Have you ever read a book, watched a course, or followed a plan… understood every single step… felt genuinely inspired by it… and then done…

ABSOLUTELY NOTHING?

You’re not lazy.

You’re not disorganised.

And it’s almost certainly not a time problem.

Chances are, if you dig a little deeper, there’s something else going on – and once you see it, it changes everything.

I’ve watched this pattern play out more times than I can count.

Someone discovers a system they genuinely believe could work for them.

They dive in with real enthusiasm.

They follow the early steps, feel the momentum building… and then, somewhere along the way, it quietly stalls.

By the time they reflect on what happened, the excuses are familiar ones.

“I haven’t got the time.”

“Life got on top of me.”

“I couldn’t quite focus on it properly.”

But I think these are surface reasons that hint at a deeper cause.

SELF-BELIEF.

I think this underlies a lot of the psychological barriers that stop people from succeeding – a lack of true belief that they really CAN do it.

Which is the subject of Beyond Belief, a new book by Nir Eyal, author of the excellent Hooked and Indistractable.

The Missing Factor in Motivation

Eyal says the idea for his new book originated when he noticed a similar phenomenon to the one I’ve just described.

Readers of Indistractable kept telling him that the distraction-avoidance techniques in the book made total sense.

But they hadn’t actually tried them!

Weird, right?!

They could see the goal clearly….

And they were given practical steps to achieve it…

Yet something inside them prevented them from taking further action.

The ‘but’ was always some version of “I don’t think this will work for me.”

And for Eyal, this comes down to a lack of belief.

For him, it’s the missing piece in motivational thinking.

Because most people picture it as a basic ‘two-step’ cause-and-effect process.

“If you want X benefit, you’ll do Y behaviour. “

Do the work and you’ll get the reward!

Simple, right?

But clearly this is not what happens in the real world, or all my customers would follow my courses from start to finish and then take the necessary actions to earn an income.

Eyal’s own experience with his book buyers is the same.

So his conclusion is that the motivational model is incomplete and missing a fundamental element.

He argues that to sustain our motivational drive, we need to have the BELIEF that those actions will yield results.

Not a fake belief – the kind where you grimace into the mirror and tell yourself “I can do this”.

But one that feels genuine.

Because without the deep conviction that your effort genuinely WILL deliver benefits that make your life better, you’ll eventually quit.

In his view, we tend to focus on the first two (“Here are the benefits! Here are the steps!”) But we neglect the missing factor of self-belief.

Eyal describes it as a triangle…

The Three B-Sides of the Motivational Triangle

Imagine a triangle with three sides.

• The left hand-side represents ‘behaviour’ – the actions you must take.
• The right hand side stands for the ‘benefit’ – the outcomes you desire.
• The bottom side, which CONNECTS BOTH TOGETHER, represents ‘belief’ your conviction that you can and will get those results.

It looks like this….

As you can see, all three B’s are essential, but belief is the foundation.

Without it, your motivation collapses.

Eyal gives the example of working for a boss in a company.

If you don’t truly believe they have your best interests at heart… and if you don’t believe you’re ever going to get that promotion or that pay-rise…

How motivated will you be to keep working at your best?

But this is an example of where limits to your belief might be justified.

Perhaps your boss DOESN’T want you to succeed.

Perhaps they’ve been ordered to cap all pay and reduce the workforce.

You can’t do much about that.

The bigger problem comes from self-limiting beliefs that YOU create yourself – and yet you don’t realise it.

This is where you do have power over your own future.

Why Limiting Beliefs Are Usually Hidden

Usually, we can’t see our own self-limiting beliefs because they’re hidden to us.

They don’t seem like beliefs because they feel like facts.

For example, when someone says “I am time poor” or “I struggle with ADHD” or “I’m not a morning person” the brain does two things:

• It focuses your attention on that label and identity
• It redirects attention away from what you could actually do about the difficulty.

The result is, you give up, assuming there is nothing to be done.

However, Eyal argues that beliefs aren’t facts – they’re more like stories that you tell yourself.

Once you understand this, you can set aside negative stories when they’re unhelpful… and replace them with better ones to change what’s possible for you.

For instance, “I am time poor” could be reframed as, “I will make a schedule that reflects my priorities.”

“I struggle with ADHD” could be reframed as, “My brain works differently, and I will find a system that works for me.”

“I’m not a morning person” could be reframed as, “I will find ways to schedule my time to work later in the day.”

In this way, belief becomes a tool you can use to open up possibilities that you previously dismissed.

This is pretty much the gist of Eyal’s idea in Beyond Belief.

And it’s not about magical thinking or blind positivity.

You can’t simply yell “I BELIEVE!” and expect that everything will suddenly fit into place.

A belief is a conviction which must be based on evidence.

To truly believe, you need to see some proof of progress.

So what you need to do when you start a big ambitious project is to first open yourself up to the possibilities…. reframing doubts into positive practical goals…

Then you need to take ONE small action.

Do something today that makes you a tiny bit of progress.

When you succeed in this small challenge, it very slightly increases the evidence to support your belief.

Then you do it again…

And again…

Each time you take another step forward, the belief becomes stronger, deeper, and more established within you.

Eventually, you will have a powerful conviction that the big goal is possible – perhaps even inevitable!

If you want to know more, you can access a great sample of Beyond Belief on Amazon with a couple of great stories and an explanation of the ‘Motivation Triangle’.

Just click ‘read sample’ beneath the book cover!

Enjoy!