One of the things I work on most with teams, in terms of motivation, leadership, and performance, is precisely the phrase, “In Life, do you lead or are you led?”
Anyone who knows us and our work in this area knows that we like to provoke people to think when talking about motivation.
It’s different from the standard approach that we go there these days.
The way out of the inflation in which the world is plunged is for people to move from the passenger’s seat to the driver’s seat in their lives.
Whoever says in their lives means in their companies, society, or in short, in the world around them.
When we face difficult situations, we have two choices.
Either we sit back and wait for it to pass, or we raise the part of our anatomy where we sit and do something to change our lives.
Motivation has to come from within people.
Many of the people we initially work in companies suffer from the “want” syndrome:
- I want to have a better job
- I want a raise
- I want to be rich
- I want to be happy
- I want to be …
But when you ask them:
“Okay, you want it, but what are you doing to get there?…”
Invariably, they shut up and look down and to the right and admit:
“Nothing.”
But it’s not their fault, as you might imagine. Instead, it’s the fault of society that’s lousy; it’s the boss who doesn’t raise them; it’s the government that doesn’t raise the minimum wage.
There is always something to blame, even if it’s blaming our past.
We didn’t have the education we should have had, the fact that we didn’t grab the opportunities that life presented us with and didn’t fight for them, and so many other things.
But is it reasonable to constantly look in the rear-view mirror?
In our humble opinion, no!
The best that the past has on our lives is simply that.
It has passed.
And our past is not necessarily the same as our future.
So if we want it, we are willing to think about something to get there.
But is it so hard to achieve what we want in life?
I have experienced several setbacks that caused me to remake my life three times, almost from scratch.
And each time, I got up and said to myself:
“Tomorrow will be different.
I fell, I fell, but there are more people to talk to, more doors that can open.
“Let’s go to them!”
And what is certain is that this attitude brought me where I am today.
But the formula that allowed me to evolve was always simple.
Knowing very well where I wanted to go
To humbly realize where I was (without beating around the bush or using euphemisms)
Knowing the path I had to take to get there
Being aware of the knowledge I had to acquire to do so
Getting off the back of the chair and taking the first step
If I look back, this was always the formula I used.
What is stopping you from doing the same?
This week stop for a moment to think about all these questions.
Take a sheet of paper and write down all the steps described above.
Think about each one of them calmly.
Write down what path and actions you need to take to start walking towards your dreams and goals, and finally, choose one of the things that would get you closer and STRENGTH!
Take the first step!
Also published on Medium.
