Motivation Is Overrated—Here’s What Actually Grew My Substack

How I Built A 3,000 Subscriber Newsletter Without Relying on Motivation.

Motivation isn’t required to grow on Substack.

I frequently get asked how to stay motivated to write on Substack.

So I figured it was time to spill the beans—I’m rarely motivated.

I don’t sit down every morning with a smile smeared across my face—I wish. I’ve tried cold showers, walking barefoot, sunlight, incense, mala beads, and adaptogens.

Hell, I even paid to have a custom essential oil formulated with special ingredients for heightened focus—and I still wake up saying ‘Fuck’ most days.

I never found a way to tap into a source of unending motivation but I still managed to publish over 100 posts, 500+ Notes, and grow 3,000 subscribers over the last 16 months.

My secret? I’ve removed motivation as a barrier.

Instead, I built a simple system around consistency.

Motivation and energy are finite resources.

From 2013 to 2018 I worked as a personal trainer and nutrition coach. During this time I learned a lot about motivation and our ability to stick to our goals.

Let me explain.

Logically, the more I exert my body the more tired it gets.
Mental exertion similarly depletes our motivation.

The more decisions I make, the more willpower I exert, compounded by things like stress and fatigue, all contribute to the dwindling reserves of motivation.

It’s fleeting, at best.

New Year’s resolutions skyrocket our motivation. However, the data suggests that over 90% of those NY goals quickly fade until being reset the following year.

Whether it’s a resolution, the new course you purchased, or the motivational Tony Robbin’s YouTube video you just watched…

Motivation fades as quickly as it comes.

That’s why I don’t rely on it.

The simple writing habit that led to 100 posts and 3,000 subscribers.

I start my days with writing.

I don’t want to give you the wrong impression—it didn’t start here.

I launched my Substack in 2023 and had 1 simple goal.
Write 1 weekly newsletter for 6 months.

On my mission to write 24 pieces, I set Saturday mornings aside for writing. I blocked off 1-2 hours where I’d write and publish my piece and make another tick towards my goal.

I was busy so I started small. I’d learned enough about myself that biting off more than I could chew would lead to stopping.

Gradually, I started to write more.

Saturday remained my scheduled time, but when I could (or wanted to) carve out additional time, I would. Sometimes, this time was spent planning my next article, others punching up a quick post for LinkedIn, which later became Substack Notes.

Soon ‘when I had time’ became a few times a week.

I can’t remember exactly when it happened but I began carving out 30 minutes first thing in the morning to write. I don’t think it was a glamorous decision either, I think it was a simple combination of a desire to prioritize building my personal brand with being less than enthused with work at the time. Putting it politely.

~16 months later I start my days with 45-60 minutes worth of writing, most days.

I call it a daily-ish habit and approach it differently than other writers.

1,000 words per day. Write.

The first 30-day writing challenge I entered—I failed miserably.

These ‘writers’ were cranking out 1-3,000 words per day and I was over here lucky to bang out 500 on a good day and many wound up under 100.

The key was that I wrote for all 30 days.

You see, I spent too many years conforming to what I thought I was supposed to do only to build a laundry list of things that never worked for me.

When it came to writing, I chose to do things a little differently.

This was around the time my therapist told me about Oliver Burkeman and his concept of radical incrementalism during an in-depth conversation on patience—with writing.

My goal became to do less but show up consistently.

I refer to it as my minimal viable habits which I describe as something we feel is almost too easy. The idea behind it is consistency, no matter how big or small.

Writing 1,000 words per day would never have worked for me.

For me, it became: Write.

On rare occasions, I might write 1,000 words but most days it’s far less. Some days it might be a 27-word Substack Note. Others might be spent planning or editing—two things that aren’t encapsulated within the 1,000 words a day method.

And you see, I still only publish 1-2 posts per week.

This is manufactured motivation or the illusion of it, to say the least. Some weeks a post may take me 30-60 minutes and others it may take me 5 days. But on those weeks when motivation hits and I write more than 1 post, I schedule it in advance.

