Today we are going to talk about how to motivate others to achieve business goals.
First I’m going to share with you why you should stop doing standard motivation. Next I’m going to share the very best thing that you can do to possibly motivate others. Lastly I’m going to bring up the real question you need to be asking yourself.
What do I mean by stopping with standard motivation?
Standard motivation is things like only think positive thoughts, you have to see the bright side of things. The problem with that is without saying it, it is directing people to suppress what they’re actually concerned about and I have found that that is one of the biggest causes of not just stress but also disease. It is not about suppressing those negative thoughts down and shoving them in a closet, it is a combination of two things. It’s a combination of exploring those negative thoughts but then going toward the things that you actually want in your life. If the person (this reminds me of the Seinfeld episode “serenity now” – the guy kills someone or something like that, I forget) is trying to not have any negative thoughts at all and they are suppressing. Suppressing doesn’t actually release the energy of those thoughts, they’re still with you. It’s much more powerful to express them. Now I’m not saying stay there, I’m not saying express them and just “well yeah, it really sucks man.” No, I’m not saying that but expressing them and then taking the time to say, “okay now that I’ve expressed all that I am afraid of or all that I don’t want, what is it that I actually do want?” It is a one-two process and this is such a powerful concept.
I heard- I forget her name but I heard an author who she was going all in on this project. She was taking her personal money, she was getting a loan on her house and she was going all in… and she had a thought of “what if it doesn’t work out?” So she literally went and visited lower income areas and asked herself could I live here if it came to this and she said “yes, you know what? I could.” That’s an example of expressing those fears that are locked in, that you are worried about and that’s actually more powerful. Ask yourself, “can I live with the worst case scenario?”
Now those who study stoicism, you may recognize it. Stoicism is seeing what is the worst case scenario and how do I feel about it? Would that be okay? That actually grants you a lot of power. There’s a lot of very famous historical figures, Marcus Aurelius’, General Patton. There’s a lot of historical stoics over the years that accomplished some amazing, amazing things because they were willing to express the possibility of failure and what would that actually look like….but then I suggest you focus on what is it that you actually want. Let me give you an example, It was a Thursday and I was about to fly out to Vegas. I had a keynote speech that I was delivering to a very substantial crowd for a network marketing company. I messaged my team and I said, “Hey, do we have those flyers? Did the flyers get there yet?”
“No, no they should get there Saturday.”
I’m speaking on Saturday. “Oh okay, is the PowerPoint updated?”
“No, not updated yet.”
“Okay, did the shipments get there with the books and everything?”
“No, probably Saturday.”
Probably Saturday, the day I speak. I am agitated and I have through meditation and and all kinds of different things become very aware of my emotions, especially when it’s an emotion I don’t want. In that moment, I realized my agitation and so I decided okay let’s discuss. Let’s talk this out. First, I expressed in an exhaustive fashion all of the things that I didn’t want to happen but was a little bit afraid of….the flyers don’t get there, the books don’t get there, the PowerPoint isn’t updated, I bomb on stage. See, I went a little deeper, I bomb on stage, they never want to work with me again (I went hardcore), people think it was a waste of their time. I went hard but then I said, okay what is it that I really want? The company to rehire me immediately, I want the number one income earner to hire me, I want them to form a leadership group that pays me, I want sales to be through the roof and I want people to come up to me with tears in their eyes saying it was the best presentation they’d ever seen. I expressed an exhaustive fashion all the things I don’t want and then I expressed an exhaustive passion all the things I did want. All five of those things happened. They rehired me immediately, the number one income and hired me, they formed a leadership group, they paid me, sales were through the roof and I had probably 20 people come up to me with tears in their eyes seeing the most powerful presentation they’d ever seen.
Don’t just tell others to got to focus on the positive because if someone’s in a negative space, which most people are unless they really practice this stuff, then you could be setting them up for further failure and further stress.
What is the best thing you can do to possibly motivate others?
That’s actually really simple, it’s to do what you wish they were doing. If you’re wanting more of the people around you to get in better shape, the best thing you can do is not preach to them but get in better shape. If you’re in a sales environment and you wish that they were just making more sales, you go get more sales. If there’s a scenario where you wish others around you were kinder and more generous and more loving, you be kinder, more generous and more loving. We always attract what we are, not what we want. You becoming that person that you truly want to be and wish that more people were like. This is the expression, the quote from Gandhi: “be the change you want to see in the world.” If there’s something you want in the world then be that. Be that person. If there’s something you want in your community then be that. There’s something you want in your school district then be that. If there’s something you want in your family unit then be that. Be that for the family unit. The best thing you can do to possibly motivate others is for you to become and do the things you wish that they were doing.
Let’s hear from you.
Before we get to my last point, I would love to hear from you. I do read and respond to every single comment. My question for you is to ask yourself this question genuinely. “What is it that you wish other people around you had more of or were more like and then ask yourself am I being that?” “If I were managing me, would I say that I passed that test?” I would love to hear your feedback. I know this is a little bit of a thinking kind of comment but I believe in you. I would love to hear your comments on what is it you wish that more people were like and do you truly feel that you’re being that.
What is the real question you should be asking?
The real question is why are you so reliant on motivating others? Why does that have to be the case? Why do you have to rely on something outside of you creating your goals? Now I realize maybe you’re in a sales team or maybe you lead a sales team or maybe you are a network marketing leader and clearly these guys need to produce. Sometimes we can spend too much time focusing on getting others to do things and not enough time on getting ourselves to do that same thing. I would encourage you to be addicted to your activity, not the activity of others. Years ago I trained a group of insurance people and they had a pretty small office. There was like 10 of them. They only have 10 slots so if someone’s not producing (they pay overhead for that office) they got to get rid of them. If you’re in a situation where there’s someone in your office not producing and you have tried ways of motivating them, it might be time to put someone else there.
That situation is going to vary in network marketing, you don’t have an overhead per person. I have one of our clients he has 750,000 people in his organization. I assure you many of them aren’t doing anything but he gets compensated from anything they ever order. So in that situation, there’s no need to fire someone or replace someone or do anything. He absolutely has no reliance on I have to get them to do something. He’ll do something and he knows that a percentage of them will do something and he shows up in a way to motivate them through his actions, not just his words but he isn’t reliant on making sure every single person is taking action.
If you get into that kind of space in that kind of context then you can be really stressed out for no reason at all. Ask yourself, one, if you’re in a sales organization and you hire this individual and they’re not motivated, how do you fix that? How do you have a better hiring procedure where you’re bringing in people more likely to do the work? If you’re in an environment where you’re not harmed by the number of people around you that aren’t producing then why are you stressing out about it so much? Ask yourself better questions, you’ll get better answers and it’ll help you lead to a better life.
Better questions?
Speaking of better questions, if you are wanting to radically change your life, you may want to check out our book Time Money Freedom. It was published by Hay House and I’m very blessed, my good friend Grant Cardone wrote the forward to this book. It’s available on amazon and it is 10 simple rules to redefine what’s possible and radically reshape your life. If you find yourself getting stressed from others, there’s an extremely good chance that this book can help you. It’s available on audible, kindle, paperback and hardback. Here is the link Higdongroup.com/time-money-freedom. Check it out.
Ray Higdon
Play Bigger. Make An Impact.
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