Home (Leave Private Section)  Links to Resources   Crowd Breakers   Help 

Motivation

"The desire to move toward a goal" 

(See also Resilience, Perseverance

Click-Throughs to "Motivation" Categories 

Intercom Insights

Games, Activities and Clips

Defining Motivation

The Need for Motivation

How to Get Motivated

Resources on Motivation

Intercom Insights

Why Vin Diesel Took the Movie, XXX

When Vin Diesel read the rough first draft of the script for the movie XXX, he wasn't impressed. So the director got him on board by casting the vision. He said, 

''Xander Cage is a nihilist. Xander Cage is the least likely to save the world. Xander Cage doesn't care about the world. Xander Cage is recruited by the CIA to save the world, and in the process he learns patriotism and the value of life.''

Coming not long after the 9/11 terrorist attack, you can imagine the impact of this theme. Vin Diesel caught the vision and dedicated himself 100% to the project, preparing himself with an ''extreme-sports version of weightlifting for three months,'' including moto-cross, snowboarding, speed climbing and some Navy Seals training in San Diego.

To do anything significant with our lives, we've got to catch a vision and let it drive us. I challenge you to ask yourself, "Where would I like to be in ten years? What would I like to be doing?" Write it down. Then, think of short-term goals that can help get you there. It's so much easier to get excited about keyboarding and literature and a part-time job if we can figure out how doing well at those might help us in the future. (Written by Steve Miller, Copyright August 16, 2002. Facts from Vin Diesel: From nightclub bouncer to action hero 'XXX' appeal, August 12, 2002, People.com, CNN.)

Discussion Questions

1) What motivated Vin Diesel to take the part?
2) How can catching a bigger vision help us get motivated for our daily tasks?
3) What are some long-term goals you'd like to achieve over the next ten years?
4) What are some short-term goals you could set to accomplish these goals? 

**********************
Love Diamonds to Sell Diamonds

Harry Winston was one of the world's greatest diamond salesmen. Once someone came into his store to look at diamonds, but his best salesman couldn't make a sale. Then Winston himself came in and began to show the diamonds. Winston became all caught up in the diamonds, saying things like, ''Just look at this one! Can you see the colors, its sheer brilliance?'' In the end, he made the sale. Upon being asked how he was able to make the sale, Winston replied, ''You see, I love diamonds.'' 

What does this have to do achieving success in our chosen field? The more we believe in and love what we're doing the more successful we can be. This week, let's learn to love what we're doing so that we can do what we love. (© Copyright 2002 Steve Miller - All Rights Reserved)

Discussion Questions

1) Why do you think Harry Winston was able to make the sale?
2) Do you think Winston always loved diamonds, or that he grew to love diamonds?
3) How can we develop more of a passion for the things we need to do?
4) What are some things you're already passionate about that might could be useful in a career?

**********************

You've Got to Be Inspired

Bobby Richards, the Olympic pole vault champion, said, ''Show me someone who has no inspiration, and I'll show you someone as good as dead. Show me someone with no challenges, no goals, no great aspirations, and I'll show you someone who won't do anything in life. You've got to be inspired.''

One athlete that demonstrates that inspiration to me is Mike Singletary.  He was one of the top professional football players, named Defensive Player of the Year twice. You'd think he must be huge to overpower others and make so many tackles, but he's actually rather small for a person in his position. So how does he make so many tackles? 

It's all in his preparation for the game. He watches game films of his opponents methodically, often running a single play fifty to sixty times, watching every player so carefully that when the ball is hiked, he can predict where the ball is going before the play develops. He can tell by the way one player is standing, by knowing the plays the coaches tend to call when the time is running out. He shines on the field because of his incredible discipline when no one is watching. (Reworded from Hughes) 

In a lot of life, the only way we can shine in public is to do the sometimes boring preparation in private. I know, a lot of the school day isn't your idea of excitement. The same can go for practice for sports. But this week, let's realize that if we're passionate enough about the outcome, we can get more fired up about the practice.

