100% Motivation

Motivation – it’s not witchcraft

Let’s discuss Motivation – one of the most talked about yet least understood area in Network Marketing.

The challenge with motivation, is that few actually understand it. Some many people talk about motivation like it’s some natural force beyond the comprehension of us lesser mortals. Like its something that just happens “they lost motivation so now I must find new people”.   It reminds me of the way people must have talked of death and disease in the old days. ‘The town got this mysterious sickness and people died. It was the work of Satan.’ And then we discovered viruses, hygiene and other realities of life.
Motivation is a Science
Whilst people are different, motivation is basically a science. And as such you can learn it. You can learn how to develop motivation in yourself and others.

Your beliefs?
The first area for you to consider are your beliefs to motivation so do you think everyone can be motivated to succeed in this business? Do you think people join and their joining motivation determines whether they will survive or not? Some will, some won’t, so what next?
Take time to write down your beliefs [honestly].

Discuss with your upline. What do they believe? It will determine their strategy. Are the Facts Right?
I am sure 90% plus of leaders who wrote their beliefs down will have found that they believe that motivation is pretty much set on joining. Those that are motivated and take massive action succeed, the rest eventually die.   It’s the same everywhere in the world AND it’s so stupid. Yes stupid. This belief effectively guarantees that 90% of people joining your team will fail. This is a massive waste of effort and bad business.

So lets understand what’s actually happening. What is Motivation? That’s obvious. It’s the fire that drives you into action. Our business is about action so Motivation is critical.

Why Aren’t People Motivated?
A classic question and it reveals where people go wrong, there is no detail.

‘Motivated for what’? Is it really motivation or is it that there is not enough action so you blame it on their motivation. Or is their motivation fine and yet not enough action. We are leadership professionals. Our job is to influence people to take the right action. Motivation is one of our key subjects. We must master it or we are ‘amateurs’. So over the next day or so, I want you to think about motivation. What do you need your people to be motivated to do? How much motivation do they need?  How can you measure it?  Is their motivation really the issue? Some people treat their downlines like mushrooms. They keep them in the dark and feed them on bul****t [another word for manure]. I want you to think. To be professional.

What are the facts?
People are motivated for countless reasons. Perhaps people get confused and maybe this is why people in this industry are so unbelievably bad at motivation. How can I say this? Well let’s look at the facts:

1. Everyone who joins this business wants to succeed.
2. We say that everyone has a 100% chance of success.
3. YET vast numbers of people do not achieve that success

If they “want to” and “can”, how come they “don’t”?
The FACTS say that something is SIGNIFICANTLY wrong here!
And before your “justification/excuse/blame” mechanism goes off, be very clear about the following:

1. Apart from a few people who join to get the sponsor off their back [shame on the sponsor] or who join to just buy the products [why would you let them?], EVERYONE wants to succeed. They have the motivation inside them!
2. Everyone can succeed in this business to the Team Leader level. This is the “franchise” level. We are not asking people to endure the sort of rejection that door-knockers receive – this is a warm-market, no pressure, inspirational form of business. There is no performance pressure, etc, etc.
3. YET too few people succeed.

The difference between the expectation and the reality is what we all want to solve. FORGET about recruiting lots of people if they leave as fast as they join. You need to learn how to keep people and that’s about answering the challenge detailed above.
Is there an answer?
Many people do not think so. They excuse it away by actually believing that “most people do not want to succeed” OR “whilst the system says everyone could succeed, in reality only self-motivated people do.”
Well the fact is that there is an answer. The answer is simple yet not a one-liner. You have to learn and understand it. If there was no answer then we would be promoting a business based on a false reality that we knew was untrue [do you know what that is called?] So think about what you think the answer to 100% motivation is.

Basically, huge numbers of people [a totally unacceptable number] stop working before they have achieved the level of success that would make them happy.  Is this a problem?

HELL YEAH!

1. It means people do not achieve what we promise.
2. This makes us out to be liars. It’s bad business.

Understanding motivation

Most people in this business have a simplistic view of motivation. What is reflected is that:

1. Motivation is centred around goal achievement. Performance goals only.
2. A few get to ‘VISION‘. Yes, a few lucky people actually discover/develop a big motivational reason for taking action. It’s the ‘BIG WHY’. A very few of these then create vision boards, affirmations, some then link these in with their goals.

So people join, we get them to write a few goals and hopefully can touch a few of them so we discover their bigger inspirations. If they call, we try to remind them of their goals. Maybe we try to expose them to inspirational CDs, books or messages from others.

Maybe we try and get them to hear and see the testimonials of others to inspire them to believe that their goals may come true.
Is this your strategy?
This area of Motivation is called ‘Inspirational Motivation’.

What language do you speak?

Inspirational Motivation is based on goals, vision and testimonials. This motivation is the wind beneath the dreamers, entrepreneurs and the inspired. It is also the force behind the desperate.
It is an optimistic, positive forward-looking and thinking force pulling you towards a better future. A great term for this is ‘Dream Building’.
It does not matter who you are or where you are based, if you are a Dream-Builder, you can be motivated by this area. It is like a language that can speak to your soul.

I do not understand

The most experienced of you will know that Dream-Building does not drive most people. You can pile on the inspiration and whilst they may clap, scream or promise, they still don’t take action!  In reality, it’s like you cannot speak the language of their motivation. IF you believe that everyone has the motivation to succeed [like I do] what is missing here?

Hints:
1.       Can dreams be too big?
2.       Is your dream the same as mine?
3.       What do you do to ensure quality control?
4.       What turns Motivation into Action?

Think about it.

Can dreams be too big?

You need to learn about the Motivational Gap.
Between where you are today and the Goals/Vision you talk about there is a Gap.
You must believe that you can cross this Gap OR you will not be motivated to try.
As Napoleon Hill says ‘what man can conceive and believe, he can achieve’.
Achievement is based on your understanding and belief in what is necessary for achievement

Gap is too wide

Most people allow their new people to focus on visions beyond the person’s beliefs or confidence. The Motivational Gap is too wide.
The sponsor naively thinks the ‘big vision’ will power ‘big action’. In reality it powers no action.
This is a classic coach’s mistake. They focus people on goals they could achieve or goals their [selfishly] want the person to achieve for their own needs. The coach is focusing on themselves and not their protégé.
Reality check

Take a look at your team and at your own approach to people. What is the motivational gap?

PS Take a bow ladies
Ladies are normally so much better than men about letting someone determine their own goals and vision even if this means those goals and visions are not large.  Women understand people better. Thus they normally make much better coaches to those that struggle with big goals and vision. This is why woman are now starting to dominate the leadership ranks.

Is your dream the same as mine?

Ed Ludbrook at a recent seminar was training leaders in the UK once and was discussing motivation. We had all heard of the ‘American Dream’ so he asked what people thought was the ‘British Dream’.
Some wag yelled out ‘Not having a nightmare!’
Laugher erupted yet there was some truth in that unbelievably negative comment. The British, Europeans, most Asians and most people in even the optimistic New World countries are more worried about avoiding failure than achieving success.

Lesson to be learned

When discussing someone’s motivation, we need to discover what they are trying to avoid in addition to what they are trying to achieve.
Getting away from the Hell is probably more motivating than the Heaven!

What is your strategy to help people discover their ‘Hell’?

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“This article is used by permission from Ed Ludbrook’s free monthly e-newsletter 100% Success available at www.edwardludbrook.com.”