What Would You do if the Music Stopped?
-Coach Clark
*Disclaimer – external motivation is an extremely important factor in our life… but I’m going to challenge you not to use it*
We’ve all got that favorite song that we play whenever we want to get things done, workout, get HYPED, get pumped up to do whatever we have to do. I call this a “hype track.”
My current song? “Dance Yrself Clean” by LCD Soundsystem (yes, that’s how the song title is spelled).
There’s something about a good beat, powerful chord structures, and a raucous sound that can get us moving and grooving. When that song turns on, you turn into an unstoppable force of human productivity. That external motivation can be a very powerful tool in our daily lives.
But what would would you do if the music stopped?
What would you do if that external motivation ceased to exist and you were only left with the voice in your head?
Would you stop? Give up? Crumble at the sound of the voice in your head?
Would you start doubting yourself that you couldn’t do something because you couldn’t get excited about it?
It’s ok to say it would throw you off. It would definitely throw me off… and it still does. Just the other day I threw a little fit because I felt like I couldn’t get any work done at home because “the environment wasn’t conducive to being productive.” ???? *plays sad song on small violin*
I was making some pretty silly excuses and putting my work ethic in the hands of an outside source. Not a good look.
Think about all the external motivating factors you have in your life.
Coffee.
Music.
Coffee again.
Environments.
Your boss.
Your coaches.
Self-help books.
Podcasts.
What would you do if that all went away? How would you handle it?
For the rest of the week, I want you to key-in on the times whenever you feel like you are depending on external motivation.
When you realize that moment, ask yourself, “Could I do this without this external motivation?”
I bet you could.
I bet you could workout without music.
I bet you could run a 5K with just the voice in your head.
I bet you could get tasks done in almost any environment.
I bet you could do absolutely anything that needs to get done without any outside force motivating you.
You can do it.
Let’s all try and depend less on outside motivating factors, and depend more on ourselves to get things done and accomplish our tasks at hand.
Build yourself up in your head.
Build the internal motivational force.
Be your own hype track.
-Clark
