#504 Why motivation is a lie, and how discipline actually drives personal growth and goal achievement, with Devan Gonzalez.

What if the secret to transforming your life isn't motivation, but something far more sustainable?

Many of us chase external motivation to push through challenges, only to find it fades fast. This episode dives deep into the power of discipline over motivation, and how cultivating intentional habits can lead to lasting transformation in fitness, business, and life. Whether you're stuck in a cycle of inconsistency or seeking clarity on your "why," this conversation is for you.

• Learn the critical mindset shift that took Devon Gonzalez from a solopreneur to a national fitness franchise leader.
• Discover how discipline, not fleeting motivation, creates real, lasting change.
• Gain actionable strategies to stay consistent even on the days you don’t feel like showing up, and learn how to turn discipline into internal motivation.

Press play to uncover the mindset tools and practical habits that can help you finally follow through on your goals - no matter what.

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KEY POINTS AND TIMESTAMPS:

03:13 - Mindset Shifts from Solopreneur to CEO

05:12 - Discipline vs. Motivation

09:03 - The Emotional Benefits of Discipline

11:51 - Practical Tools for Building Discipline

19:35 - Defining Intentional Action

22:03 - Mindfulness and Purpose in Action

24:31 - Habits and Goal Setting for Success

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MEMORABLE QUOTE:

"Start sooner - many of the achievements and growth you aspire to are possible earlier than you think."

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VALUABLE RESOURCES:

Devan's website: https://www.devangonzalez.com/

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Click here to get in touch with Agi and discuss mentoring/coaching.

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Join our growing community at MasterySeekersTribe.com, where self-mastery seekers come together for connection and growth.

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🎙️ Want to be a guest?

Message Agi on PodMatch: https://www.podmatch.com/member/personaldevelopmentmastery

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Personal development inspiration, self help insights, and actions to implement for self improvement and living with purpose.

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Transcript

Agi Keramidas: 0:00

We often talk about motivation in personal development, but what if the secret to transforming your life isn't motivation, but something far more sustainable? Welcome to personal development mastery, a podcast that helps intelligent, busy professionals develop self mastery and discover their calling so you can thrive in a fulfilling, purposeful life. I'm your host. Agi Keramidas, and this is episode 504 many of us chase external motivation to push through challenges only to find that it fades fast. This episode explores the power of discipline over motivation, and how cultivating intentional habits can lead to lasting transformation in fitness, in business and in life. By listening to this episode, you're going to discover how discipline, not fleeting motivation, is the one that creates real, lasting change, and how to develop it starting today, and you will learn actionable strategies to stay consistent, even On the days you don't feel like showing up. So whether you're stuck in a cycle of inconsistency or seeking clarity on your why, then this episode is for you before we dive in. If you have been resonating with these conversations and feel like you are at crossroads in your life, I offer one to one coaching to help you gain clarity and step into your next chapter with confidence. If that sounds interesting, reach out to me and let's chat now. Let's get started today. It is my real pleasure to speak with Devan Gonzalez, Devan, you are a fitness entrepreneur, Best Selling Author and host of the mindset Cafe podcast. You are passionate about personal development discipline and helping people unlock their full potential, whether in fitness business or life. Devon, welcome to the show. Since it's a pleasure to speak with you today, thank you. The pleasure is all mine. Thank you for having me on your show. I'm looking forward to exploring with you. Some of the things that have in mind is discipline, resilience, mental barriers, and, you know, breaking through them, stuff like that, before we go there, tell us you scaled a single gene into a national franchise. What was one of the hardest since you said about mindset mental barriers or mindset shifts. What was one of the hardest mindset shifts that you had to make along the way? I

Devan Gonzalez: 3:10

would say the mindset shift of going from solopreneur to business owner to, you know, CEO, and understanding that while they're similar, you have to think about the situations differently. You have to, you know, really understand yourself and realise that your team is going to be built and really strengthened if you show them the way. And they don't know all the information that you know, right? And they don't know how you want it done, if, because it's all in your head, right? And so that shift of you know, understanding that I need to better myself as a leader, better myself as a mentor, essentially in in my own personal development journey at each level, and knowing that personal development is a never ending game.

