Everyday Motivation: How to Sustain Yours and Others' During This Crisis

I talk to my clients, advisees, and students about how motivation is vulnerable in our everyday lives. In my MBA and graduate Team Leadership & Group Dynamics courses, they hear this in every class session. Now, it's more important than ever to build up our motivational skills.

How can we both keep ourselves and others motivated during this crisis?

I'll be sharing daily what I'll be doing, reading, viewing, and considering to keep myself and my community (YOU!) motivated. I would love to hear what you think -- and what you're doing too. We're all in this together! I am grateful to have you as part of my virtual community.

Let's get started! And that's actually what I said to myself this morning.

Make a Promise & Carry it Out: I started with the most pressing and easiest item on my list this morning: my dog! Rather than taking her out quickly and running to the store (again), I stopped myself. I took my dog on a longer walk this morning. My dog -- and I'm sure your dog too -- is the big winner during this crisis. This morning, I promised her more and longer daily walks. She wagged her tail in agreement.

Feed Your Spirit. Listen & Reflect: Next, as I move all of my courses online and have to rethink and redo all of the work I had completed on Blackboard way back in August, I was prompted to revisit one of my favorite TED Talks: Neil Pasricha's The 3 A's of Awesome Why? What's special about this talk? It shows someone managing crisis and taking authentic, proactive steps. It has a beautiful community message for us. And it covers this main idea that all of us are currently dealing with: "None of us can predict the future, but we do know one thing about it and that's that it ain't gonna go according to plan."

Here are the 3 main points Pasricha asks us to consider. I think they can help us build our motivation, especially now when it is most vulnerable.

1. Attitude: Attitude is key, KEY! Yes, we know, but let's break it down more. Neil Pasricha describes difficult times as feeling like you're being "tossed in the well". Maybe for you, it feels more like being tossed in a mixer. Unsettling. Disorienting. Then, though, he shares, you have two choices to make: "One, you can swirl and twirl and gloom and doom forever, or two, you can grieve and then face the future with newly sober eyes. Having a great attitude is about choosing option number two, and choosing, no matter how difficult it is, no matter what pain hits you, choosing to move forward and move on and take baby steps into the future." Let's choose a GREAT attitude.
2. Awareness: In teaching writing, often, I ask students, advisees, and clients to think back to themselves as children when they were learning language and considering ideas. In grammar school, I vividly remember learning words, studying how to spell them, and then jumping up in class to diagram sentences on the board. I remember sharing my stories in classes -- and winning an essay competition early on in grammar school and then reading my essay over the loud speaker. Certainly, I can trace my career in education back to those special moments. Now, Neil Pasricha asks us to think like a child again, actually, a three-year-old child. He's asking us to slow down and appreciate the people and the things around us. Yes, I appreciate this -- and I can do this. You too.
3. Authenticity: Years ago, some co-workers used to ask me about events I had hosted, and laugh when I would tell them how great -- actually "awesome" -- those events were. I meant every word though -- I loved those events, every single aspect of them. They, to me, were AWESOME. I couldn't hide my enthusiasm -- I never could, and I never will. Neil Pasricha tells us: "It's about being you and being cool with that." I agree -- and this is one of my favorite pieces of advice! Funny enough, he cites the famous 300-pound, six-foot-five NFL linebacker Rosey Grier's love of needlepoint, yes, needlepoint! When I hear that I think, that's awesome!

Share: Right now, I think it's more important than ever to consider our unique gifts, qualities, and skills.

How can we -- as colleagues, family members, friends, and neighbors -- bring our authentic and unique selves to this situation to help others?

I'm answering that call here!

I'm sharing my ideas here with all of you -- to help us all continue to motivate ourselves and others during this crisis. Motivation is KEY. Motivation is VULNERABLE. We have to actively work at it.

Consider Neil Pasricha's message as you continue your day:

"...if you live your life with a great attitude, choosing to move forward and move on whenever life deals you a blow, living with a sense of awareness of the world around you, embracing your inner three year-old and seeing the tiny joys that make life so sweet and being authentic to yourself, being you and being cool with that, letting your heart lead you and putting yourself in experiences that satisfy you, then I think you'll live a life that is rich and is satisfying, and I think you'll live a life that is truly awesome." Agreed.

As you move on with your day, consider these ideas:

Make a promise.

Feed your spirit.

Listen and reflect.

Share your unique qualities with others.

Be kind to yourself. Be kind to your neighbors. We need you. We value you. We're all in this together.