1346: Need Motivation? BE the Motivation by Joel of 5AMJoel on Finding Inspiration for a Better Life

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[00:00:59] This is Optimal Work Daily, Episode 1346.

[00:01:02] Need motivation? Be the motivation.

[00:01:05] By Joel of 5AMJol.com.

[00:01:09] And I'm Dan, your host, and welcome back to Optimal Work Daily.

[00:01:12] This is, of course, where I read from the very best blogs

[00:01:14] that we can find covering work and productivity.

[00:01:17] And we're going to get right to it now

[00:01:18] and hear from Joel as we start optimizing your life.

[00:01:25] Need motivation? Be the motivation.

[00:01:28] By Joel of 5AMJol.com.

[00:01:33] When I was younger, I got turned down for a job promotion at work.

[00:01:36] When I asked the hiring manager for reasons why I didn't get the job,

[00:01:39] he said that something during my interview worried him.

[00:01:42] Apparently when he asked me about teamwork, I told him, quote,

[00:01:46] My teammates and I depend on each other for encouragement

[00:01:49] and motivation on the days when we're feeling a little down, end quote.

[00:01:53] Now, I can't remember saying this specifically in the interview,

[00:01:55] but it doesn't matter. He heard what he heard.

[00:01:58] So what's wrong with this?

[00:02:00] Seems like a harmless comment about teammates,

[00:02:02] camaraderie, and bonding with other employees, right?

[00:02:05] I thought there was nothing wrong with showing up to work in a bad mood

[00:02:08] sometimes because your teammates can provide motivation and cheer you up.

[00:02:12] I mean, sometimes you're happy and sometimes you're sad, right?

[00:02:15] Well, the hiring manager went on to explain that nobody should

[00:02:18] depend on others for motivation.

[00:02:20] What if it's not there one day?

[00:02:22] He was looking to promote employees that would be self-motivated,

[00:02:25] leaders, people who come into work motivated every single day.

[00:02:29] Did you know anyone like that when you were 19 years old?

[00:02:32] Me neither. Like any constructive criticism,

[00:02:35] I took it extremely personally, overanalyzed it, got angry,

[00:02:39] had a little cry and then finally accepted this is something I might have to work on.

[00:02:44] Here's some of my over analysis and thought process.

[00:02:47] Peter and Paul.

[00:02:49] Peter and Paul are workmates,

[00:02:51] average 20-something year old dudes working in a retail cell phone store.

[00:02:55] They're happy some days and sad other days.

[00:02:57] This is okay individually, but when they get together, things get interesting.

[00:03:01] On Monday, Peter is happy, Paul is happy.

[00:03:04] Today is a good day at work.

[00:03:06] On Tuesday, Peter is sad, Paul is happy.

[00:03:09] There's a decent chance Peter can cheer up Paul.

[00:03:12] Today is an average day at work.

[00:03:14] Wednesday, Peter is sad, Paul is sad.

[00:03:17] The entire day sucks.

[00:03:19] Thursday, Peter is having a breakdown.

[00:03:22] Paul is sad mostly about Peter and the spiral continues downward.

[00:03:27] I'm not a mental health professional, but I've been researching this topic for a while

[00:03:31] and found some related information I'd like to interpret.

[00:03:35] Sad seeking sad.

[00:03:37] No matter our feelings, we usually like to be around people that feel the same way.

[00:03:41] Sad people will usually seek out other sad people.

[00:03:44] Happy people will naturally seek out happy people.

[00:03:47] Get to work at 8 a.m.

[00:03:49] Mix of happy and sad people.

[00:03:51] By 10 a.m., the office looks like this.

[00:03:54] Happy people group together, sad people find each other somehow.

[00:03:58] When sad people are surrounded by happy people, they can get even sadder.

[00:04:02] Feeling outnumbered can push people in the opposite direction.

[00:04:05] Happy people seen through negative lenses can appear annoying.

[00:04:09] Why am I sad?

[00:04:11] Some people are happy at home, but not at work.

[00:04:14] It's highly possible that extremely happy and or motivated people

[00:04:17] change temperatures as soon as they get into work.

[00:04:20] Traffic during the commute, horrible bosses,

[00:04:22] or even just doing activities that you just don't like doing can wear you down.

[00:04:27] I eventually started to think differently.

[00:04:30] Slowly, over the years, I've become more and more self-motivated.

[00:04:34] If I depend on others for motivation, the fate of my day is basically in their hands.

[00:04:39] That could be a good thing, but it could just as easily be a bad thing.

[00:04:42] Don't get me wrong.

