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Being realistic is as important for tactics as for goals – don’t set action steps that need willpower. We’ve all had enough false starts in life to know that there are times when we do not feel motivated, when we do not feel energized.

Those who achieve their goals are precisely the same as those who believe the least in willpower and assume they don't have any. The only way to guarantee forward movement during those downtimes is to design a solid strategy plus tactics that sustain commitment without the need for lots of willpower.

Specifically, your environment must be programmed, your schedule must be programmed, and your accountability must be programmed in such a way that all three support you, long after the emotional high is gone. Suppose, for example, that your goal is to make physical exercise a regular part of your life. It’s easy to get out there and exercise when you’re all fired up about your new program.

But if it’s willpower that fuels your effort, what happens on that cold morning in February when you find that you really don’t care about exercising and would much rather sleep? Willpower is gone, but the need remains. Only programming your environment in such a way that it is difficult or impossible not to do what you have committed to do will carry you through.  Even the simplest programming can be dramatically effective.

For example, Tony Robbins says he was invariably hungry when he got home at the end of the day. For a long time, he entered the house through a door that led him through the kitchen. He would tell himself repeatedly that he wasn’t going to snack before dinner. Sometimes willpower would carry him and sometimes it wouldn’t. As he walked through the kitchen, the environment was full of temptation. There was always something fattening that he could grab on the way through.

So, to program himself for success, he started entering the house through another door that did not take him through the kitchen. That route had no opportunities for failure. Tony says, "Believe me, this method is a lot more pleasant, and effective, than relying on willpower."

Identify those places, times, situations, and circumstances that set you up for failure. Reprogram those things so that they cannot compete with what you really want. Don’t think that there’s any kind of environmental manipulation that is insignificant.