This is how I’ve banked 3 months’ worth of content, but it only became possible because I made it a priority.

Putting yourself at the top of your to-do list is non-negotiable.

Prioritization > Productivity.

For years, I remained at the bottom of the to-do list as there was always something bigger, more challenging, or more urgent than me, no matter how productive I was.

This made my clients happy at the expense of de-prioritizing myself.

• My business ideas…

• My personal projects…

• The things I wanted to learn…

• The hobbies I wanted to explore…

• Things to build the business & life I desired…

All vanished like the time that escaped me every single day.

Until I realized there would never be enough time until I made it.

I started to prioritize myself first and accepted the consequences that followed. Oliver Burkeman refers to this as ‘paying yourself first’.

There are finite things we can do each day.

I was tired of never getting around to what mattered to me. There’s no way that I would be where I am today on Substack if I didn’t prioritize my writing.

Luckily, it’s something I actually like doing.

It’s easier to find time for things we enjoy doing.

Don’t just trust me—trust science.

Research has shown that burnout isn't just about overwork. It's deeply connected to emotional and psychological factors, such as dissatisfaction, lack of autonomy, and feelings of misalignment.

I chose writing after burning out with (all) other mediums.

Instagram (photos), YouTube (videos), podcasting (audio), and TikTok (??). I tried them all and it drained the life out of me. The amount of time and money I’ve spent on professional photoshoots, Canva templates, editing videos and audio, outsourcing, and hiring growth experts is embarrassing.

It’s no wonder I never remained consistent, I didn’t enjoy it.

And it’s pretty hard to stay motivated or consistent in doing something we genuinely don’t like doing and/or are doing for the wrong reasons.

I kept coming back to writing even before I started on Substack. Multiple times throughout my professional career I’ve sat and journaled on the possibility of becoming a copywriter, email marketer, and ghostwriter.

Even as I am writing this little piece on motivation, I’m having fun.

Now, I have the urge to jump back onto these other platforms almost every day.

Especially, when I follow creators like Dan Koe who start with long-form articles (like this one) and then record them as videos, post the audio as a podcast, and share it across Instagram.

Maybe one day I’ll dabble again but I accept I have a capacity—there are only so many things I can do so I choose to write.

Embracing the consistency threshold.

Over the years, I’ve come to recognize a hard truth: we all have a capacity—a threshold for what we can handle before consistency collapses under the weight of too much.

For some, that threshold is high. For others, like me, it feels lower. And that’s okay. I move slower than my peers. I procrastinate more than I’d like to admit. I get less done on any given day than I imagine I should. But I’ve stopped fighting this. Instead, I’ve embraced it.

What I’ve learned is that doing less forces prioritization.

It demands clarity about what truly matters. This is why I don’t post daily newsletters, jump on YouTube, or stretch myself across five platforms (anymore).

Those would tip me over my threshold. They’d lead to burnout, dissatisfaction, and, ultimately, inconsistency.

The key to sustaining consistency, I’ve found, isn’t about doing more. It’s about finding your threshold and respecting it.

Motivation is overrated.

Motivation is like a spark—it might ignite the fire, but it won’t keep it burning.

Waiting for it to strike is a recipe for inconsistency. Instead, what keeps the fire alive is fuel: the systems and habits you build to show up day after day, regardless of how you feel.

What truly matters is creating systems that work for you, embracing your natural rhythm, and respecting your own capacity. It’s about showing up consistently, even if it’s for just 10 minutes a day. Because over time, those small, incremental efforts compound into something far greater than bursts of inspiration ever could.

I don’t write because I’m endlessly motivated. I write because I’ve chosen to prioritize it, built habits that support it, and designed a system that ensures I don’t have to think about it too much. And in doing so, I’ve created the illusion of motivation—but it’s really just consistency in disguise.

You don’t need boundless energy or perfect circumstances to achieve your goals. You just need to start, no matter how small, and keep going.

Because in the end, consistency beats motivation every time.

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Landon