Motivation is worthless. In my case, I've integrated it into everything I do, and it's "just the way I do things." If I could will myself to do things that my body doesn't want to, that it fights me on, then I'd be in the Tour De France next year. Fact is, thin people aren't thin because they have incredible willpower and fat people aren't fat because they have none.

Routine does it for me. As long as it's a shrug & do it thing, I do it. If it's outside my comfort zone, I resist. I bring it into my comfort zone. I find a way to live that way.

I hope nobody gets offended if I chuckle at the various "rewards" threads that pop up from time to time. If a freaking new shirt or iPod could motivate me, I'd have a closetfull of shirts and a trunk full of iPods. No external thing can motivate me. Giving yourself mini-rewards isn't useful. It's just distracting. It might do no harm, but it does no good either. (Unless you just wanted the iPod anyway)

I've pondered the question of motivation for a very long time. I agree that it's not real. No "moments of clarity", no external influence can make this happen. I couldn't have done it strictly on motivation. I couldn't have done it at all. Motivation plays a tiny role. Being informed, being true to yourself, adopting it as a way of living no different than the television shows you watch -- that works.

I ain't Rocky. I ain't going to look at the mirror and drink the raw eggs and beat Apollo Creed. Neither are most people. I know a *few* people of very iron will, who could probably get by just on their own internal strength. But that isn't me and it probably isn't you.