I generally avoid motivation as a speaking topic because it’s often filled with clickbait headlines and arbitrary, context-free advice that isn’t relevant to anyone, anywhere. (I’m not angry). 

I do, however, find it frustrating to get good counsel when there are challenging things going on – especially when it comes to something as individualistic as motivation. Yes, everyone struggles with motivation from time to time, but everyone’s solution is going to be different. And that’s one of the difficult aspects of development, for me – finding a bespoke solution to a problem everyone is dealing with. Yet, it’s the only way that works. 

We all love motivation – we all want it, desire it, hope for it. We blame a lack of it for the reasons we don’t get what we want. It’s one of those intangibles that can be so elusive when we really need it. 

What I’ve found, though, in “re-finding” motivation to do things, is that it’s dynamic. I share some examples of triathlon, running and work on the podcast, but the things that motivated me before aren’t necessarily the things that would motivate me now. Those things might be the same or different – but regardless of that – I’m a different person with each new experience I encounter. 

Finding motivation to lace up shoes and go for a run is a metaphor for other things. While I recognize the benefit and joy of running (yes, I said joy) – there are just some days where it doesn’t click. And as we gear up for big change and big projects, motivation is at a premium and we don’t get many opportunities to “wait for it to show up.” 

So, I try to process it out. And for me, the two aspects that are generating the most motivation revolve around creativity and company. 

First, I need a “why” that impactful – and that comes from me being able to create something of value. This could be a program for work, it could be a training program for a race, it could be a new book or article. Creating value; something that’s generating a positive reaction and is helpful for other people, gets me jazzed and moving forward.

Second, though, is beyond me – it’s my ability to surround myself with other good, motivated individuals. While I can’t control what another person does, I can control who I surround myself with … and by surrounding myself with positive, motivated people, I’m inclined to circle back and get creative myself. 

More on the podcast, like how Eddie Vedder is making me motivated to do more triathlons … but finding out your people and your value are two of the fundamentals to true motivation. It’s not easy – it takes ongoing reflection and work – but the payoff will be big. 

Enjoy the week!

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Click Here for an Unedited Transcript of the Podcast

Speaker 1 (00:00):
3, 2, 1. Welcome to bellwether. Thank you for joining this week. We’re gonna talk about motivation. I’m talking to you about motivation today. I’m gonna keep it quick and short because I have a meeting in 12 minutes and we’ll see if I can get this recorded in time to do that. So I’m motivated to tell you about motivation in a very short and efficient time. Um, this week I talk about not just motivation. I want to talk about refining motivation. How do you get re-motivated? Because we all do things that we love. We all get jazzed about different types of things. We all get excited about, you know, new opportunities and new things. And, and we get older and we change and time goes on and, and we just kind of lose the spark as it were. And how do we find that spark again? And what do we have to do?

