This just in, 2025 resolution-makers: “motivation is garbage,” according to Mel Robbins.
The author and podcast host sat down with former NFL stars Ryan Clark, Fred Taylor and Channing Crowder for an episode of their podcast The Pivot Podcast to talk about her recent book, The Let Them Theory: A Life-Changing Tool That Millions of People Can’t Stop Talking About .
The former lawyer and bestselling author was honest — even explicit — about what led to her success. “My story is very simple,” she said. “Everything that I talk about, I learned the hard way by f- – -ing up my own life.”
Humanity’s propensity to control the people closest to us is something Robbins’ says she knows all too well: so well that she’s chosen it as the focus of her own work.
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“Motivation, complete and utter garbage,” Robbins said. “I think it’s a joke that I’m called a motivational speaker. Because motivation is garbage.”
She explained that it’s not within human nature to want to continue working toward things that haven’t previously worked like breaking a bad habit, reversing negative self-talk or taking a risk.
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“You are never gonna feel like doing it,” Robbins said. “And what I learned the hard way is that we’re just, as human beings, not wired to do things that are painful or hard or new. The human body is wired to repeat patterns.”
Robbins described a rock bottom moment she had in 2008, where she had a pep talk with herself to bring about the change she desperately needed in her life.
“It is a fundamental part of human nature that pain is part of what’s necessary to organize the friction inside yourself to push yourself to change because we are wired to move towards what’s easy,” Robbins said.
In reality, Robbins said she believes everyone is “one decision away from a different life.”
“The decision to stop drinking changes your life. The decision to launch a podcast changes your life. The decision to work on your attitude changes your life,” Robbins said, while discussing what’s worked in her life. “Now you gotta show up every day and do the reps, but the decision is what changes the direction.”
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Robbins boiled it down to personal change coming from a place of desperation.
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“It’s the moment between knowing what you need to do and actually doing it,” Robbins said, explaining the theory. “And it defines everything. There’s a five-second window between a moment where you feel motivated and all of a sudden you’re not.”
When people give themselves too much time to think about acting on the thing they’re trying to change, doubt creeps in and they can just as quickly talk themselves out of what they tried to convince themselves to change in the first place.
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“If you think about something for longer than five seconds, you go from conscious thought to subconscious thought,” Robbins said.
The New York Times bestselling author put out her book latest, The Let Them Theory: A Life-Changing Tool That Millions of People Can’t Stop Talking About in December. The book poses the question: What if the key to happiness, success and love was as simple as two words: let them? It follows her previous books, The High 5 Habit and The 5 Second Rule.
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