With most things, there’s a fine line between “not hardcore” and “too many excuses.”
Setting a reasonable, realistic goal is critical in walking this line.
For most people most of the time, “hardcore” is not the way to go. It’s not sustainable. If you’re in a situation where it’s critical to be all in and right now, then do it. But that’s not most of us (psychologically) most of the time.
For most people most of the time, setting small goals—goals that maybe even seem like not goals at all because they’re so small—is the way to go.
Set a small goal. One small goal.
Relentlessly stick to it. No outs. No excuses.
Once that’s a habit, repeat the process.
In time, you have a whole new set of habits. It takes time, but it’s doable and it’s worth it.
Imagine you started that process a year ago. You’d have three or four or six small changed habits. You’d be so grateful to yourself for starting.
Imagine yourself in a year. Do what you need to do to make one-year-from-now you as grateful as you would be now to one-year-ago you if you had started then.