Motivation is like cocaine. It works the first time, maybe the second, and then it’s all downhill with diminishing returns. At Kraken Fitness in North Burnaby, near Brentwood, coaches don’t build programs around motivation. They build around routines, habits, and identity shifts — the three stages that actually carry people from “I want to get fit” to “I am a fit person.” If you’re waiting to feel motivated before starting, you’ll be waiting forever.
Watch: Motivation vs. Discipline
In this episode of the Kraken Power Podcast, Josko and Brandon break down why motivation is unreliable, what actually carries people through a fitness transformation, and the three-stage progression from motivation to identity.
Why Motivation Always Fades
Motivation is a fleeting feeling. Brandon describes it as a short burst of internal drive that gets you into action — and then disappears. It’s the thing that makes you sign up for a gym in January. It’s also the thing that’s completely gone by February.
Josko has a more colorful description: motivation is like cocaine. You can use it every morning to get pumped up, and it might work for a day or two. After that, it’s just noise. He actually tried this — at 18, he set his morning alarm to play a motivational speech. “Wake up and rise to the occasion every single day!” It was cool for two days. After that, it was just an annoying alarm he slammed off to go back to sleep.
Brandon sees the pattern every year at Kraken. There’s a wave of motivated New Year’s resolutioners in January, and another wave in September. They come in fired up. A few of them make it through to becoming consistent. Most don’t, because motivation was the only thing holding them up.
The critical insight from Kraken’s coaching experience: disciplined people don’t feel motivated to work out any more than undisciplined people. Brandon estimates he’s genuinely excited for about one out of five workouts — maybe 20%. The other 80%, he doesn’t want to go. But he goes anyway because it’s 9:30 AM and that’s when he works out.
The difference between someone who works out five days a week and someone who works out one day a week isn’t how motivated they feel. It’s that the consistent person does all five even when they only feel like doing one. The inconsistent person only does the one they feel like doing.
Discipline Is Just Habits With a Scarier Name
Josko pushes back on even calling it “discipline.” That word makes it sound like grit and willpower and white-knuckling through every workout. The reality is much simpler: it’s just routines and habits.
The person who works out at 9:30 every morning doesn’t go through a daily internal battle about whether to go. They look at the clock, see 9:30, and go. The same way you don’t have a daily debate about whether to brush your teeth. It’s just what happens at that time.
Building these routines takes initial effort, sure. But the goal isn’t to build discipline. The goal is to build habits that make the behavior automatic. Once the habit is locked in, it requires about as much willpower as brushing your teeth — which is essentially zero.
At Kraken Fitness in Burnaby, coaches work with clients to anchor workouts and nutrition habits to specific times, places, and triggers. The system creates the consistency, not the client’s internal motivation. That’s why Kraken’s approach focuses on behavior change rather than motivation — because behaviors can be systematized, and motivation can’t.
Brandon puts it bluntly: “I would be lying to you if I told you every day I’m in the gym, I’m like, I can’t wait to work out today.” The excitement shows up after the workout starts, sometimes only after the workout is over. But the habit gets him through the door regardless.
The Three Stages: Motivation, Discipline, Identity
Brandon breaks the progression into three stages that Kraken’s coaches use as a framework for long-term client success.
Stage 1: Motivation. The initial rush. You’re fired up. You just signed up, you just watched an inspiring video, you just had a conversation that lit a fire. This stage feels amazing but it’s temporary. Could last days, could last weeks. It will fade.
Stage 2: Discipline (Habits and Routines). Motivation fades, and what’s left is the routine you’ve built. You work out whether you feel like it or not. You follow your nutrition plan even when it’s boring. You push through obstacles because the habit is stronger than the feeling.
Stage 3: Identity. The final stage — and the one that makes everything self-sustaining. You’re no longer someone who is “trying to be healthy.” You are a healthy person. Working out isn’t something on your to-do list. It’s part of who you are.
Josko explains how to get to Stage 3: picture who you want to be. Write down what that person does every single day — their habits, their routines, their choices. Then start doing those things. The identity shift follows the behavior, not the other way around.
This is why Kraken’s coaches never tell clients “you need more discipline” or “you just need to want it more.” That’s useless advice. Instead, they help clients build the specific routines that, over time, become part of who they are. The identity shift happens naturally once the behaviors are consistent long enough.
The Toothbrush Test
The best analogy for how habits work comes from the most boring habit you have: brushing your teeth.
Nobody feels motivated to brush their teeth. Nobody has a motivational speech saved for their pre-brushing routine. Nobody white-knuckles through the discipline of picking up the toothbrush. You just… do it. Before bed, the toothbrush comes out. It’s automatic.
