Sooooo.

By now you’ve discovered that you haven’t done all the things on your bucket list you always told yourself you would “If you had the time”.

Well, you likely had the time in the past month with work/ extra activities cancelled and are now at the kitchen table reading this in between Netflix binge worthy shows? (Not sure what qualifies a show as binge worthy outside of there being way too many episodes…)

What was the problem if it wasn’t actually a lack of time then?

Motivation.

One word. One word we misunderstand. One word we think we can master but obviously didn’t..

We spend far too much time trying to motivate ourselves. Self motivation is good of course, but it’s not really the answer we’re looking for these days I think.

I think the secret sauce is not necessarily Self Motivation, I think it’s (ironically) easier than that.

I think motivation comes because of the company I keep, one type of person in particular that I like to call a person of

ENERGY.

Proximity to people of energy motivates me. 

It’s that simple.

Some people of energy are bad for me because they create momentum towards bad things, but some are great because they create momentum towards great things!

People of Energy Polarize you.

They take away the excuses, the grey matter in between doing this or that, the time lapse of procrastination, the lack of discipline that stops us a yard from the finish line.

Most people spend a lifetime trying to motivate themselves when the trick is that motivation is some people’s God-given gift!

What if we’d spend the time we normally spend motivating ourselves (not that we shouldn’t motivate ourselves..) getting next to people who already ARE motivated?

Some people’s energy polarizes you and makes you do something about it!

They live a different life than you or I live.

Every thought in their head and emotion they experience streamlines its way into positive action. They don’t waste time worrying about what they can’t control, they work on what they can. They don’t like words like “Can’t” or “They won’t let me”.

Because positive action is their currency you’ll start dealing with it the moment you’re around them.

They’ll take one look at your “good intentions”, strip the laziness away and say something alarming like “Well if you actually want to get in shape let’s go for a run RIGHT NOW!”

Because you don’t want to appear weak or lazy you blink a couple of times, get off the couch of good intentions and get on a pair of jogging pants, wherever you left them six years ago.

You’ll sweat a little and feel great because the person of energy normally feels great and it’s contagious.

Energy properly directed into positive priorities brings much more energy.

Energy poured into things that don’t really matter leaves you drained.

Whenever I’m around positive people of energy I find myself signed up for very worthwhile things that will demand a lot of energy from me, but because just being around them is exhilarating I can go to bed tired because the day actually mattered and wake up ready to tackle another day.

It will help us when we stop trying to internally provide all the motivation to ourselves when most of us aren’t made that way.

It’s like an internally undisciplined person desperately trying to discipline themselves from the inside forever, not knowing that a better approach to their natural weakness is to put a person with a natural strength there instead.

This is frustrating when we’re told as children “you can do anything!!”

Yeah. I can’t.

I would love to play for Liverpool Football Club but unless someone can overcome my three major weaknesses it’s not going to happen.

1. I’m too old.
2. I’m out of shape. (Possibly fixable)
3. I can’t play soccer.

All this to say that my best bet is to find someone who’s handling whatever crisis I face (or will face) well, has the results I’m looking for, and find a way to get next to them by adding something of value to their lives.

Then I learn as much as I can. Their gift becomes my gift.

And when you’re around people of positive energy, it becomes your way of life…

No matter how lazy you used to be.

(Picture is obviously Homer Simpson)