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Posted by: | CommentsMotivated Lies to Reach the Truth
Posted by: | CommentsI remember an exercise I did in Toastmasters years ago to practice my selling skills. The goal was to promote a product and its benefits to the audience, to motivate them to want to purchase or at least recommend the product to their friends. The product I decided to motivate my audience to buy (or buy into) was ME! So my goal was to make them want me. (OK, insert your giggle here)
My goal was to create a motivated presentation filled with intentional exaggerations, or pictures of the man it was my goal to eventually become both as a person and as a professional. But here is what I really found interesting about the project and the motivational message I want you to walk away from this post with. As I wrote the speech I found myself getting motivated by the speech as I wrote it. Then I found myself becoming even more motivated by the speech as I practiced it. So, guess what happened when I finally delivered this presentation to my audience. Yep you guessed it, I became even MORE motivated by its content as I shared it with my audience. Now, with me being so motivated by the content I was delivering do you think I gave a better presentation to my audience? You bet I did!
Most of us find it difficult to see the truth of who we could become over the course of our life. This difficulty is reinforced by so many things in our society. Sometime it is even reinforced by those close to us. How many times have you heard someone who cares for you say “You will never be able to….” Well for me it was a lot – but as I wrote that speech I inserted stories outlining what my future self had done to become the person I was selling to my audience. So I was creating a lie to reach the truth. The truth is I could become the person I was pitching (and have since I gave that speech 7+ years ago). But until I sat down and penned out this lie or fantasy I could not really “see” it.
You see, your subconscious mind does not know the difference between what you imagine or fantasize verses what has or is actually happening. If you vividly picture yourself getting that promotion, eating the tasty cake, or crossing the finish line first – your body will reach to that picture, literally. Think about it for a moment, have you ever thought about the smell or the taste of a ripe freshly picked lemon? Did you pause to imagine the smell that would waft up to your nose the moment you began to peel it, then the sprinkles of juice that would shoot around as you split the peel lemon apart. Finally that tart yet sweet flavor that would fill your mouth the moment it touched your tongue followed by the explosion of flavor that would fill your mouth as you bit into that sweet, juicy ripe lemon?
If you paused to let you mind go as you read that last paragraph I bet your mouth begin to generate a little extra saliva as you created the pictures in your mind via my words. You see your subconscious did not know you were just reading it. Rather it was reacting to the stimuli generated by your reading it. So use this to your advantage, by creating motivating lies or fantasies of the person you want to or need to become in order to reach your goals.
The research I have done on this panned out so well that it became the basis for my eBook “Write Your Success Story” – which by the way will be launched into a full video coaching course this weekend. So sit down and think up some motivating stories about who you would be motivated to become, the things you would like to do and the goals you would like to reach. As you do that you will find that these stories will create a map (or as I call it a Success Atlas) for reaching your goals and that map will stir the motivation within you to take the 1st step towards their accomplishment. After all, if you cannot and do not picture yourself in high regard, then you will never live or hold yourself in high regard. Like they say “Fake it, until you make it!” This would be one the time I would say it is ok to create a motivated lie in order to reach the truth!
Think Successfully & Take Action!
Tracy Brinkmann
One of Today’s TOP Motivated Coaches & Author of Success Atlas Programs
Motivation: Create the Vision – Governors, Weightlifters and Movie stars
Posted by: | CommentsI remember not too long ago reading a motivating piece about a reporter that interviewed Arnold Schwarzenegger. Not the current motivated Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger but the 1976 “I am not famous” (but am motivated to become famous) retiring from body building Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The article about Arnold Schwarzenegger himself, for me, was not that motivating, nor the most memorable. It was not all that riveting or spell binding, but the lesson that it held was very valuable.
I mean here was a report talking to a man that he did not know much about but was attempting to create a compelling and motivating story for his readers. During the better part of a day he asks the usual questions and got the usual answers. Then came the question “Now that you have retired from body building, what are you going to do?” To which the very large, Austrian man replied with a calm voice “I’m going to be the number one box office star in all of Hollywood.”
Now THAT is motivation! Because let’s remind ourselves for a moment this is not the current Arnold Schwarzenegger we know today or have come to know via the number of action films he has starred in. No this is 1976, that is only one year after winning his SIXTH Mr. Olympia Title. All that to say he was buffed up and huge, and let’s not forget how much thicker his accent must have been since he had only been in America for eight years at this point.
When asked how he planned on accomplishing this he responded “It’s the same process I used in bodybuilding.” Then he went on to explain “What you do is create a vision of who you want to be, then live into that picture as if it were already true.”
Dang, it sounds so simple doesn’t it? Well as I have come to learn most, if not all, of life’s most important and most motivating lessons are simple ones to learn if you will just open yourself up to them.
One thing I want to make sure to come away with from this post is a note I have been lucky enough to learn and it has motivated me through many happy and many more tough times. That lesson is this “You have to CREATE the vision!”
