Finding Motivation

There are times I find it tough to be motivated, and I wondered, is it necessary to achieve success?

 If you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe, you will be successful. I agree with this statement. It is true. But what about the days that you just want to breathe? Does that mean you don’t want to succeed?

Money motivates us all. Not true.  It only motivates when we have none. It is a by-product of what we do. If you are broke, does that mean you are not motivated?

Change your attitude and change your world. William James said, “The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes.” Indeed, you can change your life.

It sounds simple. Change your thoughts, change your life.

Tony Robbins, Grant Cardone or Eric Thomas are wildly successful. All of them tell us it is up to us. Words of Wisdom until we get caught in a trap and compare ourselves to them.  A mistake we all make. We believe they never had any doubts. It is just not true. We all have doubts about our dreams. Use them to motivate yourself. Never get down or feel inadequate because you have doubts. You would be lying to yourself if you said you never did.

What do we do when we lose our motivation? Most of us give up. What is wrong with me? A simple question we all ask ourselves.

There is nothing wrong. The experts who give us advice doubted themselves at some time. We all do. The difference is what we do when the doubt creeps in. Do we quit? If we lose our motivation for a day, does that mean we no longer have a dream?

Find your motivation every day. Never give up on your dream. It is yours. Make it happen.

It is always up to you. 

We all Matter

We all matter

My beautiful wife and I just celebrated our 30^th anniversary. It is amazing to me and I am sure to many people who know me. She has the patience of Job and should be canonized.

We posted a picture on facebook and Instagram to let the world know. Many people commented or “liked” the post. I will admit it is a nice picture. I probably looked at the two sites more the next day than I had in the previous month. Why? I wanted to see how many likes we could get. I equated them to a good pat on the back. It brightened my outlook on the day. As Sally Fields so infamously stated, “they like me, they really like me.”

I started thinking about why. Every day we all look for some sort of positive reinforcement. We need to matter. How easy it is to give someone a nod or acknowledge what they have done. It is also easy to point out faults and take that feeling away.

Never forget how powerful our words and actions can be.

We all need to matter. We need to be noticed. It is inherent in all of us.

Take some time today and give someone a compliment. Encourage them with words. The reaction will brighten the outlook for them and more importantly for you.

Always learning

“The greater part of instruction is being reminded of things you already know.”- Greek Philosopher Plato

What I have realized in 30 years of Sales Management is that there is an enormous need for a guideline for managers. There are numerous books available to help us, but I’ve always found it tough to apply them to my situation or the team.

Many of the managers I have worked with in my career have been promoted for reasons other than they showed the ability to lead. If you are great at Sales, you should be a good Manager. If you are the “squeaky wheel,” the “tattletale,” or many other synonyms that fit this mold. If you are a kiss ass, you will be a good manager. A Kiss ass is commonly known as a person who will go to many lengths to look impressive, good, and worthy towards another individual or group of higher social standing. Due to their innate need to ascend in the ranks of their workplace, school, or society in general. You will be a good manager. We all have many examples of this person. Some have excelled at some level, and have been given the title manager and expected to lead.

Unfortunately, in the world of Sales Management, this is a widely held perception. We promote out of necessity, the same process we use to hire. We are surprised when it does not work, or it takes substantially more work than it should.

The number one reason salespeople leave, their manager.

Leadership is influence

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” - John Quincy Adams

For most organizations, management is common, but Leadership is rare.

When I first started this project, I became very excited about the prospect of helping managers become leaders in their particular field of endeavor.

Most people have never heard of me. I'm not a retired Navy seal. I am not a fighter pilot. I don't give 50-hour seminars to help you improve. What I have done over the last 30 years is put together some surprising teams with the aid of many people.

Whenever I read a book or listen to an audio recording. I always try to find real-world situations that I can apply in my life and my chosen profession. I have found it tough. It’s difficult comparing what many authors tell you to do versus knowledge that applies in the real world. What follows, I believe, is exactly that. A real-world scenario that you can implement and help yourself become a better leader. Perhaps only one item from this book, one chapter will help you change. If I can accomplish that, I have done what I set out to do.

At first glance, many managers, when they start to read this or look at the workbooks put it down and pass it off as the same old stuff. Claiming, this isn't me and pay no attention to it. They would ask. Why does Bob Morgan think that he can tell me what I need to do and not do? I am already very successful at what I do.

Whether it is with this book or some other means. I would hope that managers would take a hard look at what they are doing, what have they achieved, and find something that they can add to their already full repertoire to become real leaders in their industry. They may read something, or find some insight that resonates with them. The light goes on, and they see themselves as they are.

“The greater part of instruction is being reminded of things you already know.”- Greek Philosopher Plato

Come on this journey with me and lets change the world.

An excerpt from
The Strangest Secret
by Earl Nightingale

George Bernard Shaw said, "People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can't find them, they make them."

Well, it's pretty apparent, isn't it? And every person who discovered this believed (for a while) that he was the first one to work it out. We become what we think about.

Conversely, the person who has no goal, who doesn't know where he's going, and whose thoughts must therefore be thoughts of confusion, anxiety and worry - his life becomes one of frustration, fear, anxiety and worry. And if he thinks about nothing... he becomes nothing.

How does it work? Why do we become what we think about? Well, I'll tell you how it works, as far as we know. To do this, I want to tell you about a situation that parallels the human mind.

Suppose a farmer has some land, and it's good, fertile land. The land gives the farmer a choice; he may plant in that land whatever he chooses. The land doesn't care. It's up to the farmer to make the decision.

We're comparing the human mind with the land because the mind, like the land, doesn't care what you plant in it. It will return what you plant, but it doesn't care what you plant.

Now, let's say that the farmer has two seeds in his hand- one is a seed of corn, the other is nightshade, a deadly poison. He digs two little holes in the earth and he plants both seeds-one corn, the other nightshade. He covers up the holes, waters and takes care of the land...and what will happen? Invariably, the land will return what was planted.

As it's written in the Bible, "As ye sow, so shall ye reap."

Remember the land doesn't care. It will return poison in just as wonderful abundance as it will corn. So up come the two plants - one corn, one poison.

The human mind is far more fertile, far more incredible and mysterious than the land, but it works the same way. It doesn't care what we plant...success...or failure. A concrete, worthwhile goal...or confusion, misunderstanding, fear, anxiety and so on. But what we plant must return to us.

You see, the human mind is the last great unexplored continent on earth. It contains riches beyond our wildest dreams. It will return anything we want to plant.