You Don't Need Motivation You Need Motion

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You can feel stuck for months, even years, not because you are broken, but because you are still in the hardest part of the process: getting the wheels moving. In these moments it's crucial that we harness the power of momentum in our lives so our goals stop depending on motivation and start depending on motion. Whether you are trying to lose weight, build a business, wake up earlier, or finish a creative project, the early phase is supposed to feel heavy and slow and that is exactly why most people quit too soon.

I use a broken down car analogy to make it concrete: pushing from a dead stop takes the most effort, and stopping once it finally rolls means you volunteer to restart the hardest part again. We talk about how to notice real progress, how habits start to “carry you” once your body and brain adapt, and how to protect momentum when self-doubt tells you it is taking too long.

Then we get into a sneaky form of self-sabotage: the “I deserve it” mindset. I share examples of how small rewards can stack into lost consistency, and the decision you have to make if you want a different life years from now. 

Transcript

Opening Lyrics On Goals

SPEAKER_01 0:06

Losing myself and finding my strength came to the conclusion and I want it all. Feeling that pressure of tryna do better. I wanna reach heights, but too scared to fall. Too scared of failure. Way more scared of feeling regret. I'm not even trying, that's terrifying. I understand that chasing my goals, I bury my clocks because it takes time. I gotta go. I already know. If I wanna grow, you reap what you sow. That be the case. Planting my seeds or water my base. Yeah, I made mistakes. Yeah, I know you grow in your garden, but watch for the snakes. The people that act like you're crazy for trying this, they fall away. They don't think it's possible, I think it's possible. That is just hate. If they hate themselves, cause they on the shelf. Why you create? A life that you love.

SPEAKER_00 0:45

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:47

A life that you love. Loving the fact to improving yourself. Decided that you wouldn't settle. Decided that you got the drive to do it. The road got bumping your foot on the pedal. You go up a level, you turn up whenever it's time for you to go put in that work. I know my work, huh? I know it ain't gonna be easy, yeah. I know it hurt, but thing is for sure. Yeah. Until it put me in this earth. Before I ride in that hearse, I'm chasing my goals.

SPEAKER_00 1:15

I'm chasing my goals. Love enough back to improving yourself. Decided that you were not settled. Decided that you got the drive to do it to go. Got more foot in the cutter. I'm chasing my goals.

Quick Thanks And Support Options

SPEAKER_01 1:31

Alright, and thank you so much for being here. If you are on a if you're on YouTube, go ahead and like and subscribe to my channel. If you were on a podcast platform, leave me a review. Those things help me out a whole lot. Also, I have given y'all a new way to support me in giving y'all this podcast. You can buy me a cup of coffee. Like I always say, I love coffee. I drink coffee every single day. I had me a cup today. I got some in the fridge. They have me an iced coffee later when I go sit at caribou and work on writing because I don't feel like spending no money today on coffee. But anyway, support your boy and I'll buy me a cup of coffee. Let's go ahead and dive in. Today

Why Momentum Changes Everything

SPEAKER_01 2:14

we're gonna be talking about how to uh harness the power of your momentum in your life. And I personally think momentum is one of the most underrated things that don't get talked about because a lot of people's success is a result of them using that momentum, riding that momentum, using it to get them further than what they were before. And it's also an important part of life. And how often does something like this happen? Somebody get excited about starting a new business or starting to work out on their workout and their health journey or a new project, and there's all this excitement and energy towards starting this new thing in the beginning. They make all these plans, they have all these ideas they want to execute, and they start doing it. And what happens? They don't get the results they want right away, and because of that, they start to fall off. Then that doubt creeps in, like, maybe this is a sign that this ain't for me. Maybe this ain't the path I should be on, right? This don't seem to be working for me. And what happens is they give up before they get the momentum on their side. They quit before they get the momentum they need that shows them that they are on the right path.

