THE BIG IDEAS 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself

Wheres Your Focus?

Change Your Life Forever
Put it on full engagement. BY STEVE CHANDLER CAREER PRESS 2004 223 PAGES

Intention Deficit Disorder

You got it?

Purpose
The anti-depressant. Aristotle also knew how to create a self through movement.

Creation vs. Reaction He once said this: Whatever we learn to do, we learn by actually doing it; men
Same letters, different mojo.
come to be builders, for instance, by building, and harp players by playing the
Courage harp. In the same way, by doing just acts we come to be just: By doing self-
Comes from doing.
controlled acts, we come to be self-controlled; and by doing brave acts, we become
The News brave.
Is not news.

Prove the Pessimist Wrong
Attorneys & bouncers in your head.
Taking Ourselves Lightly
How else will we fly?
This book contains 100 moves you can make...
~ Steve Chandler from 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself
100 Ways to Motivate Yourself.

Replace Worry Im not sure how I found this book but Im glad I did!
With action.
Steve Chandlers awesome and this book kinda reminds me of my book! One quick, inspiring,
Emotions & Actions
Feelings follow behavior. Big Idea after another that helps us get our practical wisdom on and go out and rock it.

Ive mined a few of my favorite Big Ideas for you and, if youre feelin it, I think youll really enjoy
the whole book!

For now, lets jump in! :)

WHERES YOUR FOCUS?

The development and use
of willpower is the most
direct access to happiness
and motivation that Ill ever
have.
~ Steve Chandler
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-bv-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.

Love that.

This is a theme we come back to in these Notesspecifically in John Eliots Overachievement

and The Now Habit.

In Overachievement, Eliot tells us: 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,

1 PhilosophersNotes | 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself


Its hard to stay motivated
when youre confused.
When you simplify your life,
it gathers focus. The more
you can focus your life, the
more motivated it gets.
~ Steve Chandler
We are each of us angels
with only one wing, said
the Italian artist Luciano de
Crescenzo, and we can only
fly embracing each other.
~ Steve Chandler
2 PhilosophersNotes | 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself
self-confident; to just step up and do what theyre good at, concentrating only on the simplest
nature of their performance.
Neil Fiores The Now Habit is an extraordinary book. If you experience challenges with
procrastination, I highly recommend it. He uses the same metaphor of walking over the board.
Fact is, if youre focused on all the things that can go WRONG with a project, odds are youre
going to be paralyzed.
Heres how Fiore puts it: To better understand how you learned to procrastinate, I invite you
to use your imagination and to accept for a few minutes a metaphor in which the test, job, or
task in your life is to walk a board. Situation A. The task before you is to walk a solid board
that is thirty feet long, four inches thick, and one foot wide. You have all the physical, mental,
and emotional abilities necessary to perform this task. You can carefully place one foot in front
of the other, or you can dance, skip, or leap across the board. You can do it. No problem. Take
a minute to close your eyes, relax, and imagine yourself in that situation. Notice how you feel
about this task. Are you scared or blocked in any way? Do you feel any need to procrastinate?
Fear of failing or making a mistake cannot be an issue here, but you might find that you delay
starting out of a need to assert your independence and to resist being asked to do even a simple
task such as walking a board. Situation B. Now imagine that the task is just the same, to walk
a board thirty feet long and one foot wide, and you have the same abilities; only now the board
is suspended between two buildings 100 feet above the pavement. Look across to the other end
of the board and contemplate beginning your assignment. What do you feel? What are you
thinking about? What are you saying to yourself? Take a moment to notice how your reactions
in this situation differ from those you had in situation A. Notice how rapidly your feelings
about the task change when the height of the board changes and the consequences of falling are
greater.
So... What are you focused on?
If youre finding yourself all freaked out and procrastinating, see if you can change your focus
from the *results* of your project to simply being fully engaged in what youre up to!
As we learned in our Notes on the Bhagavad Gita, The awakened sages call a person wise
when all his undertakings are free from anxiety about results.
INTENTION DEFICIT DISORDER
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. Were short on intention. We dont know where were going or
what were up to.
Intention Deficit Disorder.
Love it. :)
What are you up to? What are your goals and what plans have you developed to achieve them?
Get clear and go rock it, yo! Dont want to fall into the dreaded Intention Deficit Disorder, now
do we?! :)
PURPOSE: THE ANTI-DEPRESSANT
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.
Are you feeling depressed? Know that, as Chandler says here, its *impossible* to work with a
definite sense of purpose and be depressed at the same time.

