Motivate the Champion Within You

We have all had the experience of surprising ourselves with what we are able to accomplish when we are really motivated or pushed by urgent circumstances. It's in those moments that we come to realize that we have gears available to us that we rarely use.

That brings me to my next core thought to consider as we approach the New Year:

Motivate the champion within you.

Most of you who know me well or have been around the Spear family for a long time know Shelli Duncan. Shelli has a young nephew named Dylan – a bright young man brimming with potential – who had been going through a period of "coasting" on his abilities. He was doing just enough to get by and bringing home report cards loaded with "Cs," much to the frustration of his family.

This is a young guy who knows he has an unlimited future and who looks forward to the rewards of success. I took him for a ride in my car one day and we had a good talk about what he wants from life and what it takes to get it. He also talked about his passion for gaming, and how he had his eye on a great new console that was coming out. We talked about how the right results in school today will open the doors to so many more possibilities down the road. And I told him that if he could show real improvement in his studies, I would buy him that game console.

This was Dylan's latest report card:

I knew he had that in him. What's more, he knew it too. He just needed the right motivation to get him to reconnect with his possibilities.

Once we leave school and enter adult life we don't have teachers and parents and relatives around to monitor our performance, grade our efforts and direct us. We need to motivate ourselves. We need to initiate things and take the steps to surround ourselves with those who can provide the right coaching and inspiration.

Most of us have A-level performance within us. We just have to be relentless about demanding it of ourselves.