How do you get motivated?
We all know there are things we need to do but sometimes don’t feel like doing. Do you struggle with internal motivation or do you rely on external stimuli? In this episode, I dive into finding your driving force, the importance of pushing through resistance, and ways to stay accountable to your goals, whether personal or professional.
Listen to this new 10-minute episode for practical tips on staying motivated, overcoming procrastination, and consistently achieving your objectives.
Episode Summary:
In this episode of the Wedding Business Solutions podcast, I dive into the topic of motivation, inspired by a touching birthday message I received. I explore the difference between self-motivation and needing external motivation, sharing personal stories from my sales career that highlight the power of perseverance. You’ll hear about how I pushed through moments of low motivation and the strategies I’ve developed to stay driven, such as setting small, achievable goals and finding accountability partners. Whether you’re facing daily challenges or working towards bigger aspirations, this episode offers practical advice to help you stay motivated and committed.
If you have any questions about anything in this, or any of my podcasts, or have a suggestion for a topic or guest, please reach out directly to me at [email protected] or visit my website Podcast.AlanBerg.com
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View the full transcript on Alan’s site: https://alanberg.com/blog/
How do you get motivated? Listen to this episode for some ideas. Hi, it’s Alan Berg. Welcome back to another episode of the Wedding Business Solutions podcast. This is an indirect listener suggestion, and I say that because it came to me yesterday, actually, yesterday. I’m recording this the day after my birthday. And I got so many comments and so many private messages from people. I really appreciate it. And one of them, and I do apologize because I was trying to to find it, but I can’t find it because literally there were just under 500 posts on my wall and at least 100 direct messages.
Maybe more than that. I was trying to find it. So I apologize that I can’t attribute this to you personally. Please DM me and let me know who you were if you’re hearing this. But what it said was, happy birthday to a man that could motivate a turtle to run a marathon. So this is the inspiration for this. And it got me thinking. First of all, thank you very much for that comment.
That’s very special. But what got me thinking, what motivates you? What gets you motivated? How do you get motivated? Because we all will get to a point where there’s what we need to do and what we’re actually doing. And I think everybody, I think everybody in the world runs into this at one point. It’s like that, you know that you need to be doing this email or make calling this customer or whatever, and you just don’t feel like it that day. What gets you motivated? I think we all have to look inside and say, are we self motivated or do we need external motivation? And we all get both. There are sometimes where somebody else will motivate us and encourage us and stuff. I remember when I was doing taekwondo and when I was a black belt and we’d have a lot of kids in the class and you’re trying to motivate them to keep going and keep trying and not give up and stuff. And that was external motivation, which hopefully will then turn into internal.
Well, hopefully when somebody helps us get past the challenge that we can then ourselves the next time get past it a little bit better by ourselves with that. It’s what I try to do with my sales training. And maybe that’s where that comment came from. But, you know, people who think they’re not good at sales and then they learn that it’s just about asking better questions and being more persistent and, you know, there’s a difference between assertive and aggressive and. And then they feel better about it. That’s why when someone asks Me, what do you do? And I say, you know my elevator pitch. I help winning an event. Businesses sell more, profit more and hopefully have more fun doing it along the way.
And that’s what I really do. That’s what, that’s what I hope. So how do you get motivated when you’re by yourself? What makes you say, okay, I’m going to do this, what I need to do, Even when maybe you don’t feel like doing it. I have a story that I tell. I’m pretty sure it’s in my youy Attitude for Success book. But I talk about it when I’m speaking and doing a motivational talk. And it was one day, many, many years ago when I was selling wedding and wedding advertising for wedding magazine wedding pages. I’m driving now.
I’ll set the scene here. I was on straight commission, independent contractor, no salary, no draw, no minimum, no base, no guarantee, no expenses. I paid all my bills. That was it, 100% commission. When I first started, my wife was pregnant when I was doing that. It was a new industry I knew nothing about. I’ve never done cold calling, I’ve never done outside sales, any of those things. And this is the scene.
We had a three year old son and I’m driving around trying to make sales, put food on the table. And I would drive around New Jersey and the Hudson Valley in New York, knocking on doors like yours. And sometimes I make an appointment ahead of time and sometimes I’m just driving around and walking in. And one day I’m driving through this little town I had never been in. And it’s a little bridal shop I had never seen. And I knew that I needed to stop in. That’s my job. My job is to stop in and talk to them about how I can help them with their business through our magazine.
And I just didn’t feel like it. You know that feeling like you know what you need to do but you just don’t feel like it. I don’t remember why I didn’t feel like it. Maybe it was a beautiful day and I just didn’t feel like going inside. Or maybe it was a lousy weather day and I didn’t feel like getting wet, getting out in the rain. I don’t know. I think it was actually a beautiful day and I just kept driving. I drove right past this shop.
