What do you need to do to justify value to yourself. How do you capture the key components of what you’re missing or what you gain by doing the work

You Don’t Need More Motivation—You Need a Better Identity

# You Don’t Need More Motivation—You Need a Better Identity

1. The Problem: You Don’t Really Value the Work

• Most people say they want to grow, change, achieve—but they don’t feel it.
• They chase motivation like a drug because they haven’t aligned the work with their identity.
• Value isn’t objective—it’s personal. If you don’t feel like the work belongs to you, you’ll abandon it.

2. Identity-Based Motivation: The Work Must Be “Like Me”

• Core idea: You’re more likely to take action when it feels like something a person like you would do.
• Your brain asks: “Is this me?”—and if the answer is no, motivation dies.
• Superordinate goals: goals that reflect who you are or want to be (e.g., “I’m a disciplined man,” “I’m the kind of person who builds things that last”).
• When your goals are identity-driven, value is felt, not forced.

3. Cognitive Dissonance: Let Your Actions Rewire Your Identity

• When you act in ways that don’t match your current identity, you feel discomfort (dissonance).
• But here’s the twist: That’s not a problem—it’s leverage.
• You can either:
  1. Quit the behavior to preserve the old identity,
  2. Or adopt the new identity to justify the action.
• This is how small acts of discipline or courage create a new self-concept.
• Action precedes transformation.

4. Why Most People Don’t Value the Work

• They’re stuck in shallow goals—tasks that don’t serve a bigger purpose.
• They’re doing things that belong to someone else’s agenda, not their own.
• They’ve never named who they want to become—so they can’t align daily actions with that vision.
• No identity = no anchor = no enduring value.

5. How to Make Value Stick

• Craft a superordinate goal: Not “go to the gym” but “become the kind of man who honors his body and sharpens his mind.”
• Act like the future you: Do one thing today that your aspirational self would do.
• Use friction as proof: When it’s hard, remind yourself—that’s the dissonance working for you. You’re upgrading your identity.

6. Conclusion: Want to Stay Consistent? Change Who You Are

• You don’t need more motivation—you need a clear vision of who you are becoming.
• And you need to act like it before you believe it..