No More Forcing It: The Secret to Effortless Motivation and Success

I first felt what it was like to be fueled by an unstoppable, burning desire when I co-founded my first business, Thrivalist. It was an incredible feeling—passionate, driven, and deeply purposeful. It wasn’t about external rewards or validation. It was something more powerful. Something intrinsic.

My ex-business partner, Jen, and I had both reached about 12 months into our sobriety journeys. We had each experienced early sobriety alone, feeling ashamed and disempowered, navigating a world that seemed to revolve around drinking (this was 2019 not 2025!) But during these 12 months we stumbled upon a secret—sobriety wasn’t a life sentence of boredom, reserved for people who couldn’t drink. It was exhilarating. It was freeing. It was a door opening into a new world of finally becoming our true selves, with no masks, no numbing, no hiding. It was so much more than just not drinking. We wanted to scream it from the rooftops. And we knew we had to launch something to help other women who were struggling with their drinking.

It was the beginning of COVID-19, and drinking rates had soared. Nearly 1 in 4 women was experiencing an alcohol use disorder. The need was urgent and at that time there was nothing really like it available for Australian women. In July 2020, we launched our first 8-Week Signature Sobriety Course. That was the start of a nearly four-year journey of supporting thousands of women around the world in changing their relationship with alcohol. We had women from many different countries signing up to join the Membership program. And I still get messages almost every week from a past Thrivalist member thanking me for helping them to change their life.

And during that time, I had never felt more alive.

The feeling of working on something so deeply aligned with my purpose was unlike anything I had ever experienced before. I woke up easily at 4 a.m. to work before my kids woke up. I devoured every self-development and sobriety book I could find. I became obsessed with medical research, psychology white papers, and—most of all—supporting the women who needed us. I was driven by a deep desire to make a difference, to help these women build wonderful lives in sobriety so they could break the cycle for their own children.

This was intrinsic motivation in its purest form. And it gave me access to an energy source that was almost effortless and seemingly limitless.