I went a few blocks past and I stopped and pulled over to the curb and I looked in the mirror. I literally turned the rear view mirror so I could see myself and I said, so what’s it going to be? If you don’t stop in, you have zero chance. If you do, you have a chance. Maybe you’ll get a sale, maybe you won’t. Maybe you’ll get a repeat appointment or something. But if you don’t even stop in, you’re not even in the game. There’s no game going on for you right now. So what’s it going to be? Right? You have to provide for your family.
What’s it going to be? And I sat there for what probably seemed like an eternity and was probably 10 seconds, and I started driving and I went around the block and I went in. I don’t remember what happened in the shop. I don’t remember if I made the sale or not. That wasn’t the win. The win was going in when I didn’t feel like it. The win was doing that. Because the next time, if I had blown that off and just kept driving, it’s easy to blow off the next one and the one after that and the one after that. Going in made it easier to go in the next time.
Because if we always think about. I’ve done podcasts on this. What’s the worst that could happen? Worst that could happen is they. They tell me no or they throw me out. That’s only actually ever happened once where somebody kind of physically threw me out of their. Their shop. But that was. That’s another story for another day at the bar.
So what gets you motivated? What gets you motivated to do the things you need to do in your business, to do the things you need to do for your family, to do the things you need to do for yourself personally? Whether it’s a personal goal, like me with languages, or you’re learning a new skill or a musical instrument, or just investing in yourself somehow in your health, or going out for the run in the morning or the walk in the morning or going to the gym? What motivates you? You need to find where that motivation is and then channel that so that the next time you just don’t feel like it, you can go back and say, okay, wait a second, if I don’t do that this time, it’s going to be easy not to do it the next time. And that’s just going to snowball into me, not getting the things that I need for me, for my family, for whatever it is that you’re trying to accomplish there. And it’s getting a little philosophical here, but it’s just true with anything. I do my language lessons every morning, partly because the duolingo that little owl comes up on my watch and my phone and says, don’t lose your streak there. And yeah, they gamified it, and I get that. But there’s nothing lost if I lose my streak on Duolingo, right? So it’s. What is it? Today was 1,281 days of French lessons or something like that. So what if I don’t do one tomorrow, right? The world doesn’t come to an end.
Nobody comes knocking at my door and saying, you lost your, you know, you, you, you lost your French license here or whatever it is. It’s just a personal thing. It’s a, it’s a personal achievement there to see that continuation, right? If you’re reading a book and you enjoy reading books, you know what gets you motivated to do that? And then if there’s something that you don’t enjoy but you need to do, like I need to do my QuickBooks every morning. So that, that’s done. I do it every morning, right? It. It’s just done. That’s it, it’s over with. If I let it pile up, it’s worse, right? It’s like letting the laundry pile up.
If all of a sudden you let it pile up and you have a week’s worth of laundry or two weeks worth of laundry, it’s just a whole lot more work. Then instead of just doing it, you know, a little bit at a time where it’s done, or cleaning the house or cleaning your office or cleaning your car or whatever it is, right? Doing it along the way makes it easier instead of waiting. And then it’s just a bigger thing down at the end. The snowball has just gotten bigger. So where does your motivation come from? What is the internal motivation there? What can you do? Or do you need external motivation? Do you need accountability? Do you need a workout buddy? Do you need someone to hold you accountable to that new diet that you’re trying to do? Or that which shouldn’t be a diet, it should be changing the way you eat and making that a permanent thing, or stopping smoking or learning a new language, whatever it is, do you need an accountability buddy with that? Because you need that external motivation because you just can’t do it on your own. And having that external motivation, that accountability that will get you to move forward because you know you’re better on the other side of it. And you need somebody that’s going to just help hold your hand and pull you along with that. So this again, just this phrase here, you know, how do you get motivated? Thank you to again, whoever said I could motivate a turtle to run a marathon? I think that’s a pretty funny visual there.
Maybe I have to get an AI to make me a visual of that, but whoever you are, thanks for that. Keep the suggestions coming. Go to podcast.alenberg.com and click on the Ask me anything button there, and then you can put your suggestion there. This again came with a birthday wish. Thank you to all of you who did wish me a birthday. I know you’re listening to this way after that, but I really do appreciate it, so thanks for listening.
I’m Alan Berg. Thanks for listening. If you have any questions about this or if you’d like to suggest other topics for “The Wedding Business Solutions Podcast” please let me know. My email is [email protected] or you can text, use the short form on this page, or call +1.732.422.6362, international 001 732 422 6362. I look forward to seeing you on the next episode. Thanks.
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