Agi Keramidas: 4:03

Completely agree, I refer to it as a journey, myself without a destination. I mentioned already the discipline. So one thing that I know that you talk about is discipline over motivation, and that is something that you know personally, having studied discipline myself, I understand it, but for many people, they don't see the, perhaps, the value of discipline. They rely on motivation. So I would like to hear your thoughts on you know when motivation fades, or what is the role of that? And how can discipline really, if it is a matter of motivation, how can discipline change that if it is not a matter of motivation, tell me about discipline instead.

Devan Gonzalez: 4:58

No, definitely. And. I mean, it's a great question, because a lot of people get mixed up between being motivated and being disciplined, and that's why I like to differentiate the two motivation there's two sides to it. There's external motivations, right? You know, when you watch a David Goggins video, or, you know, you watch something that's an inspiration, you see, you read an inspirational quote on Instagram, you know, you get really inspired, and you're like, yes, you know, I'm gonna go do that right now. And then an hour passes and you're like, Well, you know, I actually have to go do this, this, this, and then, and then I'll go do it, and then you don't end up doing it right, because external motivations is fleeting, right? It comes, it goes. So what I like to have people focus on is discipline, right? Discipline doesn't necessarily mean that you need to be motivated to do something, right, but you know that you need to do it in order to achieve the results. I mean, I own a gym, and I don't feel like working out every single day, right? And so it's like that people, even our members, have, like, this misconception of that just because I'm a gym owner, just because I'm a trainer, that I must love working out every single day, not, not true. And if, if you, if, if there's a you have a personal trainer, and they're telling you that they love working out every single day of the year, they're lying to you. There's days that they don't want to do it, but they do it because they know they need to do it right. And so discipline is something it's a skill, right? In just that leadership, right? It's built, and it's built through doing the things that you don't want to do on the days you don't want to do them time and time again. And it starts to get easier to become more disciplined over repetition. Once you start to become disciplined, then you start to see the results of whatever you're trying to achieve. And once you start seeing the some of the results, or the initial results, then you start to gain internal motivation, right? Then you you know, let's say for fitness, for example, all of a sudden you go to the gym. Day one, you lift up your shirt, no change. Go to the gym. Day two, lift up your shirt, no change. But after a month or so of it, all of a sudden you lift up your shirt and you see a little bit of, you know, weight loss. You see a little bit of, you know, definition starting to show in your arms. And all of a sudden you're like, I want more of that, right? And so now that discipline has turned into motivation, but from an internal standpoint, and you don't need an Instagram quote or an in reel to get you to go to the gym. You show up because you know that it's giving you the results.

Agi Keramidas: 7:27

I agree completely that the external motivation is something that is certainly not sustainable. It can push you into the direction, but can, can't keep you going. What you were saying about discipline and the results that you that you see that turn it into internal motivation. I will add to that, from my personal experience that discipline or, you know, you use the example that you don't feel like working out, but you do it anyway. And this could be whatever it is that we are disciplined towards doing. For me, one very early reward once I discipline myself is I feel better about myself. So before I even see any external results, because, you know, I've done it, the first thing I feel is that I've done it. It's better for so when I feel better about myself, then everything else, let's say, in the day ahead, gets a bit better. So just adding to that, in terms of discipline, and how I personally have benefited from discipline in terms of self esteem. I suppose I can call it like that.