The primary idea was this: Lyubomirsky A LOT. But, Im gonna do it again b/c it brings the point home so nicely: In
One hour of planning saves
three hours of execution.
~ Steve Chandler
G.K. Chesterton used to
say, If a thing is worth
doing, its worth doing
badly. What a great line: The greater part of courage is having done it before.
~ Steve Chandler
If youre 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? packed into every daily newspaper and most television shows and Hollywood movies, we would
~ Steve Chandler
PhilosophersNotes | 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself
As we know, happy people have goals and projects! Ive quoted this passage from Sonja
1932, weighed down by the sorrows and agonies of his self-absorbed and aimless clients, an
Australian psychiatrist named W. Bran Wolfe summed up his philosophy like this: If you
observe a really happy man you will find him building a boat, writing a symphony, educating
his son, growing double dahlias in his garden, or looking for dinosaur eggs in the Gobi Desert.
He was right. People who strive for something personally significant, whether its learning a
new craft, changing careers, or raising moral children, are far happier than those who dont
have strong dreams or aspirations. Find a happy person, and you will find a project.
Whats YOUR project?
CREATION VS. REACTION
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 thats why people slip so easily out of one and into
the other.)
Creation and reaction. I never knew they had the exact same letters in them. Perhaps thats
why its so easy to slip out of one and into the other! :)
As you know if youve read many of these Notes, moving from a reacting Victim into a proactive
Creator is a H.U.G.E. part of what Optimal Living is all about.
Where are you hanging out these days?!
COURAGE COMES FROM DOING
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.
Emerson also tells us (see Notes): God will not have his work made manifest by cowards.
Plus: Always, always, always, always, always do what you are afraid to do.
And: Do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain.
Powerful stuff.
So, what are you afraid of?
Know that, as Chandler says: Fear of doing it can only be cured by doing it.
And, of course, go do it! :)
THE NEWS IS NOT NEWS
The news is not the news. It is the bad news. It is deliberate shock. The more you accept it as the
news, the more you believe that thats the way it is, and the more fearful and cynical you will
become.
If we realized exactly how much vulgar, pessimistic, and manipulative negativity was deliberately
resist the temptation to flood our brains with their garbage. Most of us are more particular about
what we put in our automobiles gas tank than we are about what we put in our own brain every
3
 Groucho Marx once said
night. We passively feed ourselves with stories about serial killers and violent crime without any
conscious awareness of the choice were making.
he found television very
educational. Every time This is Big.
someone turns it on, he
Chandler used to work for a newspaper and shares stories about the deliberate efforts of the crew
said, I go in the other to feature *the* most shocking stuff. Unfortunately, thats what sells. But lets not pretend that
room to read a book. just because its so heavily featured in our news outlets that its a fair description of whats really
~ Steve Chandler going on in the world.

So, lets be a little more discriminating about what we put into our minds, eh?

And, remember this: Make your own news. Be your own breaking story. Dont look to the media
to tell you whats happening in your life. Be whats happening.

PROVE THE PESSIMIST WRONG

Start to argue against your first line of reasoning. Pretend youre an attorney whose job is to
prove the pessimist in you wrong. Start off on building your case for whats possible. Youll
surprise yourself. Optimism is by nature expansiveit opens door after door to whats possible.
Pessimism is just the oppositeit 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. As you know by this stage, its Principle #1 to Optimal Living 101.

This reminds me of Alan Cohens great Idea in his equally great Why Your Life Sucks (see
Notes): 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
dont 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.

Cohen has another great Idea from that book thats worth sharing here as well: Your real
enemies are the self-defeating thoughts, paltry expectations, and beliefs that you must live at
less than full throttle. You will experience as much pain as you are willing to accept. You do
have control over how much you hurt. Pain happens; suffering is optional. You can choose
thoughts that bring you relief rather than imprisonment. To find your freedom, stand at the

As Emerson asked, Why

doorway of your mind and monitor your thoughts. Notice which ones lift you and which
ones drag you down. Then, like a bouncer at an exclusive party, admit only those on the
should the way I feel
invitation list and send the others back where they came from. Fate is not a net cast over you
depend on the thoughts in
by capricious fortune; it is a garden you cultivate by the thoughts you attend to. Shift your
someone elses head?
attention and you will shift your life.
~ Steve Chandler
Heres to hiring the Optimist Lawyer and her friend the Optimist Bouncer. :)

TAKING OURSELVES LIGHTLY

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, its because Gods angels take themselves so lightly that they are
able to fly.

Love that image!!

