Motivation to Inspire You
It was a beautiful summer day, with the sun beating on my face and the wind in my hair. The expression of nature in the distance moved me to tears, and I knew life would never be the same. I was truly inspired. Silence was in the air, only broken by the faint whisper of me passing gas...then the feeling went away. Ok, snap out of it! Man to man, inspiration is nothing but a feeling - and if you let it guide your life, your life won't work. Men are guided by their commitments, and take the necessary actions to serve those commitments. If those feeling have you take action - great - but you can never rely on them to be reliable enough to honor your commitments.
So, how do you take actions in areas where you haven't been taking the necessary actions - maybe where you've been waiting to be inspired. Two methods:
Method 1: A tried and true method that has been used by men for centuries. Like when you're at the top of a high-dive board and have to decide to jump or climb back down. The solution comes to you in seconds - Fuck It! Then jump. Nike had this one more elegantly put with - Just Do It!
Method 2: Take smaller actions to set you up for success in reliably taking the actions you want to take. Not being as elegant as Nike, we call this the Screw It method - not to be mistaken for the Fuck It method.
- Schedule - If there are actions to take, put them in your schedule - and ideally have your schedule (like a phone) remind you of it. If you haven't made the time for it, it likely won't get done. And, if you don't capture it into your schedule, you're relying on your memory for your word - not a very reliable system.
- Context - Line up the actions you want to take with the greater commitments you have in your life. Creating a context which empowers you has you take actions, and has not taking those actions be a painful failure. As an example, forgetting to pick up the milk is no big deal, but teaching your wife that you're an unreliable man or that you don't care because you can't simply get the milk, really matters.
- Routines - Daily routines which you follow ritualistically make taking actions simpler, and more reliable. I used to not be reliable to drink enough water each day. Then I put a water bottle in my washroom, and every time I hit the head (i.e. let water out), I would make sure I drank some water. I never had to remember to take a piss, so reliably drinking became easy.
- Environment - Keeping your desk clear, wearing the right clothes, setting up your office like a successful man, organizing your fridge like a healthy man - each of these is an environmental change which will make it more likely that you will take the desired action. Live in the environment in which the Man You've Always Wanted to Be would live in (or as close as possible), and you'll be naturally pulled towards taking the actions that man would take.
- Word - You can't really take ownership until you personally put something at stake (personal investment in a cause). Your word is one of the easiest ways to make an investment. No one wants to look bad, or look unreliable, or lose respect of others. When you give your word to others about the actions you need to take, you're more likely to take them.
That's it. Two methods - pick the one which works for you. And, while I'd love to tell you more about that summer day, I've got work to do.