Note neither Arnold nor I (nor any other coach worth their salt) has said or would say that you wait around until you receive it from someone or something else. No you get your bottom up and you create it for yourself. I mean after all it is YOUR vision who else COULD create it for you? No one that’s who – anyone else would be motivated towards their goal, only YOU are motivated towards YOUR vision to get off your bum and create YOUR vision for YOUR life.
Creating your vision will give you something to wake up to in the morning. It will give you that little extra ‘oomph’ and motivation to hop up out of bed – throw open the shades of doubt and greet the rising sun of your life each and every day knowing that you have somewhere you are going and today you will get at least one step closer to it. That my friend is self-motivation and there is no other power stronger then that ability to motivate your self each and every day.
So go on, go create your vision right now – seriously close this internet window and go create a vision that will be your motivation for tomorrow’s hop out of bed. Do not worry about whether it is perfect just get it created. You can always change it later if you want to, but you can not live for nor be motivated by the vision you do not have. Create your vision today and watch what that vision does to motivate you now, tomorrow and into the rest of your life.
Think Successfully & Take Action
Tracy Brinkmann
One of Today’s TOP Motivated Coaches & Author of Success Atlas Programs
Motivation, Rocking Chairs, an Deathbeds
Posted by: | CommentsWe humans are keenly motivated my two primary experiences, the first is pain and the other is pleasure. So that is to say that each and every one of us are motivated by our daily experiences of pain as well as or experiences of pleasure. However each of us are motivated at different pain/pleasure ratios – some are motivated more by pain, others are more motivated by pleasure while still others react best to a balance of pain and pleasure.
Now I am not just talking about the physical sensation of pain or pleasure but we are motivated by the emotional one as well. Think about it for a moment would you be more motivated to perform by the vision of coming in first place in a competitive sport (pleasure) or are you motivated more to avoid the disappointing your coach and fellow team mates (pain)?
Whichever one it is, or whatever ratio of the two works best for you knowing that ‘recipe’ for motivation is key to getting you through those tougher times when that motivation can be the tipping point of your success.
In my book “Write Your Success Story” I take readers through an exercise where they imagine themselves 10, 20 or more years from now – in their golden years. Sitting on the front porch relaxing in a rocking chair, sharing stories of their live with their children, grandchildren and/or other loved ones.
I find this to be more of a pleasure focused exercise as people with enjoy the view of themselves having lived a fulfilling life and passing their insights on to those sitting on the porch with them. Telling them about all the great things they had accomplished, sharing the drama of their years and imparting to those around them some gems of those experiences – motivating their loved ones via their story and wisdom.
Now for my more pain motivated readers let me share with you a similar exercise that I find is a bit more pain focused. Rather than envisioning yourself sitting on the porch in a rocking chair, picture yourself literally laying on your deathbed. You time waning, and your life nearing its end. Now with that picture in mind, have your loved ones stop by to talk with you one by one. What wisdom would you share with them? What things would you tell them knowing that you will never see them again? What words of caring, apology, regret or encouragement would you leave them with?
If you are like me, these two exercises bring about completely different yet very powerful and motivating results. I would encourage you to sit down tonight and run through each of these exercises. Then write down your insights, make note of the things you learn about yourself and what you are motivated to do – from the rocking chair and what you feel and are motivated to share with others from your deathbed exercise. Whether you are motivated by your Rocking Chair or your Death Bed – I am sure you will be glad you did!
Think Successfully & Take Action!
Tracy Brinkmann
One of Todays TOP Motivated Coaches & Author of Success Atlas Programs
Ending Procrastination – Even if…
Posted by: | CommentsIf you are coasting
Posted by: | CommentsWhat Does Cheerleading Have To Do With YOUR Success?
Posted by: | CommentsWhat does cheerleading have to do with your success? Well before I tell you let me take you back for a moment. If you have read my blog for any length of time, you are well aware of the love and pride I have for my daughters. As a parent and a father I try so hard to instill in my girls all the learnings I have gathered over the years – in the sincere hopes that they may avoid some of the pitfalls of my past through me. This is sage advice about becomeing successful that I learned and have offered to you and my clients over the years – find someone that has successfully traveled the path you want to travel and learn from them, either directly or indirectly.
But as a parent I am ever concerned about just how deeply the life lessons I am sharing are being absorbed, until I read this essay my daughter wrote a couple years back. I want to share it with for a couple reasons.
- It embodies everything I believe will make her (and YOU) successful in whatever path or goal she (or you) chooses
- Because while I have been trying to teach her, she taught me and in turn I would like to pass some of her sage wisdom on to you.
Oh and did I mention she was only 12 when she wrote this?
Read and enjoy as you learn just what Cheerleading has to do with your success in life, your success in business and yes even your success in your relationships.
