100 ways to stay motivated

Who needs inspiration every now and then? We all do and Wednesdays are going to be the days that we talk about how to stay motivated and inspired. How to stay motivated in your life, in your business, at work, in general. 100 ways to stay motivated based on Grant Cardone’s 100 Ways to Stay Motivated. But that’s what we’re going to talk about every Wednesday. So since this is the first one, this is the first time we’re doing it, I wanted to talk to you about exactly what is motivation. Right? Motivation can be kind of an out-there thing so what does it mean to be motivated?

Getting Motivated

Getting motivated and staying motivated are two different things. So sometimes it’s easy for us to get motivated for a thing and then when we encounter some obstacles or we encounter some resistance then we forget why we started in the first place and we let those things stop us from being motivated and continuing on. So these are some tools, and we’re going to talk about all the ways that you can tap into it.

But if you’re not motivated, nothing else matters. If your goals don’t inspire you then you will not take action. We kind of talked about this when we were talking about the roles of success and showing up but it doesn’t matter how great you are, how great you are at your job. It doesn’t matter what your product or service is, it doesn’t matter if you’re not motivated to tell other people about it, if you’re not motivated to continue to grow. If you’re not motivated to do the things that you have to do to be successful.

If you are not willing to learn, no one can help you. If you are determined to learn, no one can stop you.

Zig Ziglar

So motivation is a key aspect of success. So how do we get it? How do we stay that way? I’m going to read from the 100 Ways to Stay Motivated book here because Grant says it so succinctly and I don’t think I can do a better job. So he says that if you’re not motivated, you’re not going to get up and take action. And motivate is a verb, it’s an action word which means to provide with an incentive, to move to action or to impel something. To inspire, to drive, to stimulate, to provoke, to lead, move, cause, prompt, stir, trigger. To set something off, to inspire, to arouse, to prod, to get going. That is an action word. Motivation is an action word.

Start Taking Action

So a lot of people have trouble with this. A lot of people have trouble getting motivated and staying motivated. I see this a lot of time in the martial arts school, we get students that come in and they’re so excited. They’re so excited, they’re great, they want to come very day, all the time and then they get sore. Or then they get tired, or then they missed a few days of training and they can’t tap back into that or they have a hard time tapping back into that. They’ve lost their inspiration to train. It’s something that happens to a lot of us for a lot of different reasons. Sometimes we let life happen, we let other people’s priorities happen. We forget what we’re committed and motivated about. We forget our big why, why we started a thing. Or why we were inspired to begin a thing in the first place.

So I want you to know that it happens to everyone. We always talk about it in terms of muscle, we always talk about it in terms of repetition. Repetition is the mother of skill. And so just like when you’re working in your business and you’re going to school, you’ve got to keep doing things over and over and over to get good at it. And motivation isn’t any different. Motivation is exactly the same. So you’re going to have to keep getting motivated. And when you find yourself falling off, you’re going to have to keep finding ways to get yourself excited. Get yourself back in the game. My students know this, random strangers have found this out about me. I talk to myself a lot because sometimes I have to hear myself talk to myself to get myself in gear. That’s just one of the ways that I do it.

But that is why I thought this would be a great thing to do on Wednesdays because I know that we all struggle with it and we need practical things that we can do to get ourselves going. And that’s what this is about, okay?

You Know What To Do

It’s a desire to do the things that you have in you. And the very first, the very, very first thing we’re going to talk about is working to your potential and not your quota. So working to your potential. Potential’s going to be something you’re going to be hearing a lot about from me. Probably for the rest of this year because that is one of the things that I get to do for my students all the time. I get to see their potential and I get to help them work to that potential. And sometimes we have a hard time seeing those things about ourselves. Sometimes we have a hard time seeing what is really great about us because we’ve got all of our self-talk and stuff going on. So potential’s going to be something I’m going to be really, really talking about. And what is our potential? Potential is what you’re capable of doing. Not what you necessarily have the skills to do today. So that’s the key.

Rocky Beginnings

When I first started my martial arts journey, I inherited my school in a strange way. I inherited my school in a strange way and I found myself in a building with rent and internet and phone and all the fees and stuff associated with a building with zero students. So I, at the time, was just a brand new black belt, at the time, running the school. And it’s not something I thought I would find myself into. I tell my students all the time, becoming a martial arts instructor wasn’t something I ever planned. It wasn’t anything I ever wrote on my goal list. It wasn’t anything I ever put on my goal sheet. It’s something that came into my life. Because there was I was, with a school, with overhead, and no students. And I had to make a choice. Now, I knew that I love martial arts. I knew that I love to train. But I also knew that I needed some additional skills. So that was me making the choice to live up to my potential.

And not what everyone around me thought of me, right? The people around me, I said I inherited the school in weird way, so there were some not so good feelings. So the people around me, they doubted what I was capable of doing. But I knew me and I always know what I’m capable of. And I always know that what I set my mind to do, I will get done. And that’s what I tapped into, my potential as a martial artist, my potential as a martial arts school owner. And all it meant was I just had to train a little bit harder. It meant I had to go find people who were doing what I wanted to do and ask them for help, which I did. It meant me devoting the time that I needed to learn how to be an instructor, to be a better instructor. That’s what I committed myself to, to my potential.