Speaker 1 (00:46):
And what kind of reflective exercises do we have to figure out to say, is this still something I should be motivated on? Is this still something I want to do? You know, all of these types of things. So I generally avoid the topic of motivation. Uh, um, I mean, I talk about it in different ways. I don’t like using the term motivation because it’s such a, there’s so much BS advice about it. Uh, I Googled it right before I did this, just to see if there was anything I really wanted to, to drive home and all I wanna drive home is don’t Google it because it’s just a bunch of bogus, like Buzzfeed collect, bait, headlines, you know, focus on something you love and you’ll be motivated and you like, like, okay, pound sand, thank you. That’s just not helpful. Um, and so everybody thinks that they’re an expert on motivation.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
They’re gonna tell you, oh, just go meditate and figure out what you love and, and follow your passion. And then they leave like they’re, you know, super coaches telling you what to do. And, uh, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t mean Jack. So, um, the focus on what you love, force yourself into a habit, um, it’s all BS. It’s just all garbage. And the reason it’s all garbage is because if you don’t wanna do something, you’re not gonna do it period. Right. That’s it. Right. So if you, whatever it is that you’re looking to do, and you’re trying to find motivation, uh, you’re probably looking in the wrong place. We’re probably focused on the wrong things. And I, I, I can relate to that pretty well. Um, and it was extremely relevant this weekend. So this weekend I was up, uh, it came a bit to a head.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
I signed up for a 20 mile run, why I do these things, I don’t know, but I signed up for a 20 mile run up at Martha’s vineyard. And, um, some people sign up to do it as a relay. Some people sign up, do the full thing because they’re stupid. And, um, and a lot of us, we just didn’t wanna do it. Our heads weren’t in it. We were like 20 miles. It’s cold. It’s rainy. Like why, why we’re in our forties? We’re grown individuals. Why are we choosing to do these things? And the nice part about being an adult is that you could choose to not do something right. And I’m a big proponent of, you know what? I just don’t wanna do it today and I’m not going to, and I’m a grown man. And I could just tell you that I’m not gonna run 20 miles today.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
So I ran 10 and that was fine. I still hated it, but I wasn’t, you know, and, and I was talking to my friend, Emily, who invited me up, she kind of coordinates this run with a bunch of her friends and she’s been gracious enough to, to invite me up. And, uh, her, her husband, Dennis, who’s been a friend of mine for over 20 years, um, is up. And we make like a big weekend out of it. And it’s a lot of fun and it’s great social interaction, but we were, were talking about, and she said, you should do a podcast on, on motivation. You know, it’s February Martha’s vineyard. It sounds like a cool idea. I don’t know when it does, but, um, but why aren’t we motivated to do this? We used to love it. We used to love this run. We used to be like RA RA, RA 20 miles.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
Let’s do this. And now it’s like, eh, you know why? And, and it related to me because the same thing happened to me last year, I signed up for a triathlon with a buddy. We were doing a half Ironman up in upstate New York. And I woke up that morning. I’m like, it’s not gonna happen today. Like, I’m just not, I wasn’t in it. Like, it’s just, and I, and I left my bike there and I, I didn’t sign up to, I signed up to do the race, but I, I didn’t show up. I went up and saw him. I said, I’m not, I’m not going today called me a punk, but he did it. And you can’t take your bike out of a triathlon until it’s over. So I basically gotta sit there and watch all these triathletes do it. Um, which was awful. But so what I did was I sat and I reflected.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
I’m like, why? Couldn’t like, I couldn’t get my head around doing a half Ironman that day. And I’d done a bunch of them before, and I reflected a lot on it. And why am I doing triathlon? And what’s the point in this? I’m spending all this money. I’m, I’m like, what’s why, why am I doing all of these things? And, and it was the same thing with the run this weekend. And, uh, my Tommy was actually pretty good. Cause I get triathlon magazine, triathlete magazine, one, whatever it’s called, they mail it to me. They still mail you a magazine, which is nice. And like, after I, two weeks after I had not done the triathlon, the headline article was, you know, if you can’t visualize yourself finishing a race, you probably shouldn’t do it cause you might hurt yourself. And I was like, all right, these people something’s going on in the triathlon world that other people aren’t motivated in the way that I’m motivated.

Speaker 1 (04:55):
Um, and so it resonated with me and it was really important. And, and what I figured as I was doing the race, not doing the race, sitting, reflecting on why I wasn’t doing the race was I signed up for triathlon to see if I could do it. And that was my why. Right. And I, I started with a and started with a 10 K run and then I went to a tough mud. And then I went to a, I don’t know, a, a sprint triathlon, an Olympic triathlon. I did a half Ironman. And then last year I full ma a full Ironman, uh, or two years ago, whatever it was. And so I’ve done it, I’ve done it. And I was like, okay, so now I’ve got a half Ironman. I’m like, I’ve already did a full right. What, what’s the point? You know, like, you know, I, I needed something bigger.

