When you do not feel like doing the thing, do you push through the misery, or make the thing small enough that you do not have to?

David GogginsRetired Navy SEAL · ultra-endurance athlete · no health credential claimed

Push through. There is no technique that removes the discomfort, and looking for one is the problem.

What it rests onOne life, examined at length. He argues the capacity is built only by doing the unwanted thing over and over, and that consuming advice about it becomes a substitute for doing it: 'You're going to keep going back and keep spending money and spending money with no results.'

Source: hubermanlab.com ↗

James ClearAuthor and habit educator · no clinical or research credential claimed

Make it easy to start, and schedule it, because motivation follows action rather than preceding it.

What it rests on'Motivation is often the result of action, not the cause of it. Getting started, even in very small ways, is a form of active inspiration that naturally produces momentum.' And: 'Nearly all of the friction in a task is at the beginning... Thus, one of the keys to getting motivated is to make it easy to start.' He also rejects the genre in his own words: 'This isn't going to be some rah-rah, pumped-up motivational speech. (That's not my style.)'

Source: jamesclear.com ↗

Overview

Goggins is describing what it took to go from 297 pounds and no prospects to three Hell Weeks, and says repeatedly that he is not talented and that this is why he cannot afford the easier route. Clear is describing habit formation for a general adult population with an ordinary life to fit it into. They are not talking about the same person or the same stake.

Where they agree

More than either audience would expect. Both say motivation is not a feeling you wait for. Both say passively consuming motivational material produces nothing. Both say the friction is concentrated at the start. They diverge only on what to do about the friction: Clear reduces it, Goggins goes through it.

What would settle it

Evidence on whether the difficulty at the start is doing the work or just happens to be there. If building up exposure to hard things produced lasting persistence that easy starts did not, Goggins gains ground; if people stick with it just as well either way and only the dropout rate differs, Clear does.

When you do not feel like doing the thing, do you push through the misery, or make the thing small enough that you do not have to?

What the experts say

Overview

Where they agree

What would settle it

Practice does not pick a winner here