Think Successfully & Take Action!
Tracy Brinkmann
One of Today’s Top Motivated Coaches & Author of Success Atlas Programs
The following is by Shandi’rae Brinkmann
Glitz. Glitter. Glam. That’s the part you see, the show we put on. What you don’t see is what we go through to put that two minute and thirty second performance onto that stage. The long, hard, grueling practices, going over the routine what seems like millions of times. The bumps and bruises received while trying to perfect every stunt. There is a lot more to competitive cheerleading than meets the eye, but in the end, all of that is worth it. To me, the worst part is the feeling of doubt and the nervousness that fill your head right before you step onto the enormous stage, under the lights and the pressure of perfection feeling like the world on your shoulders.
“You’ve done this before, calm down, you will do fine,” I keep telling myself that, but somehow it doesn’t seem to help. There are three teams in front of us still waiting to perform, that means we have about eight minutes before we go on.
“Girls,” Coach Christina calls to us, “Come over here, we need to say our prayer” I gather my thoughts and linger over to where Coach Christina and the rest of the team had formed a circle. Christina begins, “Dear lord, please take all of these unneeded nerves away from my girls, and help them do their best and remain safe on the stage tonight. Lord, help us hit all of our stunts and stick all of our tumbling, and most of all have fun!” in unison the team says, “Amen.”
I return to the team line up, breathing deeply, and going over all the counts in my head.
“Chill, you’re going to psych yourself out if you don’t calm down. We have done this how many times at practice? We got this, you have nothing to worry about,” Justin reassures me.
“Ugh, I know, I know, I’m just extremely nervous. I mean, look out there, there are so many people, and the it’s so loud it feels like my heart beat is actually beginning to get in sync with the beat of the music. I can feel the pounding bass drum in my stomach, almost like butterflies, but worse, oh so much worse,” I ramble on about all the things that I really shouldn’t be thinking about.
“Just breathe, we got this girl” Justin says as we hear them call the next team to the stage. This meant I only had about five minutes to get myself together. I could tell I wasn’t the only one nervous, for fear seemed to be struck across many of the athlete’s faces awaiting their turn on the stage. All of a sudden bells, horns, and loud cheers filled the auditorium, as a team ran back through the streamers, returning backstage after their performance. This made things even worse. I kept thinking about how good they must have done to receive a reaction like that; we couldn’t possibly be able match up. With the worries of failure consuming my thoughts the fact that we were next had become like a fan blowing in an empty room, quite and unnoticed, that was until the announcer loudly and quite obnoxiously said “Please welcome to the stage Aero Dynamic Elite All-Stars!” Reality hit me like a bolder falling from a cliff I seemed to have lost my breath as nerves over took me. Our fate relied on the moments about to occur, who knew that two minutes and thirty seconds could be so important.
The fog machine comes on and as I step out through the streamers onto the stage suddenly nothing else exist, it’s just me and my team. All the fear and anxiety disappear. As I make sure I’m in the right spot I smile at Justin before lowering my head standing set and waiting the music.
“There is nothing to worry about, I belong here,” I thought to myself seconds before the music started.
“Five, six, seven, eight!” the team yells simultaneously to assure we start on the same count. One, two three, four, I grab Justin’s wrists setting for a basket, using all of my strength; I throw Alyssa into the air. The basket is perfection, without time to take in what was happening I move to the corner and have to do a round-off into four back handsprings, and sticking a perfect landing. So far so good, moving on to the stunt I begin to count out loud again to make sure my group on time. Set one, two, dip three, four, and on five six Sarah is in the air hitting a perfect scale. Finishing the stunt we cradle, set out and move to our cheer formation. We all flash a cute smile to the crowd and begin yelling the rhyming words of our cheer to the rhythm of the music. Squeezing every muscle in my body with each motion, trying to be as sharp as possible, I finish the cheer and move to the second stunt. My bases are set, but something seems wrong… they were facing the wrong way! Trying to fix the situation as quickly as possible and trying to avoid unwanted attention being drawn to their mistake, I grab Sarah’s shoulders and position her the correct way. Thankfully, Lexi and Whitney followed my lead, but I hadn’t done it quickly enough, we end up setting a half a count late. I regained control of the stunt to be sure to cradle and set out on the right count.
“Now comes the hardest part,” I thought to myself.
Arriving at my spot for the pyramid, I knelt down and securely grabbed Lexi’s ankle. Neither one of my bases were necessarily strong, so I knew I had to do most of the work. We dip, and using every ounce of energy in me, I push up on Lexi’s leg and drove the stunt to a full extension.
“Yes!” we hit that part, “stay tight Lexi,” I scream right before we dip for the cradle into flat back. Sure enough, Lexi doesn’t stay tight enough and I had to push myself twice as hard to reload her into a scale.