[00:04:43] I still get a lot of inspiration and motivation from others everywhere in the world,

[00:04:47] but I don't rely on it.

[00:04:49] Furthermore, I believe that my self-motivation rubs off on others.

[00:04:53] Motivating others isn't my primary goal.

[00:04:55] It's an awesome side effect of being a self-motivated individual.

[00:04:59] Things catch on pretty quickly when you lead by example.

[00:05:04] A personal example from a few years ago.

[00:05:06] It was March 30th, 2017.

[00:05:09] My team had a quarterly team-building workshop led by a motivational speaker,

[00:05:13] awesome guy, John Sanchez.

[00:05:15] One of the things John encouraged everyone to do is,

[00:05:18] embrace your crazy.

[00:05:19] Your wacky, crazy ideas should be lived and shared,

[00:05:23] not hidden or run from.

[00:05:25] End quote.

[00:05:26] John and I grabbed a beer later that night, and he learned about my 5 a.m.

[00:05:29] challenge and self-motivation.

[00:05:31] He encouraged me to start sharing my enthusiasm with my teammates.

[00:05:34] In fact, he said to share it with my team, family, friends, and anyone I meet.

[00:05:39] Share with everybody.

[00:05:40] Embrace your crazy.

[00:05:42] So the very next morning when I got up at 5 a.m.,

[00:05:45] I sent an email to all my teammates.

[00:05:47] It said something along the lines of,

[00:05:49] I'm very excited to be part of such a great team,

[00:05:51] and I can't wait to crush it today with you.

[00:05:53] Then the next day, I wrote another pump up email.

[00:05:56] Then the next day and the next.

[00:05:58] Now this daily email has been going on for over 500 days.

[00:06:02] Word started to spread across my company that I was one of those

[00:06:05] annoying happy guys.

[00:06:06] People reached out to get on my morning email list.

[00:06:09] They wanted to be excited about work too.

[00:06:12] Throughout the year, my boss traveled to executive meetings all over the country

[00:06:15] and shared my emails with others.

[00:06:17] Other managers and executives from around the company wanted to be included.

[00:06:21] They joined my daily email list.

[00:06:23] When I announced I was leaving the company,

[00:06:25] I had managers from all over the country emailing me good wishes

[00:06:29] and to reach out to them if I ever wanted a position on their team.

[00:06:32] Even though they had no clue who I was or what my skills were,

[00:06:35] they loved the fact that I show up to work every day motivated

[00:06:38] and help others to do the same.

[00:06:40] That's great, but happy people can be really annoying.

[00:06:44] Yep, they certainly can be.

[00:06:46] But who would you rather hang out with?

[00:06:48] Call to action.

[00:06:50] I'm not saying everyone needs to wake up early and be excited for no reason,

[00:06:54] but I'd like to challenge you to be more self-motivated.

[00:06:57] When you wake up, have a think about why you're doing whatever you're doing.

[00:07:01] What's the end goal you are shooting for?

[00:07:03] Is it to help people?

[00:07:04] Help your family?

[00:07:05] Do you do it for the money?

[00:07:07] Your clients?

[00:07:08] You might find that answering these types of questions every now

[00:07:10] and then gets you thinking about what you want from life

[00:07:13] versus all the downsides out there.

[00:07:15] So, what motivates you?

[00:07:21] You just listened to the post titled Need Motivation?

[00:07:24] Be the motivation by Joel of 5amjol.com

[00:07:29] We're driven by the search for better,

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[00:08:31] Need to hire? You need Indeed.

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[00:08:56] These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.

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[00:09:04] And thanks to Joel who lives in California with his wife

[00:09:07] and his hyperactive German shepherd named Cooper.

[00:09:09] Joel was born and raised in Australia

[00:09:12] and moved to the US when he was 22 years old.

[00:09:14] Back in 2016, as he mentioned in the post,

[00:09:17] he started getting up every morning at 5 a.m.

[00:09:19] and it started as one of those 30 day challenges.

[00:09:22] But after that challenge was over, he never stopped.

[00:09:25] He sends out short daily messages at 5 a.m. each morning

[00:09:28] on happiness, positivity and learning to be a better human.

[00:09:31] And he's been doing this now for thousands of days

[00:09:34] and Joel writes regularly about personal finance too.

[00:09:37] So you can hear his content featured over on Optimal Finance Daily

[00:09:41] and you can find and follow that show wherever you get your podcasts.

[00:09:44] But that's going to do it for today.

[00:09:46] I hope you enjoyed the post and that you're having a great day out there.

[00:09:49] And I'll be back here with you tomorrow where your optimal life awaits.