Unlocking Motivation: The Power of Action and Consistency

Welcome to episode 105 of the practice of nonprofit leadership. I'm Nathan Ruby. Well, I am alone again today in the practice of nonprofit leadership studio. You know, I did a pretty decent job last time. Tim said I didn't damage anything, I didn't break anything, so he was comfortable with me running the studio again today, all by myself. So we are going to talk today about how action comes before motivation. Now, motivation is a great feeling and it drives us towards achieving our goals and dreams. It's that inner voice inside of us that helps us to take action and to move forward. According to psychology today, motivation is the desire to act in service of a goal. It's the crucial element in setting and attaining our objectives. Motivation is one of the driving forces behind human behavior. It fuels competition and sparks social connection. Its absence can lead to mental illnesses such as depression. However, waiting for motivation to strike before taking action is a common mistake that many people make. In reality, action comes before motivation, and it is the key to achieving success. I've got three points for you today that we're going to cover about action and motivation, and after each of those three points, I've got one little tip that works for me. Maybe it'll work for you? Maybe not, but at least it'll be an example, and then you can come up with your own action steps for you that works for you. All right, here we go. First one taking action leads to motivation. Taking action is the first step towards achieving success. When we take action, we create momentum and in turn, this leads to more action, even if we don't know exactly the right decision or the right next step to do something. Teddy Roosevelt said in any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing at all. Now for those of you who might be a little weak in your US history, teddy Roosevelt was president from 1901 to 1909. And he said the worst thing you can do is nothing. I find that amazing, because sometimes we always get so wrapped up in well gosh, I don't know what to do, and if I do this that could be wrong, and if I do that, that could be wrong, and so pretty soon you just talk yourself out of doing anything. But what we find is that motivation is a byproduct of action, not the other way around. Motivation comes from action. So one of the things that I do to help me with this is I try to make taking action as simple as I possibly can, and that means that I'm ready, I have my stuff with me. So, for example, I've talked before on the show that I am financed spreadsheets, accounting budgets, those are that's not in my wheelhouse, that's more of Tim's wheelhouse, less of mine, and so I have to make it very easy for me to be able to pull out the budget and to be able to look at it and study it and be aware of what's in it. And so, in order to do that, I have a hard copy of my organization's budget with me at all times. It's in a folder, it's in my bag, I carry it with me everywhere I go. I always have it. And let me tell you, that thing is marked up like crazy. It has different color of ink and it has circles and lines and arrows and notes, and it is. It can get to be a mess. And so two or three times a year I have to actually consolidate all of the stuff that I've written and all of my notes and all of my lines, and kind of organize them, and then I actually reprint so that then I can start all over again. But the key is I always know where it is and I always have it with me. So whenever I think, oh, I need to check that on the budget or how are we doing on this, all I do is reach down, pull it out and it's right there with me. So make it easy, make it simple for you to take action on something. Before I go on to my next point, I've got a little announcement, kind of goes we announced it last week a new class that Tim and I are teaching. So here's just a little bit of info on that. Fundraising can be difficult, but it doesn't have to be Just like learning anything else. You have to learn the fundamentals before you master a new skill. That's why Tim and I are offering a new class called Fundraising Fundamentals and this one hour free class. You will learn fundamentals such as why do people give, how do I encourage people to give to my organization, how do I fit fundraising into my already overwhelmed schedule, and a lot more. This class will be fun, interactive and give you a solid base by which you can begin to build your fundraising muscle. If fundraising success has remained elusive, if you know in your heart. Your organization should be raising more dollars, but you just can't figure out how this class is for you. Click on the link in the show notes and you'll be able to register. It's gonna be a good class. I hope to see you there. Procrastination kills motivation. Procrastination is one of the biggest obstacles to achieving a successful outcome. So I looked up a couple of fun little facts about procrastination. So did you know that procrastination is a chronic issue for around 20% of adults? Now, I was a little surprised. I thought it would be higher. I mean 20%, that's like you know. For those of you that struggle with math, that's like two out of 10 people. I thought it would be a lot higher. In that, however, they're talking about chronic procrastination, and chronic means that it happens on a regular basis, so I bet the percentage for happens once in a while is a lot higher than 20%. All right, here's another one. There is a loose correlation with gender. Men tend to be a little more prone to procrastination than women. Oh, come on now. I'm not so sure about that, but hey, it was in there, it's on the website, so it's on the website. So obviously it must be true. There is no significant correlation between people's intelligence and their likelihood to procrastinate. Well, that's kind of comforting. You know, you could be like a straight A student or more of a C student like me, and you have an equal chance of being procrastinating. So that's a little comforting. I kind of like that one. So anyway, when we procrastinate, we delay taking action, which leads to a lack of motivation. It's a negative loop. The more we procrastinate, the less motivation we have, the less likely it is for us to take action, which means we have less motivation, which means we don't take action. It just on and on and on. So one of the tricks that I have to help me with this is I don't think I just do it, so I put something. Let's say I've got something I've been putting off. What's an example? A phone call that I have to make, call to a board member or to a donor, or maybe it's a call that's gonna be a difficult conversation and I just I'm not really in the mood to have that conversation. So the little trick that I use for that is I have everything that I need. So if it's a phone call I have to make, I will make sure, like on a little piece of paper, I have the phone number, the name of the person I'm calling, whatever my two or three points are gonna be. Whatever it is, I have that. Sometimes I use an index card Maybe it'll just be a stick it note, whatever piece of paper I have. I got it there by me. And then sometime during the day when I look at that or I think to myself, oh yeah, I gotta make that phone call. Bam, right there, right in that instant I am, I pick up my phone and I dial. I Don't give myself time