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How to Keep Yourself Motivated

Warren Wechsler, bestselling author and national sales and motivational speaker, provides many valuable resources free of charge to sales trainers and sales managers. Some restrictions apply to the use and distribution of this information. For more valuable materials, visit Warren's web site www.totalselling.com. All materials and content © Warren Wechsler, 2001 – All rights reserved.

Today we're going to talk about how to keep yourself motivated. My question to you is what is motivation? A lot of people use that word but they don't even know what it means. My definition of motivation is something that encourages or makes you take action. In other words, what's underlying what you're trying to accomplish in your life? Once you figure out whatever that purpose is, or what's meaningful to you, then you will take action. So the motivation is the underlying cause of what we then try to do in our lives in terms of taking action.

There's one thing that I have a pet peeve about with regards to motivation. That is that a lot of people go to what are called motivational speakers. Their goal when they go there is to try and find from an external source something that's going to pump them up or get them to take action. The problem I've always had with motivational speakers is that it's analogous to having them be the tire pump and you be the tire that needs air. While you're there, they'll pump you up and they'll get that tire all filled with air. But then something happens that becomes a problem. At the end of the speech, they take their pump with them. And if you've got a nail hole in your tire, or if you're not ready to take over that tire on your own, then you're going to go as flat as you were before, most of the time quicker, and maybe even a lot flatter.

So the risk we run when we look to others for motivation is that it becomes a wild ride with lots of ups and lots of downs. The key here is that when you think about motivation, it's what is going to motivate you, what can you do because only you can motivate yourself.

Another way of looking at it is, instead of thinking about the word motivation, think about the word inspiration. Inspiration as opposed to motivation.

The other thing - I guess this is pet peeve day - is that we always here these stories about people who have overcome great odds. They were born with limbs missing, or they were blind, or they had a misfortune, and they overcame tremendous things to be successful. A lot of times you look at the media or you go to programs or seminars, and they present people who have overcome these really terrible, misfortunate things that happened in their lives, and that's supposed to motivate us. You know? We feel guilty. "Oh, well, gee whiz, if that person who was born into poverty and was abused when he was young, and somebody embezzled money at his first job, and he was in a car accident and laid up for three weeks, and then he got depressed." You bring out the violins for these poor people. And then you say, "Oh, look at all the things he's had to overcome. I'm pretty normal. I should be able to do that as well."

The problem with that is that we tend to compare ourselves to other people instead of looking within. If you look around at any given place, most of the people are just like you and you're just like them. I call it being super-ordinary. Not extra-ordinary, although I think we all have skills. But generally we're all basically the same, every man, every woman. So looking to horror stories or motivational stories from people that overcame great odds to be successful, I don't think that works either.

So what does work? I've given you my two pet peeves about what doesn't work, and you might be saying, "Well, gee whiz, Warren, you don't usually come across as being negative on your show. What does work?"

Well, I'll tell you. There are basically five things that I want to share with you today as far as how you can find that inner inspiration or motivation. The first is that you have a sense of purpose. In other words, you have an idea in your heart that you can do something that can have impact on other people, and that you'll make a difference. For example, in my business, what is my sense of purpose?

My sense of purpose is that I am dedicated to helping improve every single person in the country, in the world who considers himself a salesperson. That means if you're a direct salesperson, or supporting a salesperson, managing a salesperson, small business owner, professional person, entrepreneur, or what have you, you have to sell some product or service in order for your business to thrive. It's like Red Motley said in the 1930's, "Nothing happens until someone sells something." So my sense of purpose is that if I share my knowledge with what I know about the sales profession, from being involved in it for twenty-six years, and being quite successful as a salesperson and sales manager, then I will feel like I am doing something that is good for other people, that I can have an impact. I can make a difference in the lives of people who sell products and services.

So my question to you would be, "What's your sense of purpose?" If you're in the real estate business, for example, you might have a sense of purpose that you really want the people you work with to have the best housing alternatives, so that they can live the lifestyle that they want: a great home for their children to grow up in, in a safe neighborhood, with appliances that work, in an area where they'll be able to get some appreciation in the neighborhood in terms of more money when they sell.

So the first step is what is your sense of purpose? Do you have one?

If you do have one, the second step becomes believing in yourself. This is something I talked about last night at the speech I gave at the Golden Speakers Toastmasters group. I talked about the three ideas that every single successful person that I've been around has. The first one is a belief system, that you really believe in yourself and your company. For example, if you're in the industrial distribution business, and you have lots of hammers and nails and power tools and electrical supplies and plumbing supplies and conductors and connectors and brushes and brooms and all that, and you don't believe that your company provides the best possible products and service and warranties and guarantees and knowledge and competitive prices, then the first time somebody approaches you and gives you some type of objection or obstacle, you're going to fold up your tent. You're not going to know what to say. You're not going to be able to be effective. In fact, you probably won't open that account or develop the account, or you won't be able to be successful in your career. The point is that you really have to believe in yourself.

I've been involved in consulting with salespeople as individuals, and they sometimes had a crisis in belief based on their own performance or based on something that happened within their company. So before you point the finger and say, "Oh, it's the company. It's the industry. It's the geography. It's the time we're in. It's where I live. It's the way I look," first look inside yourself and say, "Do I believe in what I'm selling? Would I buy this product if I were a consumer? If I were looking to buy industrial supplies, would I buy them from me? Would I buy them from my company?"

If you have that belief system, where you really truly believe in yourself and your company, you can be unstoppable. So the second idea is you have to believe in yourself.

