A Marines lesson in FAKE motivation

"False motivation is better than no motivation."

Here is another beautiful lesson from my beloved Marine Corps.

Today we are going to talk about "motivation."

recently had a student ask

"any tips or tricks to prioritizing yourself and goals, ways to show up for yourself and accomplish what you want?"

we also hear things like

"I am just not motivated" or "How do I stay motivated."

Motivation is very temporary and never lasts. It's true.

But Sean, how do these people stay motivated?

They don't; it's all bullshit.

The question to ask is

But Sean, how do these people hit their goals?

My answer; FEAR and Alignment

"Fake motivation is better than no motivation," you know why? We were rarely motivated in the Marines. At least not the motivation you see on tv. We had Fear to encourage us.

Fear of getting in trouble

Fear of failing

Fear of losing

Fear of letting your brother or sister down

We aligned ourselves for mission accomplishment.

We aligned in camaraderie.

Alignment in respect for leadership, for each other.

Alignment for time off or fewer duties. You will get motivated for a head start on the weekend.

Work hard, party harder.

How can we take Marine corp motivation and use it for it our advantage?

We start with being honest about our goals.

How important is that goal?

How bad does failing feel?

What do we fear if we don't hit that goal?

Are we in alignment with our goal?

I will use this picture as an example.

Today we did 1,000 step-ups. Yep, that's roughly 1/2 mile stairs. We were not excited to do this workout. Step-ups were plan B.

Plan A was to run up Mt. Scott, 2.5 miles and 1000ft elevation gain.

If we didn't have a specific goal, there's no way I would have moved to plan B or spend 90 minutes walking up and down a step.

Do you know what my Fear is?

When we go hike the Grand Canyon in 3 weeks.

My Fear is that I won't be able to complete the hike. I fear feeling like complete shit during and after the walk. My Fear is that I will let Danielle down.

I align myself to those fears with a plan and a backup plan.

Was I motivated?

When I woke up this morning, I had a horrible headache. The Grand Canyon doesn't give a shit about my headache. The weather was shit; my body ached, I was not excited to train. Do you know who won't care about that? The Grand Canyon ( nor will Danielle)

Suppose I had 1000 step-ups planned as a workout but with no end goal. I would have done something else.

This is where you need to have a hard truth conversation. Why do you have that goal? Do you fear that goal? better yet

Do you fear failing that goal?

If you don't fear the outcome, you won't find alignment.

" I want to work out for my health!" Then when it comes to showing up, you make excuses. You don't care about your health. You don't fear that outcome.

It's not real enough.

You haven't had the tough conversations about why your goals are essential.

You don't care enough.

I don't want to discourage you; I want to challenge your thought process.

The last "key" to motivation is support. We need someone to help us set the appropriate gaol. We need to have a challenging conversation about our fears and creating alignment and the tools to support that alignment.

Then when motivation is low, which is inevitable. You can rely on your support system to keep you aligned.

Does this resonate with you? Is the truth you need to hear?

p.s for those exercise dorks out there, here is our workout. We did:45 on and:45 off for 65 rounds at about a 6 RPE. Our Grand Canyon hike will be roughly 26 miles with a 10,000 ft elevation change.

p.s.s If you need someone to follow that dishes out "motivation," start following David Goggins

Day 2 word count 642

Pic is from our first r2r after hiking 24 miles through the night, she passed the test , so I asked her to do crazy shit forever