 Anyone can be driven or ambitious for a day, or a week, or a month, but what does it take to have the drive to write a book, or to get your YouTube channel to 100,000 followers, or to complete medical school? How do you actually stay motivated over the long run? In this video, I'm going to give you three case studies and examples for how to do just that. Hey guys, I'm Alex Hine, over at Modern Health Monk, author of Master ZD. It's also in French, but before we jump in, I have a free, little, seven-day self-growth challenge I've put together. It's the first link below this video, and each day, you're going to get a little email with one little personal growth challenge I'm going to issue you to improve your life. So check it out, seven-day self-growth challenge, the first link below. So when it comes to motivation, the ultimate test of motivation is how much grit you have over time. So I thought, what better way for me to illustrate what has worked for me than to share three major goals that were all multi-year goals? The first was writing multiple bucks. The second was doing a four-year doctorate, and the third was getting this channel to almost half a million subscribers. Each of those, I think, is a worthy goal to talk about in terms of grit and motivation because each one I've had to show up for at one point, almost every day, four years, and doing that was not easy. So what did I actually do? You know, the funny thing about these three goals is that a lot of people try all of these. I know a lot of people who've wanted to write a book, but most never start. I know a lot of people who've wanted to go back to school for something, whether it's just a master's or just high school or college or medical school or something else, and they don't, or they don't finish. I know even more people who upload content on the internet, whether it's Instagram or it's YouTube or it's somewhere else, but then they fizzle out. And in my experience, there are three main reasons that this happens. The first is that we're all talk because it's sure as hell is a lot easier to talk about writing a book than it is to sit down for an hour a day for a year to get out of draft. And it's a hell of a lot easier to talk about this great big YouTube plan you're going to have or this great big audience in business you're going to have than actually sitting down and shooting and editing a video for hours or writing a blog article and then editing that for a few hours. It's a hell of a lot harder to do that than it is just to talk about it. The second reason I see a lot is that because we're perfectionists. So we think that if that first video doesn't blow up, it's never going to work. I remember I had a conversation with a friend when I came back home and I was starting to build a business and I started writing content before I started shooting it like this. And you know, it was so funny because he commented in one of my blog articles and really was sort of a jab, right? He was really one of these haters that didn't want to see me succeed. And what was so funny was that when he and I spoke, we were doing like messenger on Facebook and he was like, oh man, yeah, you know, those first posts have to be like crack. If this is ever going to work out, it's too hard to stand out. There's too much competition out there. And his opinion was that if it doesn't blow up from the get go, it's never going to, which is a bunch of bull, because usually it doesn't. My opinion was that if I can be the world's most consistent person at putting out content, try my best to make it better. Let's just see where it goes over a year. Now I can tell you only one of us five years later has a real business and the other doesn't. The other hasn't even really created or uploaded anything. So what does that tell you? For many of us, this perfectionist mentality that if it doesn't explode from the beginning, then it never will. It's just not true. And we project that under other people thinking that, oh, they must have just taken off right from the get go from day one. It must have just absolutely taken off and blown up just like that. I mean, no effort, no strategy, you know, whatever, it just happened. And most of the time that's also not true. It's mostly grit over time. And the third issue, the third reason I see people fail is that we lack grit. You know, for me, when I embark on any new goal, the first question, the focusing question is not how fast can I get this done? It's what is the one thing I can do every day and still be doing that a year from now? So I recently took up salsa and bachata dancing. So I said, what is the commitment I can make to be as regular as possible? And I determined one class a week for two hours and one night going social dancing in a Latin club. I can do those two every single week. And after three months, I was unhappy with my progress. After six months, I was unhappy with my progress. But after a year and a half, now I'm in a Latin club every single week and can dance with strangers, both dances. So sometimes that progression is slower than you think. And in reality, if you focus on how long can I be here? That is the inflection point where everything changes. So when it comes to maximizing grit, notice that nothing I talk about here is actually motivation related. When it comes to writing a book, using that focusing question, I said, what is the one thing I can do to be the world's most consistent that is sustainable? And I'll still be here a year from now for writing my books. It was a thousand words a day. I could do that seven days a week and still be doing it a year from now. Notice I didn't say I'm going to write my whole book in a month. Notice I didn't say I'm going to write 10 pages a day. I said a thousand words a day. And when it came to my YouTube channel, I said, you know what? I'm going to upload two videos a week. Whatever excites me is what the content is going to be because that is sustainable and I'm going to do it for a year and not even really overanalyze what happens in the interim. So what can I do that will be sustainable and I will still be doing it regularly over the course of a year, two videos a week. I did that and look where the channel is now and I've done a million other things in the meantime. And when it came to my doctorate, I thought, what is the one thing I can do that will help me graduate with amazing grades that is not complex, that is sustainable, that I can do pretty much every day for a year. And I said, study three hours a day. So I'm going to study three hours, seven days a week. That is going to be my action plan for completing my doctorate and being a very good student about something I want to be good at. And so that focusing question, instead of relying on motivation or discipline, what is the smallest thing that I can do as regularly as possible, preferably daily and still be doing it a year from now. Still be in the game. That is the secret to motivation. Whether it is your thousand words a day or 20 pushups a day or 20 minutes of yoga or 20 minutes of meditation or just eating a healthy breakfast. What is that little thing that you can be doing and still be doing it a year from now? That will get you the success you want. Check it out guys, let me know if it helps. More related videos for you there and a link right below this video for my challenge.