Devan Gonzalez: 8:51

No, exactly. I mean, discipline is, is a skill, like we're like we're saying, and it translates into other things as well, right? You know, one thing I like to say is, like, how you do one thing is how you do everything, right? So if you become more disciplined on achieving a goal, whether it's fitness, whether it's business, whatever, you're going to be naturally more disciplined on doing the other tasks throughout your day, because you've already built that self esteem, that self confidence, to achieve something, even though you didn't feel like doing it, you know, every single day. But also it kind of goes into, let's say for fitness, it goes into that aspect, like you, you know, you look good, you feel good, you feel good, you do good. And so it's like when you achieve a task because you were disciplined, naturally, you start to get a rush of endorphins. You feel, you know, a little natural high, essentially from a chemical, you know, flood of those endorphins, and that leads into the rest of your day, right? You start to feel a little bit better about yourself. So everything that you do has a positive outlook versus, you know, you said you're gonna go to the gym, you didn't go. Then you're like, Man, I. The show would have gone. And now you kind of are hard on yourself. And now everything throughout the day is a little, you know, little tint of grey to it

Agi Keramidas: 10:08

that residence. I think many people will relate to what you said when, if we don't do it, and then we think back and kind of regret it, and we have this negative mental dialogue that doesn't lead anywhere nice. We beat ourselves up. Basically, since we are on this I will remain on this topic of discipline. Since it's very interesting, I would like to ask you specifically, you know, you gave the example earlier, about having a routine of going to the gym or having my decision to go to the gym. And now I'm referring to someone listening to this conversation. And one day, one morning, as it happens, to all of us, we don't feel like it, or there are, you know, a very big, very reasonable excuse comes up that. So can you give us something practical? What is it that one can do to enhance, let's say, the the ability to be disciplined at that time. Because, as we all know, discipline, it is a daily battle. It's never something that is automatically won every single time you have to make the decision to do this kind of action. I hope my question is, makes sense?

Devan Gonzalez: 11:37

No, it does. And I think there's, there's two parts to it, right? The first part is, you need to find what your what your reason why is right? And because, let's say, we'll say, you know, on the gym, top paper with going to the gym like there's a reason why you signed up at the gym, right? There's an initial reason, and that reason, you might say, is to lose weight, right? But why do you want to lose weight, right? And well, because I want to feel better. Why do you want to feel better, right? And you have to ask a few levels down to get your real why, right? Well, I want to feel better. And you know, feeling better will allow me to have more energy with my kids or my grandkids. And okay, so you want to be able to play with your grandkids, and so now you know your reason why, right? And so it's not really about losing weight. It's about losing weight so you can feel better, play with your grandkids, you know, and live a long, healthy life for them. Got it now on the days that you don't feel good, I want you to remember that when you don't feel good and you don't feel like you know, you're just waking up your little groggy, you don't really feel like going to the gym. Going to the gym. Would you know? Are you really gonna let your grandkids have you know that version of you in the future? You know? And then all of a sudden, you're like, you start to get hard on yourself. No, I'm gonna go. And I the hardest part, I tell people honestly, this is even for myself. Some days, the hardest part is just showing up, right? Just getting in the car, driving, let's say, to the gym. But then once you're at the gym, you're like, Well, I'm already here. I might as well do the workout, right? And then you do the first exercise, and all of a sudden you're like, Oh, this isn't so bad. You start to get into it. And then all of a sudden you finish your workout, all right? You know, I'm proud of myself for doing that. It wasn't as hard as I was, you know, making it seem or bad as I was, making it seem in my own head, right? And so sometimes the hardest part just showing up. And I want you to think of this if, if the reason why isn't, you know, pushing you enough. I want you to take this perspective on things, right? If someone told you they were going to do something for you and they didn't do it, how would that make you feel? Right? You wouldn't. You wouldn't accept that, right? If they said they were going to give you this life in in this healthy life, you could live with your grandkids. Never going to do that for you, you know, and they didn't do it, would you be upset? Right? Probably. So why would you not accept that from your WHY would you accept that from yourself? You were supposed to be your biggest fan and your biggest cheerleader, and you were the only person that could do that. So if someone else told you they're going to do something and didn't do it, you'd be mad. But if you tell yourself you're gonna do something, you're not mad. You know that's I mean, that little shift in perspective, really the realising that you have to be truthful to yourself, and you have to, you know, be the most vulnerable and open with yourself, but hold yourself accountable, because at the end of the day, no one's gonna do it for you. Thank you. These are

