On Purpose with Jay Shetty - Feeling Lazy or Unmotivated? (Do THIS 5-Minute Rule to Build Discipline & Take Action NOW!)

Episode Date: November 7, 2025

What’s one small step you can take right now to break the cycle you’re stuck in?   Today, Jay shares a simple, science-backed method to help you overcome laziness, distraction, and burnout by focusing on consistency instead of motivation. Rather than waiting for the perfect moment or a burst of inspiration, Jay explains how lowering the bar, creating rituals, and going on a dopamine detox can help you rebuild discipline and self-trust, one small action at a time.   It’s not about working harder or chasing perfection, but about starting smaller and showing up consistently. Jay explains how to protect your focus, rewire your reward system, and break the patterns that keep you stuck. Over time, these tiny shifts compound into real transformation, helping you feel more grounded, confident, and in control.   In this episode, you’ll learn:  How to Start When You Feel Stuck How to Build Rituals That Replace Willpower How to Break Free from the Dopamine Addiction Cycle How to Embrace Boredom and Reclaim Focus How to End Each Day with Progress, Not Pressure   Change doesn’t come from motivation. It comes from momentum. When you choose to start small, stay consistent, and keep your promises to yourself, discipline becomes second nature.   With Love and Gratitude, Jay Shetty.    Join over 750,000 people to receive my most transformative wisdom directly in your inbox every single week with my free newsletter. Subscribe here.   Check out our Apple subscription to unlock bonus content of On Purpose! https://lnk.to/JayShettyPodcast     What We Discuss: 00:00 Introduction 0:57 Lower Your Expectations  05:36 Build A Ritual, Not A Routine 07:42 24 Hour Dopamine Detox  10:58 Make Bad Habits Hard To Do 13:13 Be Bored For 10 Minutes A Day 15:10 Reward Effort, Not Results 17:24 Turn Your Phone Off For 60 Minutes  18:14 You Can Do Anything for 5 Minutes! 21:15 End Your Day With the 3 Minute ReviewSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast, guaranteed human. What up, y'all? It's your boy, Kevin on stage. I want to tell you about my new podcast called Not My Best Moment, where I talk to artists, athletes, entertainers, creators, friends, people I admire who had massive success about their massive failures. What did they mess up on? What is their heartbreak? And what did they learn from it? I got judged horribly. The judges were like, you're trash. I don't know how you got on the show. Check out Not My Best Moment with me kept on stage on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcast.

No one is harmed, no death, no trauma, just a few cells grown in a dish. This is David Eagleman from the Inner Cosmos podcast. And this week, we're tackling a tough question where brain science meets the future. Lab-grown meat is going to force us to confront the boundaries of our ethics. And what does this have to do with brain plasticity? social belonging, messed up boundaries between mental categories. What does this uncover about brain science and our calculations of morality? Listen to Inner Cosmos on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Samihante, it's Anna Ortiz. And I'm Mark and Delicado. You might know us as Hilda and Justin from Ugly Betty. Welcome to our new podcast. Viva Betty! Yay! watching the series from start to finish. And talking to iconic guests like Betty herself, America Ferreira. There was this moment when the glasses went on and it was like, this is our Betty.

Listen to Viva Betty on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I was lost, lazy and unmotivated until I did this. What I'm about to share with you today is a step-by-step formula for how to not be lazy. to find motivation, to discover discipline, and actually make a shift in your life. Now, if you don't, you can often get into the spiral of feeling like you're ruining everything. Let me break it down for you. I'd wake up tired, scroll for hours, lie to myself about tomorrow, and still wonder why nothing in my life was changing.

I wasn't broken, but I felt like I was wasting my potential every single day. The truth is, I almost let it all slip away. My purpose, my drive, the people I love. What I'm about to share with you pulled me out of that spiral. And if any part of this sounds like you, you need to hear it. Step number one, lower the bar. Way lower. The hardest part isn't doing the thing.

It's starting the thing. Set the smallest possible action step. So small it feels ridiculous, not to do it. Now, why should you lower the bar? Everyone's always telling you to achieve more, to think bigger, to do more. Why is Jay telling me to lower the bar? Well, here's the truth. We don't fail because we're not capable. We fail because we set the bar so high we never get started. We imagine we need a perfect plan, a perfect morning routine, a perfect burst of motivation. But perfection kills momentum. And momentum,

Not motivation is what actually changes your life. Now here's the psychology behind it. It's something known as the activation barrier. Behavioral science shows that the hardest part of any task isn't doing it, it's starting it. That first moment takes the most mental energy. So when you lower the bar, when you make the first step laughably easy, you bypass resistance. Don't work out for an hour. Just put on your shoes. Don't write 10 pages. Just open the document. Don't eat healthy forever. Just drink one glass of water. Once you're moving, your dopamine system kicks in.

