
Remember to Live with Corean Canty
Remember to Live is a podcast born from a simple but profound realization: there is such a thing as too late. Through candid conversations with real people living intentional lives, we explore what happens when we refuse to postpone joy to some distant "someday."
Each episode showcases individuals who are putting the "living" back into "making a living" – people who've chosen presence over endless hustle, who understand that climbing the corporate ladder isn't worth sacrificing health, relationships, and moments that matter.
Inspired by my experience as a caretaker for my mother with dementia, my own burnout, and the eye-opening lessons from "The Five Regrets of the Dying," this podcast offers practical tools and honest insights to help you make small changes that lead to a big life.
Whether through guest conversations or solo episodes, you'll find actionable strategies to create a life with fewer regrets.
Join us on this journey to live a big, full, no-regrets life – because while it's never too late to dream, there absolutely is a "too late" to do.
ABOUT THE HOST:
Corean Canty knows firsthand there is such a thing as "too late." After years of following society's "shoulds" and pursuing titles and salaries at the cost of her health and happiness, her life changed forever when she stepped into the role of caretaker for her mother. This eye-opening experience taught her a simple truth: someday isn't guaranteed.
Instead of postponing joy to a distant future, Corean made the courageous decision to redesign her life on her own terms. Today, as an Idea Catalyst and TEDx speaker & Coach, she helps people find their voice, tell their story, and transform their lives and businesses.
Through the Remember to Live Podcast, Corean creates candid conversations with people who have chosen presence over endless hustle. She invites others to stop waiting for "someday" and start living now – because while it's never too late to dream, there absolutely is a "too late" to do.
Remember to Live with Corean Canty
Discipline Over Motivation: Stop Waiting to "Feel Like It"
summary
This week, I explore why discipline outweighs motivation and share practical strategies for taking action even when you don't feel like it. And why waiting for motivation often holds us back from creating the life we want.
takeaways
- Protect your energy and peace, especially in challenging times.
- Reflect on past lessons to integrate them into your life.
- Discipline is more effective than relying on motivation.
- Taking action can lead to motivation, not the other way around.
- Start with small, manageable steps to build momentum.
- Remove friction to make it easier to take action.
- Pair necessary tasks with enjoyable activities to boost motivation.
- Life is happening now; don't wait for the perfect moment.
- Create the life you want by taking consistent action.
- Use tools and strategies to navigate uncertainty and chaos.
Chapters
00:00
Embracing the New Year and Reflection
02:14
Discipline Over Motivation
03:54
Taking Action: The Key to Motivation
06:42
Small Steps and Removing Friction
09:15
Pairing Actions with Enjoyment
11:02
Creating Momentum Through Action
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To connect with and learn more about me and how I am Remembering to Live, you can find me on Instagram @coreancanty or at coreancanty.com.
To work with me and explore freebies, check out: https://coreancanty.com/links/
If you are ready to re-imagine, re-claim and re-design your life, book a possibility call today.
Corean Canty (00:00)
Hey friends, welcome back to the Remember to Live podcast. It's me, Corean And I want to kick off this solo episode by acknowledging I know this year has been a lot already and it's only January. So here's a reminder to protect your energy, protect your peace, find joy in where you can.
and lean into the communities that nurture you and lift you up.
And so since it is the beginning of the year and my birthday is also at the beginning of the year, I do a lot of reflection around this time. I do a lot of reviewing what have I learned in my life in the last couple of years that I can apply. How can I integrate those lessons into my life? How can I look at the habits that I have and create new ones or better ones, ones that help me show up to life more, that help me find more of the joy and the happiness that we all seek.
And one of these lessons that I've learned, especially these last couple of years, being an entrepreneur is that discipline is greater than motivation. And now I'm one of those people who historically, I like to do things when I feel like doing it. I look for motivation, I lean into motivation, but I feel like lately there's just been a lot of not feeling like it, you know?
And so I started looking at how do I get past this? Because I realize all the times I'm putting off all the things I know are good for me, all the things I know I need to do, not only for my health and wellbeing, but for my business, for my relationships, for this life I'm building, for the experiences I want to have. I mean, even things that fill me up, sometimes I just don't feel like doing it. And I don't want...
pushing those things off because I don't feel like it means that they never happen or get done.
How many of you can relate to this? How many of you just ain't feeling it a lot lately, right? You're just not feeling like doing those things that you need to get done. How many of you struggle with this like I do?
So as I dug into this topic more, I stumbled upon research on behavioral activation therapy. And it shows that taking action precedes motivation, not vice versa. And so many of us are sitting around waiting to feel motivated to do something, but in reality, taking the action is what brings about the motivation.
Taking the action is what brings about the good feelings and the inspiration. Taking the action. So how do we learn to push through and take the action when we just ain't feeling it? That's what I wanna dig into a little bit today. So I have a few short quick tips to help you if you're struggling, especially this year, to find the motivation to get the things done that you need to do
for your life, for your family, for your work, for your community.
So number one, start small. Sometimes we're unmotivated because we have these big goals or we think we have to take these big leaps or we think that we have to go all in on the change that we want to make in our lives. But in reality, starting small helps us take micro actions that will bring about the motivation to do more. So an example of this, a common example especially, we're at the beginning of the year, a lot of us are
back on our health journey, or thinking about going to the gym or working out more, know, summer bodies are built in the winter.
but it's cold and it's dark in the morning. And so when that alarm goes off, no matter how much intention we might've had for hopping out of bed and getting to our workout and getting to our movement, we don't really feel like it. So what's one small, tiny step that we can take to get started, right? It could be as simple as laying your gym clothes out right next to your bed.
having your gym shoes right there next to your bed, putting your yoga mat on the floor next to your bed, rolling out of bed and do some stretches to help you get up in the morning. Like what's the tiniest action that you can do to help you take that step? Or if one of your goals was to write more this year, if you want to write that book or even just get your content out there, start posting more, write one sentence.
