You ever wonder why you cant just get it right?

You know, those times in life when you have a grand vision of how you will become a better version of yourself, you’re super motivated to lock in, but then after a few weeks, or days even, you’re back to your old ways.

This certainly was the case for me for years when it seemed like I just didn’t have it in me to actually get into shape. I came up with every excuse in the book after multiple half-hearted attempts, and resorting back to my status quo life feeling defeated.

And I know I’m not the only one.

When I was running my fitness coaching business, I had several “clients” pay multiple thousands of dollars for my services, only to ghost and never participate in the program.

Obvious signs of an emotional purchase that does not carry over into sustained effort.

I’d hazard a guess that you reading this have also had a moment in your life where you tried to once and for all kill some terribly self-destructive habit, or to start living in a better way (however you define that), only to abandon ship not long after the journey starts.

I mean… most of us do. So you’re not alone.

Unfortunately, modern society is set up in a way that almost always guarantees we will run out of steam for most things that we try. The world is full of distractions that short-circuit our ability to focus, or trudge through the initial discomfort of new endeavors.

But all hope is not lost. Through living with extreme intention, we can strategically navigate life in a way that makes transformational change not only inevitable but also sustainable.

In this article I’m going to show you how to do this through a very simple mental model that is laughably effective.

And if you adopt this new way of doing things, then you may finally put an end to that bad habit that you know is holding you back, while also doubling down on new habits that will propel your life forward into a much better place.

I’m going to tap into my engineering background and use a car analogy to explain this. But stick with me here, because you technically already know this, even if you think you don’t.

The secret to effecting massive change in life, lies in this equation here:

But you don’t need to know the inner workings of this equation. Rather, what you do need to know is that it symbolizes a concept known as “mechanical advantage.”

What is mechanical advantage you ask?

In the simplest of terms, it is a force amplifier. It allows us to output exponentially greater force without without adding more energy.

What does this look like in practical terms?

Have you ever ridden up hill on a bike? If the hill is steep enough, you likely shift into the lowest gear to make peddling up hill much easier. Shifting gears enables you to produce more force and move uphill without peddling harder.

This my friends, is mechanical advantage.

And like with many other things in life, principles that apply in one thing can applied to many other seemingly unrelated aspects in life. The principle of mechanical advantage can be directly applied to your personal life to effect massive change.

When you try to make a significant lifestyle change, you failed shortly thereafter because you lost the motivation and struggled to maintain consistency.

And therein lies problem #1.

You operate as if motivation is the secret ingredient that’s going to carry you to the promise land, and that couldn’t be further from the truth.

You see, motivation is an emotional state. And emotions shift with the wind.

There’s a 110% chance that the foundation of motivation you’re standing on will eventually get swept from underneath you. So you need a more reliable change agent.

Before I explain what that change agent is, let me provide you with a mental model that’ll make everything make sense.

To explain it, I’ll stick with the “shifting gears” analogy as mentioned before.

Keep reading…

First gear serves one purpose. To break the inertia and build momentum. That’s it.

But you absolutely cannot cruse at high speeds in 1st gear. You will burn out very, very fast.

Throughout the universe, it is a fact of nature that it often takes more energy to PUT things in motion than it does to KEEP things in motion. That initial burst of energy is activation energy.

Think pushing a heavy piece of furniture that’s sitting at rest. To get it moving you might have to throw your whole weight into it at first.

So activation energy is unsustainable. It’s useful in short bursts but that’s about it.

Motivation is also activation energy. It gives you the initial burst of energy to get off the couch and get things rolling.

But very quickly after you get moving, you better shift gears fast.

The middle gears are the bridge between getting some initial movement, and reaching top cruising speed. You’ll spend a bit more time here getting up to speed.

That initial burst of energy is no longer needed. Now you need to apply steady power to accelerate. It’s not necessarily going to be a cakewalk because it still requires a massive amount of energy, but at a rate that can be sustained for a much longer period of time.

But still, you must only spend as much time in the middle gears as is necessary.

Discipline is effectively the steady application of focused effort for an extended period of time. But discipline is NOT something that will last forever.

Being disciplined is still energy-intensive, and while you can sustain it for much longer than motivation, it still has an expiration date.

Discipline is a stepping stone that gives your brain just enough time to re-wire itself through neuroplasticity and neo-neurogenesis.

So depending on the nature and intensity of the lifestyle change you’re trying to make, you can sustain it for shorter or longer times, but discipline will eventually fade.

Top gear is the pinnacle of efficient movement.

Here you’re no longer accelerating. You’re only putting in just enough energy to maintain motion, and nothing more. And for this reason, because it’s such a relatively low-energy paradigm, you can sustain it forever.

Habits are effectively top gear from a behavioral standpoint. Once a habit is built, it takes far less effort to maintain it than it did to build the habit.

I’ve used the word energy quite a bit to get my idea across. But I do mean it in a literal sense.

You see. Making any sort of major change in your life requires cognitive energy. And this isn’t some lofty concept. Your brain literally consumes 25% of your body’s total energy production despite being only about 5% of your body weight.

All those neural connections in your brain are powered by electrical signals that all require energy, and lots of it. And the part of the brain that requires discipline and using better judgement is exceptionally energy demanding.

So when you spend too much time using motivation and discipline to drive your life forward, you drain your cognitive battery faster than it can recharge itself. Thus, you end up quitting, relapsing, being inconsistent, etc.

But when you build habits, your brain does not deplete it’s cognitive battery. In fact, habits require extraordinarily low cognitive output. This is why you engage in your current habits without any thought, or even maybe without awareness.

So the goal is to not haphazardly go into major lifestyle changes with high motivation. You have to be more strategic than that. You must have an intentionally designed system that gets you through this process and ultimately into a phase of habit formation.

Whether you’re entering into a fitness journey, or trying to quit drinking, or to get better at winning friends and influencing people, you must put a system in place that follows this general sequence.

You must invest in the tools and frameworks that’s going to gradually lower your cognitive load, and shift you into autopilot.

This is where systems come into play. Systems at their most basic level are force amplifiers that produce exponential results while minimizing the energy requirement.

You can use systems for specific goals such as fitness or killing bad habits.

You can also use systems for optimal living all around.

The key idea here is that you suck because you don’t invest in building the systems that will carry you from motivation to forming new habits that are aligned with your greater vision.

So next time you decide to move forward with any major lifestyle adjustment, create a system for yourself which converts activation energy into discipline, thus allowing time for the brain to reprogram itself around winning habits that will carry you forward in the long run.

You can explore this more in my article “Winners Build Systems.”

Speaking of which, I’ve been building my flagship transformation system called The Executive Life OS for ultra-high performers and business leaders who’ve fallen out of balance and need some serious heavy lifting to unlock peak living.

It’s an exclusive experience, so details are only reserved for individuals who meet the criteria.

If you’re interested, you can request an inside look here.

Don’t stop at this article. Keep the momentum going: