Ambitious But Inconsistent? Please Read This.

Around 2020, I was applying for a one-year internship alongside my business degree. The penultimate year of my degree had a placement-year where I had to secure a year’s worth of work experience. Coincidently, this was the same time COVID was happening. Which meant that If I did somehow secure a placement year (which at the time was very unlikely), it was going to be a full-time internship working from home.

Surprisingly, I did secure one. At a Japanese bank in London, which is where I’m based. I worked from home for one year with a full-time salary. Believe it or not, I was on top of the world. But like most ambitious people, it wasn’t enough. I was aware of other important things going on in the world.

Social media was booming. The creator economy was growing faster than ever. And a new platform had just emerged in the space. Which you can probably guess.

TikTok. I started making content.I earned a secure income from the comfort of my home, while at the same time grew an audience online doing relatable content, pop culture, memes, trends etc. I felt like I was doing the right thing and maybe it was at the time.

At the end of the internship year, I returned to university to do my final year and ultimately completed my degree with one year’s of work experience. And when I graduated in 2022, I got a permanent full-time job offer from the same bank.

That’s exactly when everything began to crumble down.I realised that the internship was my baby years. Being an intern and being a full-time worker (especially at a bank) is two completely different things.

In a short summary, I continued doing social media and worked for 2 years to around April 2024 until eventually, I couldn’t take it anymore.I quit my job and went travelling to Asia with my unemployed brother. Don’t get me wrong. It was fun. But I had no idea what I was doing.All I knew was that I wanted to get out of the situation I was in and somehow make social media work because since 2020 I enjoyed making content. So, I was basically unemployed travelling for a whole year. I had a lump sum of savings which was being drained.

Then it got worse.

I realised I didn’t want to do the content that I was doing for the past 5 years from 2020-2025. That 5-year chapter came to an end.I outgrew it.So, I stopped making TikToks. I tried other things.X, LinkedIn, YouTube (inconsistently) and pretty much none of them worked.All I knew was that I wanted to transition to self-improvement. That was something I could see myself doing that for the next 5 years.

But my problem wasn’t pivoting, my problem was trying to do everything at once.

I kept posting, making content private, and reuploading new content. My ADHD was at an all-time high and it was a continuous loop. Then towards mid 2025, I realised I couldn’t trust my own brain. I got a similar job at another bank.

By the way, this is not yet a success story, this is someone who is being brutally honest with you on where he is and how he’s going to get himself back on track. I know, not very common on social media. Everyone just boasts about their success online.

But ultimately, that is where I am in 2026. I’ve managed to save a lot of money (again), which I’m planning to reinvest into social media. Website. Products. YouTube etc.

Also, here’s a massive lesson I’ve learned with social media:

You don’t have to be everywhere; you have to be consistent somewhere.

And that’s pretty much it for the social media side of stuff. I won’t go into more here. If you want to learn from me on my lessons, but more importantly how take social media slow so that you can start on the right foot and master the foundations: branding, persuasion, content (writing and video), and marketing I’ve a got a guide.

Free here: https://stan.store/SerkanKozkiran/p/cbf

Now that you know more about my story and where I am, we can dive into the video.

In the midst of all of this, there were huge problems that were holding me back.

For the past few years, I’d wake up tired, scroll for hours, lie to myself about tomorrow and still wonder why nothing in my life was changing. I wasn’t exactly broken, but I did have a nagging feeling that I was wasting my potential every day.

That specific type of inner state will kill you if you don’t somehow find a way to get out of it.

And what I’m about to share with you here is what pulled me out of that spiral.It’s what got me consistent on YouTube and Substack. Trust me. I was lost, lazy and unmotivated until I did this.

The step-by-step formula of how not to be lazy, find motivation, discover discipline and make a real shift in your life.

1. Lower The Bar!

What I realised through years of trying to start something new but always failing:

The hardest part isn’t doing the thing. It’s starting the thing.

I don’t struggle in writing a newsletter or recording YouTube videos. But I am still at the start of this journey, which is the most difficult part. I don’t know you. I don’t what you’re goals are. But what I can do is give you basic advice to get you out of the spiral you’re in (that’s if you’re in one to begin with).

