Welcome back to Peak Performance Principles, an advanced 7-part productivity series designed to help you operate as the best version of yourself—at work, at home, and everywhere in between.
Here’s what we’ve covered so far:
- Principle 1. Find your Peak Performance Period
- Principle 2. Develop the 4 Foundations of Peak Performance (PIESpread)
- Principle 3. Connect Roles to Goals + Create a Weekly Plan
Here’s what we’ll be looking at today…
The Action-First Principle
The majority of people looking for motivation tend to wait for something, or someone, to come around and motivate them before they can get up and take action to motivate themselves. This is the wrong approach. I operated with this “motivation comes before action” mentality for years before finally realizing that I had it all backward…
I would look for ways to get motivated to exercise, to get up early, or to stop procrastinating and do my work… and I’d actually manage to get myself motivated about doing these things for a little while. But before long, the motivation would fade, and I’d stop taking action.
Then I realized that the lifespan of motivation is, in a weird way, very similar to personal hygiene:
- You brush your teeth and your mouth feels fresh—until you eat a meal and need to brush again.
- You put on fresh clothes that make you look and feel sharp—until you drop ketchup on your bright white shirt.
- You wake up and take a shower every day to be clean and presentable—until the next day when you need to do it again.
Just like taking care of your personal hygiene is an important part of your daily routine, taking care of your motivation each day is important as well.
I think Zig Ziglar put it best when he said,
People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing. That’s why we recommend it daily.
Bottom line? Motivation is temporary, so we need to take small steps daily to keep the motivation train moving along, or else it’ll lose steam and come to a screeching halt.
This realization eventually led me to another simple discovery, which I now believe is the most important thing you need to know about motivation.
I call it The Action-First Principle, which states:
Action leads to motivation, not the other way around.
To put it another way: If you want to feel motivated, FIRST take action—and the motivation will follow.
Action leads to motivation
Here’s how most people approach motivation:
Motivation → Action → More motivation
(In other words: if they don’t “feel” motivated to take action, they don’t.)
Here’s how motivation really works:
Action → Motivation → More motivation
Regardless of what you want to get motivated about, the answer always begins with action.
Action is the impetus for motivation.
Action is the precursor to motivation.
Action comes FIRST, motivation comes after.
- We want to STOP saying:
I need to get motivated to take action. - We want to START saying: I need to take action to get motivated.
I often tell people who struggle with motivation and productivity:
It’s easier to act yourself into a better way of feeling than it is to feel yourself into a better way of acting.
Grab your fattest sharpie and write that down.
Then tape it up somewhere you know you’ll see it on a daily basis.
And next time you find yourself thinking, “Gosh, I don’t feel motivated to do anything right now” — STOP.
Then remind yourself of one simple thing: action comes first, motivation follows.
Actionable insights:
Apply the Action-First Principle
I have two challenges for you today. If you accept them, you’ll begin benefitting from the Action First Principle immediately.
Challenge #1.
Tomorrow morning, wake up 30 minutes earlier than usual.
And get out of bed the moment the alarm rings. The resistance you may feel about getting out of bed is the same feeling you need to contend with when you’re pushing yourself to make any change, in any area of your life. Including changes revolving around peak performance and productivity.
As hard as it might be to put mind over mattress and throw off those warm blankets, you’ll notice that once you’re up and about, it’s not that hard to stay awake anymore.
Furthermore, waking up earlier is not only an exercise in facing resistance—it also serves as concrete proof (to yourself) that you CAN look at something you don’t feel like doing, and do it anyway.
Taking action regardless of how you feel is like a superpower. Especially when you start your day that way. So, force yourself to wake up half an hour earlier tomorrow. You’ll actually feel the benefits of doing it throughout the rest of your day. All because you set the tone for success from the get-go.
But waking up early is just one simple exercise to demonstrate the power of The Action-First Principle. My goal is for you to not only see how powerful this principle is, but to leverage it in every area of your life… To push yourself to do anything. Which brings me to challenge number two:
Challenge #2.
Make the following pact with yourself right now.
“If I know there’s something I need to do that could change me for the better, I promise myself that I will use The Action-First Principle to push myself to do it regardless of how I feel.”
And that’s a wrap for Peak Performance Principle #4!
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Hope you found this valuable,
—Dean.