“Please, Briana and Whitney, come through for me and try to get this stunt to hit” I thought to myself as we dipped for the reload. Hitting it almost perfectly, the largest smile my lips were capable of appeared on my face. We cradled and set out, then moved to our positions for the jumps, my favorite. I hit a high-V with a wide grin still on my face, and then swing my arms beginning my double toe touch. Turning to the side I began to do the hurdler jump into a pike jump. As my feet return to the ground, I turn to the crowd and wink right before going into a standing double back handspring step out onto knee. Landing in perfect correspondence with Meagan and Justin, we all stand and begin the dance. Every muscle in my body ached, but that didn’t matter, I had to push myself to stay tight and finish perfectly. We finally reach the last eight counts and I smiled in relief as I grabbed onto Meagan’s arm and hit the ending pose.
The thunderous sound of clapping and cheering filled the area as we ran off stage. I honestly couldn’t believe what had just happened. Once we returned backstage, we went over to the television to watch our play back. While viewing it, I tried to find every mistake or out of place step that they could have deducted points for. I was pretty pleased with our performance. As the video finished we all started looking at each other and all at once started jumping around, screaming and hugging each other.
“I’m so proud of you! You girls did amazing out there!” Coach Christina says, “Now, let’s go see your parents.”
As we ran around the edge of the stage, the patiently waiting family and friends come into view; I ran straight to my mom. I end up with her arms around me, and she has tears streaming down her face. I look up at her not understanding why she is crying.
“Mom, what wrong?” I asked.
“If you only knew how proud of you I am right now, you did so amazing up there! Your dad is waiting right there, you should go talk to him” she ends her sentence with a reassuring smile. As I turn to find my dad, there he is standing right behind me with a white rose clasped in his out stretched hand. As I take the rose joy seemed to fill every part of me. Just receiving that single rose meant the world to me, it reminded me that everything I went through, and everything my team went through, was well worth it.
Before I had gotten onto the stage, I didn’t believe that I could accomplish the task that lied ahead front of me. I was so terrified of failure that I almost gave up my dreams and passion for cheerleading all together. Going out there on that stage and proving to everyone, and more importantly to myself that I could do it meant an indescribable amount to me. At that point it didn’t matter what place we got, or how big our trophy was, because in our mind giving it everything we had, was enough to make us feel as if we had become the grand champions.
Did you miss me?
Posted by: | CommentsG’day ladies and gentleman – sorry I have been away from my blog for so long. But I have been working on a new coaching program that I will be kicking off shortly – and it will be worth the wait. For those of you that frequent my blog – you will note the sign up form on the top of the main page is gone (if your reading this post close to the date it was posted). When it reappears you are going to want to get signed up right away as I ‘m going to be giving away a killer program I had only been previously selling then on top of that I’ve added to that program a series of videos/audios that will take it to the next level.. have I got you interested? Hee hee stay tuned for more!
Till then..
Think Successfully & Take Action!
Tracy Brinkmann
One of Today’s Top Motivated Coaches & Author of Success Atlas Programs
Let stress challenge you to do more and be more.
Posted by: | CommentsA healthy dose of stress is something you can use to motivate yourself to achieve great things. Remind yourself that Stress can be the propeller that energizes you to fly over any challenge. Use the often stressful deadlines and expectations to keep your self on course.
Push your self; because you believe that you can accomplish anything you set you mind to. Remind yourself that the more you are pushed, the further you will go. You have the right amount of stress on you shoulders that can and will encourage you to excel, that stress will keep you from settling for mediocre work.
Embrace pressure because it keeps you from becoming complacent. Remember it is the complacent that miss success when it is just around the next corner. When you feel pressured, and you innately want to push back. Use that additional pressured force to go further than you ever thought you could go. That gentle pressure is you will need to work just a little bit harder than the next person – making you shine just a little brighter and reach your dreams a lot faster.
When you are under stress, use that stress to feel like you am competing against you own previous performances. Make being competitive part of you nature and always welcome that daring challenge without fear of failure.
When you feel challenged by stress, put on your fighting gloves and give it all you’ve got.
When life throws you a curve ball, use hard work and determination to keep swinging until you hit it out of the ballpark. Your performance is enhanced when you know that there are high expectations set upon you. So, aim to exceed expectations because you ultimate goal should be to astound not only your nah-sayers but yourself as well.
Stress can and will keep you active and energized. For when you are working under stress, you will not have time to stop and feel sorry for myself; instead, something inside you will rise up and you will achieve more than you ever imagined.
Your Success at Last Stress Questions:
Ask yourself…
- Is there a stressful challenge that you have been backing away from?
- How can you change you attitude about stress in order to accomplish more?
- When have you impressed yourself with your performance while working under pressure?
Think Successfully & Take Action (even when under pressure)!
Tracy Brinkmann
One of Today’s TOP Motivated Coaches & Author of Success Atlas Programs