I recently saw a video clip of a heavy set young woman running behind a car.

The car’s trunk is open, and a young man is sitting in the car’s trunk facing the running woman. In the man’s hand is a stack of one dollar bills, and as the woman chases the car, the man repeatedly hands the woman a one dollar bill. If she keeps running, she gets more dollars. If she can’t keep up with the car, she gets no more money.

https://i.imgur.com/V4Kq2bk.gifv

Crazy? Maybe.

Effective? Only in the short term.

Is it realistic to do this every time she goes running? Probably not.

Which raises two questions:

First, what will motivate you in the short term to just get started on your next project? What will get you moving right now?

And what will keep you moving in the right direction over the long haul?

For example, if your goal is to write a book, then maybe treating yourself to a night out once you have your outline completed will get you started. But you can’t treat yourself to a night out for each milestone, can you? Maybe you can. But more likely this won’t continue to motivate you.

So what will keep you moving over the long haul to achieve your big goals? If you’re like most people, it’s focusing on the reason WHY you’re doing what you’re doing.

Take a moment and see your future once you’ve completed the goal. Is the picture motivating? Good.

Now keep replaying that ‘reason why’ in your head over and over and over again until you reach your goal.

This is what motivates people to do great things – focusing on that big reason of WHY they are doing it.

Ok, this is a rant but it needs to be said… I got another email the other day from someone lamenting at how darn difficult it is to start and run an online business. He went on and on about his struggles, challenges, problems… how he didn’t have anyone to sit right there and show him step by step what to do, that he had to read BOOKS and watch VIDEOS to learn things… He was literally convincing himself that he couldn’t do it.

This man is a friend of mine. He’s 42 years old, has a good job, a college education and a lousy attitude.

Finally I got sick of his whining and I sent him this note:

“Dear Peter,

What I’m about to say, I say with love and the deepest of respect.

I want to tell you about a 14 year old boy named William Kamkwamba.

William was born into poverty in a small Malawi village in Africa.

Because of a crippling famine, William was forced to drop out of school since his family could no longer afford the tuition. To further his education, William used his spare time to study books in the village library, where he evidently learned some stuff all on his own.

His village had no electricity and no running water. So at the ripe old age of 14 and using what he learned from those books, William built a wind turbine out of blue gum trees, bicycle parts and scrap.

This turbine along with future turbines William built powered his entire village.

Next, William built a solar-powered water pump to supply the first drinking water to his village.

Of course, William had many advantages you do not. He didn’t have decades of life experience like you do.

He didn’t know that things were supposed to be hard. He didn’t know to complain. He didn’t know that what you learn in books is useless.

You’re smarter than William. You know how hard it is to get motivated when you already have drinking water, food, a home and so forth.

And books – you know how difficult it is to read and learn from those silly things. After all, the only thing in them is the knowledge of experts who’ve already done the things you want to do.

You know how hard it is to move that mouse and tap those keys.

Starting an online business? You know it’s impossible.

But William… he didn’t know any of those things.

And at 14 he brought power and water to his entire village all by himself.

Maybe you could ask William to show you how to build your online business…

😉

Love,

Me.

You hired someone to do some writing for you. Problem is, the writing itself isn’t exactly what you’re looking for. Or maybe it’s just not written well, or you need some changes…

Or perhaps a marketing colleague has asked you for feedback on their writing, and frankly you hate it.

What can you do to help the person make the appropriate changes, without offending them?

Try making it about you and not about the writing.

For example, instead of saying, “The chronology is confusing,” you tell them that you got confused by the chronology.

Instead of, “The dialogue sounds too contrived,” tell them you’re having trouble relating to the dialog, and give them a specific example of what you mean and how it could be changed.

By making it about you, you’re not insulting the work or the author. You’re simply offering your own experience of the writing.

This helps no matter what you’re critiquing – software, artwork, a website, etc. You can also use the phrase, “Have you considered…” to make a suggestion they can think of as their own.

Business is a people sport, and you must develop skills to successfully communicate with and offer honest and sometimes painful feedback to others while maintaining rapport if you expect to be successful.

Apply some of the tips above and be sure to give feedback without hurting feelings… Of course, these same strategies can be helpful in your personal relationships as well. 😉