Page 115 - 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself

wants to be taught by lectures and advice. They want to be led through

inspiration.

Sales managers often ask me how they can get a certain salesperson to do
more self-motivated activities. I tell them that they have to be the salesperson
they want to see. Take them on a call, I say, and let them watch you. Don’t tell
them how to do it, inspire them to do it.

I once attended a concert given by my daughter’s fourth-grade chorus, which
sang a song called “Let There Be Peace on Earth.” The song’s words went, “Let
there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me….” I beamed when I heard it. It
was such a beautiful expression of being the change—a celebration of self-
responsibility that rarely is portrayed in young people’s lives today.

What you tell people to do often goes right by them. Who you are does not.

81. Pin your life down

Car dealer extraordinaire Henry Brown once told me a story about his son, a

high school wrestler. His boy had been getting only fair results as a wrestler that
year and when Henry talked to him about it he learned the reason. Henry’s son
entered each wrestling match more than thoroughly prepared to counter anything
his opponent tried. But no matter how gifted Henry’s son was at countering
moves, countering was still countering, so the other wrestler always dictated the
tempo. Finally, Henry suggested to his son that he try entering a wrestling match
with his own attack plan—a series of moves that he would initiate no matter
what his opponent tried. The boy agreed, and the results were remarkable. He
began winning match after match, pinning opponent after opponent.

The young wrestler’s goal had always been to win. He didn’t have a problem
setting goals. But what had to be added was a plan of action. In sports, as in life,
goals alone aren’t always enough. As Nathaniel Branden says, “A goal without

an action plan is a daydream.” Henry Brown didn’t just give that advice to his
son because he bought into it theoretically. His own Brown and Brown
Chevrolet dealership had been the number-one Chevy dealership in the nation
many times because he planned his company’s own yearly performance in the
same way he coached his son.

Every year he has his general manager send me the detailed videotape that
outlines the dealership’s game plan for the coming year. It includes all the