how many goals do you have that could do
better if you felt more motivate I would
say all of them I added up all of my
goals the other night I sat around and I
made up a list it took me maybe 10 or 15
minutes and in that short time I came up
with 63 goals and I asked myself so why
am I not doing them and I had 63 million
answers why I wasn’t doing them but I
think that may have been a bad question
so I changed my question to what would
make me want to do those and I think
that gets us to the heart of what
motivation is motivation we think of
motivation as something that’s a lot of
work we hear no pain no gain or we’re
told to give 110 percent and that’s
supposed to motivate us but I think
motivation is actually fun it can be
easy the more motivated we are the more
motivated we are to be more motivated so
it becomes sort of a self-perpetuating
type of issue it ought to be automatic
and then it’s no work whatsoever it’s
actually easy but within motivation
there’s a subset and that self
motivation and I think self motivation
is actually a flawed concept because
when we talk about self motivation it
implies that there’s motivation by other
people we hear about coaches motivating
us teachers leaders things along those
lines trying to motivate us when all of
that is really outside stimulation
people around us trying to get us to do
something trying to get us fired up so
only I can motivate myself other people
can give me all kinds of great
stimulation a coach can fire me up to
win the game a teacher can get me
excited about
concept a leader can get me to believe
in her or his vision but only I can flip
that switch and decide I’m going to do
it so therefore that’s why I think
motivation is easy I don’t have to have
this labyrinth of convolution to try to
make me motivated I can simply want and
go so motivation can be that simple
stimulation isn’t necessarily a bad idea
I mean think about the coaches that you
had that gave you a pep talk at halftime
and got you to go out and win that game
think of a teacher that got you to
believe in yourself some of the students
we’ve heard today talking about being
good public speakers getting up in front
of people like they just did or will
later today teachers and their leaders
inspire them to do that or a sales
manager that gets someone to go out and
improve their quarterly sales we think
of those things as motivation but really
those people are stimulating us and we
get to the point where we go I’m going
to do it so stimulation is a great thing
so that it gets me to motivate myself to
do that think of someone say I really
want this new car now I have to motivate
myself to save the money to get it in
that sense
want and motivate appear to be two
separate things but I don’t think
they’re separate things whatsoever the
wand implies that the motivation is
already there when we separate those two
things we tend to put on the brakes I
really want this but I have to be in the
right mindset I really want that but the
timing has to be right
I think that’s putting on the brakes and
we don’t need the mindset we don’t need
the timing we don’t need the people
telling us what to do I have me to do
that for myself all I need to do is say
I want go so motivation can be
as simple as that the process of wanting
ice a process as opposed to concept we
often think of wanting as a concept
maybe we don’t even think about the
process of wanting but there are some
very specific things that we can do to
ensure our getting what we want and this
is part of the motivation process if we
identify our goal much better we have a
better chance of achieving think about
the difference between I want a new car
and I want a 2018 cherry red Porsche 944
I can taste that second one and so
having that goal be more emotionally
charged is going to make us achieve it
more easily it will make the motivation
process easier I have a concept I call
positive worry a lot of times we think
of worry as a negative thing what if
this goes wrong what if they don’t like
me and that list could go on forever but
what if we turned that around what if
this goes well what if people like me
what if I succeed and that type of
emotion is going to charge us and propel
us toward achieving it as well
visualization is a big part of
motivation if we actually see ourselves
achieving something not just wishing it
but actually spend time imagining what
it would be like to achieve it imagining
what it would be like to be doing that
there was experiment that was done a
number of years ago with people shooting
free-throws in basketball three groups
of people the first group was told go to
the basketball court every day and shoot
free-throws second group was told don’t
go anywhere near a basketball court
don’t even think about it
the third group was told not to go to
the basketball court but to actively
visualize themselves shooting
free throws once a day and a week later
when they went to the basketball court
the group of people that visualize
shooting free throws or as successful as
the people that actually did it the
brain sometimes can’t distinguish the
difference between the real thing and
imagining it or visualizing so
visualizing things can be a very strong
component in terms of motivation our
self-talk we talk to ourselves all day
long and I don’t mean simple ways like
Charlie how are you I’m fine how are you
I don’t mean that kind of talking to
ourselves I mean the thoughts that we
think about ourselves they become
prescriptions if you will every time
that I start a class each semester I
have my students to an A in game and as
soon as I say we’re going to do an A in
game I can hear them thinking oh my gosh
I am so bad at names some even say it
