Motivation

Having watched the emergence of the Cork hurlers this year in the Championship, and the drive, sparkle, and fire they brought to the last two games, you'd wonder at the vagaries of human nature. The sports Psychologist, Enda McNulty, observed that 'backs to the wall' is a great motivator for anybody.

I'd agree there. From personal experience alone, I feel we've all experienced times when we faced 'do or die' situations. And signs on it, we 'did' rather than died, which is why we're still here! Certain managers, in sports and business, the arts, and the military, have had the quality of leadership that fires troops, moves hearts, and gathers the best qualities consistently. It's a great gift, one we see in all walks of life.

Brian Cody had it with the Kilkenny hurlers, Liam Griffin with Wexford people of every pursuit, Wellington and Churchill on the International stage in distant wars, and Tom Barry and Ernie O'Malley in our recent history. And I know thousands of others have been equally influential in this regard, but I'm just thinking off the top of my head here, so if your favorite isn't named, there's no disrespect.

Who was your influencer?

I'm loathe to use that expression given the number of people who call themselves influencers because a couple of thousand names are appended to their following.

Mr. Martin Murphy in the CBS in Wexford, was responsible for nurturing a faltering belief in my then seventeen-year-old head that's now this eighty-year-old head.

It was a glorious Friday afternoon in May, in the early 1960s. We were preparing for the Leaving Certificate, due to take place in June. Apart from Latin and English, in which I did well, and loved to study, I started to apply myself to a couple of other subjects, Maths, Irish, and Geography. This was because up to early April, I had no interest in any subject that didn't interest me. Consequently, I had no idea what was on the curriculum of anything other than my two favored subjects.

However, in late March, my mother asked me what I was doing about the Leaving Certificate Exam.

I didn't know.

I'd given it no thought.?And so, after two days of consideration, and one day of almost blind panic, I settled on the idea that I'd devour the material in Maths, Irish, and Geography, and do my best to pass the exam.

I acted on this. By early May I had installed a frenzied program of study, sleep, eat, study, study, study, eat, sleep, study, study, study that was rapidly building a fount of knowledge in the three subjects. By May, I felt that I had a chance to add these three subjects to my repertoire and pass the leaving Certificate exam. So, on that glorious sunny afternoon in May, as we were preparing our essay notes, I experienced one of the greatest motivational speeches of my life.

?It was eight words long and took about 5 or 6 seconds from start to finish.

I'll tell you about it in the next post.