Motivation Is Easy

‘Hey Coach – what are you going to say to motivate the team?’ Give a rousing speech? Fire them up? Kick their butt?

We’ve grown to think of motivation as something done TO us by a coach, a carrot or a stick. We look for external things we believe will CAUSE success: pounding music, caffeine, slogans, posters and videos. No matter how compelling, external things are only stimulation. They may put us in a mindset to flip the motivation switch but they don’t flip it for us. Only we can do that.

And it’s entirely based on WHAT and—more importantly—HOW we ‘want.’ If you’ve ever wanted anything, you’ve felt the first part of self-motivation: DESIRE.

That’s great but... WHAT will make you get up off your ass and pursue it?

The subconscious has to want it also. If the subconscious doesn’t want it, if it resists it, or even fears it, all the carrots and sticks in the world won’t matter.

What the coach says comes from the outside so it’s stimulation. It doesn’t have the inner purpose that the self needs. But if the player flips the ‘I-want-it-so-bad-I’ll-do-anything’ switch, then the AUTOMATIC PILOT takes over.