Where Does Motivation Come From?

Before we dive in, let me caveat this post.  I have 0 official qualifications in tackling this question.  I don’t have a background in Psychology, I’ve never done focus groups asking people about their source of motivation, and I’ve never read a book or article on the subject.  If you think for 1 second though this is going to stop me from talking 100% authoritatively about this, you clearly don’t know me well enough.  Here we go with some random potential sources of motivation:

Pride:  I like to think of pride as a state of being proud or a delight / elation arising from some act.  Ok, so Webster’s may have helped a bit with that but there is no question pride is a huge source of motivation.  All of us have felt that almost indescribable urge to “finish what we started,” “make it happen,” “be your best,” etc.    

Shit-talking:   Want to get motivated to perform your best?  I highly recommend shit-talking.  I mean, it worked for Michael Jordan.  It seems a good general rule of thumb to live by is if Michael Jordan did it, it must be great.  Text message is my preferred means of broadcasting all my trash talking to others these days.  This works…trust me.

Nature:    Have you ever been to the top of a mountain to see how small people, cars, buildings, etc. look down below?  There isn’t a better way to make you realize what your place really is in this enormous world than looking at Earth from high above.  It can also help provide motivation by making you realize you’re too caught up in the day-to-day to notice what really matters.  Fact…getting too caught up in stuff that doesn’t matter has happened to you…probably even in the last 24 hours.

Blogs:  I had no idea this could be a source of motivation until I launched Schmeis 35 for 35 and people told me it was motivating.  So, I guess by definition it has to make the list of sources of motivation.

Dreams:  There is no doubt that dreaming big is a huge source of motivation.  Can you picture yourself looking the way you want?  Can you imagine winning a race that you never thought was possible?  True, you’ll probably always be ugly and will never win the race but dreaming can give you the motivation to at least try!

Targets:  There is a saying in entrepreneurship and business that is very applicable here: “Think global, act local.”  Here, the “global” thinking relates to the big dreams and the “local” thinking relates to specific tasks and training along the way.  What exactly are you trying to achieve?  Notice in my list of 35 I didn’t just say “drink a beer really fast.”  I said “chug a beer in 3 seconds.”  Use specifics…ambiguity kills motivation!

Snowball:  We all know the concept of a snowball…it starts small, momentum builds off of itself, blah, blah, blah.   Making progress (no matter what the topic) makes me feel great.  When setting targets, I encourage you to take a snowball approach and start with something small like “I want to be able to jog 1 mile without stopping” and build from there.  Setting realistic targets and starting the snowball is a great approach to progressing toward longer term dreams.

Under promise, Over Deliver:  We’ve all heard of it.  Use this method!  There is no downside and getting positive feedback from achieving more than what was expected is very rewarding.

Accountability:  One of the most genius things behind The Schmeis 35 for 35 (and trust me, there are a lot of genius things to choose from) is to loop in others in the quest.  Suddenly, it’s not only about me convincing myself to get out of bed, but I’ve got family and friends riding me about getting my ass up as well.  The most basic concept of this is having a workout partner.  It’s been proven time and time again that if you’re scheduled to meet someone at the gym, you’ll be there…if left up only to you though, it is easy to talk yourself out of it.

Experiences:  Being dealt a bad hand in life happens to all of us from time to time.  Maybe you lost a relative, maybe you sustained a bad injury, or maybe you failed to achieve something you had your heart set on.  In any case, drawing on previous experience as a source of motivation is enormously helpful.

You Tube:  This truly is an unbelievable place to find motivation.  There are some amazing experiences others have gone through that even make an emotionless robot like me get a little of that liquid substance to start coming down from my eyes.  When I first started thinking about triathlons, I searched YouTube for “triathlon motivation.”  When you’re done reading this post, check out the video in the upper-right hand corner of the page (click on the 1st one).  It is beyond motivational.  It’s a story of a father who finished an Ironman while carrying his handicapped son the whole way (yes, the full 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and 26.2 mile run).  I’m voting it as the most impressive athletic feat I’ve ever seen.

Ok, let’s take a look at the full list again without all the explanations:

1.      Pride

2.      Shit-Talking

3.      Nature

4.      Blogs

5.      Dreams

6.      Targets

7.      Snowball

8.      Under-promise

9.      Over-deliver

10.  Accountability

11.  Experiences

12.  You Tube

I count 12 items in total.  Now, most good consultants, text books, lectures, etc. will say to limit a list like this to 3-5 items but I had way too much wisdom to share to be boxed in like that.  As I’ve mentioned before though, I am a big fan of structure so maybe I can take the first letter of each of these 12 items and come up with a cool acronym.  That seems to be a good trick I’ve seen used before.  Ok, let’s take a look at the first letters and see what we’ve got to work with…this should be fun:

PSNBDTSUOAEY

Give me a second here to play around with the letters.  On a related note, I may be one of the world’s top Scrabble players.  I know this because I can consistently beat my mom.  Ok, the first possibility just hit me:

NASTY DOPE BUS

“NASTY DOPE BUS” makes a lot of sense since a dope bus would probably be nasty.  It has a good ring to it but I’m not sure how easily I can tie it to motivation.  Let’s move on to another possibility:

BUSY NOTEPADS

I absolutely love “BUSY NOTEPADS” as an acronym except for the fact that notepads tend not to be busy at all.  In fact, most notepads I have tend to just sit on my desk and wait around for me to write something on them.  Notepads just don’t really strike me as having a terribly hectic lifestyle so they can’t be BUSY.  Clearly, this one is out…Next!:

NUDE POSSY TAB

Hmmmm, the word “nude” is always fun to use but there are lots of problems with this one.  First, I’m pretty sure POSSY isn’t spelled correctly and I’m a stickler for grammar and spelling.  Also, while I would think a posse would drink a lot of beer and therefore have a TAB, I rarely see a NUDE posse at a bar so having a NUDE POSSY TAB just seems too far-fetched for me.  This one’s out.  Damn, this is tough. 

Wait, I think I’ve got it!!!!:

DON’T BE A PUSSY

Let’s face it, this one is brilliant…definitely the winner…pure gold.  Said in other ways, DON’T BE A PUSSY means just get it done…stop wimping out…no excuses.  It’s a perfect reminder of what to tell yourself when you’re not feeling motivated.  You can focus on Dreaming, Over-delivering, Nature, Targets, Blogs, Experiences, Accountability, Pride, Under-promising, Sh*t-talking, Snowballs,  and You Tube or you can just put it all together as you start your own goals for 2012 and remember:  DON’T BE A PUSSY.

Before you leave, check out the video in the upper-right hand corner of the blog (click on the 1^st one).  If this doesn’t motivate you, nothing will.