Speaker 1 (05:38):
Um, what’s next? And, and what I settled on is in this kind of clicked on me, cuz there were other things going on with, you know, why the business, you know, why I can help people. That’s great, but you know why? And we have to find these why’s in and out of it. And so, you know, what I had settled on was that I wanted to see if I could do it and I could do it. And there are a lot of things in my life that, that really motivated me up probably until I was like 40. Can I do it? Can I do a tough mother? Yes. Can I do an Ironman? Yes. Can I write a book? I did it right. All of these things. Right. Let me sign up for the craziest thing and people will. Why? Like I wanna see if I could do it and that was it and adventure time.

Speaker 1 (06:20):
Right. And that’s good. Just try something. If you fail, at least you tried it, yada, yada, it’s not good enough for me now. And um, maybe it’s because I’ve hit the max kind of crazy. I want to hit, you know, I could just sit there and say, maybe I have to do a hundred mile run. Maybe I have to do that. But then at what point, like I’m gonna be 80 years old doing like 10 mile runs. It’s not, it’s not really sustainable to keep going that way. So what I got on was I’ve seen that I could do things I could do whatever I, whatever I set my mind to now I wanna get good at it. And that’s where I settle. Right. I wrote a book now I wanna write a really good book. I did a triathlon now I’m I’m, my life is dedicated to beating my friend, Larry at tri Athlon.

Speaker 1 (06:59):
Um, I wanna get good at it to beat Larry. Um, so all of these things are, you know, we need something bigger. We need a why that’s bigger. And, and I I’m constantly brought back to when we talk about fitness and wellness and this is very fitness focused and I apologize for that. It’s only because it’s kind of relevant right now. But um, I always say, you know, it goes back to find something, to do, learn how to do it and then learn to love it. And I love it. I love triathlons and I love writing and I love these things, but sometimes that’s just not enough. Right? So finding something you love is not enough because there’s other things going on in our lives. And we make decisions based on because ultimately motivation is a decision you’re deciding to do something. And it’s based on the things we want to do at a certain time. That’s what motivation is. And as we continue to evolve our interest change and that’s okay, right. I’ve evolved. I I’m now I’m not a good triathlete, but I’m a athlete. Who’s done a full Ironman. So now my perspective’s different. I have to change what my motivation is going to be. I’m not an aspiring writer. I’ve actually written may not be good, but I wrote it and I published it and that’s fine. Right? So my perspective is different. Uh, I’ve had two conversations recently with friends about living in the city.

Speaker 1 (08:24):
It’s awesome in your early thirties, late twenties, but they’re in their late forties, early fifties. And, and they’re like, look, the city’s changed. I’m like the city hasn’t changed. You’ve changed. City’s still fun if you’re 30 years old, but now we’re kind of like get off my lawn, right? Get the hell outta here. And, and people are turning their back. And that’s ultimately where motivation to kinda lies in this. We changing in the world’s changing, but certain things are staying the same and it’s different. And it’s all of this type of stuff. And, and you know, you may love running at a younger age or boxing or whatever. Uh, maybe something new sparks your interest and you wanna do yoga. That’s fine. There’s always something bigger than what we are talking about in the moment and tapping into that is, is where your motivation lies.

Speaker 1 (09:09):
And, and so there are two things that I’ll leave you with that I wanna, for me, in terms of refining, motivation is not just about, you know, I decided to do this. So now I just have to get motivated to do it. Maybe you don’t. And so I would say two things for motivation. One is we all wanna feel valued. This is part one of motivation, right? When we feel, and when we know that we are bringing value, we are motivated. At least I am right. So I need to be bringing value. I get jazzed about doing cool stuff, L and D learning and development, adult learning, changing a corporation and the way they think about things and all of this stuff, uh, seeing an adult’s potential gets me jazzed, right? Like in crazy what ways? I just had a, a pre-call with someone who wants to be on the podcast and they’ve got this really cool creative idea.