out loud but when they think they’re
simply describing themselves I’m bad at
remembering names instead of being a
description it actually becomes a
prescription and so our subconscious
hears us saying I’m so bad at names and
it believes that we want to be bad at
remembering names so when we’re
introduced to someone
the subconscious distracts us and it
starts making us think I hope I don’t
forget their name and so by the time a
person is finished saying the name we’ve
forgotten the name but we actually got
what we expected to get an expectation
is a very powerful tool as well if you
want to do something if you want to do
well on a test or you want to get a new
job but you expect that you’re not going
to then there’s no way that you’re going
to do that so expectation plays a huge
role in motivation and are getting what
we want if we’re not getting what we
want
there are a couple of reasons for that
maybe we don’t want it
maybe we say we want it but we don’t
really spend the effort to want it that
well or maybe we don’t want it maybe it
sounds good to say it maybe we think we
want it but maybe subconsciously we
really don’t want it because if I want
something well enough that I’m already
unroot together I don’t need to convince
myself I don’t need to have other people
tell me that I want it I’m already in
the process of getting there I also
think we use the word want wrongly we
say we want things all the time but I
think we misused the word want in the
sense that we may have poor objectives
so instead of wanting to have something
I want a new laptop I want to close
instead of wanting to be something I
want to be popular I want to be vice
president instead of wanting to get
something I want to get attention I want
to get this project done I think if we
want to do things I think doing is a far
more powerful verb and can motivate us
strongly more strongly if we want to
excite our team if we want to build a
business I think those kinds of want can
be much much more powerful I also think
we overuse the word want I would say
maybe a third of the time that we say I
want something we’d be better off saying
I’d enjoy for example I want to go
traveling I want to visit Upper
Wisconsin what I’d be better off saying
I enjoy visiting upper Wisconsin I’d
enjoy writing a book so we saved some of
our use of the word one I also think
sometimes
we say want when we really mean need I
want to paint the hall no I need to
paint the hall I want to go to the
grocery store no I need to go to the
grocery store I don’t have anything in
the house I think we should save our
wants save the times we use the word
want for things like pursuing I want to
pursue my dreams save the word want for
I want to create I want to create
success so motivation is actually pretty
easy it has to do with flipping that
motivation switch when I simply say I
won I go
[Applause]
you
better if you felt more motivate I would
say all of them I added up all of my
goals the other night I sat around and I
made up a list it took me maybe 10 or 15
minutes and in that short time I came up
with 63 goals and I asked myself so why
am I not doing them and I had 63 million
answers why I wasn’t doing them but I
think that may have been a bad question
so I changed my question to what would
make me want to do those and I think
that gets us to the heart of what
motivation is motivation we think of
motivation as something that’s a lot of
work we hear no pain no gain or we’re
told to give 110 percent and that’s
supposed to motivate us but I think
motivation is actually fun it can be
easy the more motivated we are the more
motivated we are to be more motivated so
it becomes sort of a self-perpetuating
type of issue it ought to be automatic
and then it’s no work whatsoever it’s
actually easy but within motivation
there’s a subset and that self
motivation and I think self motivation
is actually a flawed concept because
when we talk about self motivation it
implies that there’s motivation by other
people we hear about coaches motivating
us teachers leaders things along those
lines trying to motivate us when all of
that is really outside stimulation
people around us trying to get us to do
something trying to get us fired up so
only I can motivate myself other people
can give me all kinds of great
stimulation a coach can fire me up to
win the game a teacher can get me
excited about
concept a leader can get me to believe
in her or his vision but only I can flip
that switch and decide I’m going to do
it so therefore that’s why I think
motivation is easy I don’t have to have
this labyrinth of convolution to try to
make me motivated I can simply want and
go so motivation can be that simple
stimulation isn’t necessarily a bad idea
I mean think about the coaches that you
had that gave you a pep talk at halftime
and got you to go out and win that game
think of a teacher that got you to
believe in yourself some of the students
we’ve heard today talking about being
good public speakers getting up in front
of people like they just did or will
later today teachers and their leaders
inspire them to do that or a sales
manager that gets someone to go out and
improve their quarterly sales we think
of those things as motivation but really
those people are stimulating us and we
get to the point where we go I’m going
to do it so stimulation is a great thing
so that it gets me to motivate myself to
do that think of someone say I really
want this new car now I have to motivate
myself to save the money to get it in
that sense
want and motivate appear to be two
separate things but I don’t think
they’re separate things whatsoever the
wand implies that the motivation is
already there when we separate those two
things we tend to put on the brakes I