Discussion Questions

1) What do you think Bobby Richards meant when he said, "Show me someone with no challenges, no goals, no great aspirations, and I'll show you someone who won't do anything in life. You've got to be inspired.''?
2) What did Mike Singletary have going against him? (His size)
3) Because of his passion to win, how did he make up for his size?
4) How can having inspiration and passion help us with our daily tasks?

Games, Activities and Clips

PUZZLE RACE 

Divide into four teams. Give each team a puzzle with approximately the same number of pieces (at least 100). Unknown to the students, puzzle pieces should be switched to the wrong boxes before passing them out. Thus, they will be looking at the wrong picture to try to figure out how to put it together. Just let them figure it out as they go along. Give about five minutes to see who can get the most pieces together. The team with the most pieces connected wins. 

Debriefing: What was your strategy in putting together the puzzle? Were any of your strategies frustrated by having the wrong picture before you? The larger the puzzle, the more important it is to have the right picture before you. Having the wrong picture can make it frustrating. 

What do you think this has to do with life? The clearer your picture of where you're going in life, the more purposeful and livable life can become. What kind of marriage do you want? Once you can picture it, you can determine what qualities (not just physical) you'd want in a mate to make it happen. What kind of job do you want? Once you can picture it, you can begin to see what kind of preparation you need to get there. 

**********************

Pin-less Bowling

Bring a plastic bowling ball and some plastic bowling pins. Tell them that we're going to bowl, but we've figured out a way to remove all the the potentially disappointing and frustrating aspects of the game. We've taken away the pins! Have several volunteers come up to try out your new game. They bowl the ball from one end of the class to the other, but are given no goal to shoot for.

Next, set up some pins and let the same people try it the traditional way with the pins. 

Debriefing: Which is more fun? Why? It's the goals that make games fun. What might this tell us about people who try to live life with no long-range goals? (They don't see purpose in their present activities. When we have long-range goals it's easier to get into the activities of the present that will lead us there.)

**********************

Buy My Stuff!

Divide into groups of 8 to 10. Give each group an object. Instruct them that their task will be to try to sell the object to the class for a use other than that for which it was intended. Give them an example by holding up a pencil and advertising it in this way: 

"Here's something that everybody needs. For the low, low price of $4.99 you can have your very own ear-wax removal kit! First, put a little hydrogen peroxide on the flat end. Wait five minutes and use the lead end to pick out the pieces of wax. Finally, lay the pencil on its side and carefully line up each piece of earwax on the pencil so that you have a nifty display to show off your great accomplishment to your little brother or sister." 

Give each group a couple of minutes to discuss what they want to sell their object as and how they will try to sell it to the class. Then, let each group do their presentation. 

Debriefing: It took motivation for you to get up and try to sell your product to the class. What you just did would be extremely difficult for many of us to do. Yet, some salesmen are so persuasive that they could sell an air conditioner to an Eskimo. Why is motivation important to a successful salesman? How do you think salesmen get motivated each morning to go out and receive rejection after rejection until they finally make a sale?  

An Excuse-Making Epidemic

Teacher Hal Urban began to notice that students were being crippled by an epidemic of excuse-making. One day, he warned his class that large numbers of students were being infected by the disease EFWIC. Yet, he told them, nobody seemed to realize they’ve got the disease. They looked at him quizzically. He explained that EFWIC stood for “Excuses For Why I Can’t.”

Next, he tacked butcher paper to the door and announced, “Every time you catch yourself making an excuse today, or hear anyone else making one, I want you to write it down.”

This activity alerts students to how their excuse habit keeps them from achieving success.