Effort itself becomes rewarding. Action creates motivation, not the other way around. I can't express to you just how big. a point this is. The goal is to get started. To do the smallest thing, if you're thinking, I need to start a business, well, the first step may actually just be registering a company, or getting a trademark on a name, or building the minimum viable product version, which may start with a phone call to a friend who could be a mentor. The point is to write down what you want build and then write down every step to get there, almost thinking of it like a step ladder. And just like a step ladder, you'll now place one foot in front of the other and then the next. Another reason why this works is because it's called the Tiny Habits Effect.

BJ Fogg, a Stanford behavioral scientist, found that habits stick when they start smaller than your resistance. When you make the bar low enough to win even on your worst day, you train your brain to associate action with success, not shame. That's how you rewire self-belief. Lowering the bar isn't giving up. It's giving yourself a chance to show up. Now this affects your confidence loop. Every time you follow through on something small, you build self-trust and that trust becomes confidence. Confidence isn't built by big wins. It's built by micro promises kept. You start to think, I can rely on me. And that's how you shift from lazy to consistent, from overwhelmed to grounded. And here's the truth. We raise the bar to impress others.

We lower the bar to take care of ourselves. One is performance, the other is peace. When you lower the bar, you start winning again, not in a way that looks good, but in a way that feels good. And the real result, lowering the bar isn't lowering your potential. It's raising your consistency. And consistency compounds into results that perfection never delivers. One of my favorite quotes is that you should start so small, it's impossible to fail. and then repeat it until it's impossible to stop. This leverages the Zegarnic effect. Your brain hates unfinished tasks and will naturally want to complete them once you start.

Momentum before motivation. Remember, action before enthusiasm. Just take one step forward. One small step. Do the easiest thing you can. Do the simplest thing you can. the simplest thing you can. Do one thing, not everything, just one thing. Step number two, focus on building a ritual, not a routine. Routines rely on willpower. I remember times in my life

where I just didn't have any willpower. I would just feel like I would break down even before starting. Rituals are different. They rely on association. You do the same cue before the same. same task every day. Same place, same playlist, same coffee mug. For me, I know that if I listen to meditation music from the moment I wake up, I can now lock into my meditation quicker after brushing my teeth and having a shower. I know that I work out straight after meditating, so my brain and body are already prepared and ready for that. Over time, your brain links that cue to productivity through classical conditioning. It's Pavlov's dog, but you're the dog and the bell.

One creator lights a candle before writing. The brain learns candle equals focus mode. The point is that you're creating a cue that leads you to that activity. I'll give you another example. You get home from work, you walk in through the door, and you have jazz music playing, because jazz music tells your body it's time to relax and calm down. Otherwise, you walk in.

into your home and you're still carrying all of that energy with you. That simple cue can make a shift. I remember one of my clients telling me that they loved leaving their yoga mat already rolled out next to their bed so they could literally roll off their bed and onto the yoga mat and start practicing yoga. Other people leave their shoes by the door, their running shoes so that they remember to put them on and go for a jog, go for a walk or maybe even a long run. What does this do? It makes the Q and the association easier for you to follow through. Right. If you have your vitamins and supplements right near your breakfast every day, you're more likely to take them. If you have them in a bottle or a jar that's somewhere else in your bedroom or in your house, it's going to take you forever to get there.

How can you make it easier and simpler on your brain and your body to make the shifts you want to make. Step number three, break the dopamine addiction cycle. Laisiness often isn't lack of motivation. It's dopamine burnout from cheap rewards, scrolling, snacking, streaming. The reason these are cheap rewards is that they feel good in the beginning, but they feel terrible afterwards. This is known as something called Rajas or the mode of passion in the Bhagad Gita. When you do things as, you do things the mode of passion, they feel amazing at the start, but they feel like poison in the end. We all know what that feels like when you've wasted so many hours scrolling. You've just been eating junk food for the whole weekend. You've flooded your reward system with micro hits. So real

work, which pays off later, feels impossible. Here's what I want you to try. Do a 24-hour dopamine detox. No endless scrolling. no junk food or background noise, no passive consumption. Your brain reset sensitivity to effort and reward. Suddenly, reading, writing, or lifting doesn't feel like pushing a rock uphill. And you'll actually notice how even your taste buds changed. I've noticed that if I go a week without sugar, my taste buds are rewiring. If you go a week without junk food, it doesn't even taste as good on.

