FFN 076： Motivation is B.S.
Episode Stats
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Summary
In this episode, Ryan talks about why he believes that motivation is BS and gives 5 strategies to replace it with your own source of inspiration. He also discusses why you should stop attending motivational conferences and start using your own sources of inspiration instead.
Transcript
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You're a man of action. You live life to the fullest. Embrace your fears and boldly chart
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your own path. When life knocks you down, you get back up one more time. Every time.
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You are not easily deterred or defeated. Rugged. Resilient. Strong. This is your life. This is who
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you are. This is who you will become. At the end of the day, and after all is said and done,
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you can call yourself a man. Gentlemen, what is going on today? My name is Ryan
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Mickler, and I am the host and the founder of this podcast, The Order of Man. I am honored
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that you are here with us today. This, if you don't already know, is a podcast about being
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a better man, a better father, a better husband, a better business owner, and a better community
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leader. So if that sounds like something you are interested in, you are in the right place.
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Guys, we also have an interview show, which is released each Tuesday, but this today, every
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Friday is your Friday Field Notes. These are some thoughts, some ideas, insights, those
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type of things that I've had from throughout the week that I feel are worthy of sharing
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with you. I've also got a couple of great interview shows coming out in the next couple
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of weeks. I've been talking about this, but we've got three New York Times bestselling
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authors. I'm not going to give away who they are, but I promise you, you will not want to
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miss these conversations. So make sure if you have not already done so that you get subscribed
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wherever you listen to your podcast so you don't miss any of those interviews. Now, also,
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the topic that I'm going to be sharing with you today, which is motivation is BS, is also
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the topic of the month inside of the Iron Council. And if you're not already familiar
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with the Iron Council, this is our exclusive brotherhood. And basically it's designed for
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the select few of you who want to do more with your life as a man, whether you're looking
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for guidance or direction, accountability systems, the ability to connect with like-minded
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men, which I know is huge for the guys inside the council or anything else that you may
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be looking for on your quest to become a better man. We have got you covered inside of the
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Iron Council. This month specifically, we're going to help you identify where you are strong
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when it comes to discipline, where you're weak and help you develop processes and systems
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for ramping up your discipline. You're going to get access to our Facebook page, our Slack
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team, our membership site, my daily insights and the brotherhood that will help you take your
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life to the next level. So if you're interested, you can join us at orderofman.com
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slash Iron Council. Again, that's orderofman.com slash Iron Council. Now with that said, guys,
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let's talk about why I think motivation is BS. And more importantly, I'm going to go through
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five strategies today, five strategies to replace the need to feel motivated all the time in order
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for you to take action and get the job done. It seems that everywhere you turn, you're going
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to find another motivational guru attempting to inspire the masses to take action. If you're
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like me, you've attended conferences and purchased courses and poured over endless quotes and memes
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in a feeble attempt to get motivated enough to do what you and I already know we should
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be doing. And I don't want you to get me wrong here. There's nothing particularly wrong with
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motivation other than it just doesn't last. You know, we've all left that conference where
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we feel inspired and then we get back into the grind and then we lose that excitement that
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we had within, I don't know, a day, two days at tops. It seems like motivation is like a drug user
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hooked on cocaine. We're constantly on the lookout for the next conference that promises to inspire
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and amaze and motivate us. So we go, we spend the time and the energy and the money and the resources,
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and we even get motivated. It works. It works for another 24 or 48 hours until our next fix
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is required. And that's the problem. We become so dependent when we seek motivation from outside
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sources. And those that host these conferences know that, and they bank on the fact that you'll
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have to come back again next year to get that feeling. And I'm not suggesting that you don't attend
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these types of motivational conferences. I'm just encouraging you to dig deeper,
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dig deeper than the surface level BS that's out there. And it seems to be so prevalent
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in today's society. So rather than beat on my chest today and shout a catchy little tagline
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that motivation is BS, which I said, I want to share with you five strategies that you can start
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using today, today to become your own source of inspiration and more importantly, your own source
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of the desire to take action in your life. So number one, plant your flag. We live in a world where
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everything is promised immediately through Amazon. I can make a book recommendation to you and you can
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have and be reading that book in the next couple of minutes. We're promised immediate results from
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the latest fat loss hack and even podcasts like mine, like this one, the order of man allow us to
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listen to any subject on demand free from the need to wait for or on anybody. In most cases, I think
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this access to information and products and services is a, is a great thing. It's a beautiful thing.
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The unintended consequence, however, is that our attention span and patience is greatly diminished
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to say the least. And that's really too bad considering that your success and my success in
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any area of life requires an insane amount of consistency over long, stretched out periods of
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time. So if you're looking for immediate results in your life, motivation might actually work. Motivation
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might actually cut it. But if you're interested in maintaining a healthy, wealthy, successful life,
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a lifelong pursuit of those things, then you're going to have to wrap your head around taking action for
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a lifetime that requires you planning your flag. Now, the second component of this is being a man of your
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word. Planting that flag requires you to do what you say you're going to do. If for example, you've committed
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to working out five days a week. Every day that you miss makes you a liar to put it bluntly. Sure.
