Motivation

Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom

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tuesdaysA true story of a dying professor who shares his wisdom with the author. Very inspiring and thought-provoking stuff on life, death, family, money, emotions, love and more. Here’s an excerpt from the Tuesday they talk about money:

“We’ve got a form of brainwashing going on in our country. Do you know how they brainwash people? They repeat something over and over. Owning things is good. More money is good. More property is good. More is good. More is good. We repeat it – and have it repeated to us – over and over until nobody bothers to even think otherwise. The average person is so fogged up by all this, he has no perspective on what’s really important anymore.

“Wherever I went in my life, I met people wanting to gobble up something new. Gobble up a new car. Gobble up a new piece of property. Gobble up the latest toy. And they wanted to tell you about it. ‘Guess what I got? Guess what I got?’ These were people so hungry for love that they were accepting substitutes. But it never works. You can’t substitute material things for love or for gentleness or for tenderness. I can tell you, as I am sitting here dying, when you most need it, neither money nor power will give you the feeling you’re looking for, no matter how much of them you have.”

Tom Peters on Recession

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An excerpt from one of Tom Peter’s recent posts:

Don’t think of our current economic crisis as a recession. Instead, think of it as a recalibration. Everything is different now. If you think of it as a recession, you may be tempted to “hunker down” and wait for the economy to cycle back. If you think of it as a recalibration, you will be motivated to focus on what you have to do differently, since everything is different now.

  • The way your business generates results is different, now.
  • Your customers think differently, now.
  • Your customers care about different things, now.
  • Your customers act differently, now.
  • Your customers may actually be different people, now.
  • Customers aren’t disposable anymore; more than ever, you have to create sustainable customer relationships.

So, what can we do differently?

J.K. Rowling talks about the Benefits of Failure

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JK Rowling, the author of Harry Potter, gave an inspiring speech at the Harvard University Commencement Address. She talked about the fringe benefits of failure and the importance of imagination. Here’s a part of it:

“You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.

“Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing examinations. Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way. I discovered that I had a strong will, and more discipline than I had suspected; I also found out that I had friends whose value was truly above rubies.

“The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive. You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity. Such knowledge is a true gift, for all that it is painfully won, and it has been worth more to me than any qualification I ever earned.

“Given a time machine or a Time Turner, I would tell my 21-year-old self that personal happiness lies in knowing that life is not a check-list of acquisition or achievement. Your qualifications, your CV, are not your life, though you will meet many people of my age and older who confuse the two. Life is difficult, and complicated, and beyond anyone’s total control, and the humility to know that will enable you to survive its vicissitudes.”

Read the full speech here.

The Secret by Rhonda Byrne

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secret.jpgA great motivational book about the power of our thoughts and how to apply it in our lives. A superb team of authors, teachers and speakers bring you The Secret to health, wealth, relationships and happiness.

Tony Robbins talks about Motivation in Tough Times

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A short video clip from The Today Show featuring Tony Robbins giving advice on how to stay motivated in these tough times:

What a Wonderful World

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If you are feeling gloomy and the worlds seems dreary, let Rod Stewart remind us of the beauty of the world and the blessings in our lives:

Want to tell us about the good things in your life? Go ahead, spread some cheer!

Tribes by Seth Godin

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tribesOne of the best books I’ve read on leadership, change and innovation. Here’s an excerpt:

“Every tribe is different. Every leader is different. The very nature of leadership is that you are not doing what’s been done before. If you were, you’d be following, not leading. All I can hope for is that you’ll make a choice. Every leader I’ve ever met has made the choice, and they’ve been glad they did.

“You can choose to lead, or not. You can choose to have faith, or not. You can choose to contribute to the tribe, or not. Are there thousands of reasons why you, of all people, aren’t the right one to lead? Why you don’t have the resources or the authority or the genes or the momentum to lead? Probably. So what? You still get to make the choice. Once you choose to lead, you’ll be under huge pressure to reconsider your choice, to compromise, to give up. Of course, you will. That’s the world’s job: to get you to be quiet and follow. The status quo is the status quo for a reason.”