afterwards. Because what we have to recognize is you have to notice what's numbing you. Ask yourself, what do I reach for when I'm bored, anxious or tired? That's your cheap dopamine. Usually your phone, snacks or endless scrolling. You can't change what you don't notice. The next thing you need to do is do that 24-hour detox. One day, no social media, no junk food, no background noise, just a reset and you'll be amazed how quickly your brain gets quiet again. Here's a tip. Delete the apps for a day. Not your accounts. Just delete the apps. Lower the barrier to starting. Remember that point number one. The next thing you have to realize is we have to replace the quick hits with real ones. One of the biggest mistakes we make in habit change is we try to cut out the bad

stuff but we don't replace it with anything. When you cut the fake dough, dopamine, you need real reward. Move your body instead. Cook something, walk outside, call someone. Don't forget that point. You want to do activities that feel good after, not the ones that feel good before. Cheap dopamine numbs you now and drains you later. Real dopamine costs you effort, but gives you energy. It's so interesting to me how so many of us are numbing ourselves from the escape rather than elevating, energizing, and being able to cope with it. Hi, friends. Sophia Bush here, host of Work in Progress.

This week we had such a special guest on the podcast. My Forever Flotus, a mentor, a friend, a wife, a mother, an author, attorney, advocate, television producer, and now she adds podcast hosts to the list herself. Friends, Michelle Obama is here. Sophia, I'm beyond thrilled to be able to sit down and chat with you. We talk about it all. Life, love, motherhood martinis. Vodka martini, dry, straight up, olives.

Oh, olives. Very cold. My girl. Barely any vermouth. What's next? What she's watching on TV. I am a white lotuser. I am a real housewife's person.

I love the dating shows. And tennis. I just find that to be a bit meditative. You do not want to miss this. Listen to work in progress on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Kelly, and some of you may know me as Laura Winslow. And I'm Telma, also known as Aunt Rachel. If those names ring a bell, then you probably are familiar with the show that we were both on back in the 90s called Family Matters.

Kelly and I have done a lot of things and played a lot of roles over the years. But both of us are just so proud to have been part of Family Matters. Did you know that we were one of the longest running sitcoms with the black cast? When we were making the show, there were so many moments filled the joy and laughter and cut up that I will never forget. Oh, girl, you got that right. The look that you all give me is so black. All black people know about the look. On each episode of Welcome to the Family, we'll share personal reflections about making the show.

Yeah, we'll even bring in part of the cast and some other special guests to join in the fun and spill some tea. Listen to Welcome to the Family with Telma and Kelly on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Here we go. Hey, I'm Kelpen, and on my new podcast, Here We Go Again, we'll take today's trends and headlines and ask, why does history keep repeating itself? You may know me as the second hottest actor from the Harold and Kumar movies, but I'm also an author, a White House staffer, and as of like 15 seconds ago, a podcast host. Along the way, I've made some friends who are experts in science, politics, and pop culture. And each week, one of them will be joining me to answer my burning questions. Like, are we heading towards another financial crash like in 08?

Is non-monogamy back in style? And how come there's never a gate ready for your flight when it lands like two minutes early? We've got guests like Pete Buttigieg, Stacey Abrams, Lili Singh, and Bill Nye. When you start weaponizing outer space, things can potentially, go really wrong. Look, the world can seem pretty scary right now, because it is. But my goal here is for you to listen and feel a little better about the future. Listen and subscribe to Here We Go Again with Cal Penn on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

This episode is brought to you by eBay. You know, there are certain books that don't just give you information, they shift the way you see the world. I remember reading one when I was younger that completely changed me. It was the first time I felt like someone had put into words what I was feeling inside, the confusion, the hope, the searching. I felt like the author was speaking directly to my soul. Years later, I found myself thinking about that book again.

I wanted the same edition back. Not a reprint, not a different cover, that exact one, the one that made me feel seen for the first time. So I started searching, and that's when I found it on eBay. When it arrived, I opened it slowly and I could almost feel that younger verse, version of me sitting there again, dreaming, learning, growing. It reminded me that the things we hold on to, the ones that really mean something, they're not just objects. They're markers of who we've been and who we're becoming. That's what I love about eBay. It's not just a marketplace.

