Flossing is an important aspect of our health. Nearly every dentist will ask if you do it daily. But the majority of people end up having to answer no. Even when they know they should be doing it, they don’t take the time to do so. And likely we don’t have much regret for it, except for that annual check-up at the dentists.

So we want to make a new habit. A new change. And we may consider it an important, or even essential, one. But what if we don’t feel the motivation?

Kevin Horsely discusses this in his book Unlimited Memory. The entire book details proven techniques to increase memory efficiency. And he tells us that simply practicing these strategies daily will have huge returns in the long-run.

But he understands most people won’t do be able to keep the practice like that. He pleads not to do practice based off of “motivation”. Because there are lifestyles that don’t require motivation. Like flossing. You just do it. Whether or not you feel like doing it is irrelevant.

When there’s a change you know you need to make, ensure there’s a system in place. We can’t rely on our feelings about it because feelings always change. But systems don’t. It doesn’t matter if we feel like not working out today. We likely can, so we just do it. It doesn’t matter if we feel it’s too cold for a run. Just put on a jacket and go. When the suddenly everything around you changes (as it is now), the easiest thing to do is to feel like you need to act differently. But you shouldn’t be for core actions.

Your can’t trust motivational feelings with important habits. Trust the system instead.