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We can sugarcoat that and make excuses for why we missed our workouts. But at the end of the day,
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you did not do what you said you would. And that by definition makes you less than a man of your word.
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It's a good thing then that the idea of doing what you say you will is a skillset. It's a skillset,
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which means that it can actually be learned. All it takes is a little effort and some consistency.
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Even the smallest of tasks and the smallest of promises count. If you tell your wife you're
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going to take out the trash, take out the trash. If you tell your son you're going to play catch with
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him after school, play catch with him after school. If you tell a neighbor you'll be there to help him
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move, be there on time to help him move. Every time that we fall short of our word, I think a little
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piece of our soul dies. So it's no wonder why so many men, you look around and you look at your
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neighbors and your friends and your colleagues and your coworkers and your family. And these guys
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seem to be miserable. It's because they can't keep their promises to themselves, let alone keeping
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promises to others. When you wake up early in the morning to go work out, don't question whether or
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not you should or sit around or hit the snooze question whether or not you're going to be a man of
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your word today. Because the promises that you make to yourself are the most important promises that
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you can make. Guys, just a quick time out to tell you about our sponsor NetSuite by Oracle. This
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business leader, tune in. If you're not, maybe not for you, but if you will be, I would tune in
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anyway. So if you find yourself as a business owner or leader asking about your money and sales and
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Now, with that said, let me get back to the last three steps that I wanted to share with you
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So step number three, guys, is creating systems and processes. Part of being a man of your word,
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which is step number two I just shared with you, is about creating systems and processes
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to ensure that you are, to ensure that you are a man of your word. I'm going to use that workout
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example again. If you tell yourself you're going to work out in the morning, set your clothes out
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the night before. Get your pre-workout drink ready. Know what workout's going to be. These are the
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simple systems that's going to keep you on track when, frankly, you don't want to be on track.
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It's calendars, daily rituals, evening routines, task lists, electronic reminders, field note
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journals. I use those all the time. Coaching, masterminds. These are all great examples of
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systems and processes that you can implement to actually get your work done. Step number four is
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to review your progress. Out of all the systems that I could talk with you about and I just mentioned,
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I want to focus on the idea of reviewing your progress. Most guys don't. We tend to identify
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the task and then we do it or we don't do it and then we move right on to the next task because
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things need to be done. This process of reviewing your actions and your conversations, projects,
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interactions, and your day is critical. It's a critical component of diving deeper than simply being
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surface level motivated. I learned the after action review in the military, which is
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a series of five questions. It's five questions that you can ask yourself to review your work and
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get you pointed in the right direction every day. So for the sake of time, I'm not going to share
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those five questions with you. I've done it before, but if you are interested, you can go back, listen
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to some of the podcasts, or you can get a copy of the after action review at orderofman.com
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slash after action review. We make it simple for you. Step number five, the last thing I wanted to
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talk with you about today is that discipline trumps motivation. After all is said and done,
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the mantra that discipline trumps motivation has been a huge, huge help for me. Motivation is
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external. Discipline is internal. We rely on those outside sources when we seek after motivation,
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but we depend on ourselves, the people that actually matter when we strive and work towards
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discipline. And this is what makes discipline so powerful. We simply decide, we decide that we're
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going to be disciplined rather than wait for the perfect set of variables to motivate and inspire
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us. So when you're struggling to get out of bed or go work out or be consistent with the project at
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work or in school, remember, remember and tell yourself that discipline trumps motivation, or as
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Jocko would say, and I know a lot of you guys follow Jocko, discipline equals freedom. Internalize it,
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get a bracelet that says it, tattoo it on your forehead if you have to, but whatever you do,
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live your life by the words that discipline trumps motivation. This is not an overnight process guys,
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especially if you've been relying on others to motivate you for most of your life. But remember
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to plant your flag, be a man of your word, develop the systems and the processes to keep you on track,
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review your progress. And then again, like I just mentioned, live your life by the mantra,
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discipline trumps motivation. Again, gentlemen, a reminder of our exclusive brotherhood,
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the iron council. This month we're focused on those five tools for developing discipline.
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You're going to have access to our weekly calls, a battle team to keep you accountable,
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assignments, challenges, video replays, and the brotherhood that we've created through years of
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testing and refining. You can join us if you're interested at orderofman.com slash iron council.
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Again, that's orderofman.com slash iron council. Until next week, gentlemen, take action,
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be disciplined, and become the man you are meant to be. Thank you for listening to the Order of Man
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podcast. If you're ready to take charge of your life and be more of the man you were meant to be,
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we invite you to join the order at orderofman.com.