Defining Motivation

The Need for Motivation

Motivation Brings Success

Nobody can be successful if he doesn't love his work, love his job. (David Sarnoff, RCA)

**********************

Total commitment is the common denominator among successful men and women. Its importance cannot be overestimated. (Dr. Joyce Brothers, Psychologist)

**********************

The very first step toward success in any job is to become interested in it. (William Osler)

**********************

Oil tycoon J. Paul Getty ranked enthusiasm ahead of imagination, business acumen, and ambition.

**********************

In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure. (Bill Cosby)

**********************

The great accomplishments of man have resulted from the transmission of ideas and enthusiasm. (Thomas J. Watson, Jr. IBM)

**********************

Determine that the thing can and shall be done, and then we shall find a way. (Abraham Lincoln)

**********************

''Excellence is the result of caring more than others think is wise, risking more than others think is safe, dreaming more than others think is practical, and expecting more than others think is possible.'' (http://www.successtories.com/)

Helps You Avoid Misery

The only way to avoid being miserable is not to have enough leisure to wonder whether you are happy or not. (George Bernard Shaw)

How to Get Motivated

Begin With a Sense of Desire

Motivation starts with a sense of desire...When you want something, you become motivated to get it.  (Denis Waitley)

Desire is the seed from which all achievement grows. (Hal Urban)

No matter who you are or what your age may be, if you want to achieve permanent, sustaining success, the motivation that will drive you toward that goal must come from within.  (Paul J. Meyer)

Hang Around Other Motivated People

Nothing is so contagious as enthusiasm. ( Samuel Taylor Coleridge)

Find Something You Love to Do

In football, many people think that the team with the most star players wins. Just pay top dollar for the best players and any decent coach can watch them win from the sidelines. Malcomb Glazer, owner of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, disagreed. Instead, 8 months ago, he endured criticism for trading four draft choices, two firsts and two seconds, and paid millions for a leader, head coach Jon Gruden.

According to Glazer, ''We were waiting for the right man, and the right man came.'' Yesterday, (January, 2003) his decision was justified when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers destroyed the Oakland Raiders 48 to 21, claiming the trophy for football's yearly final showdown, the Super Bowl.

What are some of Gruden's leadership qualities that enabled him, at 39 years of age, to be the youngest head coach to ever win a Super Bowl?

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

If you've ever seen Dr. Phil on his super-successful TV show, you'd think that he's always been a smooth-talker, someone who'd be the life of any party, the type anyone feel perfectly comfortable speaking one on one to. After all, he's a counselor, right?

Actually, Dr. Phil considers his one-on-one skills to be a deficit. In high school, he was very quiet, finding difficulty in starting conversations. After completing his Ph.D. in Psychology, he went into a private practice and found difficulty counseling people one-on-one. He considered himself a failure at that approach. Even to this day, in his own words,

"If I have something structured to do, you put me in front of 10 million people with an agenda, a job to do, that doesn't bother me at all. You put me in a cocktail party making small talk, and I'd rather get a root canal." (Jan Carl, "One-on-One with Feisty Dr. Phil," ET Online (August 26, 2002), available from http://www.etonline.com/celebrity/a12001.htm .

Dr. Phil found that his nich was in front of groups rather than sitting down with individuals. He still uses his Psychology, but as a group counselor rather than a personal counselor. He had to find his niche to find success.

 

Work Ethic - Gruden works long and hard. According to an Associated Press report, ''Gruden's players sometimes feel like chess pieces maneuvered by a man who never stops scheming. He rarely sleeps more than three hours a night…and he wakes every morning at 3:17 a.m.''(1) (Don't try to emulate this one! He simply doesn't require much sleep.) Shortly thereafter, he arrives at the team's training complex, not returning home till about 10 p.m.

Why does he do it? To impress the owner, players and assistant coaches? No. He simply loves football. ''He does it because there's nothing he'd rather do than study film and find holes in an opponents' defense.''

