From Opportunity magazine
Vol. 1, Issue 1, Q2 2006
MOTIVATION VS. INSPIRATION
WHAT IT TAKES TO BE A GREAT LEADER
When I attended my first Business Presentation Meeting (BPM), I became excited about a career that could help me reach my financial goals while helping others do the same. As a former youth counselor, I really enjoyed helping people, and it meant a lot to me that I could make a living being of service to others while also earning a decent income to support my family.
Though the early days were difficult, I stood by my commitment to help others. Every day, I questioned myself. I wondered if I had made a big mistake, but day by day it got easier, and day by day, I began to realize that this was the right choice for me.
A major turning point for me in this business was when I began to see that the way to success was not focusing on the smaller goals but rather looking at the big picture. I realized that in order to attract people to my business, I had to become INSPIRED.
Up until that point, I was merely motivated. Motivated to reach all of my financial and career goals. Motivated to make a lot of money. Motivated to be successful. Motivated to reach the next goal. But I realized that this was not enough to inspire my people. Being motivated would only take me so far.
In order to inspire my people, I had to be inspired myself. Now, you're probably wondering what's the difference? There's a big difference. When you are motivated, you get a hold of a great idea and then you drive that idea. When you are inspired, an idea gets a hold of you and takes you places where you never dreamed you could go. It's the difference between propelling yourself to make something happen out of self-interest and being propelled by a higher purpose.
Difference Between Being Motivated and Inspired
Without developing an INSPIRED STATE OF MIND, I never would have made it this far. Most great leaders move from being motivated to being inspired.
Everything we do, our awards and our achievements are all based on motivation. But for us to become a world-class company, we must become an INSPIRED COMPANY.
If you operate only from a motivated state of mind, you become aware of your personal limitations and obstacles, which affect your confidence and compromise your ability to succeed. But if you are living in an inspired state of mind, you are aware of your limitations and obstacles but able to rise above them and soar.
Why is this?
Because when you are inspired by an idea that you perceive as greater than yourself, your passion gives you the confidence to face and overcome your limitations and the faith to keep persisting even when you fail. When you are inspired by more than self-interest, you have more energy and stamina to keep going, to remain positive no matter how tough things get and to keep picking yourself up and starting over when you fall down. This energy comes from believing in something bigger than yourself. In order to be successful in this business, you must view your job as a greater cause, not as a means to an end - your financial success. If you are just thinking about money, you will only go so far.
If you are only motivated by short-term goals, it's easier to get discouraged and disillusioned with what you are doing. A life based on self-propulsion is limited and finite. When we are only thinking about ourselves, we get out of touch with the big picture of what is really important, and what is really important in this business is doing the right thing for people.
Unless you become inspired, you'll remain just another face in the crowd. Once you become inspired, you discover hidden talents, a chutzpah, that you may not have even known you possessed. The inspired class, which is above world class, comprises people who change the world. The inspired class moves the world class.
There has never been a business that is part of the inspired class. We have the opportunity to be the first-ever inspirational business. We are good people doing good things. We have the best vehicle in the business world to inspire people.
If "Abe" Did It, So Can You
Most great leaders move from being motivated to being inspired. Just look at Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln ran for office several times. In fact, he once wrote that for 15 years, he ran and lost on a platform of goals that was part of his personal agenda. He admitted that during that time, he stayed focused on what HE wanted to achieve instead of on the big picture. At first, it was all about getting elected for the wrong reason - self-interest.
Eventually, Lincoln realized that he was losing because he was not focusing on the people and what they needed and wanted. When Lincoln became INSPIRED to make a difference, that's when his outlook began to change. When he became inspired based on a desire to serve others, not just himself, that's when he got elected.
Likewise, if you want to be successful in this business, you cannot be motivated by a thirst for personal success or seduced by the materialistic trappings of success. You have to be inspired. It's only when you are inspired that you can attract people. If Abe could do it, there's no reason why you cannot attract people to your business!
You see, people can always tell the difference between a motivated person and an inspired person. A person can look you in the eye and tell if you are inspired or not. People can tell by looking you in the eye if you are motivated by self-interest and personal gain. If you are truly inspired about the big picture, then you will be attractive to people. It is never an appealing prospect to follow someone who is just about himself or herself.