Agi Keramidas: 14:41

very useful. You said I got like three, let's say things we can do to discipline ourselves when we don't feel like it. And the first was to reconnect with your why, or the deep why. Actually, the second, I liked that you said, just. Up. You reminded me when, when I was, I was training for the London Marathon a few years ago, and as you can imagine, it needed a lot of training, a lot of consistency, a lot of discipline, and sometimes I was exactly like that. I didn't feel like, you know, having to do a 10 Mile Run that was in the training routine at that time, I would trick myself. I see it like this, and now I would trick my mind by saying, Okay, I won't do all that. I'll just do one mile. And yeah, I can do on Mile easily. And as you were saying that, you know, just by showing up the moment, I would be outside with my running shoes and start running, it would never be a mile. It would probably be the what, because it was easier then I had already momentum. It is exactly the most difficult thing is to show up. So I share that as also my own example. And the third one you said, and I think that is fantastic as a perspective changing, is to look at what you are not doing us, if it is someone else not doing it, and how you would hold them accountable, because we are very good at, you know, finding excuses for ourselves. So thank you very much for this. I reiterated with my own words, just to because these are, I think, very practical tools, because we've all been there. We said we would do something, and it's the last thing that we feel like doing at that moment. And we need, sometimes, the the ways or the tools, if you want to be able to snap out of it, sometimes if we need to. So I don't know if you agree with with this.

Devan Gonzalez: 16:59

No, I do. I mean, it's that everything that you said, like in how you reframed, it was perfect, right? It's there. It's practical. Sometimes it seems almost, you know, too easy to work. But sometimes it's just the basics. Is All You Need, right? You don't need these fancy, you know, plans and stuff that sometimes you just have to show up, right? Like you said for running, like sometimes it's just telling yourself you're gonna do one mile, and then you start, you know, get that snowball formed, and then all of a sudden, instead of snowball going down a hill, it starts picking up momentum. The snow starts getting bigger, and all of a sudden, now it's this huge, you know, Boulder of a snowball, because it has all that momentum, but it's hard to get that momentum going. So you tell yourself, I'm gonna do one, and then you achieve one, well, I could do one more. And then you hit two, and, yeah, I still got energy. I'm doing one more, three. And then you just keep that going. It's easy just to take your your workout, okay, I'm gonna go the gym. I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna walk on the treadmill today, right? And then all of a sudden, you start seeing the other people working out and pushing themselves. Well, I could do one exercise real quick. And then all of a sudden, well, actually, I haven't done that exercise in a while. Let me do that one, right? And then all of a sudden, before you know it, you did a whole

Agi Keramidas: 18:16

workout. It is a, you know, it's very It's indeed, very clever when we do it, because our mind tricks us or tries to trick us all the time, so it's good when we have the ability to do it for our benefit. Devon, I would like, I'm going to shift gears. And there is one other topic that I'm very much intrigued to hear your thoughts about and you talk about intentional action and the power that intentional action has. So you know, we all know and understand that action is necessary to achieve something success, or whatever it is that we want. What I would like to start with is, let me hear you define what. When you say intentional action, what do you mean exactly? And so we'll take it from there.

