#100 Why joy beats motivation every time - the secret to long-term success
Sat Jul 12 2025
If you have set a long-term target for yourself – that can be finding a (better) job or running a marathon – what you need to be successful is NOT motivation, it’s also NOT discipline, but it is: JOY!
Here is why:
When you set yourself a target, you will have a huge initial motivation – but this will drop after a few days or weeks.Discipline alone might keep you going, but just push you to do something in a painful way.But when you enjoy the process you will keep going! Simply because you like it! And it will increase your chances to succeed, because other people can feel it if you put real passion into something.
I had committed myself in autumn 2021 right after I launched this podcast that I want to produce 100 episodes. I am so proud to reach this target now here today! 100 episodes after 3,5 years!
And what was the biggest contributor to that was indeed the joy that I had with coming up with topics, talking into a microphone, cutting and publishing the episodes and promoting them on social media.
With this milestone, I am also deciding to stop here. This 100th episode is also the last one so far of the ‘Spotlight your TRUE self’ podcast. Of course, all published episodes will stay online.
What I will do next is setting up my career coaching business and I will definitely continue to be very active on Social Media to share my thoughts and interact with you there. Let’s connect on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaela-kettner-6a67a993/ ) or Instagram (@michaela.kettner.fi)!
Keywords: Skilful self-presentation, successful career, fulfilling career, important for career, successful in my job, self-confidence, job search, unemployed, target setting, reaching goals, achieving, success, long-term commitment, enjoy the journey, keep motivation up, finding discipline
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If you have set a long-term target for yourself – that can be finding a (better) job or running a marathon – what you need to be successful is NOT motivation, it’s also NOT discipline, but it is: JOY! Here is why: When you set yourself a target, you will have a huge initial motivation – but this will drop after a few days or weeks.Discipline alone might keep you going, but just push you to do something in a painful way.But when you enjoy the process you will keep going! Simply because you like it! And it will increase your chances to succeed, because other people can feel it if you put real passion into something. I had committed myself in autumn 2021 right after I launched this podcast that I want to produce 100 episodes. I am so proud to reach this target now here today! 100 episodes after 3,5 years! And what was the biggest contributor to that was indeed the joy that I had with coming up with topics, talking into a microphone, cutting and publishing the episodes and promoting them on social media. With this milestone, I am also deciding to stop here. This 100th episode is also the last one so far of the ‘Spotlight your TRUE self’ podcast. Of course, all published episodes will stay online. What I will do next is setting up my career coaching business and I will definitely continue to be very active on Social Media to share my thoughts and interact with you there. Let’s connect on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaela-kettner-6a67a993/ ) or Instagram (@michaela.kettner.fi)! Keywords: Skilful self-presentation, successful career, fulfilling career, important for career, successful in my job, self-confidence, job search, unemployed, target setting, reaching goals, achieving, success, long-term commitment, enjoy the journey, keep motivation up, finding discipline