to think about it, I don't give my time to analyze, I don't give myself to talk myself out of it, I just do it. I guess I should give that that to Nike. That's their, their logo, but anyway, I just do it in this in the moment, and it only takes three to five seconds of action Once I've dialed that phone number and it's ringing. Well, I've already, I'm already into that action, I'm already doing it. So I didn't give procrastination, even even a second to grab ahold of me. So that might work for you. Have it there in front of you, have it ready, and then, when you think of it, bam, you're right on it and you're into the end to the action. So try that, maybe that'll work for you. All right, motivation is a result of consistent action. Successful outcomes are not a one-time event. They are the result of small, consistent actions over time. When we take action Consistently, we create a positive feedback loop that leads to more action, which leads to more motivation, which leads to success. So think of grant proposals or special events. Let's let's take an event. There are a Ton and I mean a ton of steps that have to be taken to carry off an event. You know, the bigger the event, the the more steps there are, and sometimes, looking at that entire list of things and be Extremely overwhelming, um, but for me, and and for me, if I look at a, at a long list, and I feel overwhelmed with it, I am very prone to just setting that back down and going on and doing something else that I would, that I would rather be doing it, and it happens to me all the time. And so what I have to do, and and what you'll need to do is to, is to create it into a Smaller checklist. Let's call it. What can you do today? What can I do right now? That will move me closer to that, because if I do that, if I check that that action item, if I, if I took a step that creates momentum and that creates motivation, and Motivation gets you to where you're going. So, um, let's for example here. I just got done recently with the organization I lead. We had a board meeting and our board meetings are quarterly and, of course, as with all board meetings, there's an agenda, and so typically, if I have a September board meeting, I am really starting to focus on that, that agenda, in early August. I always have it set up. Whenever a board meeting is done, the next day I create the packet on my or the folder on my laptop for the next board meeting and that's where I put stuff in it as I'm planning it. But I really get serious about that agenda about a month in advance, and so what I do and our agendas are often that the the guts of it, that the 80% of it is the same every meeting, and then we fill in with whatever is happening at the specific things that we're going to cover, and so what I actually do is I actually print and I you can hear the paper I have it in my hot little hand of the one that I just finished with, and so I print the agenda and it has 10 items on it and what I do is I take a Ruler and a pencil and I actually draw horizontal lines to make sections, and then I've got vertical lines and I make one, two, three, four, five, six. I've got six call, I make six columns and under each one I've got draft done. Print Dropbox. That's what we use to store our when the for the donors that are out of state, they access the board packet through Dropbox Packet. For our local board members that attend locally, I have hard copies made and then complete, and so I've got for each section. Now, not all sections have a specific document or PowerPoint or something that we're creating. Typically I'll do an executive director's report and that's a verbal report. It's not written. So in that I may have, I may make a mark or I may not. I may make a dash if I don't have any document that has to be created. But that is how I track through what is done for the board meeting and what's not. Yeah, it's old school and yeah, it's real basic and you could do this on. You could use an online source if you've got some, a tracking system for your task lists or if you've got a more robust system online. It doesn't make any difference how you do it, just that you do it, and this is how I do it. And so I can look down and in a second I can tell what's done, what's not done, what's got left, and then throughout the month I will take okay, well, here's a program report that's not done, and I know that our program leader, you know, sent me that. So now I could just go on, get that, print that. So in five minutes, or if I have three minutes, I could be productive and I could keep checking the box off. And then each time I look at this, I'm getting more and more and more checks on it, and ultimately I look at that last column, the complete column, and when that is all full well, eve, and I feel pretty good about myself with that. So give yourself a tool, something that will help you move little steps towards whatever goal that you're trying to get to, and those little steps will give you the motivation that you need to keep going more and more and more. So one other quick thing that I use for this section, for a little thing to keep me going, is my wife is. Well, let's just say that I once in a while I wouldn't call myself chronic, but once in a while I may suffer from a little bit of just a little bit of procrastination. And my wife, on the other hand, she is the anti-procrastinator. She is the one in school when they assigned a paper at the beginning of class, you had to have a paper done by the end of class, at the end of semester. She would have her paper done within a week, or maybe two weeks. Well, no, a week she would have her paper done. So she is not a procrastinator at all. So occasionally, if it's really important and if it's something that I really need help to make sure I get done, I will mention it to my wife and say, hey, can you help me remember to get this done? And I have to be careful with that, because then she will remind me all the time until I get it done. So I have to be careful when I use that option, but it's a very useful option when I need it. So, anyway, give yourself some ways to help you get over procrastinating. That gives you more motivation. Action comes before motivation, not the other way around. Take it from a US president who said doing nothing is worse than taking a step in the wrong direction. Procrastination is not your friend. In fact, procrastination is a dream killer. It keeps you and your organization from reaching its vision and mission. Don't think about why you don't wanna do something. Just do it. Finally, like many things in life, motivation is not a one, and done Small steps consistently over a long period of time will get you where you wanna be. Moral of the story don't wait for motivation to strike before taking action. Start taking action now. The motivation will follow. Thank you for listening today. If you are benefiting from what is being shared in this podcast, could you do Tim and I a favor and just let one of your friends or colleagues know about the show? We don't do mass marketing or sales funnels or any of those type of things. Every week we try to deliver something that you'll find meaningful and useful. We'd love to get the show out to more people, and a recommendation from you to someone you know would be awesome. Thanks, if you would like to get in touch with us, our contact information can be found in the show notes. That's all for today, until next time.