Motivation…

In all these years that you have lived your life, I am sure there are days where you were radiating at 110 per cent; and others where you were waiting for the day to end.

In case you are unfamiliar with why you felt the way you did, it is because you lacked the motivation necessary for you to get through the day.

As a concept, motivation is the driving force that compels people like you to act. It occurs when a need arises that you wish to satisfy. Like the motivation to lose that extra weight, for example.

There are many ways to dissect this phenomenon; and when you understand how motivation actually works, you are better able to use it to your advantage. In this way, you will find that certain things drive you to behave in a certain way. This could be as simple as drinking a glass of water when you’re thirsty.

The other aspect to think about when you are trying to become more motivated is to set goals that are associated with your needs, or to set goals to achieve a desired ‘end result.’

Do you set goals for yourself? If not, why? This might be why you are feeling demotivated to get anything done… Think about that…

But wait! It doesn’t just stop there. There are many ways goals can be created. It can be extrinsically by earning a reward and avoiding punishment. Or, it can be intrinsic and personally rewarding. There is no right or wrong way, both can be effective. It’s up to you to find out what works.

It would be great to be able to give you a step by step guide on how to gain an appropriate amount of motivation. But that would be quite fruitless.

I suggest you make daily, weekly and monthly goals for yourself both professionally and personally. Then take sincere action to achieve these goals.  Easier said than done, but it’s worth every bit of it.

The Alchemist: Book Review

The Alchemist is a fictional story that had been written about 32 years ago. Yet almost every lesson embedded in this story is relevant even today.

Here is one article that can help you understand the sorts of life lessons that you might find reading the Alchemist.

One of the main things that this article will help you come to understand is the fact that you will fail. So make sure that you enjoy the process and never give it up halfway through.

It is crucial to be aware of the importance of the process of anything you do, rather than worrying about the result.

When you commit to and give it everything in the process of achieving something you can literally change the process. And to be very honest with you, this is the real gem of the entire process and what ‘The Alchemist’ is about.

People who are just looking for the ‘prize at the end’ miss this point and hence look for shortcuts.

There are plenty of examples of this: like owning a million dollars instead of learning how to make one million dollars. Be honest, what would you prefer?

Another example is when people want to, and in many instances expects to get a six-pack. And yet, they are not necessarily willing to put in the work… Does this sound like you?

It is important to stay the course, and it is much wiser to become rather than to receive. Look at this article to understand this concept in greater detail. This attribute can be effective in almost every single aspect of your life.

You really should take the time to read this story if you can get a copy of the book yourself. It is worth the time you spent. And considering that this book covers deep topics, it is quite an easy read.

Quality…

Think about your job or even your passion. An example could be… say food for instance.

Ask yourself: what makes your job so rewarding and satisfying?  Once you have answered this question that is when you will come to understand the importance of quality.

When looking and scouring for the importance of quality, you would be able to find many examples. Go ahead and google it up sometime. One interesting example is the quality policy for Starbucks.

Think about the coffee for a second. What is the first brand that comes to your mind? Is it Nescafe, Nespresso, Starbucks, McCafe, or a different brand?

Your favourite brand may have created some sort of positive experience for you that have stuck with you for some time. You might even say that their product was of high quality.

Starbucks’ overall objective for ensuring quality is to offer the best coffee and espresso drinks for consumers who want premium ingredients and perfection every time. It is this promise made by Starbucks that positions them as superior to its competitors in every market segment in which their products are being offered.

At the end of the day, it is the consumer’s final judgement and opinion of their standard of quality that establishes their image as a brand. Sounds simple right?

Whilst having a surf around Google, you might come to understand that quality is much more than simply making a product that looks good.

You might be confused… is quality more important than quantity?

Well… there are a lot of exceptions, and it really depends on the context. But if you are aiming to become the best at your craft, it would be wise to focus on building the skills needed to be the best and never resting until high quality becomes your brand.  

Strengths…

Let me ask you some questions…

How often do you talk about your weaknesses? How many times do you try to improve on what you aren’t good at?

Too many times, people are told to improve on their weaknesses. I’m gonna be honest with you… you really are wasting a MASSIVE amount of time…

Focusing on your strengths and interests is something you should seriously consider.

The strength-based approach is a real concept that every person will benefit from if they take the time to learn it, embrace, enhance and enjoy it.

For you to say ‘my strengths are…’ means that you can provide consistent, NEAR-perfect performance (cause perfect does not exist), in a given activity.

So start playing smarter, and own your strengths.