Like you might not feel like it. might think you don't have anything to say, but if you commit to sitting down and writing one sentence, I guarantee more will follow.
or like that book that's been sitting next to your bed for three months that you've really been wanting to read, but you swear you don't have the time for. Read one page, just one page and see what happens.
And now the next thing that you can do to make that tiny step even easier is remove friction. If we go back to the gym example, you know, having the clothes right next to your bed removes the friction and the excuses of having to get up and find your workout clothes and find your gym equipment or having to move to a different location. So having those things ready removes the friction of having to get prepared in the morning.
I know some people who even sleep in their gym clothes so they can just pull the covers back and go. And once they get into the action and the movement, they feel better. I think many of us can think of a time when we didn't feel like it. We didn't feel like exercising or moving or taking the walk or going to the gym or going to that yoga class. And then we do, we push through and we feel better. And we actually come out of it more motivated to do other things that we
did not feel like we had the energy to do before. So find little ways to remove the friction. Another example of this is, say one of your goals is to drink more water. It's a common goal that many of us have and we struggle with. Well, what happens if you put a water bottle in every room? So there's never an excuse that you have to get up and go to another room and pour the water and do all the things, right? How do you find small ways to remove friction in your life?
to help you take those tiny steps, those micro actions that will bring the motivation, that will bring about the change in your life.
Okay, my third tip for today, and this is one that's probably helped me the most on this journey, and that's pairing it with something that you enjoy. So many times, even if we've removed the friction, we've identified a tiny micro action to take, we still just don't feel like it. So how do we pair some of these things we know we need to do for ourselves with things that we also know we enjoy? So that way,
we can manufacture some motivation to get us going so we can start the real cycle of taking action and bringing about those good feelings and bringing about the true motivation. A perfect example of this is that show that your friends have been telling you to watch that you've really wanted to watch just to kind of binge out on, but you haven't given yourself the time to sit down and relax because your to-do list is so long. Well, that...
basket of laundry that's been sitting in your room for three days needs to be folded. How about pairing that with that show that you want to watch? So you're doing two things at once. You're getting the action done and you're having something that you enjoy along the way. Or for me, as I'm on this writing journey, one of my biggest goals is to write my book, right? But you don't always feel like writing when you're a writer. And sometimes you're waiting for motivation to get started.
and you could wait forever. So one of my favorite things is to pair writing with my favorite coffee shop and going and allowing myself to get a treat or get my favorite drink or get something that makes me feel good and cozy and sit down and commit to one page. And if that's how I can do that day, fine. But at least I've treated myself. I written something, but rarely once I write one page, is that all that happens. So pairing those things together.
really helps to give me the boost that I need to push through when I just don't feel like it.
Another one of my favorite examples here is listening to a podcast or even listening to a story that I'm really into. I really like fantasy. So I listen to my favorite books while I'm walking. If I'm not doing a walk and talk, which many of you see me do on social media, but I love to pair these activities together because I'm getting my movement. I'm getting to listen to a podcast or favorite book that I don't feel like I have time to do.
And so the pairing of those helps me take the action that I know I need for my wellbeing, but also for my joy and happiness. Because let's face it, we all like rewards. We all like to have our little treats and the things that make us feel good. So finding ways to pair them with the things that we know we need to get done, the things that we need to do, these micro actions that we're taking to...
get us moving in the direction that we want to go on these projects and these things we want to accomplish in our life helps.
So the main point I'm trying to make here is find the small ways that you can take action even when we don't feel like it. Don't wait for the spark of motivation because research shows that taking the action is what leads to the motivation. And once we start taking action and the real motivation comes, that's when we have the momentum to change our life.
Creating the life we want requires us to show up to it, even when we don't feel like it, especially when we don't feel like it. There are too many people right now staring down a pile of regrets from a life of not feeling like it, from a life of pushing things off until you get motivated, from a life of making excuses.
and they get to a point where it's too late. It's too late to do those things. Someday didn't come. You didn't take the action or make the time or take the leap or do the things that you really wanted to do in life. And there will be a point when your brain and your body are no longer capable of some of the things that you want to do, even if you can still dream about it.
Life is happening right now. Take action. The motivation will follow.
So this is what I'm leaning into this year. I'm really leaning into taking the action, whether I feel like it or not, which can be really hard sometimes, but I want to take responsibility for creating the life I want. And I know to do that, I have to have the tools to push through those not feeling like it times so I can create more momentum and motivation in my life.
Instead of waiting for motivation and good feelings to create good things in my life, I'll be taking action to create those good things that in turn create the motivation and the good feelings.
So what actions are you gonna take this week to make your life better? What little nuggets did you take away from this episode? I'd love to hear.
So as we move forward in a year of unknowns and uncertainty and a little bit of chaos, let's be real, whole lot of chaos, let's remember to use the tools that we have to find our joy, to protect our peace, to protect our energy, to continue creating the lives we want, and let's do everything we can to help each other remember to live. Until next time, my friends, sending you.
Love and light.