But it wasn’t always automatic. Your parents had to force you to do it when you were young. They had a vision of your future self — someone with healthy teeth and a good smile — and they pushed that habit on you until it stuck. Now it requires zero effort.
Fitness habits work exactly the same way. The early stages require push. The middle stages require routine. Eventually, working out becomes as automatic as brushing your teeth. You don’t think about it. You just do it because that’s who you are.
And the reverse is true too. If something you’re doing doesn’t align with the person you want to become, it’s actively pushing you backward. Want to be fit? Then behaviors that conflict with that identity — skipping workouts, binging on weekends, staying up until 2 AM — aren’t just “bad habits.” They’re pulling you away from who you’re trying to become.
Josko’s final take: stop trying to be motivated. Start building the routine. The routine becomes the habit. The habit becomes the identity. And then you never have to think about motivation again.
FAQ
Is motivation completely useless for fitness?
Motivation isn’t useless — it’s useful as a starting point. It’s the spark that gets you to sign up, try something new, or take the first step. But motivation fades quickly. Kraken’s coaches use that initial motivated window to help clients build routines and habits that carry them long after the motivation disappears.
How long does it take for a fitness routine to become a habit?
There’s no magic number, but Kraken’s coaching experience shows that most clients start feeling automatic about their routine after a few weeks of consistent scheduling. The key is anchoring workouts to a specific time and doing them whether you feel like it or not. Once the decision is removed, the habit forms naturally.
What’s the difference between discipline and habit in fitness?
At Kraken Fitness in Burnaby, coaches treat them as essentially the same thing. “Discipline” sounds like willpower and grinding. In practice, it’s just doing what you planned to do because it’s the time you planned to do it. Once the routine is established, it requires about as much willpower as brushing your teeth.
How do I make an identity shift around fitness?
Picture the person you want to become. Write down what that person does daily — their habits, routines, and choices. Then start doing those things consistently. The identity shift follows the behavior. At Kraken, coaches build these behaviors incrementally so the shift happens naturally over time.
Why do New Year’s resolutions fail for fitness?
New Year’s resolutions fail because they’re built entirely on motivation — the initial rush of “this year will be different.” Without converting that motivation into specific daily routines and habits, the resolution collapses as soon as the feeling fades, usually within a few weeks.
Ready to Start?
If you’re tired of waiting for motivation to strike and want coaches who build real habits, Kraken Fitness in North Burnaby near Brentwood offers a free trial week. The coaching team will help you build routines that outlast any motivational speech.
Listen on Your Favorite Platform
- YouTube – https://youtu.be/c-sOJ8fzo48
- Spotify – https://open.spotify.com/episode/5wZZNbvIESzaLWoZoQsB7w?si=cVLhaGQQTR24nGwqW_qD0A
- Apple Podcasts – https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/why-your-fitness-results-dont-come-from-motivation-ep-15/id1769000945?i=1000743976188
About the Author
Josko Kraken is the founder of Kraken Fitness, a personal training gym in North Burnaby near Brentwood. With over a decade of coaching experience, Josko and his team help non-gym people build sustainable fitness habits through behavior change and identity-based coaching — not motivational speeches or willpower.
[Josko]
Welcome back to the Kraken Power Podcast. We’re your hosts, Yashko and Brandon. And in today’s episode, we’re talking all about motivation and why motivation is something that you can’t depend on for you to see results.
And if you’re waiting for motivation to start your fitness journey, you’re going to be waiting forever. Let’s dive in. Welcome back to the Kraken Power Podcast.
So the thing with motivation is that it is the thing that gets you going a lot of the times. It’s the thing that, you know, you create a plan. You’re like, oh, this plan is motivating and I want to start this plan, you know.
You sign up for a personal trainer and you’re like, okay, I’m feeling motivated. But the thing that ends up carrying you on throughout that entire period to see results is often not motivation at all because the motivation is the beginning period and it’s discipline after that. It’s pure discipline and routines and habits after that initial fleeting amount of motivation that you get.
[Brandon]
Yeah, if I were to describe motivation and discipline and the differences between the two, in my opinion, motivation is like a fleeting feeling. It’s like a drive inside of yourself for a short moment of time that will allow you to get into action. But discipline is motivation through persistence and being able to push through even though life gets chaotic, maybe your plan doesn’t go as the way it does, but it’s being able to carry on with what you kind of set out for even though there are obstacles in the way.
[Josko]
And just doing it for a long period of time because the motivation almost disappears and all that’s left behind it is just like routines and habits and that’s it.
[Brandon]
Typical example, you’ll see everyone motivated at the beginning of the year or motivated around September, especially in their fitness goals. You see people being made fun of for being New Year’s resolutioners because they’re extremely motivated coming in and not everyone turns into a disciplined individual. They have that initial ride of motivation and then it turns into falling off.