It's a place where stories live, where you can rediscover the pieces of your past that still inspire your present. Shop eBay for millions of finds, each with a story. eBay. Things people love. Step number four is add friction. Just like we wanted to make good habits easier, make bad habits a little harder to do. Keep your phone in another room while you work. This has worked wonders for me. When I'm trying to go do deep work, I will be on my laptop, which is not connected to any of the apps, and I will leave the phone in my bedroom. This has transformed my life. Truly has transform my life. I can actually do deep work again. I can actually sit there and write and process my thoughts without something buzzing every 15 seconds and grabbing my attention away. Don't look at your

phone first thing in the morning. You would never let a hundred people walk into your bedroom before you've brushed your teeth or washed your face or put on makeup, but you will happily let a hundred people walk into the bedroom of your mind before you've even woken up. It's like someone's telling you to reply to this report, someone's telling you to reply to this message, someone's telling you what you didn't do yesterday. Imagine everyone crowded around your bed, screaming and yelling at you.

That's what it feels like. Turn off notifications. Log out every night. If scrolling takes five extra seconds, you'll do it less because your phone is away, it's in another room, it's that. simple. And look, here's the thing. I know it's hard to leave your phone out of the room. I know it's hard to focus and do the work. I'm not saying it's easy. It's actually been built against us.

The algorithm is designed to target our flaws and weaknesses. The algorithm's goal is not to make you happy. The algorithm's goal is not to make you successful. The algorithm's goal is to keep you glued and keep scrolling. It's going to keep showing you things that are engaging. It's going to keep showing you things that it thinks are going to keep you there because it kept your friends there. That's how the algorithm thinks. You're not going to beat it by willpower. You're going to beat it by distance. When you have distance from this, you can actually detox. The next step is to relearn boredom. Boredom is not the enemy, it's a reset button. Let yourself be bored for 10 minutes a day. No phone, no music, just quiet. That's where your brain remembers how to focus again.

I remember Yuval Noah Harari coming on the podcast and we talked about maybe around five years ago now, six years ago, the importance of boredom. We have filled our spaces of boredom with apps, with social media, with distractions, not realizing that boredom can lead to curiosity, rest, and breakthroughs, allowing yourself to practice boredom for 10 minutes a day. You're not reading a book. You're not distracted by the television. You're not on your phone talking to someone to truly do nothing for 10 minutes a day. And notice how in the first day, you'll feel pretty uncomfortable. Day two, you might actually be going crazy.

Day three, things will start to settle. Day four, you might actually feel more alert. Day five, you might have some amazing ideas. Day six, you'll think, why didn't I do this earlier? And day seven, you will have reset yourself. See, so many of us are making mistakes in our life. because we haven't reset. We keep making the same mistakes again and again and again

because we've never reset. Allowing yourself to truly reset the system, think about your devices. When they've been overused, overworked, overwhelmed, they need to reset to refresh. Humans are the same. We do it every night when we sleep, but we also need to do it away from all of these devices.

The next step is, reward effort, not outcomes. You finished the task? Take a walk. Stretch. Write it down. Small wins release dopamine too and train your brain to crave effort instead of escape. So many of us stop doing things that are good for us because we don't remember how good they were. You'll remember when you went to work and there was traffic, there was an accident, your brain actually holds on to it. But when the road was smooth, you never remember it. You don't remember how you felt after you worked out in a week. You do remember the stress you feel before you go to work out. The brain holds on to negative experiences. We have a negativity bias. Because as,

you know, back in the day, if you missed a berry, it didn't matter. But if you missed a tiger, that meant life or death. So you're wired to notice negativity more. We remember the bad time. more than the good times, because when something bad happens, we cry for a month. And when something good happens, we celebrate for one night. We don't know how to deeply immerse ourselves in what's going well. So it's so important to recognize small wins, to recognize small moments of growth, to really take a step forward and give yourself an honest acknowledgement of the amount of work you're putting in. We don't give ourselves enough credit. And when you don't give yourself enough credit, you don't give yourself the momentum, inspiration and enthusiasm to continue. But hey,

we're the quickest to blame ourselves. We're so quick to guilt ourselves. We're so quick to shame ourselves. But notice how we're not as quick to credit ourselves. We're not as quick to notice our growth. We're not as quick to acknowledge the steps we've made forward. And it's because of that that we stay held back. It's because of that we can't move forward because we don't recognize that we've already been taking steps. The next step is to protect your first and last hour. No phone for 60 minutes. Move, stretch or go outside. At night, your screen off 60 minutes. At night, your screen off 60 minutes before bed. Let your brain rest and reset. You'll sleep better, focus faster and feel human again. Starve the fake dopamine so you can taste the real kind again.