Speaker 1 (10:02):
And I’m like, this is, this is amazing. And they got jazzed and motivated. And, um, but, but in order to, to bring value, we have to create something, right. We can’t just be of value. We have to create something. We have to do something and, and it’s not just taking orders. We have to execute. We have to come up with a good way to do it. That’s where motivation is. We can’t just be an expert and wait for people to come to us. We have to create something that we can be proud of. And, and it goes back to what are you creating? And, and I think that’s why the, the Beatles documentary on, on Disney was so big with the get back 10 hours. Um, and I just listened to a podcast on the way home from this run, I was introduced to it by my friends, Dennis and Emily, um, the smartless podcast with Willette and, and Jason Batman, Sean Hayes, they were interviewing Eddie Vetter.

Speaker 1 (10:53):
And, you know, today we’re at this point where we have just this unfettered access into how geniuses work and none of them are focused on what other people think. They’re only focused on creative process. If you watch the Beatles, get back, what, what you look at Paul McCartney, he wasn’t even there. When people were talking to him, he was thinking about something completely out there. He was committed to his work and the creative process and whatever it is. So we’re able to see the way these J genius is think, right? And the question struck me as I was driving home, listening to Eddie Vetter, talk about his, you know, why he makes the music he makes and all of this stuff like Eddie Vetter is one of the only rock stars that like true rock stars in the world. And so the question that came to me is what if Eddie Vetter showed up at my house, could I go toe to toe with Eddie Vetter?

Speaker 1 (11:44):
And I would love to go toe to toe with Eddie Vetter, right? That would motivate the hell outta me. And, and the answer should be like, hell yeah, I would like Eddie Vetter. If you listen to this and you need a people strategy for Pearl jam ring, a ding, man, let’s do it. Let’s rock. And, and they asked him the question, who haven’t you worked with and who would you want to? And he danced around. He said, basically, basically what he said is I have right. He just danced around it. But what he talks about is he likes creating things with interesting people. So it’s not that he wants to identify one person to work with, with, he wants to create things with interesting people. So what are you doing to make Eddie better? Wanna create something with you? And so that’s motivating to me.

Speaker 1 (12:20):
So that’s part of it. That’s a creative process is one, but the second part of it is social interaction. It’s gotta be social. It’s so much fun chatting with people this weekend. And we have to surround ourselves with people who are going to motivate us to be positive, upbeat, uh, it’s time to be selective to say, who’s going to help me get motivated about something else. The social component is so underutilized. That’s key is surrounding yourself with these type of people to get you to, to run the creative juices in, in your mind, and to challenge your way of thinking. And that sucks sometimes because if you like me, I don’t like interacting with a ton of people. I like sitting at home. So we have to be selective in finding these people. And it’s a real investment in yourself to find positive, motivated individuals.

Speaker 1 (13:07):
Those people who are, are, are going to be additive to you, that will help your creative process, create a process, plus social and interaction. That’s what’s gonna make motivation. Good. That’s what’s gonna be motivating for you. And I, I find myself now getting motivated about triathlon again, because I’m getting creative and how I’m gonna train for it. And I just was chatting with all these people about the cool things that they’re doing, and I’m learning from them about how they train for it. And now I’m actually really excited. I’m gonna beat the hell outta Larry when, when he tries to compete. But the, this is my strategy going forward. This is my, this is gonna be my motivation strategy is, you know, I have to create something. I have to try it and I gotta find other people to bounce the idea off of. And if they’re not gonna be additive to me, if I don’t surround myself with Eddie vets or Paul McCartney’s, then I gotta find those people and I have to be the Eddie Vetter or Paul McCartney to them. And it’s all to me, up to me. It’s my decision. It’s my, you know, when we talk about accountability, we talk about all these things. We ultimately lie in the bed that we make and the same thing goes for motivation. So good luck with that. I’m little late for my meeting, but you know what? You’re more important. You’re always more important. So have fun. Thank you for listening. And I look forward to talking to you soon. Thanks.