Page 144 - 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself

get a prosperity plan going! You don’t want to weigh as much as your two best

friends combined? Then let’s get a nutrition and exercise program going! Any no
can be converted to a powerful yes.

So if you’re stuck without any truly motivating goals, dreams, or
commitments, then go negative first. Figure out what you absolutely don’t want
—what you absolutely fear and dread and refuse to let in to your life—then
convert it to its opposite, positive form and see what happens. You’ll be more
motivated than you ever dreamed you could be.

I have used this in one-on-one meetings with people who wouldn’t open up
and tell me what they wanted. I simply asked them to tell me what they didn’t
want to have happen and we were off to the races. Once you know what that is,
you can convert the conversation to exciting plans and objectives. This explains
why so many successful people had difficult upbringings, sometimes living in

the harshest poverty. They connected very early to what they didn’t want. The
rest was clear sailing.

The next time you lack passion when thinking of what you want, try turning
it around. Ask yourself what you absolutely don’t want, and then feel the energy
building in you to overcome that problem. That energy you’re feeling is the
deepest and most primal form of motivation.

101. Just roar!

Winston Churchill once said, “I may not be the lion, but it was left to me to
give the lion’s roar.”

When people hire me to coach them, one of the first things I am happy to
notice is that they usually suffer from the same myths I suffered from. That
allows me to relate quickly and get them started on the path to achievement. The
primary myth is the one Winston Churchill’s quote relates to. The idea that I

have to figure out if I have what it takes, given my up-to-now identity, to do
what I really want to do.

The answer is no. Just start doing it. If you need a lion’s roar, you don’t have
to figure out if you are a lion first. Just roar. Way too much precious energy is
lost in trying to figure out our identity, and why we are the way we are. We miss
this fact of life: action doesn’t care who you are.