You're not lazy. Social media is truly addictive. You're not unmotivated. The algorithm controls you. You're not broken. You're being manipulated. You're not failing to focus. your attention is being farmed. You're not the problem. You're the product. So let's take our ownership back. The next thing I want you to try is use the five minute rule. Now what's the five minute rule? It's simple. Commit to doing something for just five minutes. Then you can stop if you want. That's it. You tell your brain, I'm not doing the whole thing. I'm just doing five minutes. I'm not doing a one hour workout. I'm just doing five minutes. I'm not going to write for hour, I'm just doing five minutes. The trick, once you start, you almost never stop. Here's why it works.

It bypasses resistance. The hardest part of any task isn't doing it. Psychologists call this the activation barrier. The mental energy needed to shift from thinking to doing. Five minutes is too small to trigger fear, perfectionism, or overwhelm. Your brain says, fine, five minutes is nothing. I can do this. that. But once you're in motion, inertia takes over. And it's easier to keep going than to stop. The brain resists starting, not continuing. Listen to that again. The brain resist starting, not continuing, which is why if you convince yourself to do a five-minute workout, you might do a 10-minute workout. But if you convince yourself to do a 60-minute workout, you might not even show up. Research from behavioral activation therapy shows once you start to task, your most

motivation increases because of the task, not before it. One of my favorite quotes from Zig Zigler is you don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great. So make starting easy. Don't make it optional. Here's how you do that. Step number one, choose one task you're resisting. Something specific. Answering an email, working out, cleaning your room, writing. Step two, set a five-minute timer. Physically set it. The act of seeing the countdown helps focus. Step number three, tell yourself you can stop when the alarm rings. Give yourself full permission to quit after five minutes. And step number four, stop and watch what happens. Nine times out of 10, you'll keep going. If you don't, no problem. You've still built momentum and self-trust. And if you really want to make this work,

create accountability that hurts. We overestimate self-discipline and underestimate social friction. Make the cost of inaction visible. Tell a friend your goal. Post a daily update on social media. Bet $20 against your friend as to who's going to get there to the gym. We're wired to avoid loss. Loss aversion is 2.5 times more powerful than reward-seeking. So make doing nothing painful. Here's the rule. If it's easy to skip, you will. Make skipping expensive.

And here's the final step. End each day with a three-minute review. Write down three things you did right, no matter how small. This trains your reticular activating system to notice progress, not problems. So many of us will end the day and think of all the things we did wrong, all the mistakes we made, all the things we should have done, could have done, would have done. This rewires us to notice what we did right so we can be better tomorrow. Progress equals dopamine.

Dopamine equals momentum. Momentum equals motivation. Celebrate consistency, not perfection. When you're focused on perfection, you'll never feel like you're moving forward. When you focus on the word healed or fixed, you'll never feel like you're healing or growing. When you focus on growth, which means 1% better every day, one step further every day, your life will start to change. I really hope this helps you take action.

I really hope this helps you get out of feeling lazy. And I really hope this helps you shift. Remember, I'm forever in your corner and I'm always rooting for you. Thank you so much for listening to this. this conversation. If you enjoyed it, you'll love my chat with Adam Grant on why discomfort is the key to growth and the strategies for unlocking your hidden potential. If you know you want to be more and achieve more this year, go check it out right now. You set a goal today. You achieve it in six months. And then by the time it happens, it's almost a relief. There's no sense of meaning

and purpose. You sort of expected it and you would have been disappointed if it didn't happen. What happens when Reese Witherspoon calls up the king of thrillers, Harlan Coben, and says, let's write a book together. I was asking him basically to let me into his secret thriller writing world. This week, bookmarked by Reese's Book Club goes live from Apple Soho in New York City for the ultimate storytelling mashup. Reese Witherspoon and Harlan Cobin on their new thriller, Gone Before Goodbye. Can you think you're going to read for 10 minutes?

And next thing you know, it's four in a morning. Get the story behind the season's most addictive read, already in New York Times bestseller. Listen to Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Radhi Dvluca and I am the host of a really good cry podcast. This week, I am joined by Anna Runkle, also known as the crappy childhood fairy, a creator, teacher, and guide helping people heal from the lasting emotional wounds of unsafe or chaotic childhoods. But talking about trauma isn't always... great for people. It's not always the best thing. About a third of people who are traumatized as kids feel worse when they talk about it. Get very dysregulated. Listen to a really good cry on the IHeart

Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Hey, I'm Nora Jones, and I love playing music with people so much that my podcast called Playing Along is back. I sit down with musicians from all musical styles to play songs together in an intimate setting. Over the past two seasons, I've had special guests like Dave Grohl, Leveh, Rufus Wainwright, Mavis, Mavis, staples, really too many to name. And there's still so much more to come in this new season. Listen to Nora Jones is playing along on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.