When I was a teenager, I started going to the gym for a lot of reasons. Namely, I wanted to get stronger. I also wanted to look more grown up. I was a 16-year-old teenager with the body of a 12-year-old and the face of a 10-year-old. My classmates thought I was cute, like their little brother, not like Brad Pitt.

I didn’t realize going to the gym was difficult for a lot of people. I was intrinsically very motivated. I had friends who wanted to go, and I made new friends at the gym. Plus, I had grown up playing piano every day, without any motivation or friends.

It’s useful to learn the skill of tapping into this intrinsic sense of motivation. It’s also useful to get started with very little motivation, or without any at all. Sometimes you can’t wait to get motivated. (These two skills are part of the same set.)