If not, why are you here? I’m not like other creators. I want you to consume from me only if the information I give you is going to be of benefit to you.

For those struggling to take action, think about the smallest possible action step.I know. In our fast-paced world everyone tells you to go all out and achieve big things. It’s what I tried doing. I tried being everywhere at once.

We don’t fail because were not capable, we fail because we set the bar so high that we never get started.

Whatever you’re doing, make the first step laughably easy. You need to build habits slowly.

• Don’t write for 1 hour, do it for 10 minutes.

• Don’t work out for 2 hours, do it for 30 minutes.

• Don’t meditate for 10 minutes, do it for 2 minutes.

Think about how you can break out of laziness in an instant. Right now, right in the moment.

You can act your way into right thinking. But you can’t think your way into right action.

Thinking your way into doing something is not going to work. Techniques, strategies, and more planning won’t do it. Only action gets you out of that state.

There are days where I don’t want to write or record. But small steps compound. Do it in tiny steps.

When you do this and take small steps, you surpise yourself so much that you question the thoughts you had prior to doing it. It seems like that person was a completely different person.

Trick: Don’t do it perfectly. Do a HALF ASS job.

I know you haven’t heard anyone say that before. But it takes the pressure off. Once you get moving dopamine kicks in. The effort alone becomes the reward. Action creates motivation. Not the other way around. Be content with small actions.

If you’re doing social media, just bloody post the first piece of content.

The tiny habit effect by BJ Fog (a Stanford behavioural scientist) shows habits stick when they start smaller than your resistance.

Lowering the bar isn’t giving up. It’s giving yourself the chance to show up.

It also affects the confidence loop. Every time you follow through on something small, you build self-trust and that self-trust becomes confidence.

Confidence is built by micro-promises kept.

Brutal truth (even if you don’t want to admit it): We raise the bar to impress others, we lower the bar to take care of ourselves. One is performance, the other is peace.

Start so small it’s impossible to fail. Repeat it until it’s impossible to stop.

This is proven by the Zeigarnik effect.

Your brain hates unfished tasks and will naturally want to complete them once you start.

Momentum comes before motivation. Action comes before enthusiasm. Take one small step forward.

2. Build A Ritual, Not A Routine

A routine relies on will power; a ritual relies on association. Apply the same que before the same task every day. Whatever that means for you. Same place. Same playlist. Same mug.

I’ve seen a lot of success in my life from doing this. Before I write or read, I always make myself a cup of coffee. Before I exercise, I always open a podcast or audiobook for during the workout.

Overtime, your brain links that que to productivity through classical conditioning.

My workouts becomes fun because I love genuinely love learning. Reading or writing becomes fun because I love coffee. Let it become a ritual. But more importantly, make doing it easier.

When I record my YouTube videos, I set up everything the night before. The camera, mic, tripod, lights are all set up, so I don’t have to worry about anything on the day.

Don’t make it difficult.

Make it easier and simpler for your brain and body to make the shifts you want to make.

3. Break The Dopamine Cycle

Laziness isn’t a lack of motivation, it’s dopamine burnout from cheap rewards. The biggest mistake we can do is label ourselves as “lazy”, when the environment that we’re in rewards that type of behaviour.

Reframe it.

Maybe you’re not lazy. Maybe you just need to redesign your environment so that it doesn’t reward laziness.

What I mean by dopamine and cheap rewards is anything that feels amazing at the start but like poison at the end. To be precise, most of tine, that’s anything fast.

Fast content.

Fast food.

A fast life.

Try a 24-hour dopamine detox. No endless scrolling, no junk food, no passive consumption. Your brain resets sensitivity to effort and reward.When you live a slow life, suddenly reading, writing, or lifting doesn’t feel like pushing a rock uphill.

Just try to notice what it is that’s numbing you. Be conscious and self-aware of what you reach for when you are bored, anxious, or tired.

One of the biggest mistakes we make in habit change is we cut out the bad stuff but don’t replace it with anything.

This was my mistake with content creation. I stopped creating videos and immediately fell into a rabbit hole of constant consumption. Because on the other end of creation (regardless of content type or niche), is endless consumption.

