I’m reading Get It Done by Ayelet Fishbach and it’s an incredible book about the science of motivation and pursuing your goals. In it, she explains why people struggle to follow through with the actions they can take to make progress.
Aligning action with purpose increases persistence, as we’ve talked about before.
Tactics like relying on willpower commonly fail.
It’s an interesting time of year to be reading this book because you’ve either achieved all your goals, some of your goals, or none of your goals in 2025. No doubt you’re already thinking about 2026.
In one part of the book, Fishback writes about the advantages and disadvantages of seeing goals, or your life, as a glass half full or half empty.
“When someone is new to something or unsure how much they like or value it, they take their actions as evidence of their commitment. When you have just started something new and want to figure out if you’re good at it, your completed actions increase your commitment and your missing actions decrease your commitment. The result is that novices are more motivated by the glass half full. Experts and people who are working on something that’s very important to them don’t question their commitment; they already know they care. If you’ve been doing something for a long time, you don’t have to ask yourself if you enjoy it or if it’s valuable to you. You’re better able to sustain your motivation if you focus on what you didn’t do – you look at the glass half empty.”
If you’re a gym novice, whether you’re there for accountability, strength, fat-loss, or something else, each session you complete builds on the last. That consistency serves as proof that you’re doing it, filling your glass one training session at a time.
That’s looking ahead.
Now think about how this applies to the gym from a seasoned perspective.
I know at least a quarter of our current gym community never saw themselves as people who would train consistently two or more days per week when they first joined. For all those ELEVATE members, progress shows up in strength, endurance, confidence, and the simple fact that they continue to show up. When the goal is to train for life and prioritize longevity, the glass is half empty because there’s still work to do if you want to live a long time.
This is looking back at the actions and effort that got you there.
Motivation changes depending on where you are in the journey. Early on, focus on what you have done. As your commitment grows, use what’s remaining as “undone” to keep you motivated and moving forward.As we close out 2025 and look around the corner to 2026, ask yourself if you need encouragement to keep going, or a challenge to keep growing?