I don’t remember the details but there was an Internet story about a dude who’d say “man up” and people explained why that was a problem and he updated to “fortify”. And I really like that, because it kinda suggests also getting help where you need it to build up your defenses in order to face the thing you need to face.

Suck it up.

Embrace the suck.

Stop being a pussy (I use this sparingly and only around people who I know can handle it. If they take offense, I tell them since I, being a woman, have a pussy, I get to say that. I am reclaiming the word.)

Your feelings are valid. Job still needs doing.

You don’t get to the Promised Land without going through the Wilderness. You don’t get there without crossing over hills and mountains, but if you keep on keeping on, you can’t help but reach it. We won’t all see it, but it’s coming…

It’s kinda sorta stoicism, just phrased in a judgmental, dismissive way, that is also pointlessly and rather toxically gendered. It’s close to the minimum amount of helpfulness “advice” can possibly have.

Being done with stuff feels good if your reward system is working properly. Other than that, while you can have “inertia” issues getting started and that feels kinda stressful, procrastination tends to get stressful too, after a while. At a certain point you’ll just have delayed the gratification to fit in some more worried and often unsatisfying faffing around.

Since pushing through whatever seems to work for you and make you feel better, I would focus on that instead of nonsense about not being macho enough.

“Sometimes you’ve just got to grab your balls and jump”

“I have to get over this some time, why not now?”

~ Louis Wu, from Ringworld, written by Larry Niven.

“Because I’m not ready” is also a valid answer, but it gets your brain moving towards the goal I find.

Old guy at work asks me if I like my job and I say no. He says “Work is for family not for you.”

“Be the change you want to see in the world.” “If not me the who, if not now then when.”

“Either I get over it, get through it, or I have to learn to live with it”

When I was strugging with motivation in getting out to go for a run or whatever I found “Just do it” to be fairly effective. Only later realizing I was lifting the Nike slogan. Still, it works for me.

Buckle up Buckaroo

Edit: The wife and I always use the term “rally”. Like, “Here we go a-rallying again” or “we’re rally-gals today”. So maybe instead of “man-up”, you could try “It’s time to rally”?

My usual is: Can’t stop, won’t stop!

Truthfully, I feel the response that said “Action over anxiety” is probably the best one I’ve seen in this thread.

I have a bunch of things I tell myself to try to keep up my motivation, and it does change depending on my mood. I’ll sometimes be kind and gentle with myself, silly, stoic, angry, and - try as I might to avoid it - even self-abusive sometimes.

But, really, though. It’s not about the phrase or the wording, it’s about motivation.
My ‘battle cry’ changes depending on how I’m feeling, but the underlying reality is that we must do these things.

It’s best if we don’t motivate ourselves with toxic masculinity or self-abuse, but it kind of doesn’t matter what we say: We must continue on.
The only other option is stagnation and death.

Just keep swimming, friend.

Technically what you’re describing is discipline. It takes a lot of will power to just make yourself do something. You can take pride in that. Call yourself disciplined, principled, stoic.

In fact, you might broaden your perspective on this particular subject by looking into stoicism. It’s like a “manly” mindset but without the gender or toxicity attached.

Face your fear. Do you feel scared to do something? That’s totally valid and understandable. Do it scared. My point is, don’t ignore the feelings. Acknowledge the feelings, then do it anyway.