I should note that I do like and use this as a metaphor in casual conversation, mostly as a way to ask my spouse or friend if they'd like to add motivation in some way to get me over the hump to start doing something I think benefits us both.

However, I tend to think of it as a shallow similarity, and I'm hesitant to try to draw deeper inferences from chemistry into motivation theory. I don't know if the anti-akrasia tactics being mentioned by many comments here are reducing the activation energy, adding energy to cause the reaction, or providing an alternate reaction path like a catalyst. I don't even know how to measure it so that I can determine which of these (if any) are in play.