The other day Seth Godin shared a compelling post on why all motivation is self-motivation. And he’s so damn right, as usual, to say that. Motivation is an intent to take action by own our volition. Anything else is just coercion.
But here’s one great problem — the post might’ve send wrong signals despite Seth’s best effort to clarify the biggest obstacle of it all:
And the challenge and opportunity is in finding the external forces that will soon become internal ones.
I’m pretty sure the skeptics/under-performers/know-it-alls and the ones who think “they don’t need external help” were so relieved. I can tell because the post was re-shared by at least half a dozen individuals who know that I’m an executive coach helping people to achieve peak performance.
Sure, I can ignore them but if you’re one of those, can you? Let me share with you a cold hard fact — your blind spots (the thought that you don’t need help/coaching/mentoring or know-it-all) are the biggest deterrent to your career and personal growth. Ignoring them will sabotage your future and unfortunately, there’s no working around it.
Anyone can benefit from coaching, counselling and/or mentoring (they’re not the same by the way, but that’s another post for some other time) particularly if they’re driven to accomplish significant personal or professional missions. It’s even more critical if you feel lost or just lack the motivation to do anything about it.
The whole idea of self-help and self-motivation is a noble one. But if everyone were to read a bunch of books or watch a few seminars on YouTube or perhaps online courses (you and I know some who’ve made a killing by selling online courses) and actually be able to apply them in their real lives, this world would’ve been a better place.
Implementation is the hardest part. And that’s exactly where you need help. The books, e-books, free seminars or low-priced courses (that basically upsell another offer) can only take you so far. The real deal is applying those principles in your life and making them work. The problem is that most of these principles don’t work because they were never unique to your life. The tactics and strategy worked for the author/content creator and may/may not work for you.
The results are never typical. And that’s precisely why you need someone to guide or help you navigate through your overriding emotions, see the bigger picture and get a better perspective. You can’t possibly self-coach to get through that. Heck, the best coaches/mentors out there have their own coaches and mentors. Why won’t you?
Back to Seth — while the challenge and opportunity is to find the external forces to soon become internal ones, it calls for a catalyst and a change maker to make it happen. And if we all were capable enough to change things ourselves… life would’ve been so much different!