Daily Motivations - DO YOU ACTUALLY WANT THIS

Episode Date: August 13, 2026

How bad do you want it? Do you ACTUALLY want to do this? If you actually want it, nothing and nobody will stop you or get in your way. If you don't? You'll let any excuse, any distraction knock you off course from achieving your ultimate goal. Everything starts with a single question. DO YOU ACTUALLY WANT THIS?•Speakers:Jocko Willink@JockoPodcastOfficialDr. Joe Dispenza@drjoedispenzaMark MathewsDr. John Delony@ / johndelonyRuss @russGary Vaynerchuk@garyveeMel Robbins @melrobbinsEric Thomas@etthehiphoppreacherInstagram- Daily_motivationsorgFacebook- @daily_motivationsorgSupport us PayPal

Do you actually want to do this or not? Because if you actually want to do it, what's going to stop you? Nothing. And if you don't really want to do it, what's going to stop you? Just about anything that comes up. Just about any obstacle that gets in your way becomes an excuse. It becomes a reason. It comes a rationale for not proceeding down that path.

How bad do you want it? How bad do you want your dream? It's so much easier to forget that vision than to remember it. So if you're going to remember, you've got to keep it alive in your mind. To me, the fundamental part of it is just motivation. You have to want it more than you fear it. You've got to want to succeed more than you fear doing what it takes to get there. What do you actually want?

I believed that I was going to become this massive successful artist. I had already, like my success was decided by me in my head. The outcome was non-negotiable. It was inevitable. If you actually know yourself, like if you actually know what you want to happen in your life or like how you're hardwired, the second you make that shift to actually reverse engineer that at all costs, including short-term losses, you win. Ask yourself, where do I want to go? And the easiest way for me to figure out that is who am I jealous of? That usually shows up a lot faster than whom I'm inspired by.

What do you want? And I ask you, what do you want? Listen to me, the only thing that's going to get you up out that bed, the only thing that's going to make you strive past that obstacle, get past that brick wall, and it's coming. The only thing that's going to make you get up and do what you're supposed to do is what you see. If you simply go after that thing that you want, with the help of God, you'll get it. What do you want?

Let that sink in. Because I don't think you're answering yourself this question enough. Somebody told you to just graduate high school, graduate college, get a job, work that job the rest of your life, have kids, get married and die. Somebody told you that. But I want to ask you, what do you work? What do you believe you were destined to do? Go out and fight for it. Work day and night for it.

Give up your time, your peace, and your sleep for it. And then you got to spend every single. solitary day for the rest of your life going after that dream. What is your dream? You want something in life. You have to want it more than anybody else. But it's like, oh, do you want to do this or not? Which is what I think a lot of it boils down to you.

Do you actually want to do this or not? Some people know they want something more, but they don't know exactly what it is. Yeah. And so they're in the uncertainty of, well, I'm not sure which direction I should go in. And here's another problem I see is people have too many people. passions. I've got this idea and this idea and this idea which one do I choose. And when someone has 10 different passions or different roads that they could go down, how do they know which one they should go down? That want to factor, that's the X factor. And, you know, people

talk about willpower. Well, I want to talk about want power. What does that mean? It's want power. How much do you want this thing? Again, you know, how much are you in love with this idea? So many great businesses start precisely like this, that somebody thinks there's this thing I really want and need or that thrills me, and it sounds quite weird to everybody else, and the person just sticks with it and just has a hunch about it.

Just as many, many business failures are all about someone going, someone doing something and then if you say to them do you want this this did you buy this thing and then they go actually no I wouldn't you know so why are you making it for somebody else if if it's got no resonance with you you know careful you know the biggest business disasters are people making stuff that they haven't asked themselves would I really want this yes what do you actually want they cannot answer that question and they feel it with addictions, they fill it with hobbies, they fill it with dopamine chasing. They fill it with so much stuff and nobody can answer that question. What do you want? Jealousy is just blocked

desire. You can't feel jealous of somebody unless you authentically want something for real that you think that they have. And the jealousy happens because you have somewhere, you have in your psyche told yourself you can't have it. You have to assume that there's no one else to help you. What are you going to do about it? You're going to wait for your cousin or your big brother. You know what I'm saying? I didn't have no big brothers or sisters, right?

