#970 - Dr Mike Israetel - Exercise Scientist’s Masterclass On Motivation, Habits & Discipline

Modern Wisdom

Chris Williamson

Society & Culture, Health & Fitness

4.7 • 4.6K Ratings

🗓️ 21 July 2025

⏱️ 140 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Dr Mike Israetel is a Professor of Exercise and Sport Science at Lehman College and the Co-Founder of Renaissance Periodization. How do you boost motivation and actually follow through on the things you know you should do, but don’t feel like doing? The answer isn’t more stimulants, thankfully, it’s something far more grounded in neuroscience and behaviour. Today, Dr Mike Israetel breaks down the science of willpower in a way that works for the average person and can even help make your daily life much more productive. Expect to learn the science behind willpower, habits & motivation, the de facto two kinds of things you should be doing with your time, how to know when its time to do things you actually feel like doing versus making yourself do things you don’t feel like doing, how to integrate habits that improve your life and get rid of the ones that don’t serve you, how to improve your willpower, how to become more antifragile and build your resilience, and much more… Sponsors: See me on tour in America: ⁠https://chriswilliamson.live⁠ See discounts for all the products I use and recommend: https://chriswillx.com/deals Get 10% off Echo’s Hydrogen Flask at https://echowater.com/modernwisdom Get 35% off your first subscription on the best supplements from Momentous at https://livemomentous.com/modernwisdom Get the best bloodwork analysis in America at https://functionhealth.com/modernwisdom Get 5 Free Travel Packs, Free Liquid Vitamin D, and more from AG1 at https://ag1.info/modernwisdom Extra Stuff: Get my free reading list of 100 books to read before you die: https://chriswillx.com/books Try my productivity energy drink Neutonic: https://neutonic.com/modernwisdom Episodes You Might Enjoy: #577 - David Goggins - This Is How To Master Your Life: https://tinyurl.com/43hv6y59 #712 - Dr Jordan Peterson - How To Destroy Your Negative Beliefs: https://tinyurl.com/2rtz7avf #700 - Dr Andrew Huberman - The Secret Tools To Hack Your Brain: https://tinyurl.com/3ccn5vkp - Get In Touch: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chriswillx Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/chriswillx YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/modernwisdompodcast Email: https://chriswillx.com/contact - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I wanted to talk about the science of willpower, habits, motivation, some of the busiest of topics at the moment.
0:06.9	Why do you think this is such a popular area of discussion for people on the internet?
0:13.1	You know, I'm really happy that it's a popular area of discussion on the internet.
0:17.0	The internet has plenty of stuff on there that was kind of just junk.
0:20.7	Most of my stuff, for example.
0:23.1	What am I really mostly about?
0:24.6	Vanity.
0:25.3	You know, that sucks.
0:26.4	But it's really awesome that so many people, at least by search volumes, you'd be
0:31.9	interested in motivation and habits and willpower because that tells me that people
0:36.9	are doing two things.
0:38.3	One, recognizing that they want success or to achieve some goals.
0:44.4	And two is recognizing that, like, their motivational structure is a potential limiting factor
0:52.7	to that success.
0:53.9	And so if you're like, things in the outside world are important, and I'm going to try is a potential limiting factor to that success.
0:55.1	And so if you're like,
0:57.3	things in the outside world are important and I'm going to try to architect myself
0:59.4	to be better at them,
1:01.1	man,
1:01.3	like,
1:01.6	it really is a great thing and really does set you up
1:04.5	for a significant amount of more success than you would.
	...

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