The third idea is being enthusiastic, being excited about what you're doing. In fact, let me demonstrate how it sounds when you're not excited. I'm slouching in my chair right now, kind of leaning back. And you can tell that my voice is different. I'm just not as enthusiastic. My body language is giving me away. Even though you can't see me, you can hear that my voice sounds differently when I'm sitting in this position. Now I'm sitting up in my chair, and just that one change in my behavior - did you hear the difference in my voice, and how enthusiastic my voice sounds now compared to when I was slouched?

If you're going through life and you're depressed, or you're unhappy, or you don't know where your next mortgage payment's going to come from, or you just had a fight with your spouse, or your boss tells you you're not making your numbers, and you approach your business with that state of mind, you are absolutely going to fail. If, on the other hand, you can apply a lesson that I learned from a book called How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling, which was written in the 1930's by Frank Bettger, you can overcome this mental state of not being excited.

Let me tell you the quick story about Frank Bettger. He was a great baseball player in the late 1920's. He played for the Gashouse Gang, the St. Louis Cardinals that had Dizzy Dean and Daffy Dean. He was the second basemen on that team. He was the Pete Rose of his day. Remember Pete Rose? They called him Charlie Hustle. He wasn't the fastest, but when he hit the ball he cruised down that first base line. Even if he had to slide headlong into first base, he'd do whatever he could to get on base. Well Frank Bettger was just like that kind of player. He was a triple-A in terms of ability. For those of you who aren't sports fans, triple-A is the league right underneath the professional major league. When you make it to the big-time, the Chicago Cubs, the Minnesota Twins, you're in the major leagues. And then there are all kinds of divisions below that, triple-A, double-A, single-A, all those types of things. So Frank Bettger had triple-A ability, but he was a star in the major leagues. Why? Because his nickname was Pep Bettger. He was the most excitable, enthusiastic guy. If somebody had to slide in hard to break up a double play, it was him. If somebody had to run to the outfield to catch a pop fly, it was him. If somebody had to bunt to get the runner to second base, it was him. He did everything he possibly could to help his team. Even when he wasn't playing, he was cheering; he was in the dugout being excited.

He had a career-ending injury. He injured his knee. Nowadays they could probably fix it. This is the age of the bio-mechanical man or woman, but in his day that was it. He ripped up his knee and couldn't play anymore. Here he was, barely educated, in his mid-twenties, nothing to do, no skills. So what did he do? He went into the insurance business. He became an insurance salesperson. And he was miserable. He was horrible. He was terrible. His manager came in and said, "I've got to fire you, Frank. But I want to give you one more chance. When you were a baseball player, didn't you have a nickname?"

He sat up straight in his chair and said, "Yeah, they called me Pep Bettger."

The manager said, "I don't see a lot of pep in your selling career."

It was like he got hit in the head with a two-by-four. He decided right then that he was going to be the most enthusiastic salesperson that anybody had ever seen. Whether or not he got the order, he wasn't going to care. He was going to be enthusiastic. And you know what happened? On the very next call, he was in a textile factory in Philadelphia in the middle of summer on the top floor talking to a very hard nosed businessman, and he said to himself on the way up those stairs (they didn't have elevators), "If I act enthusiastic, I will become enthusiastic." He repeated that over and over and over again. And what happened at that meeting is he sold the largest life insurance policy that had ever been sold by his company.

You know what he learned? He learned that if he was enthusiastic it would be contagious. That's the third idea. Number one is a sense of purpose. Number two is believing in yourself. Number three is being enthusiastic.

The fourth step is being persistent. So many times in life…I had a very good client when I was in the office equipment business that was fabulously wealthy and successful. I said, "What's the secret to your success." He said, "A lot of people knock on the door once, and if nobody answers they walk away. Or if they get the wrong answer they walk away. I'm that guy who always keeps knocking on the door. If I can't get through that door, I'll try a different door. Or I'll knock on the same door. Or I'll go through the window. Or I'll go around the block. I'll come through the roof. I'll do whatever it takes to get that face-to-face meeting or get that business." What he was telling us is that if you practice persistence, if you are willing to come back over and over and over again without ever being a pest, you will be successful.

And the final part, the fifth idea within being self-motivated or inspired is to take action. Another thing that came up at that speech last night is people were asking me about the concept of sales planning, something I've talked about before. There was all this questioning about who are the best prospects, where do you find them, how do you organize the plan. I said, "Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes." And finally, after a number of questions, I said, "The key is there's a time to plan, and then there's a time to act." So many of us go through life and we say, "Ready, ready, ready, ready. Aim, aim, aim, aim. Ready, ready. Aim, aim." We never fire. We never pull the trigger. We never shoot the arrow. And so all these ideas about a sense of purpose and believing in yourself and being enthusiastic and being persistent mean nothing unless you're willing to take action. So as you can see here, the key statement is to take action.

If you build that on top of those other four ideas then you will be successful. You will be self-motivated; you will be inspired. And you know what else you'll be? You will be inspiring. Other people will look up to you and they will attach themselves to you. They will be your fans. They will be your groupies. They'll be so happy with what you can accomplish.

This was a partial transcript from Warren Wechsler's weekly radio show. Warren Wechsler, bestselling author and national sales and motivational speaker, provides many valuable resources free of charge to sales trainers and sales managers. Visit Warren's web site www.totalselling.com Also, listen to Warren's weekly radio broadcast Wednesday's at 4:05 - 5:00 pm Central time, on KMCD-AM 1570AM. Shows are broadcast live on the internet at http://www.warpradio.com/asx/KMCD-AM.asx