 |
| Alfousseni SIDIBE, President of BETC |
Can you really motivate other people, if you cannot motivate yourself?
Kemmons Wilson “A successful person realizes his personal responsibility
for self-motivation. He starts with himself because he possesses the key to his
own ignition switch”.
One of the hardest challenges we face every day is how to create
motivation. How to motivate ourselves to keep going, even when things get hard.
Fellow Toastmasters
and Distinguished Guests,
No matter who you are, where you are from and how you look like, everyone
is trying to motivate someone. Parents try to motivate their children to study
well at school, Bosses try to motivate their employees to work faster. Even some
people try to motivate themselves to lose weight.
Unfortunately, motivation often fails because it’s an external force
that requires either a threat or a reward. A threat because you are afraid to
lose something or a reward because you are happy to get something.
Fellow Toastmasters
and Distinguished Guests,
But how can we create this inspiration in us? Here are few steps to
follow:
First step: Find a
mission
Having passion is not enough, you have to be objectively oriented and have
something you deeply care about, and want people to succeed. For Example in the
popular TED talk of Simon Sinek, he highlights the importance of finding your
“why” in what you do. So I recommend you to find your “why” which will guide
you as a fire flame. Once you have your why, you don’t need an alarm clock to
wake up; you wake up before the alarm ready to dive into a new day. When you
have your “why”, you don’t need to be told what to do at work; you’re already
thinking of ways to make your work even better.
Once you know
your “why”, motivation comes, and your “why” can be:
-
Either a material reward
-
Either a personal gain
-
A feeling of accomplishment
-
Or a step closer to your bigger goal
Step Two, Fuel your Motivation
Zig Zigglar “Motivation is the fuel, necessary to keep human engine
running”.
While getting addicted to smoking and drugs is bad, being a “quote
addict” is good for you. The more you are surrounded by inspiring quotes, the
more motivated you become. But, I took it to an extreme: I subscribe to dozens
of Facebook pages that post inspiring quotes every day. Because for me,
Facebook is no longer a place for gossip, but rather a source of inspiration
and hope.
Watch constantly motivational videos on Youtube (to me it is virtual
University) that provide motivation and inspiration for your leadership and
communication journey. Still about inspiration, Jim Rohn said “You are the
average of the five people you spend the most time with.” In other words, birds
of feather flock together. Inspiration is contagious.
When you hang out with inspiring people, you become inspired.
Step Three: Love
what you do
When it comes to
motivation, attitude is everything. Different people may have completely
opposite feelings towards the same task: some will hate it, others will love
it. Steve Jobs said “If you don’t have fun doing what you are doing, you will give
up, because success is so hard that any rational person will give up”. Love
what you do and have fun doing it.
Step Four: Take
different approach:
Albert Einstein says “You can't keep doing the same thing every day and expect different results”. You
have to change your approach if one doesn’t work change it to a different one.
Some people think that trying a different approach means giving up. Don’t be
stubborn, try other options to get towards your goal.
Step Five: Self
Evaluation
Check whether you are
getting closer to your goal or not then adjust it.
Finding your “why”, I
repeat your “why” in life determines your degree of motivation and guide your
power of inspiration. Ross Perrot said “You don’t have to be the biggest to
beat the biggest”.
Bamako English Toastmasters Club - BETC
Speaker: Alfousseni Sidibé
Project 5 (Competent Communication Manual)