The Broken Down Car Analogy

SPEAKER_01 3:26

And the analogy I love to use, which I've used before on here, is the broken down car analogy. And I done had some bad cars in the past. All these cars are bad engines, and I used to have to I used to have this um this old purple Dodge Neon. I bought it for like $600 off Craigslist. So you can imagine what the engine was worth. Not to mention the AC didn't work. And you better believe I had to push that car a few times. And if you ever had to push a car, then you know the hardest part is pushing when it's completely stopped and not moving at all. Getting from zero miles per hour to moving just a little bit. That is the hardest part. When you pushing it and you ain't even sure if you're strong enough to get it to move at all, and you push and you push and you pushing, and it starts moving just a little bit. And starting that business, starting a workout plan or a project, it's like pushing the car. Starting from no movement and pushing and hoping to get that momentum. And a lot of people quit before the car before the car starts moving because they haven't gotten any of that momentum yet. And they push and they push and they push, then they give up. And the thing is, you know when you push in that car, once the wheels finally start moving and you keep pushing, when it actually does start going, it gets so much easier. But it takes a lot of effort to get it going. A hell of a lot of effort to get it to move. It takes a while before it starts moving, but once it does get moving, it gets way easier to keep it moving. From zero to one miles per hour, that's hard. Then from one to two miles per hour, it's a little easier. And from two to three, it's even easier, and so on and so on, right? And once the car is moving and you get it going, what will really be stupid is if you stop pushing and let it come to a complete stop again, just to start pushing all over again. No, you wouldn't do that. Right? And this is a good analogy of how a lot of people's success happens. They see a whole lot of struggle in the beginning. They figuring things out, seeing what works, figuring out what don't work, and they pushing and pushing and pushing and pushing and struggling, and it don't feel like it's moving, and when it finally does start moving, it's barely moving, but it's that momentum. It's where they didn't give up. Eventually, that momentum got them going. It took time, but eventually it came. And I can say I've experienced this with this podcast you're listening to, right? When I first started doing it, it was only for my workout clients. But I um when I first started offering it to the public, it was a real struggle to get it out there, right? To get folks to listen, trying to learn how to get it streaming on all podcast platforms, the extra work it took editing this thing, writing up descriptions for it to be online and look professional, the amount of time it took to learn everything I had to learn, and I'm still learning what works as far as marketing goes, but over time it did get easier. I figured some things out. But in the beginning, it was hard. I would do all this work and only have like three or four people listen. But I knew what I had was good, and I knew that I was in that period where I just had to keep pushing. My momentum wasn't there yet. And so the next time you start something new, something you've never done before, or maybe you're trying to do it again, you're trying it for the second time, a third time, just know it's like pushing that car. It's gonna take time to get that thing moving, and once you get it moving, it's go it's it's going to be very important to not stop.

Do Not Self Sabotage Progress

SPEAKER_01 7:23

We can't start to get that momentum on our side and then self-sabotage ourselves. Because that car and that momentum, it will stop if you stop pushing. When things are starting to move, the worst thing you can do is self-sabotage and stop. You have to become aware of when your momentum is happening. We self-sabotage by thinking we're not making any progress or by feeling like it's taking too long. When instead you should be looking at where you came from. The car is moving. You ain't in the same place you used to be. Even if you only traveled a little bit, but if you stop pushing, you are guaranteed to never get there. Keep pushing. And what's gonna happen after a year or so, it's gonna feel unnatural to not go to the gym. Your body will actually start to crave going to the gym. Your body will start to crave that healthy food because those things fuel you now. You're gonna feel some guilt, or like you shouldn't be sitting around not doing nothing, and putting in some work on that project. It's gonna feel unnatural to not work on that thing. And that is what momentum is doing. It's carrying you now. You're still pushing, but that momentum is working in your favor, and that's where we need to be with all our goals and the things we're working on. Because this analogy, it really does apply to just about everything we do.

Habits That Get Easier With Time

SPEAKER_01 8:46

Like if you want to start waking up early in the morning, waking up at five in the morning, that's hard. Especially that first time you try it, right? You wake up like, oh, hell no, this ain't it. This ain't for me. And you get to the end of the day and you're tired as hell, and your body has to get adjusted. It takes time to get used to that early morning routine. But after you do it over and over and over again, your body starts to adapt and you adjust. Your body starts to shut off earlier in the night. Instead of finally falling asleep at midnight or one o'clock in the morning, you start to get sleepy at 11, 11, and then 10:30, and early and early and early. And now you have that momentum on your side, and then what happens is you do this for a while and you will start to wake up before your alarm even goes off. And you wake up and you borderline pissed off because you still got 15 minutes before your alarm goes off, right? We hate that, right? But that's because your body has adjusted to that time. Same thing with starting a business in those beginning stages of starting that business, all the success, right? It takes a while to get it. And all the successful people who own businesses and entrepreneurs, they will say the same thing. It's hard. It's figuring those things out. It's a lot of pushing, it's a lot of stuff that won't work, and you finding out, you figuring out what all that is. And you will feel like you're on the wrong path, like you shouldn't be doing something, like you should be doing something different. Maybe it's in a maybe you feel like you're in the wrong market. Maybe you don't have enough passion. And they all say that these are the moments that are really important because you are building that threshold. You're learning what doesn't work, and eventually it gets easier, eventually it clicks, eventually you find that momentum. And