That means you've got to fight your own battles. That means you have to be more calculated. You got to know self-love. You've got to understand the words that you tell yourself means something. The outcome was non-negotiable. It was inevitable. And when something's inevitable, the choices aren't choices. They're just, I was living in the process.

It was identity, a life. it was, this is who I'm becoming, and this is what that person does. Which is why my discipline and consistency and work ethic that a lot of people clap for, it never felt heroic or dramatic. It just felt obvious. That's the fundamental part. So for me, it's creating enough motivation first and foremost desire, understanding what you're chasing and why you're chasing.

You've got to create it, then, of course, go out and find out how to do it. Your excuse is, well, just you're chasing. destroy you and take everything that you ever wanted from you if you let them. And so for that poor soul, although they might be happy, content, doing fine, really, but kind of like something to change and be bigger and better. When your excuses make you feel a little bit better about the fact that you didn't execute on what you needed to execute on, then they can make you feel better. But they're not helping you.

They're not helping you at all. dreams are there for a reason. See, I think that they are the beacons out in the future that are directional signals. Just because you have this dream doesn't mean you're going to get it. The dream's purpose in your life is to get your head out of the sand and to look out ahead and to point you in a different direction. So I'm asking you to write it down and I'm asking you three quick things, three things. The first one, I'm asking you to write you to it down and then I ask you to keep writing it and I'm not asking you to keep writing it because I'm trying to be deep right I'm asking you to keep writing

because the more you write it and the more you see it the more clear it becomes and so for some of you the reason why you quit every year around March or you quit around June because you can't see it the nightmare is to reach our 60s our 70s our 80s or even our deathbed and to talk about everything we should have done I should have done that I should have invested in this I should have made the relationship work. I shouldn't have got a divorce. We talk about all the things we wanted to do, but never got it done.

That's the nightmare. That's the nightmare that we all must avoid. With all of your capacity, strength and sagacity, faith, hope, and confidence, and stern pertinacity, if neither cold poverty, famished or gall, sickness of pain, a body and brain can keep you away from the thing that you want. If dark it and grim, you besiege and beset it with the help of God you get it. And it's hard. And I don't want to get into not practical stuff

of you not being able to pay student loans or rent or upset your parents or your spouse. But, man, you'll only really get to do this one time and like playing a game that doesn't map what you actually want it to be is a really big mistake. Is there any better feeling than being locked in? No.

I'm gonna tell them all the fuckers out here that we're here to fucking win. This is my fucking tie. You gotta want it, you got to work it, then you got to win it. Now, how bad do you want it? Because if you want it bad enough, you're going to work it. If you do those two, you're going to win. It's like, I need to lock in. I got to get good at this shit.

If you want it, it's out there for you. You can go ahead and take it. But it's like you have to be a workhorse to want to do this. You are aware that how much you need to lock in, though. I'm locked in right now, though. There's only one thing I dread not to be worthy of my suffering. It's how you handle your sufferings. When you're going through something really challenging, how do you show up within it?

Do you choose to become a victim of complaining and misery, or do you find meaning in how you show up in the suffering? If you want what you're chasing, then you'll put the effort into that. It's just called discipline, guys. How bad do you want it? Get back to fucking work. It's time to get back to work. Stop hearing yourself talk. Get off the podcast.

Cut out all the... a noise, get back to the fucking mental lab. That's on me. I have to own that moment. I got to prove to myself I can overcome this. Because now everybody else is doubting me, but I can't doubt myself. It's the unseen work. That is why if people can make up a mission statement, an ethos in which they want to live by,

and every morning you wake up, you hold yourself accountable to that mission. That accompanies your own. Make up your own mission statement. What do you want to be in life? And once you do that, now you can work with somebody to get better. You can work with yourself to get better. But until you know what you want to stand for, you will always just be sitting down.

