Hi there,
What’s the Story?
Hope you’re crushing the actions that matter and not just dreaming about them! Things on my end are intense. I’m making a lot of progress on the book (finishing up the second draft), managing client work, and trying to practice what I preach about discipline over motivation.
Speaking of which, I was in a session recently where someone asked me the question that haunts every ambitious person:
“Why do I know exactly what I need to do, but I just… don’t do it?”
It’s the gap that drives us all mad. The space between knowing and doing. Between intention and action. Between the person we want to be and the person we are on Tuesday morning when the alarm goes off.
So this week, we’re diving into the psychology of self-sabotage and the science of actually doing the things you know you need to do. Because knowing isn’t enough. And hoping isn’t a strategy.
Also, check out this week’s short video here.
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Why Smart People Don’t Do What They Know They Should (And the Science of Taking Action)
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes 38 seconds
Let me destroy a popular myth right from the start.
Visualization doesn’t work. At least, not the way most people think it does.
Sorry to all the believers in The Secret, but research shows that when people just visualize success, when they imagine achieving their goals without imagining the work, they’re actually less likely to achieve them.
Why? Because visualization gives you the emotional payoff without the effort. Your brain gets the dopamine hit from imagining success, so it’s less motivated to do the actual work.
It’s like eating a picture of cake and wondering why you’re still hungry.
But that’s just one of the ways we sabotage ourselves. Let me walk you through the five psychological traps that keep smart people stuck and the science-backed strategies that actually work.
The Five Reasons You Don’t Do What You Know You Should
1. The Visualization Trap: We think imagining the outcome is enough. We picture ourselves as successful, confident, and achieving our goals. It feels good. Really good. So good that our brain thinks we’ve already done the work.
Researchers call this “positive fantasy.” And studies show it actually reduces effort and performance because it tricks your brain into thinking you’ve already succeeded.
2. The Comfort of the Victim Story: Here’s an uncomfortable truth: sometimes it’s easier to be a victim than a hero.
When you’re a victim, failure isn’t your fault. It’s the economy, your parents, your circumstances, and the weather. You get to stay comfortable in your limitations because they’re not really limitations—they’re “reasons.”
But here’s the thing: every time you call something a “reason” instead of an “excuse,” you’re choosing powerlessness over possibility.
3. Impatience for Transformation: We live in a world of instant everything. Instant messages, instant food, instant gratification. So we expect instant transformation too.
We want the six-pack in six weeks. The business success in six months. The life change in six days.
But real change happens on a timeline that doesn’t match our Netflix-trained attention spans.
4. Present Bias: (Or: Why Cheesecake Always Wins) Your brain has a built-in defect: it overvalues immediate rewards and undervalues future ones.
Standing in front of your fridge at 9 PM, your brain compares the cheesecake (immediate pleasure) with your six-pack abs (future possibility). The cheesecake is real, tangible, and available. The abs are theoretical.
Guess which one wins?
5. The Unreliability of Feelings: We’ve been taught to “trust our feelings” and “follow our intuition.” But sometimes our feelings are liars.
Sometimes, “I don’t feel motivated” is just fear wearing a disguise. Sometimes, “I don’t feel like it” is your brain protecting you from discomfort.
Your feelings are information, not instructions. And if you only do what you feel like doing, you’ll never do anything that matters.
The Five Strategies That Work
1. Mental Contrasting (Not Just Positive Thinking) Instead of just visualizing success, practice mental contrasting. Imagine achieving your goal, then imagine the obstacles you’ll face. Visualize success, then visualize the work required.
Research by psychologist Gabriele Oettingen shows this makes you significantly more likely to take action because your brain prepares for reality instead of fantasy.
Ask yourself:
- Where am I now?
- Where do I want to be?
- What obstacles will I face?
- What will happen if I don’t take action?
- What will happen if I do?
2. Own the Victim Story: Stop calling your excuses “reasons.” Call them what they are: excuses.
“The reason I didn’t go to the gym was because it was raining” becomes “The excuse I’m making is that it was raining.”
This isn’t about self-attack. It’s about self-honesty. Because you can’t change what you won’t acknowledge.
The only difference between a victim and a hero is that the hero takes responsibility and acts anyway.
3. Think Long Term, Act Short Term: Combat present bias by making your future goals as vivid and compelling as your present temptations.
Don’t just think “I want to lose weight.” Think about exactly how you’ll feel, look, and move when you’re at your ideal fitness level. Make it so real you can taste it.
Then break it down into one small action you can take today. Not this week. Today.
4. Focus on One Step at a Time: I’m writing a 100,000-word book. If I think about that number, I’m overwhelmed immediately.
But when I break it down: 50 chapters, 2,000 words each, one chapter per week, 400 words per day… suddenly it’s manageable.
Your brain can’t handle “transform my life.” But it can handle “write 400 words,” or “go for a 10-minute walk,” or “read five pages.”
5. Discipline Over Motivation: Here’s the hard truth: Motivation is unreliable. It comes and goes like the weather.
Discipline is different. Discipline is showing up regardless of how you feel.
If I only exercised when I felt motivated, I’d exercise maybe twice a month. But I’ve built it into my routine. I do it whether I feel like it or not.
Successful people don’t have more motivation. They have better systems.
The Mental Contrasting Framework
Let me give you a specific framework you can use right now:
Step 1: Name Your Goal – What do you actually want to achieve? Be specific.
Step 2: Imagine Success – Visualize achieving it. How will you feel? What will change? Make it vivid.
Step 3: Face Reality – What obstacles will you encounter? What will try to stop you? Be honest.
Step 4: Plan for Obstacles – When X happens, I will do Y. If I’m tempted by Z, I will remember A.
Step 5: Choose Your Next Action – What’s the smallest step you can take right now?
The Discipline Equation
Motivation gets you started. Discipline keeps you going.
But how do you build discipline? Three steps:
- Start with motivation (use mental contrasting to amp yourself up)
- Create a routine (make the action automatic)
- Trust the process (do it whether you feel like it or not)
The goal isn’t to feel motivated every day. The goal is to build systems that work regardless of how you feel.
You already know what you need to do. The problem isn’t knowledge, it’s execution.
Stop visualizing perfect outcomes and start preparing for an imperfect reality. Stop making excuses and start making progress. Stop waiting for motivation and start building discipline.
Your future self is counting on your current self to show up. Not when you feel like it. Not when it’s convenient. But consistently, persistently, regardless of how you feel.
Because in the end, you don’t become who you want to be by thinking about it. You become who you want to be by acting like it, one decision at a time.
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The Brain Prompt
Pick one thing you know you should be doing but are not.
Now practice mental contrasting:
- Imagine success: What will achieving this goal feel like? Be specific and vivid.
- Face the obstacles: What will try to stop you? When will you be most tempted to quit?
- Plan your response: When [obstacle] happens, I will [specific action].
- Choose one action: What’s the smallest step you can take today?
Now do it.
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Cheers,
Owen.
P.S. Don’t forget to check out my YouTube page every Monday for a cool, new video. You can subscribe here.