Writing A Musical And Cutting Songs

SPEAKER_01 10:31

speaking of learning what don't work, I'm experiencing this with my hip hop playslash musical that I'm writing. And let me tell y'all, I have so much momentum right now. I can say I'm almost done. I got like one more scene to write and like three more songs, and I'm getting way better and faster with uh writing music. I'm so proud of myself. But when I first started, please, man, I have no motion, no momentum. It was hard as hell to get started. Same way it's hard as hell for me to start a song, right? The beginning is the hardest part. And with this play, I had no idea how I wanted to start it. And I look at previous drafts of this play, and my God, I wrote some bad stuff. When I first set out to start this project, if I went in that direction when I first started it, and definitely I let that momentum slip, that car came to a complete stop. Hell, it rolled backwards on me. But looking back, when I did get that car moving, and most recently, like right now, I got a whole lot of momentum, I can see the things that I wrote back back then that just didn't work. It was just bad. But I was learning as I was going. Even now, I can write a scene, let's say four months ago and get better at writing in those four months, right? And I revisit it, and it feels cringe worthy to me. Just four months ago. Again, I'm learning what works and what don't work. And let me tell y'all, man, I am so proud of myself because the songwriter in me had to let go of four songs. I had to scrap four songs that at the time I was proud of as hell. Still am. I like the song, the songs, plural, but it just don't work with the direction the play is going in. So I had to rewrite the song, rewrite full scenes, and I'm way happier with the um with the direction it's in now. And that's what I'm gonna share with y'all today. A song that won't make the cut, because hey, like I always say, I'm on this journey with y'all, right? This personal development and growth journey, I'm on it with y'all, and I'm sharing some experiences that I'm not gonna say is a failure, but it's an example of me learning what don't work. Right? Anyway, nothing new is easy at the beginning, and we all know that, but we need a reminder every now and then, and the important thing to remember is the destination.

Three Steps Out Of Stagnation

SPEAKER_01 13:08

If you listen to me and you feel like your life has been stagnant for a while, we've all been there. You feel like nothing is happening, nothing is changing, you feel stuck, not sure what to do next. You just feel stagnant. One, you gotta start pushing. You gotta start right now. That car ain't going nowhere if you ain't gonna push it. Two, it's gonna take some effort, it's gonna take some dedication, it's gonna take the mindset of understanding that it's gonna take a whole lot of work to get yourself out of that stagnation. And three, you have to realize when you do have that momentum and figure out how you are not gonna let that momentum slip this time. How you're gonna just keep going and keep pushing. And I've said it so many times before: action creates more action, inaction creates more inaction. And one

The Danger Of I Deserve It

SPEAKER_01 14:04

last thing, as you get this momentum, do not get the case of what another coach calls, uh, another coach who I follow, he calls it the I deserves it, the I deserve it's right. Don't get the I deserve it's and don't get me wrong, sometimes you deserve a good old I deserve it. Sometimes you need that good old I deserve it. But it's when you stack those I deserve it moments and you let them become too many and too frequent, and that's when we get in trouble. And what is the I deserve it's? Well, let's say you've been putting in the work, you get some momentum, let's say it's that business you started and you're getting more and more sales, and then there's this little voice inside your head that says something like, you know, I know I should finish sending these emails, but I've been working hard, I deserve the rest of the night off, or I deserve to splurge on myself today. I made some extra cash, I deserve it. Or if you've been hitting the gym consistently and you lost 10 pounds, that little voice in your head might say, I've been busting my ass. I'll have a donut. I deserve it. Or I don't feel like going to the gym today. I already lost 10 pounds. I'll just go tomorrow. I deserve this day off. And then you keep having those moments and you end up gaining that weight right back. And then the examples of this, they go on and on and on, right? And after a while, all these many self-sabotaging moments pile up and they add up, right, with weight loss, with sales, right? Let's say you have a big week at work. Next week you feel like you deserve to bring it down a notch and you don't sell as many or you don't even try or apply yourself as hard. My point is we have to be aware of the I deserve it's because what it is is the power of your momentum being slowed down by your self-sabotage. So be aware of it. Don't stack those I deserve it. So think about this. Think about

Imagine Life If You Never Quit

SPEAKER_01 15:54

something that you set out to do and you never actually did. Something that was years ago, something you started, but you eventually gave up and you never finished it. And we all have these, right? I I'm not trying to make myself sound like I'm any different than you. We all been there, done that. But I want you to bring that thing to the front of your brain right now, the front of your mind. And I want you to imagine what your life would look like if you never gave up on it. How your life would look like, how you would feel, how you would be, how others would see you. Think about that. How your life would be different in this moment right now had you never given up on it. Okay? Now let's think about the present moment. What if this thing that you're currently working on that you want to do, if you just decided that you know what? You're never gonna give up on it. That you are not gonna get the case of the I deserve it, and you're not gonna stop until you get to your destination. This is the mindset you have to have. This mindset is what is what's gonna help you harness that power of your momentum. And I guarantee you, you will look back at this years from now, and you will be on a different path with this thing that you are right now. But you have to make that decision that you won't stop, that you won't let your momentum come to a stop, and you will keep pushing that car. And I believe in you, you got this. So let's