Devan Gonzalez: 19:17

So intentional action, meaning that your your full like doing action just means you're doing something, right, but if you're going to do something, then do it to your best ability, right? Give it your full attention. Give it your full ability, your full effort, right? Then if you don't, because if you don't, what's the purpose of doing it at all, right? And in that it goes into the kind of the the understanding that time is the only thing that we have on this earth that is finite, right? That there is all a limited amount of time, the one thing that we don't get back. So why waste your time doing something with half effort? You. And still spending the same amount of time on it, instead of just getting it done and doing it to the best of your ability. Because again, how you do one thing is how you do everything, right? So if you're gonna go to the gym, and then you spend an hour there, but you just kind of mosey around, you're talking with everyone, you're not really working out. Or you went to the gym, you worked out for an hour, you know, and did your best workout that you could. To your ability, you're there for an hour both times. You lose an hour either way. But now, what is the results of that? Compounded a year later, of that, you could be in the same place you are if you're doing that, you know, just mosing around, you know, checking on on Facebook so everyone knows that you go to a gym, or a year later, you those compounded, you know, hourly workouts that you gave your effort to, and everything every intention to show you don't need to check in on Facebook. People know that you go, have been going to the gym.

Agi Keramidas: 20:57

That's great. What do you think? Because for me, when I hear the especially the word intention, apart from, you know what you're saying, to give to the action the best of our ability, or focus our attention. Do it, you know, wholeheartedly and wholly. For me, the word intention also implies some energy or something mental. Apart, you know, from the action itself. Obviously you can do the action very focused, but I think there is a nuance there between focused and, you know, to the best of our ability, and intentional, because I think it implies something else. So what are your thoughts on that?

Devan Gonzalez: 21:45

No, yeah. So the the flip side of that, right? I mean, that's, I try to keep it on more of them, on the basic side, you know, kind of taking it down to the ground level for, you know what we were talking about before, but intentional, like when you're doing action, or when you're doing something, what is the reason for you doing this right? If you're scrolling through Instagram, are you just Mindlessly scrolling? Or are you scrolling? Looking for something? Are you looking for new ways to achieve your goal? Are you looking for inspiration to get you up on the next day. Are you looking for a new avenue in business? You know? Are you looking but in being intentional, there's a purpose behind what you're doing. Why are you doing it? Because if there's no purpose behind what you're doing, then then why are you doing it? Right? Why not spend that time working on yourself? Why not spend that time with your family, instead of just mindlessly wasting time.

Agi Keramidas: 22:48

This is great. Thank you. And what you you might not have used it the same words, but for me, you it reminded me, or what you said prompted in me the becoming mindful of the reason why we're doing it. So if we're sending an email, why are we sending it that connects us with the intention? Or if we are at the gym, why or what? It is very useful. And you know, the becoming aware of the moment, the attention. So that's another part that I got from your answer. I would like to ask you before we start wrapping up. Since, you know I was telling you earlier that I always enjoy giving practical action tips to the listener. We've already done that, but I would like to ask one of yours actually, perhaps a personal habit, a routine, something that you feel that has really made the big difference in your life, in your success, in what you have been doing,

Devan Gonzalez: 24:12

definitely, and now, honestly, that's it's a great question, and I will say this, I mean my I'll use my business as an example. And because people will give me, you know, a pat on the back and say, Wow, you're so lucky. Luck had nothing to do with it, right? And one of the things that has worked really well for me, not just in business, but in life, you know, I used to do competitive, you know, fighting and stuff of that, and you start to cut weight and all that kind of stuff. So the main thing I'm gonna say is you have a goal, right? And set your goals big, right? And when you set that goal big, you might not know the journey there, right? And that's okay, right? Whether it's losing, I had to lose 30 pounds for a month, for a fight in a month, one time, right? Or. Sorry, two months in one time, right? So goal is 30 pounds, right? Instead of being like, Okay, I need to lose one pound, one pound all the way up. Oh, that's not 30. Do it again. Set the goal big, and then break it down into smaller steps first. So like, for example, you know, everyone has their New Year's resolutions. What is the goal for you to achieve by the end of the year? Awesome. Now break that into quarterly goals. So every, you know, three three months. Now, what do you need to do to every three months to achieve this yearly goal? Then break those quarterly goals down into monthly goals, right? And then the monthly down to weekly. And all of a sudden you start to look at and you're like, Oh, that's not that bad. You know, if I could just do this every single week, that will lead up to this. And even if it doesn't, you'll be fairly close. I mean, I built we launched the gym. Two years later, we launched the franchise. A year later, we, you know, got our first franchise. A year later, we have three more coming on like it's again, it's everything's done if you just stick to the plan, whether you feel like it or you don't. But the thing is, I didn't know when we opened the business, when we were going to franchise or what point, but we actually condensed our timeline because everything was just lining up. So you might set your yearly goal and you might achieve it in eight months, six months, right? Because everything just started working out better in your favour, instead of setting a yearly goal waiting until July to really start on it, and then now you're trying to crunch everything in and then you don't achieve it. Or, you know, maybe you get close to it. Imagine where you could have been if you just did that from the beginning, but you're taking small little bites out of it. The best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time.