When you decide to change your life by cutting fake dopamine, you also need real reward.

Move your body, start a project, cook something, take long walks, call someone for a deep conversation.

You want to do activities that feel good after, not ones that feel good before.

Cheap dopamine numbs you now and drains you later. Real dopamine costs you effort but gives you energy.

4. Add Friction

It may not look like it, but everything is in your control. So, make bad habits a little harder to do.

For example, when it’s time to work, keep your phone in another room. This transformed my life. Oh and One more thing on phones, don’t look at your phone first thing in the morning. You wouldn’t let 100 people walk into your bedroom first thing when you wake up. I know I personally wouldn’t. But you would happily let 100 people walk into the bedroom of your mind when you haven’t even woken up yet.

These are all hard to do. Every bad habit is built against us. Every algorithm was designed to target your flaws and weaknesses.

The one goal of the algorithm is to keep you glued to your phone. You beat it by giving it distance.

5. Relearn To Sit In Boredom

Let yourself be bored for just 10 minutes a day. Complete silence. Just you. That’s when your brain remembers how to focus again.

I’ve learned to sit with boredom, and it’s personally led to more curiosity, rest, and breakthroughs in my life.

In order to stop making the same mistakes, you need to allow yourself to reset.

Think about your digital devices. When they’re overused and worked, they need a reset. Honestly, I do this very often with my MacBook.

If machines need a reset, you definitely do too.

6. Reward Effort, Not Outcomes

When you’ve finished a task, don’t move on to the next one right away. Write it down.

Small wins release dopamine. Train your brain to crave effort instead of escape.

So many of us stop doing the things that are good for us because we don’t remember how good they were.

Think about it.

You always remember the bad things. You never remember how you felt after a solid workout a week later, but you do remember the stress you had before that workout.

Our brains holds on to negative experiences.

When something bad happens we cry for a month and when something good happens we celebrate it for a night. We don’t know how to deeply immerse ourselves in what’s going well.

So, wire your brain to recognise small wins. Small moments of growth. Acknowledge the work you’re putting in.

Firstly, if you don’t give yourself credit, who will? Secondaly, if you don’t give yourself credit, you don’t give yourself momentum, inspiration and the enthusiasm to continue.

7. Protect Your First And Last Hour

No phone for the first 60 minutes of your day. Move, stretch, do yoga, go on a walk. Same with nighttime. Screen off 60 minutes before bed. This lets you sleep better, focus faster, and feel human again.

Again, start reframing things.

You’re not lazy. Social media is addictive. You’re not unmotivated, the algorithm controls you. You’re not broken, you’re the product (for now).

If you find it very difficult to focus, use the 5-minute rule:

Commit to doing something for just 5 minutes. Then you can stop (if you want).

• Read for 5 minutes.

• Write for 5 minutes.

• Meditate for 5 minutes.

Remember what we said? Doing the work isn’t hard, getting started is the hard part.

Have you realised how once you start something you almost never stop? This rule bypasses resistance.

Psychologists call it the activation barrier. Let me say it again. The hardest part of any task isn’t doing it, it’s starting it.

It’s how you shift from thinking to doing. You get the hard part out the way. You put yourself in a position where it’s easier to keep going than to stop.

The brain resists starting, not continuing. Make starting easy, not optional.

Here’s how:

• Choose one task you’ve been resisting

• Set a 5-minute timer

• Tell yourself you can stop when the alarm rings

• Start

If you really want to make it work, create accountability that hurts. Make the cost of inaction visible. Tell your friends your goals. Post daily updates of your performance on social media Maybe even bet some money with your friends on who can get to the gym first.

Make not doing it painful. The rule is that if it’s easy to skip, you will.

Make skipping expensive.

8. End Each Day With A Self-Review

Each day, write down three things you did right no matter how small the achievement is. Your brain will begin to notice progress, not problems.

Then progress turns into positive dopamine.

Positive dopamine turns into momentum.

And momentum turns into motivation.

Celebrate consistency, not perfection.

That’s all from me this week!

Cheers

-Serkan