Final Push And Share Request

SPEAKER_01 17:15

get it. So that's what I got for y'all today. Uh, please uh support me uh with this podcast. I gave y'all a new way to support your board. You can buy me a cup of coffee. I love coffee, I drink it every day. Uh, there is a link in the description. Just click on that picture of a cup of coffee and you can buy me a cup of coffee that way. Uh, also, if you like this episode, please share this on your social media or with a friend or family member who you think would benefit from hearing this message. Let's go ahead and get to this music though. Uh,

Introducing The Unreleased Track

SPEAKER_01 17:44

so the song that did not make the cut. Uh, first, let me tell you that these are what's called wet vocals, meaning uh I did not um mix and master this song at all. I just recorded it for the purposes of me being able to hear it aloud and get an idea of what it sounds like. Uh, it's also a rough draft with my singing voice. It I'm gonna just tell y'all right now, there's a couple of moments I sing in it, it sounds bad, but I don't care because you know I'm going to eventually work with an RB artist to help me compose some notes. So this is kind of a just a direction of what I think it could sound like, and help somebody have somebody help me to uh compose some song some notes that actually sound good to sing. So I wrote four of these songs for four different characters, all around the topic of how uh their neighborhood got gentrified and it's a perspective of each different character and how it affected them, uh, and also how they want people to see their face. So uh let's get into it. The name of this one is called Blackface. Well, that's what it was going to be called, but it's gonna be it was gonna be four different versions of it. This is one of them. And uh this character is uh the neighborhood store owner. Yeah. Alright, let's ride up.

Blackface Song And Gentrification Story

SPEAKER_01 19:14

Okay, now be sure we get the rest of these prices marked down before the end of the day, okay? Yes, ma'am, right this way. If you go all the way to the produce section and look by the far left by the peppers. Of course, you're welcome. So, like I said last week, y'all, we're gonna rearrange a few hours. Take three, for example. I know there's ample space to be freed up. Jay and Tanisha, I won't try to team up, I'll show you what to do. The produce truck is coming Monday instead of Tuesday next week. Check the calendar, look and see what your duties are that day. Ricky, this is your third time this month, being 15, 20 minutes late. Okay? I tryna be on your case. I put your own probation. I'm just voicing my frustration, okay? I just need communication. I know your situation, that's why I'm giving you patience. Okay? Cool. Don't forget to take your lunch. Forgot what it was like to be that young. Every Sunday, my folks had me in lunch growing up. I'm thankful that my parents always kept me in the church. As soon as I was old enough, they put me right to work. I'm mopping my hand after sweeping up the dirt. It gave me understanding of money and its worth. It kept me off the streets, kept me from getting hurt. From being like my peers out here dying over time. I guess I turned down a ride. Uh-huh. I'm thankful for the life that I have. I'm grateful that I didn't take a turn down that path. Was faithful to my schoolwork, I never skipped a class. I thank God for that equation, cause he didn't like that math. Uh I said, I'm thankful for the life that I have. I'm grateful for the take a turn down that path. Was faithful to my schoolwork, I never skipped a class. I thank God for that equal, cause he never liked that man. Amen, hey, man, hey, man. So first day was raining, then it started pouring. Everything started changing, happy with no warning. Well, you still feel like the community feels so foreign. So many families had to leave cause they can't afford it. Can't ignore it. All the empty buildings that got boarded. So many people lost their businesses and they supported my business like I supported theirs. We paid it for it. And I paid several teams in the neighborhood to keep them on the streets. I kept them off from gang bottles. I tried to keep them from killing each other while being killed by the police. Life is a marathon, and my people started last place. That's why they come to my store and see my black face. They recognize the rat race. It only made me stronger. You can feel it in my handshake. Had to grip so much, might as well make some pancakes. I will never break, only beans. Then I put that on my grandfather backaches. I'm protecting my culture, so in that case, I am filled with so much resilience. I will never let him take away any of my beautiful back words like I broken backspace.

Closing Reaction To The Draft

SPEAKER_01 22:15

Okay, that might have been a little more poetic than I thought it was gonna be. It wasn't that cool coming out, but you get it.