Agi Keramidas: 26:51

I like that and having the goal breaking it down, reverse engineering it to, you know, small little tanks that are manageable. Brilliant Devon, where do you want to direct the listener of this conversation that wants to find out more and connect?

Devan Gonzalez: 27:10

I mean, you can go to my website, and it's not, I mean, there's not a lead form or anything of that. Just, I made a website just to make a landing page for everything that I got going on. But it's just Devin D, V, A, N, Gonzales, G, O, N, Z, a, l, e, z.com,

Agi Keramidas: 27:28

that's great. And I also have two final quick questions. I always ask them, and I get some very interesting answers, so I'm curious to hear yours. And the first one is, what does personal development mean to you?

Devan Gonzalez: 27:47

Personal Development, to me, is constantly improving yourself, right? And that's the base level answer. So that's not my full answer, right? That's just the base thing. But personal development, to me, it really is the fact that you can get better at least 1% each day in one area of your life, whether it's your relationship with your family, whether it's work, whether it's fitness, whatever your goal is to essentially get a little bit better each day. And there is no end destination, right? Personal Development is infinite. It's like the horizon, right? When you're looking at the horizon, you can't see the end. You can see where it gets smaller, but if you were able to walk there, you would realise that it goes out again just as far. So the same thing for personal development. Realise that it's a never ending journey, and you even though you have a yearly goal and stuff like that, that's awesome. That's just a fraction of you becoming the version of yourself that you were designed to be

Agi Keramidas: 28:49

so true and hypothetically, let's say you could go back in time and meet your 18 year old self. What's one piece of advice you would give him?

Devan Gonzalez: 29:00

18 year old self, I would have told him to start sooner. You know, 18 year old, 18 year old version of me was, you know, just joining college and got into the the frat life and, you know, the fraternity life and everything like that, you know. And not saying that I wasn't ambitious and motivated then, but a lot of the things that I've achieved could have been started earlier in my journey, and I probably would have told my 18 year old self maybe buy a Bitcoin. You know,

Agi Keramidas: 29:28

yes, of course, she reminded me of that phrase that said, if I had to live my life again, I would do the same mistakes, only soonest. Yeah, exactly. Devon, I want to thank you very much for this conversation. I enjoyed it very much, and I think there were some very useful and practical elements that came out of it, especially when we're talking about discipline. I want to wish you all the very best with your life and your mission. Uh, I will leave it to you for your final part in wisdom.

Devan Gonzalez: 30:07

Thank you so much for having me. And I will say that if you have a goal, if you have a dream, and someone else has already achieved it, or living the life that you're wanting to live, that is your proof. That is your testimonial to that it is possible for you, because you're not that special, for it to not work out for you, but to be able to work out for someone else.

Agi Keramidas: 30:34

I hope you found this episode enlightening, if you have been resonating with these conversations and feel like you are at a crossroads in your life, I offer one to one coaching to help you gain clarity and step into your next chapter with confidence. If that sounds interesting, reach out to me and let's have a conversation and until next time Stand out don't fit in.