To make this a little simpler to put into practice, there are a few keys to understanding your strengths:

• Identify your dominant themes of talent (what kind of things or skills are you good at?)
• Narrow down on the top two or three skills that come easily
• Learn more about the specific skill/s,
• Refine them with knowledge

Three main pillars come under strengths: talent, skill and knowledge.

Regardless of how impressively natural you are at anything, you will not get anywhere with talent alone. As you read before, talent is just the first step.

The next step: make a list of what comes actually easy to you. No need to be lazy… write it all down. And really think about the things you are good at. Mull over it, it is not something to figure out in a couple of minutes.

After this, I need you to go and do some research about these top skills that you identified. There are no short cuts what so ever. Read books. Do the hard work.

Once you have gained a little more knowledge about the skill, I hope you have actually found it interesting to learn more about what you are good at.

Refine it. Practice it. Enjoy it.

Resonance…

Let’s first start with a quick exercise.

When you think of your favourite type of artist, who comes to mind first? Is it an actor, a singer, a writer, or a producer?

One thing is for sure, this person clearly did something that resonated with you, isn’t it?

This does not just apply to people. Resonance is building and creating strong values that consumers will also agree to.

A powerful way to build a strong sense of resonance could be through the way you tell a story to someone. A story that connects with your reader that feels personally meaningful is something that will be remembered for a long time.

This advert by Kia is something I found that has personally resonated with the everyman, becoming one of the best ads ever created: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76j8DI8ADAU.

It is definitely worth viewing.

Kia has been able to showcase a lot of dignity and heart with this video. It was evident and admirable to witness an incredible advertisement without the use of celebrity endorsements of any kind.

It has the ability to resonate because the ‘ordinary’ viewer can actually place themselves in the shoes of that young narrator. The quality of the advert has been so well done; it looks like a movie trailer.

Even though it was advertising the ‘Kia Telluride’, it highlighted that innate desire of wanting to be remembered for what we do and what we have done.

Kia demonstrated the possibility of ordinary people, like you and I really have the ability to do extraordinary things if you just give everything you’ve got to everything you do.

One of the dominant ideas this advert possesses is that we don’t want to be known for who we are. Instead, we want to be known for what we do. Doesn’t this make you feel like you really should give everything your 100 percent effort and integrity?

What do you think??

Personality…

It is always very intriguing to learn about personalities and how that affects every person.

While personalities are the psychological characteristics that both determine and reflect how people think and act, this can allow people to relate to each other’s differences.

Personality encompasses a variety of concepts and theories that help individuals understand different aspects of their personality.

One of these concepts identifies the needs that every person is consistently motivated to attain in both personal and professional lives. All human beings have an innate desire for achievement, the desire to feel affiliated or wanted, and the desire to attain the power of sorts.

Without even being conscious of it, I know that you too would like to acquire power, achievement and belongingness. Not trying to be creepy, it’s something that every human would like to have.

So for example, think about these 3 things:

1. Wouldn’t you like to know about your progress regularly and be rewarded for taking risks to accomplish you goals?
2. Don’t you prefer to collaborate with others instead constantly trying to compete and ‘win them over?’
3. Would you say that you are someone who enjoys winning and garnering recognition?

These questions that I hope you actually answered about honestly and not just skim through them helps people like yourself understand what really motivates your actions.  

If you think that applying this concept on a day to day basis, there are a few details that you might want to take into account.

All people will have different characteristics depending on their dominant motivator out of the three. Now, this may seem oddly straightforward but the amount of people who get frustrated because other people don’t want what they want is almost laughable. Everyone has different priorities and the best thing you can do is to respect that, isn’t it?

Get that people’s motivations behind their actions is heavily influenced by their culture and life experiences. With this, I hope you’ll come to respect the differences of people around you.

Be Value-Driven…

In the past few years, the word ‘value’ had been thrown around and used very loosely in many different ways.

One way to articulate how a person should provide value through his or her work is to have a purpose behind it.

Some of the things that help me get into the headspace of purpose are to understand what my why really is.  Having a strong sense of purpose and reason in everything I do means that I am more likely to achieve the results I want. I hope you can relate.

If you think about any successful person in your field of interest, I am positive that every single one of them had a solid urge, an unresting need and a deep desire to achieve some sort of greatness.

When what you do connects with your reason for getting out of bed in the morning, I believe that is when you will actually be able to provide value to the lives of others.

