Everyone thinks they have a motivation problem.
They don’t.
They have a friction problem they never learned to see.
Friction hides in three drags:
1. Cognitive noise
Too many open loops, too many inputs, too much unfiltered data.
Your brain wastes energy sorting before it can start.
2. Micro-decisions
Every tiny choice - where to start, what tool to use, what “done” means - steals bandwidth.
You stall not because the task is hard, but because the path is undefined.
3. Value ambiguity
You don’t know why the task matters right now.
Low relevance equals low urgency equals low momentum.
Most people just feel “heavy” without knowing why.
But heaviness has a structure.
Here’s the loop:
Friction slows interpretation → slow interpretation drags identity → identity drags behavior.
And your day runs at half-power.
Want to see the real picture?
Here’s the friction diagnosis checklist:
Do I know exactly what “start” looks like?
Do I know exactly what “done” looks like?
Is anything in my environment stealing attention?
Is there any decision I haven’t made yet?
Do I understand the value of this action in the next 24 hours?
Is the task larger in my head than it is in reality?
If you hesitate on even one, friction is already pulling you off course.
There’s a way through, but it’s not what you think:
This Is Where Most People Quit. You Won’t.
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