And there’s still a few stragglers there who become disciplined, but those are the ones that you don’t hear about as much.
[Josko]
You know, like disciplined people, people who are disciplined, they don’t feel motivated for their workouts any more than people who are undisciplined. It’s probably around the same amount. I feel like doing four out of five workouts per week and that’s like the exact same amount as somebody who is undisciplined.
The only difference is that the disciplined person does all five. The undisciplined person only does the one, you know?
[Brandon]
Totally. I would be lying to you if I told you every day I’m in the gym, I’m like, I can’t wait to work out today. Yeah.
[Josko]
In fact, it’s probably most the workouts that you feel like you don’t want to do.
[Brandon]
I would say probably like one out of five workouts I’m excited to do. So like 80% of them you don’t want to do.
[Josko]
Yeah.
[Brandon]
But once I get there, I get going, I’m like, okay, I remember why can I do it? Almost after the workout though.
[Josko]
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Like you started feeling better and you’re like, okay, okay, this is good. So yeah, totally. So that’s why it’s so important to just make sure that you’re building all of these routines and habits and discipline in your life.
And honestly, I don’t even, like we shouldn’t even call it discipline because it’s actually just routines and habits. Like the only reason why you do all of your workouts is because it’s 930 and it’s time for your workout, you know? It’s not like you’re disciplined.
It’s just like, you’re like watching the clock and you’re like, oh, this is the time that I work out. And then you just go work out. You’ve just built that.
You’ve ingrained that into your system.
[Brandon]
Well, one thing I think we wanted to talk about today is, if I were to plainly simply put it, maybe there’s three stages that we want to talk about. And the first one would be motivation. It’s that initial rush, get the action going.
That hopefully turns into discipline where you build some kind of like habit routine and you do it whether you want to or not, as well as when there is some kind of obstacle in your way. But hopefully that discipline almost evolves into your identity. And for us, I think it’s easy because we’re personal trainers, kinesiologists.
We’re part of that industry. So it becomes an identity being like, if I don’t work out, then I know that my clients are going to be upset at me or I’m not living that life. But you don’t have to be a personal trainer to have that identity.
You can identify as someone who is a gym person or someone who actually wants to care about their health, which is internally going to motivate you time and time again.
[Josko]
First, you have to picture who you want to be. And then you have to write down and you have to understand what does this person do every single day? Like what are their habits every single day?
And then it’s very simple. All you need to do is an identity shift to that person. Start doing what that person does every single day.
And then soon in the future, you’re going to become that person.
[Brandon]
Yeah, yeah, I like that.
[Josko]
And then if you end up doing things that aren’t in line with that person, it’s just making you go backwards. So that’s why it’s really important for you to just understand that these routines and habits that you’re creating are going to lead you to that person who you want to be. And it might be tough in the moment, but soon all of these things are going to be easy.
So the example is brushing your teeth. You were forced to brush your teeth every single day, and then now you just do it naturally. Before you go to bed, just whip out your toothbrush and you brush your teeth.
Why? It’s not because you’re disciplined. It’s because it’s part of the habit that you created.
It’s part of the routine that you created. And it’s because your parents saw a future self of you brushing their teeth every single day. They pushed you to do it, and then now that’s you.
Like you envision yourself with a perfect smile and bright white teeth. Yeah, exactly. That’s who you are.
So yeah, motivation is like cocaine, okay? You can do the cocaine every single day that you wake up, and you can be pumped up, and you can be all jazzed up about life, and it might work for that first day, maybe two, and then after that, it’s all just downhill. You’re not going to get any benefit at all, and it’s just going to be draining you.
That’s why you can’t depend on the motivation. I remember back in the day, what I would be doing is like, this was like when I was super young, like 18. I was like, I wanted that motivation.
I wanted to be always motivated, turned on, right? So in the morning, I used to turn on, like for my morning alarm clock, I would have like a motivational speech that would just start. I can’t remember which one it was, but every single day, that’s what it would wake up.
It would be like, wake up and rise to the occasion every single day, you know? And after a while, it was cool, like the first two days, and then after that, it’s just like, fucking alarms on, you know? You turn it off.
You’re like, shut up, shut up. I’m going back to bed. Yeah, so it’s super fleeting, and it just disappears.
So you can’t depend on motivation. You just have to create that discipline and those habits.
[Brandon]
So that means for all you out there who are currently motivated, let’s try turning that into discipline and hopefully making an identity shift because I think that’s what’s going to actually make the change in the long run. So hope you guys enjoyed listening to that, and we will see you in the next one.