There is no need to exaggerate or create grandeur plans to enrich someone else. I had learnt at one point in time, that to give value, a person means to simply help them. That is what it eventually all boils down to.

Through primary research on Google, I understood that one of the attributes of being value-oriented means that the act should create real demand and cause an action to be taken.

The point that I cannot stress enough is that last part: cause action to be taken. I know from experiences in the past, that nothing will ever come to fruition if nothing is done.

Don’t fall into the trap of planning and not doing. It sounds easy, and maybe even stupid. But trust me, procrastination is real.

So I guess all I have to say is:

• have a strong purpose and a drive,
• make it a point to help one person every day, and
• get into the habit of getting things done.

Resilience…

To be honest; I’m sure that the past three months may have tested you in a myriad of ways.

Sometimes your motivation may have decreased and you may have tended to put off your priorities for as long as you can. That’s when your ‘why’ comes in and unconsciously tells you ‘the work’s not over yet.’

Leaving aside companies, but within an individual’s personal brand especially athletes, you will notice resilience is always the keynote to their success.

Despite not being a huge fan of sports in general, Kobe Bryant (R.I.P) is the pure prime example of resilience.

Kobe’s mindset transcends above and beyond any sport of any kind. His undying commitment to being the best version of himself is really inspiring.

Kobe’s mental strength is what truly made him one of the greatest of all time. One of the things he mentions when an interviewer asks him why he is not happy about his win, he responds with “what’s there to be happy about? Job’s not finished.” That’s it. Right there, that is the kind of mentality that everyone needs to build, including yourself.

The question you have had to ask yourself is: “well, what are gonna do about it?”

Resilience will allow you to lose all the excuses in the world and just get the job done.

Kobe’s career is an analogy about what any person could achieve with heart, true grit and plenty of resilience.

“I’ll do whatever it takes to win games, whether it’s sitting on a bench waving a towel, handing a cup of water to a teammate, or hitting the game-winning shot.”- Kobe Bryant (R.I.P) 💪💪💪

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Originality…

If you wish to stand out of the crowd in whatever you do, originality and authenticity is key. No joke.

Every brand you come across would most likely be completely different from the others. And that’s what makes marketing so interesting and exciting to soak up, wouldn’t you say?

Once you start doing what you love and when you focus on your strengths, you’ll realise the beauty of being authentic and original.

In the beginning, you may not prioritise building the right skills for yourself, because it is so much easier to help others. But there is no way you would be able to provide value unless you create it for yourself.

Originality is vital for you to stay creative and add value to the lives of others.

NB: This is easier said than done.

It is one thing to read about being authentic; it is another thing to practice originality.

Being fearlessly original may not something that comes naturally. The brands that you love are all different and unique in their own way, right?

Adidas, Fila, Harley Davidson, Marc Jacobs, or even your friends and family are original and different in their own way. They all have a unique vision, personality and style.

So back to the first statement made: if you want to stand out of the crowd and be the best you can possibly be… eliminate the competition.

• Focus on your strengths and passion
• Fearlessly voice your opinion
• Build the appropriate skillset
• Remember your why and keep working towards your vision

This will make you inspiring and simply unforgettable.

Hard work…

When you think of the word ‘work’, what comes to mind? Or do you simply fall off to sleep at the mere sound of it?

I know how that feels. In the past, you may have tried to do everything you possibly could to avoid doing any work at all. Because ignorance is bliss, and procrastination is indulgent.

Do you remember talking yourself out of doing any work? Do you plan for the day about all the things you need to achieve and then not do them at all? What a genius you are…

At the end of the day, you would complain about how you never seemed to get anything finished and the cycle of anxiety will take over. This ridiculousness went on for several days until you realised it ACTUALLY was time to change my habits…. In case you don’t know, you need to change your habits. Seriously.

Despite the amount of unnecessary pressure you put yourself under, after trial and error, you reluctantly accepted that putting in the work is the only solution.

‘Hard work works’ is something you must keep in mind and the more pressure you’re in now, the better you’ll become. Remember, diamonds are created under pressure.

When being in a pressure situation, you may have kicked yourself for not being smart enough. You may think that you have to be better than others.

These kinds of thoughts that are running through your mind is both exhausting and unhappy… so why waste your time thinking like this?

Just remember to stay the course. There is no substitution to hardwork. Hard work works. 💪 And don’t forget to:

• Plan ahead (not just for the day, but for the next week, month, year, 5 years)
• Take advantage of all opportunities that come your way
• Create effective daily habits that help you reach your goal
• Work hard. Its what successful people do