Motivation is one of life’s great mysteries. Life touches us differently, or maybe I should say, each of us lets life touch us a little differently.
There are those of us who wake up each day eager to see what the day has to offer and there are those who would prefer just to stay in bed.
Some people use poverty as a reason to achieve greatness, others use it as an excuse to stay poor.
With any luck there will be a few people who will read this blog and go, “Yes, I’ll never be the same again!!” And at the same time I know there will be many who will say something along the lines of, “Yeah, yeah…I’ve heard that before. But my situation is completely different. It’d never work for me.”
What I’ve found is that each of us has a trigger somewhere deep within.
Sometimes we don’t even know what it is.
I’ve had clients that needed pushing, others needed pulling and some just needed to be left alone. The problem is that most of us wait for other people to motivate us.
In many ways it’s like a child that needs to be told to do their homework. They know they should do it, but very few of them are motivated to just get it done.
A while ago I was working alongside one person who really got under my skin because when I would ask them to do something small for me (a job that would take less than five minutes) I would get an email back later explaining why they shouldn’t have to do it or a reason why they hadn’t done it.
The big problem was the length of the email. As they were a slow typist I estimated that the email had taken them close to 20 minutes to write, if not longer.
Not only did I have to read an email that insulted my intelligence but I still didn’t have what I needed. Sigh.
But I learned a valuable lesson from that, I realized that there is only one person that we should be trying to motivate, and that’s ourselves.
Self-motivation is powerful.
You’ll finish jobs faster, more efficiently and with less trouble.
So where can we find motivation? Thanks to the Internet it’s easier than ever.
Here are a few places that I look for motivation to write my blogs and help me create new ideas:
- Facebook – People post some of the most inspiration and funny things here, just the other day a friend of mine posted this as their status – “There are 5 things in life you cannot recover–a stone…after it’s thrown, a word…after it is said, an occasion…after it’s missed, the time…after it’s gone, a person…after they die. Life is short. Break the rules. Forgive quickly. Kiss slowly. Love truly. Laugh uncontrollably; And never regret anything that made you smile. Enjoy Life!!!”
- A movie – How many great movies are there out there? While I think there are lots of good movies there are only a handful that I consider great, maybe around 200 or so. These movies are timeless classics and stand the test of time. They are the movies we compare all others to.
- A book – Stories of people overcoming pain and suffering, success stories, health tips, economic advice, language study, travel ideas, mysteries that will make you think, and many many more. Books are the most under-appreciated form of knowledge today.
- Friends & Family – Share their deepest thoughts and fears with us as well as some of the funniest stories we will ever hear.
- Teachers – Speaking from my experience I can say that many teachers are forgettable but there are those that will have a special place in my heart. And today a big part of my life is mentors and their teachings.
- Yahoo News – Every now and then we come across some story that makes our hearts sing and our knees weak. We hear about people overcoming great tragedy, poverty, danger, circumstance.
The list is endless but these are where I spend most of my time gathering stories for future reference.
They allow me to see the principles that I talk about here in action.
They give me food for thought.
Not a day goes by that I am either inspired by someone’s courage or astounded by someone’s stupidity.
That’s the joy of life, it’s always changing, never predictable.
Let life, and all that it has to offer, inspire you to achieve your goals.
Adrian Shepherd
I recently did a speech about writing your goals down, used “Don’t Forget the Milk” as a tag line. Thanks for reminding me to look in everyday places for awesome inspiration. Thanks Scott
Great idea Scott…glad to know that I was able to help. That’s why I wrote my book, that’s why I write these blogs – to offer perspective and ideas. Hope you are enjoying reading over my previous blogs as well.
One thing I find is true having listened to so many lectures is that the simpler the story we tell, the more it resonates with the listeners so “Don’t Forget the Milk” must have been a winner. If you put something up on youtube sometime let me know, would love to take a listen.
Adrian