#MondayMotivation: Motivation Is a Team Sport

Greetings, dear Readers!

A friend of mine recently asked me, “Why do you keep writing #MondayMotivation posts when you’re struggling so much with them?”. This was brought on by the intro of my post for last week, Excuses vs. Reasons – which you can read if you feel like you need a refresher of that message for this week.

I suppose, to her, it was a relevant question. Why do I keep putting myself through that every week, just to try and motivate other people that may not even be getting these messages? Or give a fat flying fart in space? Is it because, in part, I need the messages myself? Yes, shocker of the century – Vex also needs to keep herself motivated. Insert gasps here.

But no, that’s not the only reason. In fact, it’s not even the biggest reason. The reason is this:

Motivation Is a Team Sport

Oh, now I’ve gone and done it, haven’t I? If I were to make a bet that your first thought at that sentence was, “Bullshit. Get your head out of the clouds, because no one is going to help you.”, I’d probably win, won’t I? Yeah, that’s what I thought. And, to an extent, I even agree with you. Hell, just a few weeks ago I made it very clear that you shouldn't burn yourself out trying to motivate others, and I stand by that - but if you read that post again, you'll see that I didn't say that you shouldn't help motivate others at all.

Let me explain myself, before you get your knickers in a Gordian knot.

I’ll be one of the first people to admit that motivation comes from the inside – and I’ve said this before, too. You can have the world screaming motivational messages at you, but if you’re not interested in getting motivated and doing what you need to do to achieve something in your life… those screams are going to fall on totally deaf ears.

But if you’re the only person who can motivate you, then why are there so many team orientated motivational things to do? 

Companies routinely take their employees out for team building exercises, people love to go looking for motivational and inspiration messages, we follow blogs, Twitter feeds and Instagrams, all with the express purpose of getting our daily motivation fix. And, when we feel on top of the world, we share our own snippets of motivation.

WHY? Why do we have all of this, do all of this?

Because, like most things, support is one of the most powerful weapons we can have against getting demotivated. When we have one of those days, the days where we just can’t muster up our usual motivation, the right kind of support or words or images can help us get back up and on track. And when we share our own stories of overcoming the dumps, it makes us feel good to know that someone else might be benefiting from what we’re sharing.

It's a cycle, and one of the few positive ones out there. If we supported each other instead of bring each other down, it would make the communities and circles that we are a part of, stronger as a whole.

The challenge for this week:

When you hit your downer, don’t be afraid to ask for a little help to get back up. And when you’re at the top… pass it on. Give someone else a few positive words of support – you might not realize just how much that one sentence or that one pat on the back might boost a person.

Yes, motivation comes with from within… but positivity can be just as infectious as negativity – and that’s what we’re going to be doing this week. Remember to tell me how it went!

Until Next Week!