Creating Drive
By: Michael Beiter
Brendon Burchard wrote "High-Performance Habits." He talks about creating drive by combining internal and external motivation.
Internal motivation has two categories: identity and obsession.
Identity refers to your need to hold yourself to a high standard of excellence. Burchard says high performers tie their identity to their performance and constantly self-monitor while looking for opportunities to improve their work. With success, someone who has a strong identity motivation feels validated and proud; with failure, they commit to being better moving forward.
Healthy people take health so seriously it is part of their identity. They do it for themselves first, and the benefits they reap often ripple to those closest to them.
Obsession refers to your need to deeply understand and master a topic. Masters obsess over their field and pour hours of research, discussion, and practice into their craft. They don't need rewards for their work. Instead, they feel an intrinsic need to learn as much as they can and put it into practice.
We are all obsessed with something, and improving our obsessions is key to feeling better and getting healthier. I can't think of a better thing to be obsessed with than self-care via exercise and nutrition.
External motivation factors outside a person's control drive them to perform well. The two external factors are duty and urgency.
Duty is an obligation to someone or something outside of yourself. For example, the military leans on this exhaustively to motivate their members to serve something bigger than themselves. Family is another excellent example. For decades the American Dream consisted of duty for parents to provide a better life for their kids. Because of duty, soldiers and parents are willing to make the ultimate sacrifices.
Urgency refers to an obligation to a hard deadline rather than a soft one. A soft deadline has no consequences tied to achievement. For example, say you set the goal of finishing a book by the end of the month and fail to do so. There aren't any ramifications for your failure. On the other hand, hard deadlines include consequences for success or failing. Say your boss requires a report by Friday at 2 pm. You get commended if you complete the report; if you fail, you may get reprimanded.
Combining both internal motives and external motives creates what Burchard calls drive, which is the force that pushes you to perform at your best and helps you successfully navigate challenges along the way.
Find your drive by determining your internal and external motives.
Is being healthy, exercising daily, and systemizing your nutrition part of your identity? If so, good, don't ever stop. If not, consider how you can monitor your performance with food logs, bio-trackers, and exercise apps. You will need to set up recurring reviews and determine whether you are performing in a way that supports your identity or whether you need to improve your behaviors so you can feel validated for your efforts and work.
Have you committed to mastery of your exercise and nutrition yet? How many hours do you dedicate to research, discussion, and practice? If you have committed to mastery and set up methods to measure and review your work, you're well on your way. How could you learn and implement better nutrition and exercise behaviors if not? Hint: coaching helps, and so does getting around other masters.
Who or what have you committed to in your life that serves a purpose bigger than yourself? Is it your family? Or your country? Regardless of your duty, you owe it to those you've committed to taking care of your body and mind. Exercise and nutrition are two of the essential factors in both areas. I've committed to my community through business and sharing my ideals and practices. Successful clients have committed to being healthy models for their children and staying around to support them as long as possible. Others have work and military duties. If you haven't yet committed to something bigger than yourself, what do you think would motivate you to take care of yourself?
Do you have hard or soft deadlines surrounding your fitness and nutrition? In my experience, most people create soft deadlines and then fail to stick to any program they set up. Urgency has always been easy for me; I remember that we will all die. There's a chart on my whiteboard with 4 thousand fillable bubbles, each equating to one week of life. That is the average lifespan we all get, and confronting the chart reminds me I don't have time to waste. It makes eating well, exercising daily, and sleeping much easier for me. If I fail with self-care, I won't get to fill in all 4k. So, do you think you have the time to waste concerning your health?
The factors that lead to my drive look like this:
Identity: I am a fit, healthy business owner and boyfriend. I'm a dog dad, coach, and son. These roles require me to practice what I preach: self-care with fitness and nutrition.
Obsession: I read the book 'Mastery' by George Leonard and got goosebumps. I knew it was speaking directly to me. I have been obsessed with fitness and nutrition since middle school when I fell in love with them for how they made me feel and as an avenue to change how I looked. I have been studying nutrition, lifestyle, mindset, and fitness ever since and have done only one thing with my career: teach what I've learned to others. I'll continue practicing until the day I die.
Duty: I am dedicated to helping all of my clients from my community of Iowans. I must keep myself healthy to lead by example. I am committed to my girlfriend and family of fur babies. They deserve the best of me, and that comes from working out and eating well.
Urgency: This is the simplest one. I am going to die. Knowing that and constantly contemplating my demise creates action and swiftly cuts through any bullshit bogging me down. As the Buddha said, "The trouble is, you think you have time."
I urge you to drop your chase for motivation and set these variables up for yourself so you can feel the difference 'drive' makes.
Source: High Performance Habits by Brendon Burchard