If you are just about yourself, then you will produce a team of players who are just about themselves and you will not reach your full potential. It is your job to motivate your recruits to care about WFG as a greater cause and not just a means to a materialistic end.
You are like an attorney making a case for WFG. Just like an attorney who must overcome any reasonable doubt in order to prove his case in court, you must overcome the reasonable doubt of your recruits. Every real recruit experiences a reasonable doubt that they can be successful in this business. It's only by being inspirational that you can overcome those doubts.
Ask yourself every day are you really inspiring your teammates? Your job is to inspire them to want to be part of something bigger than just making money.
How I Inspire My TeamFocus on self-improvement. I am always looking at myself, evaluating and searching myself for anything that could be holding me back. I am always working on myself to clear out any negativity so that I can overcome my character defects and stay in an inspired state of mind. I focus on my own personal state of being. This is the gift I give to others around me.
Help people find their gifts. I believe every person has unique blessings and gifts. I make it my personal mission to discover their gifts, and I show them how to use those gifts to build a massive business. If people know what their gifts are, they are more likely to be inspired. The idea behind building inspired leaders is to show them how to dig deep into themselves to find their own individual strengths and then use their gifts and strengths to overcome their personal limitations. Most people never meet people who are able to point out their gifts to them. People light up when you can point out their gifts. Most motivated leaders live lives of quiet desperation waiting for someone else to point out their gifts to them. If their well has not been filled, they will not be able to fill others.
Share personal experiences with people. I have learned that showing versus telling is a much more effective way to impart information to my team members. What I mean is, people always get it if you speak from the heart by sharing your own personal experiences when teaching, training or speaking. If you are not feeling what you are telling them, if your presentation is rote and impersonal, they will probably not become inspired.
Encourage people to work on themselves. Part of inspiring people is to get them to look at their flaws as well as their gifts. Awareness of their flaws gives them the power to do something about it, namely to not let their flaws run their business.
Always stay focused on the big picture instead of the smaller goals. That doesn't mean avoiding the smaller goals. It means helping my people develop a passion for a greater cause. It means not spending a lot of time focusing on how much money they are making or whether they got the promotion. Because if they focus only on those things, they will be more likely to give up if they don't get it right away.
Teach people to view their career as a cause. I make it my business to make sure that I am always about being "greater." The reason my team is growing is because we attract people in an inspired way. They are motivated by a belief that there has got to be something greater than just the pursuit of materialism and personal goals. As a result, our people stay around.
Promote positive thinking. Part of how I do this is to share biographies of successful people, play inspirational music at meetings and in the office, and promote the idea of maintaining a healthy, positive attitude even in the face of adversity.
Mostly, I am constantly setting goals for myself and my team and encourage them to dream big. I try to convey to them that they are much closer to their goals than they think. I know how difficult it can be to get a career started, but the results are worth every sacrifice.
Remember that there comes a time in every person's life when they decide to give in and surrender to mediocrity. They allow that adversity, complacency and fatigue to loom larger than their faith, and they lose the will to fight on in the pursuit of greatness, their true calling, and their destiny. It is in this quiet moment that the legacy of that man or woman is decided.
What legacy do you plan to leave behind?
If there's one thing I would leave you with it is this piece of advice: Surrender to your destiny and allow yourself to hear the call.
Difference Between Motivated and Inspired Leaders| Motivated Leaders | Inspired Leaders |
| Focus on short-term goals, such as awards, promotions and money | Focus on the Big Picture |
| Motivated by what they desire in the moment | Inspired by a greater cause |
| Do not take the time to get to know their people | Get to know their people on a deeper level |
| Focus on performance to the exclusion of all else | Care more about the spirit of their people than performance |
| Only believe in their people if they are achieving goals | Believe in their people even if they are struggling |
| Motivate their people by instilling fear | Motivate their people by helping them see their career as a calling or higher purpose |
| Stop and embrace complacency once they reach their goals | Never stop even when they become successful because it's about the journey, not the destination |
| Tell their people what to do without sharing personal experiences | Make it personal by sharing their personal experiences and feelings |