The Apple of Motivation
My first book — Addiction, Procrastination, and Laziness: A Proactive Guide to the Psychology of Motivation — has become wildly popular.
It has sold over 100,000 copies, been translated to five different languages, and had its title ripped off by over a dozen different scammers (like this one) attempting to divert sales from it to their own fake versions. Now that is a hallmark of success!
There is, however, one motivational strategy I — quite regrettably — didn’t include in that book, and which I decided to write about here to make up for it. I call it “the apple of motivation.”
It is a powerful motivational hack for waking up in the morning, even when you really, really don’t want to — and one that I use practically every day.
It is exquisitely simple. Always keep at least one fresh apple on your bedside table before going to sleep.
Then, when you rouse in the morning, crunch into the apple!
Due to being too groggy, exhausted, or paralyzed, you might not possess enough motivation to get out of bed directly. But you’ll almost always have the motivation to eat an apple!
You’re probably a little hungry, and more than a little thirsty, after sleeping all night. And the apple is both delicious and refreshing.
While throwing off your sheets and starting your day may be unfathomable to your still torpid mind, excruciating to your lethargic body, and utterly revolting to your animal instincts, picking up and biting into an apple is entirely within your physical capabilities, the scope of your imagination, and your immediate desires.
You’ll find yourself fully able to do so with even the barest sliver of your waking consciousness. And as you do, you’ll find that eating the apple is a self-perpetuating, physically effortful, and extremely refreshing process.
You won’t be able to start the apple without finishing it; and you won’t be able to perform the strenuous task of masticating the apple while partially asleep. By the time you’ve consumed the revitalizing fruit, you will discover that you are already completely awake and can briskly get up and begin your day.
Try it! It might sound a little silly, but it works practically every time. And it is the single most powerful (and extremely pleasant) strategy I’ve found for waking up in the morning.
Just as in Genesis, the serpent gave Adam and Eve the apple of knowledge, which awakened them from the bliss of their primordial unconsciousness to the consciousness of a human being.
So too must we bite into the apple — not of knowledge, but of motivation — so we can wake up from the sweet unconscious fantasies of our dreams, and into the somber consciousness of our productive lives.
(Disclaimer: This technique does require at least a small liking of apples. Though they can also be substituted with similar fresh fruit, with only a small loss in efficacy.)