You'll never stand for anything. But I think the main thing for me is I want to prove myself right. It's important for me that this battle against myself, I win and I do prove myself that I was right about all these things. Vita! It's personal. I make it personal. It starts with me, and it is right here.

Everything in my life reads and eats this purpose that I have. Every desire you have, it comes from within. And if there's a desire that comes from within, it means you have the ability to do it. And what happens is when you know what you want, when you understand what you're after, when you know what your outcomes are, when you know what you desire, you wake up every single morning and you go after it. I mean, speak for yourself. I am locked in.

Listen, if you are one of those individuals that's dedicated to their craft, want to do this, there are things that are going to have to take a back seat. Make sure you're all in. And that was one of Kobe's favorite words when it related to winning. You have to be obsessed with whatever your win is. There's a choice that we have to make as people as individuals. If you want to be great at something, it's a choice that you have to meet. We all can be masters at our craft, but you have to make a choice.

There are inherent sacrifices that come along with that. Family time, hanging out with your friends, being a great friend. There's sacrifices that come along with making a decision. Just as important as what are you going to do is what are you prepared to sacrifice for it? Because, you know, if you need to stay late in the office three nights a week for the next six months so that your boss sees the work that you're doing or so that you get more sales in or so that you do whatever it is that you need to do,

your training's probably going to take a hit. And when you start to see your condition or your fitness depreciate over time, you can feel uncomfortable and say, oh, well, that shouldn't be happening. And then you take your eye off the ball of the thing that was supposed to be your thing for the next six months

and then go, I'll only stay late in the office one night a week and I'll get, I'll fit training, I'll slot training in two more nights You go, well, that wasn't the plan. The plan was put everything into this one thing, level myself up, and then play catch-up with everything else to bring myself back up to baseline. So, yeah, choose in advance what you want to suck at is like a really, really good tactic

because it helps you when other things start to slip. It stops it feeling like an error or a curse of some kind. And actually is that, oh, this is part of the plan. This was actually part of the plan. And part of the plan was I wouldn't get to see my friends as much. Or my sleep would suffer or my fitness would suffer or my business would suffer because we've just had a kid or whatever. Like, I think that's important. And that sucks at the moment.

It's not going to suck later on. You can work to get anything you want, but you have to sacrifice the other things you want to keep it. And that's sometimes harder than the work. What makes something hard? Like just in and of itself, like what actually makes something hard? Because habituation happens on both sides. And this is what I think is so fascinating because it's like, okay, well, you know, I wanted this big thing to happen. I wanted the Rolls Royce.

I wanted the Ferrari, whatever. saved my whole life and here I am, right? And I was happy for a week and then all of a sudden I got used to it, right? So I was like, why can't I habituate to the suck? Why can't I habituate to the suck? And the thing is, is that you do. The only thing is that what makes the suck keep sucking is what makes punishment effective, which is increasing intensity and variety. And so if you want to effectively punish someone, you can't just keep punishing the same way. You have to increase intensity and change how you do it. And the beautiful thing is that life doesn't fight fair. And so life will change the.

intensity and will give you more variety. How many, how many times you've been like, I didn't know life could suck in this way. So in thinking about that, it was like, okay, I think the reason that the hard persists is because the nature of the currency that you pay or that you exchange for the thing that you want changes. Because in the very beginning, you basically have to like, you know, conquer your friends and family who tell you that this might be a bad idea. Okay, fine, you get over that. And then you have to conquer yourself in the most basic level of like, I have to do something. Okay, so you start taking action. You start learning how to learn stuff, which is learning through failure. and you realize you're not going to die if you fail.

It's just that the currency has changed, the currency that I'm paying. And so I'm very happy to pay the long hours currency. I'm very happy to pay the, what am I willing to give up in terms of social life? Like that, to me, I've habituated to that price. That's not hard for me. I don't even consider it a sacrifice anymore.

