Let me say something that might be a relief for you to hear. You're not unmotivated. You're just not supported. If you've ever told yourself things like, I just need more discipline, or why can't I stick to anything? Or if I were more motivated, this would be so much easier. Then this episode is for you. Because, my friend, motivation is unreliable. And anyone who's ever walked by a plate of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies knows that willpower is a finite resource. And here's the thing: neither of them were ever meant to carry your life and your business. Welcome back to the Plan Like a Boss podcast. I'm your host, Tanya Lawson. And today we're talking about the biggest myths we've been told about habits. We're going to be talking about why your environment matters more than your mindset. And we're going to talk about how to build systems that make progress inevitable, even on those low energy days. So, especially if you're in a recovery season, maybe physically, emotionally, or creatively, this shift will change everything for you. So let's get into it. We've been sold a story about habits that sounds something like this. If you really want something, you'll feel motivated. And if you don't follow through, well, you just didn't want it that badly. I'm sure you've heard this story. I've heard the story, everyone has. But that story is wrong. And honestly, it's pretty harmful because here's the truth motivation fluctuates. Your energy ebbs and flows. Life itself fluctuates, especially if you're coming out of illness, burnout, grief, or a big life transition. When I was going through cancer treatment and recovery, motivation just wasn't something that I could count on. Some days, my only win was doing one small thing. And to be honest, some days that one small thing was dragging myself from the bed to the recliner. And after that, I've realized if progress depends on how I feel, then it's fragile. Habits don't fail because you're inconsistent. They fail because the system around them is just doing too much asking of you. And discipline is not the solution here. Design is. So let's break down a few habit myths that I see all the time, especially among high-achieving creatives, which is the majority of this podcast audience. The first myth is you need to do it every day for it to count. Now, this is a myth that I have fallen into many, many times. I'm currently doing a meditation challenge where I meditate every day in the month of January. And that's doable for me. But meditating every day for the entire year, that's not going to be doable for me. Consistency does not mean daily. Consistency means it's something that can be repeatable. So maybe I try to meditate once a week or a few times a month. That might be something that I can actually do. But every day, not gonna happen. This is why those New Year's resolutions fail. Oh, I'm gonna go to the gym every day and get fit, says someone who's never been to the gym. And then they go in and they get injured. It's not realistic. Now, recovery taught me one thing, and that's that frequency must match your capacity. So instead of scheduling something for every day, maybe do it three times a week. Do something that is attainable for you. And if that gets easy, you can always up it later. Now, the second myth is if you missed a day, you failed. How many of you guys have done this? You've you've set yourself a challenge, you want to work out three times a week, and then maybe you get sick and you miss the week. And then you're like, well, you know, I failed at that. Or maybe you're cutting out sugar. That's a big one. You're cutting out sugar and then you eat a donut. Well, I already ate the donut, so let's go out for ice cream. Well, I've already ate the ice cream, so let's have dessert tonight. The donut's not a big deal, but when you quit because you made that one tiny mistake or you missed that one tiny thing, that is a failure. Missing the day is not a failure, but quitting because you're guilty over missing that day, that is a failure. And that's where systems come in. Systems are built to survive those bad days. Willpower, it's not. It's gonna go away. Now, the third myth: once it's a habit, it'll be easy forever. That's just not true. I know it's the lie we've been fed, but some seasons require maintenance, not optimization. So maybe you were easily able to go to the gym five days a week, but now that's not attainable for you anymore because you just had a baby. Or maybe you're caring for an ailing parent. That's going to change things for you. Maybe you were in your Instagram DMs seven days a week, an hour a day, but now your kids are home for the summer and you can't do that anymore. These seasons require you to have some maintenance to your systems and make adjustments as needed. You're not broken if something that once worked for you doesn't work anymore. And this is your permission to change that. Now, here's that shift that's going to change everything for you. It's about your environment. Your environment shapes your behavior more than your intentions ever will. So, when I talk about environment, what am I talking about here? Well, what's visible? The stuff around you right now. Is your desk a total mess? Do you have a pile on the floor next to your desk that is out of camera shot and no one can see except you? This is going to affect your ability to function. Your environment also includes what is friction free. Is it hard to tackle? Is your planner buried under a pile in the floor? You're probably not going to use it. It needs to be easy. You need to make things easy to do. So, what's already open and ready? Maybe you have your to-do list for the day on your desk ready to look at as soon as you get there. Or is it in another room? Do you have to actually go into the other room and get it? Are you going to do that? Your environment is what requires effort to get started. So, like I said, maybe your planner's buried. You won't use it. If your content workflow requires 12 steps, not going to do that. You will totally avoid it. You need to simplify. If your health habits require peak energy, they're not going to happen consistently. If your health habits are to run a mile every single day for a year, and one day you have to walk, it's not going to happen. So modify. Maybe your health habit is just a move every single day. When I started shifting my focus from how do I make myself try harder to how can I make this easier for me to accomplish? Everything started changing. I started designing my days for my low energy reality, not the best case scenarios. And that's not laziness, that's intelligence. Because here's the thing: if you design it for your low energy days, when you have a high energy day, you can do extra. Or maybe you can just take some time off to rest and recover, because that recovery is so important for maintaining your focus on a regular basis. Now, this is my favorite part because this is where systems start to shine. Progress becomes inevitable when the next step is obvious. The tools are already in place, and the bar for success is set intentionally low. Now, I design my system so that even on my worst days, something is going to move forward. It might be tiny, but something is going to move forward. Now, the good days, they accelerate that progress, but the bad days, they don't erase it. They don't undo what's already been done. So, what does this look like? It might look like one weekly planning ritual instead of the daily pressure to sit down and make a to-do list. It might be one visibility system that works quietly in the background while you work on other things. It might be one prioritized project per season. Yeah, you heard me right, one, not seven, not five. And I'll use myself as an example here. I on a regular basis set three goals a quarter. And this quarter, life is just happening to me. So in my planner, over that third goal, I just took a big post-it note and put, not now, because it's not going to happen right now, and that's okay. When the system is right, motivation becomes a bonus, not a requirement. Now, this is the exact work we do inside my creative SEO membership. We don't case motivation. We build structures that hold you steady when your energy dips. I like to focus on systems that reduce decision fatigue, visibility that's going to compound without daily output on your part, and plans that respect your real life as it is right now, with no judgment. And if you're in a season where everything feels really heavy or you're rebuilding after illness, burnout, or maybe just a major life shift, working with someone 101 can help you design a system that fits your capacity, not someone else's. Because the right system, it doesn't ask you to become a different person. The right system is not my system. It's not the system that favorite influencer on the internet uses. The right system for you is the system that works for you on your lowest of days. It meets you where you are. Now, here's what I want you to do. I want you to remember first, you don't need more motivation. You don't need more willpower, and you don't need to try harder. You need fewer decisions and better systems. So I want you to ask yourself this week, what would make this easier for me instead of harder? That one question can change everything for you. And if you want support building systems that work, even when that motivation disappears, you're welcome to check out my membership for ongoing structure and support, or maybe apply for one-on-one coaching if you want help designing systems around your energy, your health, and your current season of life. I'll put all the links down in the show notes. Now, next week, we're going to be talking about how to rebuild momentum after interruptions. Because pauses don't ruin your progress. Poor systems do. Until then, I want you to design for your current reality. I want you to protect your energy, and I want you to keep planning like a boss.