According to defensive tackle Warren Sapp, ''When you're sleeping, he's working. When you're working, he's working. And when you're off, he's still working. That's the way he lives.''(2)

(1) Jon Gruden's a Bargain Even at Twice the Price monday, January 27, 2003 Associated Press http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,76623,00.html  (2) With his passionate coaching style and involvement with both Super Bowl entrants ... GRUDEN MOTIVATES BUCS AND RAIDERS Date: 01-23-2003; Publication: The Dallas Morning News; Author: JEAN-JACQUES TAYLOR / Staff Writer

Zeal - ''It's why Gruden sometimes breaks into a sweat drawing plays on a blackboard.'' ''He's drinking Gatorade drawing up plays,'' quarterback Brad Johnson said earlier in the week. ''That's how intense he is about football. He loves it.'' (Jon Gruden's a Bargain Even at Twice the Price, Monday, January 27, 2003, Associated Press http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,76623,00.html)

Yet, Gruden says he never feels tired, and he attacks each day as if his hair were aflame. ''His energy is unreal,'' Lynch says.

''Everything is just bam-bam-bam high intensity,'' says his wife Cindy. ''He's so programmed to work like a maniac, he knows no other way…. One time we brought a movie home, and I went up to put the kids to bed. When I came down, he was previewing the movie in fast-forward. I was like, 'Can't we just watch it at regular speed?'''

(Coach Chucky The Buccaneers' Jon Gruden has all the qualities of the perfect NFL coach: He's tireless, hypercritical and, occasionally, scary as hell Date: 09-09-2002; Publication: Sports Illustrated; Author: S.L. Price)(Written by Steve Miller from the above sources, copyright January 29, 2003)

**********************

Harry Winston was one of the world's greatest diamond salesmen. Once someone came into his store to look at diamonds, but his best salesman couldn't make a sale. But then Winston himself came in and began to show the diamonds. Winston became all caught up in the diamonds, saying things like, ''Just look at this one! Can you see the colors, it's sheer brilliance?'' In the end, he made the sale. Upon being asked how he was able to make the sale, Winston replied, ''You see, I love diamonds.'' What does this have to do achieving in our chosen field? The more we believe in and love what we're doing the more successful we can be. (© Copyright 2002 Steve Miller - All Rights Reserved)

Find Ways to Become Interested in What You Already Have to Do

The very first step toward success in any job is to become interested in it. (William Osler)

Start With Just Meeting Financial Needs

I went into the business for the money, and the art grew out of it. If people are disillusioned by that remark, I can't help it. It's the truth. (Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977) Famous Movie Actor)

See Work as an Opportunity, Not a Drudgery

Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing. (Theodore Roosevelt, former US President)

See Work as Play

The supreme accomplishment is to blur the line between work and play. (Arnold Toynbee)

**********************

Warren Buffett is America's most successful investor and second wealthiest man. He says this of his work: ''I enjoy the process far more than the proceeds, though I have learned to live with those also.'' (Quoted in Forbes, October 22, 1990) Elsewhere he says, ''It's not that I want money. It's the fun of making money and watching it grow.'' (Warren Buffett, quoted in Time, August 21, 1995)

**********************

The Master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his education and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence in whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he is always doing both. (Zen Buddhist Text)

Find Things You're Already Motivated to Do

Often, our inner drives lead us to our vocations or outlets for our gifts. Albert Einstein didn't have to force himself to reflect on theoretical physics. He loved it! He once said, ''My scientific work is motivated by an irresistible longing to understand the secrets of nature and by no other feelings.'' (1949, found in Albert Einstein: The Human Side, Selected and edited by Helen Dukas and Banesh Hoffman, Princeton University Press, 1979, p. 18)

**********************

(Note to presenters: Korn is a pretty rude and crude band. But their work ethic might get the attention of some who don't like the "jock" illustrations. Use your own discretion.) Whatever people may think of the destructive lyrics of the band Korn, you’ve got to admire them for their commitment to what they do. Lead singer Jonathon Davis writes the lyrics to their songs, mostly about the emotional anguish of his childhood. A victim of child abuse, the product of a broken home and never accepted by his peers growing up, he communicates his turmoil every day to Korn’s millions of adoring fans. There’s a lot I could say to put Korn down- how they live and what they stand for - but one characteristic they have inspires me: the intensity of their work ethic.