Go For Your Potential

And I also always tell my students, being a martial arts instructor is one of the most fulfilling things I’ve ever done in my life. And not ever knowing it was something I needed, I always relay to them that I would not be doing and living my purpose if I hadn’t chosen to go after my potential. And yes, it was scary. And yes, I needed to stay motivated. And yes, there were times that I wanted to quit. All of those things happen, which is again why this is so important. But if you can tap into what you know you’re capable of and ask for help and find the tools and the means to do it, in the world that we live in today, that is so much easier than it used to be. I’m 29 forever so I’m not going to tell you how old I am but there was a time when it wasn’t so easy to access information. There was a time, and I know you’re not going to believe this, I know you’re not going to get it, but there was a time the world existed without YouTube and Google. Go figure.

But we do live in a world with YouTube and we do live in a world with Google. And so because we have access to that information, we have no excuses for not living up to our potential. We have no excuses for not taking action, to seek, to find a way to do those things that we know we’re meant to do. Okay? So that’s my challenge to you.

So my challenge to you today, on your potential, is to answer these questions. And I’d like for you to take the time to answer these questions. I really want you to tap into this and really start living to your potential, not your quota. So what does motivate you? Just think about the times where either you got it and achieved a goal that you didn’t think you could do or you felt so in the zone, you knew exactly what you were doing. What was it that got you there? And write it down. As specific as you can so that you can recreate this.

If People Follow You-You’re A Leader

And then number two, as a manager, as a leader, and I just want to take a quick detour here on leadership, leader doesn’t mean you have a title of leader. It doesn’t mean you have a title of manager. If you’re a mom running a household, you’re a leader. You’re a manager, right? If you oversee anyone. My yellow belts are leaders in my school because there are white belts beneath them that they get to be an example for. So don’t get hung up on that title. Don’t get hung up on the, “I’m just a.” Because if you are in a position to lead by example and show someone how to do something, you’re a leader. If you serve on a committee where you get to have the opportunity to inspire people, you’re a manager. Okay? So don’t get hung up on that title, just own that. And see yourself as that first.

Okay, but how do you motivate people around you? How do you motivate teams? How do you motivate colleagues? How do you motivate your peers? Think about it because I guarantee you that you do. I had this discussion with my black belt students last night. And specifically, John Huff, I’m sorry, I don’t mean to throw you under the bus. John Huff is my husband, but Mr. Huff, he’s not been training as much. Work has gotten really hectic and there’s a lot of things going on but I was explaining to them that we have a student, Mr. Dev, who is a second-degree black belt with me who trained with Mr. Huff. And he’s come back to training from college and all he had to do was ask Mr. Huff to come to class and Mr. Huff came to class.

You Are Inspiring Those Around You

So I shared with them that you do not know how who you can inspire or who you are inspiring. But we all have that capability. And the students laugh but I wasn’t kidding. I told them last night, I said, did they think that I didn’t ask Mr. Huff to come out to class? Of course, I did. But I’m just his wife. I’m not as influential for him when it comes to training as Mr. Dev is. So just know that those relationships exist in your world too if you look for them and you choose to look at why. Why is Mr. Dev inspiring Mr. Huff more? Because they have a common enemy, me, right? Because I made them do things they didn’t want to do. They bonded over that. They feel like they’re in the trenches together and that works. As long as Mr. Huff comes to class and Mr. Dev comes to class, I’m okay with it. All right?

Ask The People Around You

So look in your life for that and then I want you to think about your products and services, so these are for my business owners, but on Fridays, we’re going to talk about how everyone’s a salesperson. Everyone’s a salesperson so just think about what you promote, what you need to promote in your life to get your life the way that you want and how do you inspire your customers to take action? For all the sales that you have made, what was the reason they bought? And it’s easy to find out if you don’t know. Call your best customers and ask them, “Hey, I’m so glad you’re a customer. Why did you buy this from me? Why did you choose to do business with me?” They’ll tell you. And you’re going to be surprised and you’re going to feel like a superhero because you’re going to be like what? That’s what they think about me? So think about how do you motivate them.

Success is not final; Failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts

Winston Churchhill

And then, explain how important motivation is to your business. If you’ve never thought about it, give it some thought. How important is motivation to your business and your life? And so I don’t want you to get lost in all of the things that you didn’t do here. This is not what this exercise is about. This exercise is about tapping into the things that you’ve done and recreating them. So don’t get stuck in all of the things you didn’t do or didn’t accomplish in your business. We want to recreate the successes. So think about this, how important is it? And when you were completely committed and motivated, what did it look like? Okay? So those are the things that I want you to take away from this training today.

And I really want you to get ready to be motivated. Get ready to be inspired. We’re going to do this every Wednesday and we’re going to give you the practical application. My goal for you is to take these things and apply them. And keep applying them. So just remember this is a muscle. Just when you get to that first level, you don’t stop. If you stop, you retreat. We don’t want to retreat, we want to keep going. So for every new level, we’re going to have to revisit this exercise. And we’re going to have to find ways to keep recreating this. This is what we’re doing. We’re recreating our motivation, we’re recreating our success. It is Wednesday and we’re just in the middle of the week. We’ve got plenty of week left to get motivated to do some things that we need to do. Get motivated, recreate that success, and I will see you guys on Friday.

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