Reminds me of Rule Number 6 from The Art of Possibility (see Notes): Two prime ministers
are sitting in a room discussing affairs of state. Suddenly a man bursts in, apoplectic with
fury, shouting and stamping and banging his fist on the desk. The resident prime minister
admonishes him: Peter, he says, kindly remember Rule Number 6, whereupon Peter is
instantly restored to complete calm, apologizes, and withdraws. The politicians return to their

4 PhilosophersNotes | 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself


If something is worrying
you, always do something
about it. It doesnt have to
be the big thing that will
make it disappear. It can
be any small thing. But the
positive effect it will have
on you will be enormous.
~ Steve Chandler
The next time youre
worried about something,
ask yourself, What small
thing can I do right now?
Then do it. Remember not to
ask, What could I possibly
do to make this whole thing
go away? That question
does not get you into action
at all.
~ Steve Chandler
PhilosophersNotes | 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself
conversation, only to be interrupted yet again twenty minutes later by an hysterical woman
gesticulating wildly, her hair flying. Again the intruder is greeted with the words: Marie,
please remember Rule Number 6. Complete calm descends once more, and she too withdraws
with a bow and an apology. When the scene is repeated for the third time, the visiting prime
minister addresses his colleague: My dear friend, Ive seen many things in my life, but never
anything as remarkable as this. Would you be willing to share with me the secret of Rule
Number 6? Very simple, replies the resident prime minister. Rule Number 6 is Dont take
yourself so gdamn seriously. Ah, says his visitor, that is a fine rule. After a moment of
pondering, he inquires, And what, may I ask, are the other rules? There arent any.
Hah!
Are you taking yourself a little too seriously?
If so, lighten up and fly will ya?! :)
REPLACE WORRY WITH ACTION
Replace worry with action. Dont worry. Or rather, dont 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?
This is a REALLY, REALLY Big Idea.
Seriously. Its hard to overstate how Big it is.
Are you worried about something right now?
See if you can shift that worry into constructive action by asking yourself what you can DO about
it! And then, of course, do it! :)
I love the way Dale Carnegie puts it in his classic How to Stop Worrying and Start Living (see
Notes): George Bernard Shaw was right. He summed it all up when he said: The secret of
being miserable is to have the leisure to bother about whether you are happy or not. So dont
bother to think about it! Spit on your hands and get busy. Your blood will start circulating;
your mind will start tickingand pretty soon this whole positive upsurge of life in your body
will drive worry from your mind. Get busy. Keep busy. Its the cheapest kind of medicine there
is on this earthand one of the best.
And, perhaps my favorite wisdom on this subject is from David Reynolds AWESOME book
Constructive Living (see Notes) where he says that, regardless of how were feeling, the most
empowering question we can ask is: Now what needs to be done?
He tells us: The mature human being goes about doing what needs to be done regardless of
whether that person feels great or terrible. Knowing that you are the kind of person with that
kind of self- control brings all the satisfaction and confidence you will ever need. Even on days
when the satisfaction and confidence just arent there, you can get the job done anyway.
And, heres a little more practical mojo from Chandler to help us rock it: 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
sons 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
5

When we leave this world,
we will ask ourselves one
question: Whats different?
Whats different because I
was here? And the answer
to that question will be the
difference that we made.
~ Steve Chandler
If you liked this Note,
youll probably like
Constructive Living
The Now Habit
Overachievement
The How of Happiness
6 PhilosophersNotes | 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself
minutes of activity. No more. So it didnt feel at all overwhelming.
EMOTIONS & ACTIONS
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.
In Constructive Living, David Reynolds puts it this way: Behavior wags the tail of feelings...
We do, then we feel.
To be clear, this isnt simply a pom pom self-help pick-me-up. Its actually one of the 12
scientifically-proven ways to boost our happiness described by Sonja Lyubomirsky in her great
book The How of Happiness. She tells us to Act like a happy person.
Try it out. Next time youre feeling the funk, see if you can snap out of it long enough to run a
little experiment. Get up from whatever youre doing, shake yourself out and ask yourself, What
would a super happy version of me do right now?
And then, of course, DO IT. Stick with it for 10-15-30 minutes and lemme know how that goes.
If youre like me, youll find that feelings do, in fact, follow behavior! :)
Brian Johnson,
Chief Philosopher
About the Author of 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself
STEVE CHANDLER
Steve Chandler is a consultant, trainer, author,and keynote speaker whose clients
include over 100 Fortune 500 companies. Learn more about Steve and all the
great stuf hes up to at www.SteveChandler.com!
About the Author of This Note
BRIAN JOHNSON
Brian Johnson loves helping people optimize their lives as he studies, embodies
and teaches the fundamentals of optimal livingintegrating ancient wisdom
+ modern science + common sense + virtue + mastery + fun. Learn more and
optimize your life at brianjohnson.me.