I was listening to the Maxwell Leadership podcast recently on motivation. During the podcast Mark Cole, CEO of Maxwell Leadership suggested that our motivation can be driven by habit or hype. Allow me to dig into this a little bit.
Hype
We have all been to an event where we get excited about the program, product, or vision that someone has cast and we are on this emotional high. That gets us started and gives fuel . . . for a period of time, but eventually it fades. We then look for that next hype to keep us going. The problem with being fueled by hype . . . we are always looking for the next “hit” and it is externally driven.
Habit
When I made the shift from employee to business owner, I suddenly had freedom in my schedule. This can be dangerous. The good thing is I had a morning routine that served me well for years. I kept that routine with a similar time and then got ready for my day whether I was working at home or had meetings elsewhere. These habits served me well during 2020 when the lockdown occurred. Habits are what keep us consistent, provide a process to accomplish what the hype got us excited about, and are internally driven.
Moving from Hype to Habit
Hold Your Vision
In his classic book Think and Grow Rich Napoleon Hill discusses the idea of a burning desire that drives people to accomplish their goals. This desire can be awakened by hype, but we must reinforce it with habit.
Allow me to illustrate. Maybe you meet a motivational fitness trainer and do one workout with him or her. You felt inspired by the individual because they painted a picture of where you could be in this area of your life. The next day you go to the gym and maybe even keep it up for a week. Then life happens and you forget why you wanted to get in better shape.
Write down the reason why you got excited and what your ultimate goal is. Put it somewhere you will see it daily. This small exercise will help you hold your vision to develop the right habits.
Develop Discipline
In his book Good to Great author Jim Collins discusses how going from good to great requires:
“a cumulative process – step by step, action by action, decision by decision, turn by turn of the flywheel – that adds up to sustained and spectacular results.”
Hype is the emotion, but discipline is required daily to turn the wheel that makes the dream reality. Think of a water wheel. There is a steady stream of water continually pouring into the wheel that makes it turn.
To accomplish your vision there are daily disciplines like that water that will make it reality. Meeting new people, thinking into the business, investing resources, sharing the vision and more. The dream is exciting, but the daily discipline is what gets the results.
Persistently Pursue
Recently I have been watching The Last Dance about the Chicago Bulls last championship season. As I have watched it, I am amazed by the intense persistence Michael Jordan had in his desire to win championships. He held the vision and had the disciplines to make him great, but he had to be persistent with his teammates to get them to raise their level of performance.
As they interviewed him he said:
“I wanted to win, but I wanted them to win and be a part of it as well . . . I pulled people when they don’t want to be pulled. I challenged people when they don’t want to be challenged.”
As a leader inspiring is part of the responsibility. We all want people to be intrinsically motivated, but at times we may have to persistently pursue them by encouraging them to improve themselves and reminding the team why they are doing what they do daily. Some people need pushed, others need pulled, and some simply need a reminder of the why to help them hold the vision.
How do you show up as a leader? Are you all hype and no habit? Do you inspire your team, but fail to resource them to develop the habits necessary to get to their goals? What can you do to create a culture of positive habits that help the team move toward accomplishing the vision? Need help thinking into this? Contact me for a no cost to you thinking partner call. Lead Well.
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