100 Ways to Motivate Yourself Summary

- Book by Steve Chandler

“Aristotle also knew how to create a self through movement. He once said this: “Whatever we learn to do, we learn by actually doing it; men come to be builders, for instance, by building, and harp players by playing the harp.

In the same way, by doing just acts we come to be just: By doing self-controlled acts, we come to be self-controlled; and by doing brave acts, we become brave.”

This book contains 100 moves you can make...” ~ Steve Chandler

Imagine yourself dying. What would you want to say to each person that visits you as your life ends?

Immerse yourself in this feeling, imagine them visiting you one at a time. Take your time and talk out loud what would you want to say to each one of them?!

Chandler says: “From that day on I vowed not to leave anything to chance. I made up my mind never to leave anything unsaid. I wanted to live as if I might die any moment. The entire experience altered the way I've related to people ever since. And the great point of the exercise wasn't lost on me: We don't have to wait until we're actually near death to receive these benefits of being mortal.”

This is HUGE.

Just look at the big picture. What is important? What do you really want from life? Don’t act like you are living forever.. Show your love to those people you care about and do what’s important to you every single moment.

“There was an interesting motivational talk on this subject given by former Dallas Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson to his football players before the 1993 Super Bowl: “I told them that if I laid a two-by-four across the room, everybody there would walk across it and not fall, because our focus would be that we were going to walk that two-by-four, But if I put that same two-by four 10 stories high between two buildings only a few would make it, because the focus would be on falling. Focus is everything. The team that is more focused today is the team that will win this game.”

Johnson told his team not to be distracted by the crowd, the media, or the possibility of losing, but to focus on each play of the game itself just as if it were a good practice session.

The Cowboys won the game 52-17.”

And also, in Overachievement, Eliot says: “I have found that the top players in every field think differently when all the marbles are on the line. Great performers focus on what they are doing, and nothing else... They are able to engage in a task so completely that there is no room left for self- criticism, judgment, or doubt; to stay loose and supremely, even irrationally, self-confident; to just step up and do what they’re good at, concentrating only on the simplest nature of their performance.”

Chandler also says: “It’s hard to stay motivated when you’re confused. When you simplify your life, it gathers focus. The more you can focus your life, the more motivated it gets.”

So, what are you focused on?

Are you freaked out and procrastinating?

Try to change your focus from the “results” of your project to simply being fully engaged in what you should do!

“Once we get the picture of who we want to be, “definitely planned work” is the next step on the path. Definitely planned work inspires the energy of purpose. Without it, we suffer from a weird kind of intention deficit disorder. We’re short on intention. We don’t know where we’re going or what we’re up to.”

Doing things without a plan is like going to the desert without a compass or a GPS. What do you expect?! You will be lost for sure!

So, tell me what are you up to? What are your goals and what plans have you developed to achieve them?

Get this clear and go for it..

And that takes us to another big idea: Having a purpose!

“It is impossible to work with a definite sense of purpose and be depressed at the same time. Carefully planned work will motivate you to do more and worry less.”

That’s totally right.

Having a purpose and a clear plan to fulfill that purpose that keeps you busy absolutely will protect you from being depressed and help you become more motivated and productive.

So, think about your purpose..

Marcus Aurelius says in Meditations: “Everything - a horse, a vine - is created for some duty... For what task, then, were you yourself created? A man’s true delight is to do the things he was made for.”

“You can create your own plans in advance so that your life will respond to you. If you can hold the thought that at all times your life is either a creation or a reaction, you can continually remind yourself to be creating and planning.

“Creation” and “reaction” have the same letters in them, exactly; they are anagrams. (Perhaps that’s why people slip so easily out of one and into the other.)”

That a huge concept.

Moving from a reacting Victim into a proactive creator.. Being proactive is one of the 7 habits of highly effective people of Stephen Covey’s book.

So, think about that.. Are you in the “Creation” or “Reaction” zone?!

“Emerson once said, “The greater part of courage is having done it before,” and that soon became true of my speaking in public. Fear of doing it can only be cured by doing it. And soon my confidence was built by doing it again and again.”

“Do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain.”

Afraid of public speaking? Afraid of your first date? Afraid of being responsible for something? Afraid of …..?

So, what are you afraid of?

Always remember: “Fear of doing it can only be cured by doing it.”

Afraid of something? Ok, Go do it! 😊

“If you’re watching too much television and you know it, you might find it useful to ask this one question: “Which side of the glass do I want to live on?””

Just stop watching the news! I assume you already know that it makes you depressed!

Stop wasting your valuable time on useless content!

No more to say..

“Start to argue against your first line of reasoning. Pretend you’re an attorney whose job is to prove the pessimist in you wrong. Start off on building your case for what’s possible. You’ll surprise yourself.

Optimism is by nature expansive—it opens door after door to what’s possible.

Pessimism is just the opposite—it is constrictive. It shuts the door on possibility.

If you really want to open up your life and motivate yourself to succeed, become an optimistic thinker.”

Optimism is the key for almost any closed door.  

Alan Cohen’s also says in his book Why Your Life Sucks: “Imagine two lawyers in a courtroom inside your head. One is arguing for your possibilities and you achieving your goals. The other is arguing for your limits and why you don’t deserve what you want. Who will win? The lawyer whom you pay the most. The way you pay these lawyers, however, is not with money; it is with your attention.”

So, which one of your brain lawyers will make it?!

“G.K Chesterton used to say that “taking things lightly” was the most spiritually advanced thing you could do to improve your effectiveness in life. “After all,” said Chesterton, “it’s because God’s angels take themselves so lightly that they are able to fly.””

“Your own motivational level will always be lifted by humor. Any time you are stuck, ask yourself to take things lightly. Ask yourself to come up with some funny solutions.

Laughter will destroy all limits to your thinking. When you are laughing, you are open to anything.”

“Replace worry with action. Don’t worry. Or rather, don’t just worry. Let worry change into action. When you find yourself worrying about something, ask yourself the action question, “What can I do about this right now?” And then do something. Anything. Any small thing.

Most of my life, I spent my time asking myself the wrong question every time I worried. I asked myself, “What should I be feeling about this?” I finally discovered that I was much happier when I started asking, instead, “What can I do about this?””

Are you worried about something right now?

Ok, take a deep breath.

Ask your self “What can I DO about it?”.

GO DO IT! 😊

Chandler also teaches us an exercise: “I once came up with a system for action that helped turn my worrying habits completely around. I would list the five things that I was worried about-perhaps they were four projects at work and the fifth was my son’s trouble he was having with a certain teacher.

I would then decide to spend five minutes on each problem doing something, anything. By deciding this, I knew I was committing myself to 25 minutes of activity. No more. So it didn’t feel at all overwhelming.”

That’s easy, isn’t it?

“American philosopher William James put it very clearly: “We do not sing because we are happy, we are happy because we sing.”

Most of us believe an emotion, such as happiness, comes first. Then we do whatever we do, in reaction to that particular emotion. Not so, insisted James. The emotion arises simultaneously with the doing of the act. So if you want to be enthusiastic, you can get there by acting as if you were already enthusiastic. Sometimes it takes a minute. Sometimes it skips a beat. But it always works if you stay with it, no matter how ridiculous you feel doing it.”

To be happy just “Act like a happy person.”

The same concept of “Fake it till you make it”.

And I assure you, you will make it. 😊

That was my 100 Ways to motivate yourself summary, a very quick look at this great book. If you haven’t read it yet and you’re interested in it, get a copy. There is a HUGE amount of wisdom and value in this book, and we’ve only touched on a tiny bit of it.

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