Once you learn how to work, the work itself is self-reinforcing and you enjoy it. It's everything else that you didn't know you're going to have to sacrifice so that you could get back to working. And here we start. Get the mind right, the body will follow. Tell the world, get a goal. And then day by day, by day, you start to do that goal

to make it the reality, guys. It's not guesswork. It's a science of intensity. And if you don't have the intensity, don't become in people. Everything in life is worthwhile. Every success in life, guys. It's mass.

by temporary pain. Don't be a wannabe. I want to be more. I want to put the work in. I knew that I was not going to be stopped. So you can't possibly become better than me because you're not spending the time on it that I do. Even if you want to spend the time when you can't.

You have other responsibilities that are taking you away from it. So I already won. You know, greatness is not meant for a few chosen people. It's meant for those who, persistently pursue their dreams every day and make that choice when they wake up. I now see anything as possible and that you could train for anything. There's nothing you can't do. You can't be the best in the world at something, but you can be a lot better than you are

at anything you want to put the time into learning, whatever it is. You could do anything. And that's a great feeling. I think, God, what a great time in history to be alive because this is a time in history where it's not enough to know. This is really a time in history to know how. And I've been at this long enough to know that 20 years ago, people didn't hear it like they hear it now. The information is readily available. And people are realizing, God, if I have this dream, if I have this goal, how bad do I want it?

And if they really want it, you sit down and you say, what would it be like to be super healthy, super wealthy, super wealthy, super in love, whatever it is. Like you ask that question and your brain gets really creative. It starts getting this vision of the future, this possibility that you actually put yourself in this future reality. So the person comes out of the resting state and they make a decision with such firm intention that the amplitude of that decision carries a level of energy that causes their body to respond to their mind.

That their choice that they're making in that moment becomes a moment in time that they would never forget. They'll say to you, I remember the moment I made up my mind the change. And we could say then they're giving their body a taste of the future emotionally and somehow they begin to embody whatever that future is and now they begin to move in a different direction. I'll ask, who wants zero happiness? Nobody raises their hand, all right? I said, who wants zero success? No one raises their hand. All right? And like I said, who wants zero life? No one raises. their hand. I said, who wants zero love? No one raises their hand. I said, what's the number on a perfectly balanced scale? It's a zero. It's an absolute zero. So I said, if you're

trying to balance all those things all the time, you're going to end up with none of them. You're going to end up with none of them. Now, I never want your scale to be tipped all the way this way, but then you have to decide where are things going to be. But if you want to win, it takes more than a pair of legs, all right? You win up here. Something has to happen, though, to kick this into gear and taking the initiative and really jumping on this and taking action, which is going to put you way outside of your comfort zone.

The question is, how bad do you want it? Do you want it bad enough to get outside your comfort zone and do things you've never done, become a person you've never been before. If so, then yeah, there's a lot of potential here. You've talked to the Michael Jorns and Kobe Bryant's of the business world, and every single one of them, no matter how many times they've done things over and over and over again, there's always been a little bit of fear.

We've been inspired, we've been motivated, but now is your moment, right? Now is your time. Now's the time where the talking is done. Now is the moment where you've got to make a decision. And the decision is simply this. Are you ready to take the next step? Are you ready to start the new chapter?

Are you ready to go and build a legacy? Are you ready? Are you ready? And listen to me when I tell you, you got to ask yourself this question. Because what I don't want, I don't want you to leave just being hyped up. I want you leaving here transformed. Listen, no more stressing. That's it.

I'm not about to let you stress anymore. The stress about the new coming year, the stress about going to school, the stress about those grades. I'm not about to let you stress. That stress is over. Now is the time for you to stand up. Now is the time for you to make your mark. Now it's time for you to get fueled up. Yeah, I want you to get mad.

I want you to get sick and tired of being sick and tired. I want you to get sick and tired of being average. I want you to get sick and tired of failing over and over again. I want you to get mad. Yeah, I want you to get so mad. I need you to get fired up. Are you ready? Are you ready?

Because now is your time. How bad do you want it? There's two options to continue forward. And if you do, that dream is given birth. And forever, you will live in the reality of it. If you stop, quit, throw in the towel. I promise you there's no distance you can travel far enough or find that dream again. How bad do you want it?