
- Moving to another country
- Building a strong network
- Building a stronger skill set
The goal you set for yourself needs to be aggressive, but at the same time achievable and measurable, and as you move forward, you'll be making adjustments to how you measure your own results. Sometimes you'll see yourself closer to the goal than others, and this means you're learning, you're growing and you can make a better time assessment.
The Process
You need to start by building a plan, a high-level plan.
Then do the work, measure, adjust, repeat.
And that IS the game, isn't it?
The Reality
In life, you're constantly making decisions that affect your future.
If you're aware of the future you want for yourself, every decision becomes clearer. Every choice either moves you closer to or further from that vision you had - the one that gave you goosebumps.
The key is to keep that vision fresh in your mind. Revisit it regularly. Feel it again. Let it pull you forward when the work gets hard, when the path gets unclear, when doubt creeps in.
Because with the right motivation, properly hacked and maintained, you become unstoppable.
Time is the only currency that can turn motivation into something durable.
The whole career pivot from tech to music took me three years — motivation can be a long game.
One project that started exactly like this: a book I decided to write about entrepreneurship for musicians.
📬 Enjoyed this article?
Subscribe for the stuff that doesn't make it onto the blog — half-finished ideas, what I'm reading and listening to, behind-the-scenes notes, and the occasional rabbit hole. No spam, just things worth your time.