You see, most people probably think that a band like Korn lives some kind of dream life where they just have fun recording music and touring and going to parties hosted by big time Hollywood actors. But a closer look reveals a group of five guys who have worked like crazy to carve out a niche in a music industry where the big venues like MTV didn’t really want them. Instead, they worked their cans off to gather a following by incessant touring, taking breaks only to record albums. They started off living in virtual poverty as they working dead-end jobs to pay the rent as they started playing before audiences. (57)Their first national tour didn’t stop for 18 months. While touring, they often take a day off only every two weeks. (140) Guitar player James "Munky" Shaffer says frankly that they are "the hardest-working band in rock ‘n’ roll." (p.179) According to their biographer, Korn "has always operated under the "extra mile" principle. If the record consumers aren’t biting, tour longer. If the audience isn’t digging your act, try harder." According to Jonathon,

"We went out for eighteen months straight. I think we played 380 shows a year, and there’s only 365 days. That’s what you’ve got to do. You’ve got to work hard to be successful." (63)

Bass player "Fieldy" describes the intensity of playing live: "…it’s like being on a roller coaster for an hour and ten minutes…sometimes I’ll be walkin’ offstage and I’ll be like throwin’ up….It’s just because it’s so intense being up there. Sometimes I will be throwin’ up before we play, too."

(60) After Jonathon collapsed from exhaustion after a Montreal concert, he resumed the tour two days later (p.157)

Do you sometimes get discouraged because it seems too difficult to get ahead? Next time you hear Korn on the radio, remember the commitment that it often takes to be successful. (Steve Miller, Facts from "KORN: Life in the Pit," by Leah Furman, St. Martin’s Griffin, New York, 2000)

See The Big Picture

One day 7-year-old Mark Vincent and some friends slipped into an open door at Manhattan's Theater in New York City and began to play around, disrupting the workers. When Artistic director Crystal Field took notice, Mark feared she was going to call the police. Instead, she said, ''If you guys want to play here, come every day at four o'clock and learn your lines.'' He took the challenge and began acting. Today, he's known as Vin Diesel and stars as the bigger than life action figure in XXX.

What can we learn from Vin Diesel's early experience? Many of the students we consider losers, the ones always in trouble at school, simply need a positive channel for their energy. Perhaps they'd respond to a challenge better than a threat or reprimand. Perhaps they simply have no purpose in life. Why not invite them to help with the stage crew (set up and take down) or invite them to the next community service event? Like Vin Diesel, the challenge to service might just change their lives. (Written by Steve Miller, Copyright August 16, 2002. Facts from Vin Diesel: From nightclub bouncer to action hero 'XXX' appeal, August 12, 2002, People.com, CNN.)

When Vin Diesel read the rough first draft of the script for the movie XXX, he wasn't impressed. So the director got him on board by casting the vision. He said, ''Xander Cage is a nihilist. Xander Cage is the least likely to save the world. Xander Cage doesn't care about the world. Xander Cage is recruited by the CIA to save the world, and in the process he learns patriotism and the value of life.''

Coming not long after the 9/11 terrorist attack, you can imagine the impact of this theme. Vin Diesel caught the vision and dedicated himself 100% to the project, preparing himself with an ''extreme-sports version of weightlifting for three months,'' including motocross, snowboarding, speed climbing and some Navy Seals training in San Diego.

When you do a service project, do you just see yourself as "doing a service project," or "changing the world?" When you teach, do you see yourself as merely "educating kids," or "molding the next generation." How you see the big picture greatly impacts your enthusiasm for any one task. 