really want this but I have to be in the
right mindset I really want that but the
timing has to be right
I think that’s putting on the brakes and
we don’t need the mindset we don’t need
the timing we don’t need the people
telling us what to do I have me to do
that for myself all I need to do is say
I want go so motivation can be
as simple as that the process of wanting
ice a process as opposed to concept we
often think of wanting as a concept
maybe we don’t even think about the
process of wanting but there are some
very specific things that we can do to
ensure our getting what we want and this
is part of the motivation process if we
identify our goal much better we have a
better chance of achieving think about
the difference between I want a new car
and I want a 2018 cherry red Porsche 944
I can taste that second one and so
having that goal be more emotionally
charged is going to make us achieve it
more easily it will make the motivation
process easier I have a concept I call
positive worry a lot of times we think
of worry as a negative thing what if
this goes wrong what if they don’t like
me and that list could go on forever but
what if we turned that around what if
this goes well what if people like me
what if I succeed and that type of
emotion is going to charge us and propel
us toward achieving it as well
visualization is a big part of
motivation if we actually see ourselves
achieving something not just wishing it
but actually spend time imagining what
it would be like to achieve it imagining
what it would be like to be doing that
there was experiment that was done a
number of years ago with people shooting
free-throws in basketball three groups
of people the first group was told go to
the basketball court every day and shoot
free-throws second group was told don’t
go anywhere near a basketball court
don’t even think about it
the third group was told not to go to
the basketball court but to actively
visualize themselves shooting
free throws once a day and a week later
when they went to the basketball court
the group of people that visualize
shooting free throws or as successful as
the people that actually did it the
brain sometimes can’t distinguish the
difference between the real thing and
imagining it or visualizing so
visualizing things can be a very strong
component in terms of motivation our
self-talk we talk to ourselves all day
long and I don’t mean simple ways like
Charlie how are you I’m fine how are you
I don’t mean that kind of talking to
ourselves I mean the thoughts that we
think about ourselves they become
prescriptions if you will every time
that I start a class each semester I
have my students to an A in game and as
soon as I say we’re going to do an A in
game I can hear them thinking oh my gosh
I am so bad at names some even say it
out loud but when they think they’re
simply describing themselves I’m bad at
remembering names instead of being a
description it actually becomes a
prescription and so our subconscious
hears us saying I’m so bad at names and
it believes that we want to be bad at
remembering names so when we’re
introduced to someone
the subconscious distracts us and it
starts making us think I hope I don’t
forget their name and so by the time a
person is finished saying the name we’ve
forgotten the name but we actually got
what we expected to get an expectation
is a very powerful tool as well if you
want to do something if you want to do
well on a test or you want to get a new
job but you expect that you’re not going
to then there’s no way that you’re going
to do that so expectation plays a huge
role in motivation and are getting what
we want if we’re not getting what we
want
there are a couple of reasons for that
maybe we don’t want it
maybe we say we want it but we don’t
really spend the effort to want it that
well or maybe we don’t want it maybe it
sounds good to say it maybe we think we
want it but maybe subconsciously we
really don’t want it because if I want
something well enough that I’m already
unroot together I don’t need to convince
myself I don’t need to have other people
tell me that I want it I’m already in
the process of getting there I also
think we use the word want wrongly we
say we want things all the time but I
think we misused the word want in the
sense that we may have poor objectives
so instead of wanting to have something
I want a new laptop I want to close
instead of wanting to be something I
want to be popular I want to be vice
president instead of wanting to get
something I want to get attention I want
to get this project done I think if we
want to do things I think doing is a far
more powerful verb and can motivate us
strongly more strongly if we want to
excite our team if we want to build a
business I think those kinds of want can
be much much more powerful I also think
we overuse the word want I would say
maybe a third of the time that we say I
want something we’d be better off saying
I’d enjoy for example I want to go
traveling I want to visit Upper
Wisconsin what I’d be better off saying
I enjoy visiting upper Wisconsin I’d
enjoy writing a book so we saved some of
our use of the word one I also think
sometimes
we say want when we really mean need I
want to paint the hall no I need to
paint the hall I want to go to the
grocery store no I need to go to the
grocery store I don’t have anything in
the house I think we should save our
wants save the times we use the word
want for things like pursuing I want to
pursue my dreams save the word want for
I want to create I want to create
success so motivation is actually pretty
easy it has to do with flipping that
motivation switch when I simply say I
won I go
[Applause]
you
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