How to Improve Your Motivation – Backed by Science

Moti­va­tion doesn’t show up for the lazy. It shows up for the inten­tion­al. For men who build it like a mus­cle.

And here’s the truth: moti­va­tion isn’t just about “feel­ing it.” It’s chem­istry. It’s psy­chol­o­gy. It’s sci­ence. And if you under­stand how it works, you can train it like your body in the gym.

Let’s break it down.

1. Take Action First—Motivation Will Follow

“You don’t wait for moti­va­tion. You cre­ate it through action.”

Research from Dr. Tim­o­thy Pychyl, a pro­cras­ti­na­tion expert from Car­leton Uni­ver­si­ty, found that moti­va­tion tends to fol­low action—not the oth­er way around¹. Once you start some­thing, your brain releas­es dopamine, which encour­ages you to keep going.

Do this:

• If you don’t feel like work­ing out, com­mit to just 2 min­utes of move­ment.
• Start­ing trig­gers dopamine. Dopamine fuels momen­tum.

It’s all in tak­ing the first step.

2. Set Specific, Emotionally-Driven Goals

Vague goals = weak moti­va­tion. Spe­cif­ic goals backed by emo­tion = unstop­pable dri­ve.

Goal-Set­ting The­o­ry by Locke and Lath­am proves that spe­cif­ic and chal­leng­ing goals lead to high­er per­for­mance².

Do this:

Replace “make more mon­ey” with:

“I want to earn an extra $1,000/month to buy back my time and pro­vide for my future fam­i­ly.”

When your goal hits your heart, your mind and body will fol­low.

3. Build Habits, Not Hype

Moti­va­tion fades. Sys­tems stay.

James Clear said it best:

“You do not rise to the lev­el of your goals. You fall to the lev­el of your sys­tems.”³

Habits auto­mate your suc­cess. That’s where consistency—and real confidence—comes from.

Do this:

• Build a morn­ing rit­u­al: wake, cold show­er, 10 push-ups, short jour­nal.
• Build an evening rit­u­al: phone off, grat­i­tude list, sleep by 10:30 PM.

Dis­ci­pline beats moti­va­tion every time.

4. Master Your Dopamine – The Motivation Molecule

Dopamine dri­ves human behav­ior. It’s the rea­son you want any­thing.

But here’s the catch: our mod­ern world hijacks dopamine. Tik­Tok, porn, ultra-processed food—they spike your dopamine and train your brain to expect rewards with­out effort⁴.

You can reverse that. You can reclaim your dopamine sys­tem to work for you, not against you.

Here’s how to do it:

a. Use Dopamine Before the Reward

Dopamine spikes not when you receive the reward, but dur­ing antic­i­pa­tion⁵. That means you can “trick” your brain into asso­ci­at­ing excite­ment with the work itself.

Try this:

• Visu­al­ize the reward before you start your task.
• Tell your­self:

“This grind is the reward. The reward is becom­ing bet­ter.”

b. Delay Gratification to Increase Dopamine Sensitivity

If you reward your­self instant­ly all the time, your brain becomes desen­si­tized. But when you earn your dopamine, it hits hard­er and moti­vates deep­er.

Do this:

• No social media until you com­plete your task.
• Use “dopamine stack­ing”:
  Work­out → cold show­er → pro­tein smooth­ie → music you love.

c. Nutritional and Supplement Support for Dopamine

Cer­tain foods and sup­ple­ments can sup­port dopamine pro­duc­tion nat­u­ral­ly:

Foods that help:

• High-pro­tein foods (chick­en, eggs, fish, beef) → rich in tyro­sine, the build­ing block of dopamine
• Dark choco­late → con­tains phenylethy­lamine (PEA), a mood boost­er
• Bananas → espe­cial­ly ripe ones con­tain dopamine pre­cur­sors

Sup­ple­ments that sup­port dopamine:

• L‑Tyrosine: Amino acid that direct­ly sup­ports dopamine pro­duc­tion
• Rho­di­o­la Rosea: An adap­to­gen that may increase dopamine activ­i­ty and reduce fatigue⁶
• Mucu­na Pruriens: Con­tains L‑DOPA, a direct pre­cur­sor to dopamine⁷
• Vit­a­min B6, B9, B12: Cru­cial for neu­ro­trans­mit­ter syn­the­sis
• Mag­ne­sium & Zinc: Sup­port healthy dopamine recep­tor func­tion

Note: Always con­sult your doc­tor before start­ing sup­ple­ments.

5. Shape Your Environment to Eliminate Excuses

Your envi­ron­ment mat­ters more than your willpow­er. Accord­ing to behav­ioral sci­ence research, behav­ior is more a prod­uct of your sur­round­ings than inter­nal moti­va­tion⁸.

Do this:

• Remove fric­tion for good habits (e.g., lay out work­out clothes the night before).
• Add fric­tion to bad habits (e.g., delete time-wast­ing apps, use screen block­ers).
• Sur­round your­self with men who are hun­gry for more.

Want to be more dis­ci­plined? Live in a way where you have no choice but to act like the man you want to become.

Final Word

Moti­va­tion is a sys­tem. It’s built from behav­ior, bio­chem­istry, and envi­ron­ment.

You now have the tools. You under­stand the sci­ence. But none of that mat­ters unless you act.

So start small. Build habits. Respect your dopamine. Shape your world.
And most impor­tant­ly—move.

Because here, we don’t sit and wait. We get after it.

Wel­come to Men­cad­e­my.

Foot­notes

1. Pychyl, T. A., & Flett, G. L. (2012). Pro­cras­ti­na­tion and Self-Reg­u­la­tion: A Neu­ropsy­cho­log­i­cal Per­spec­tive. In: Pro­cras­ti­na­tion, Health, and Well-Being.
2. Locke, E. A., & Lath­am, G. P. (2002). Build­ing a prac­ti­cal­ly use­ful the­o­ry of goal set­ting and task moti­va­tion. Amer­i­can Psy­chol­o­gist, 57(9), 705–717.
3. Clear, J. (2018). Atom­ic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones.
4. Lemke, D. (2021). Dopamine Nation: Find­ing Bal­ance in the Age of Indul­gence.
5. Schultz, W. (2007). Behav­ioral dopamine sig­nals. Trends in Neu­ro­sciences, 30(5), 203–210.
6. Panoss­ian, A., Wik­man, G. (2010). Effects of adap­to­gens on the cen­tral ner­vous sys­tem and the mol­e­c­u­lar mech­a­nisms asso­ci­at­ed with their stress—protective activ­i­ty. Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals, 3(1), 188–224.
7. Manyam, B. V. (1995). Mucu­na pruriens in Parkin­son’s dis­ease: a dou­ble blind clin­i­cal and phar­ma­co­log­i­cal study. Jour­nal of Neu­rol­o­gy, Neu­ro­surgery & Psy­chi­a­try, 58(4), 436–440.
8. Wansink, B. (2006). Mind­less Eat­ing: Why We Eat More Than We Think.