**********************

If you want to build a ship, don't herd people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea. (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)

Err on the Side of the Radical

''If you're going to err, err on the side of the radical. It's easier to cool down a fanatic than to warm up a corpse.'' (George Verwer)

**********************

''Are you a fanatic? A manager must care intensely about running a first-class operation; if his golf game is what he thinks about while shaving, the business will show it.'' (Warren Buffett, one of the two wealthiest men in America, America's most successful investor)

Don't Be Satisfied With Mediocrity

To be average is to be the best of the worst, or the worst of the best.

Get Started!

Be willing to make decisions. That's the most important quality in a good leader. Don't fall victim to what I call the 'ready-aim-aim-aim-aim syndrome.' You must be willing to fire. (Gen. George S. Patton)

**********************

A good plan violently executed right now is far better than a perfect plan executed next week. (General George S. Patton)

Discover Something You're Willing to Die For

If a man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live. (Martin Luther King, Jr., speech, Detroit, Michigan, June 23, 1963)

Be Ignorant of What Can't Be Done

I am looking for a lot of men who have an infinite capacity to not know what can't be done.'' (Henry Ford)

Don't Just Shoot for Money

''Even today, what interests me isn't making money per se. If I had to choose between my job and having great wealth, I'd choose the job. It's a much bigger thrill to lead a team of thousands of talented, bright people than it is to have a big bank account.'' (Bill Gates, Column, New York Times Syndicate, October 22, 1996.)

Choose Some Inspiring Goals

From Bobby Richards, Olympic pole vault champion: ''Show me someone who has no inspiration, and I'll show you someone as good as dead. Show me someone with no challenges, no goals, no great aspirations, and I'll show you someone who won't do anything in life. You've got to be inspired.''

Channel Your Motivation to Discipline

Mike Singletary is one of the top professional football players in America, having been named Defensive Player of the Year twice. You'd think he must be huge to overpower others and make so many tackles, but he's actually rather small for a person in his position (6ft. tall, c. 220 lbs). So how does he make so many tackles? It's all in his preparation for the game. He watches game films of his opponents methodically, often running a single play fifty to sixty times, watching every player so carefully that when the ball is hiked, he can predict where the ball is going before the play develops. He can tell by the way one player is standing, by knowing the plays the coaches tend to call for when the time is running out. He shines on the field because of his incredible discipline when no one is watching. (Reworded from Hughes , © Copyright 2002 Steve Miller - All Rights Reserved)

Let Failure Motivate You

Phil loved football. As an adult, he vividly remembers a junior high game that changed his life. His well-funded school team played a rag-tag Salvation Army team. In Phil's own words,

"We were bad-ass. We had the black jerseys, the black helmets, and here were these kids wearing rolled-up jeans and loafers for football shoes. They beat us like we were clapping for a barn dance. At that point I really got interested in why some people, with all the advantages of the world, don't do well, and those with no advantages can be absolute champions."

"I started getting interested in what makes people do what they do." "Why were those kids who had none of the advantages so good, and those of us who had all the advantages weren't so good?"

"I thought if I could ever figure that out that would be an overwhelming edge in life. I started studying success."

His motivation was so great, that by the time he hit college, he'd already read all his father's graduate school texts in Psychology. He went on to get his Ph.D. in Psychology and become one of the most famous Psychologists in the country, watched by millions each day on his talk show: Dr. Phil.

When some people experience defeat, they just get mad. When Dr. Phil experienced defeat, he learned from it and got smarter. I suppose that's often the difference between those who ultimately succeed and those who ultimately fail.

(Written by Steve Miller for Legacy Educational Resources. Source: The Making of Dr. Phil, by Sophia Dembling and Lisa Gutierrez (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey, 2004), p. 26. Also, from the biography Dr. Phil Getting Real on the A&E Television Network.)

Need more resources on "Motivation"? See also our related categories: Resilience, Perseverance .