What Drives You

The motive story of one of my favorite authors of all time, Donald Miller. Don wrote seven memoir style books that truly impacted my life. His book, “A Million Miles In A Thousand Years” is his take on living a worthwhile life and I recommend it to...everyone. Now he’s turned his focus to helping entrepreneurs grow successful businesses, and for act three of his life he feels he will put his focus into political activism which we dig into at the end of this episode. But what motivated a kid from a broken home to write his first book at 21 and go on to sell millions of books about his bumbling, curious, views on life and spirituality, then become a heralded expert in business, and now want to go after politics? Here is Donald in his usual candor and insight.

Let’s focus on our vocational motives. The reasons we go into the job, the career, or the business are what dictate our overall happiness and success, yet most of us go into such arenas for the wrong reasons, and suffer for it. This is a show anyone working will want to listen to, but I’ll tell you, it should be a requirement for today’s youth. Dan Miller joins me today, and he is one of today’s foremost career experts and the acclaimed author of “48 Days To The Work You Love.” In my 50 years I’ve hardly spent a day of my life working at something I didn’t enjoy and care about it and I have Dan to thank for that reality. Long before he wrote his book, he was...my Dad. And I’m eternally privileged and grateful. Join us as we help you clarify why are are working at what you are, and how to better fuel your vocational success by getting into alignment with your desires and your motives.

In this episode of the Motive Podcast I’m hitting on a key ingredient of our motives, and it’s how we feel about ourselves. I realized many of the good habits I engage with everyday, while all good and well, have less value in and of themselves in comparison to simply making me feel good about myself. I became aware of how important it is that we feel proud of ourselves, and that so often we are trying to push ahead in our lives and we are not...feeling proud of ourselves. I brought Jared Angaza on the show to talk about the issue. This is not an interview but a candid discussion and as you’ll hear, a discovery, of the power and nuances of how proud, or not, we feel about ourselves. And yes, we unpack some of the baggage around the word, “proud”. By the end you’ll hear that the discussion helped clarify and add much to Jared’s and my understanding of the issue. If you missed episode 21 of the Motive podcast, I walked with Jared through his story of motive, and it was significant. Jared, by the way, is my brother! If you are intrigued by what he shares, find him at jaredangaza.com

Let me take you on the most epic motive story to date. From the bowels of the Nashville music scene, to building airplanes for one of the father’s of mountain biking, to saving women and children out of sex slavery in Africa, to today sending people to space in an effort to change human perception, democratize space, and improve the state of the World. Jared Angaza is the Strategy Director for Space For Humanity and serves on a global environmental protection council and this is his story of what motivated him from gutters to mountain tops. The point as always is so you can see and find yourself as we share the common plight of man, and become inspired and equipped to hear first hand how getting clarity on one’s motives will take you to the heights you truly desire. Jared is also...my brother. Though we share the same parents, our last names are different. You’ll hear the motive behind that too. This was as raw a discussion as I’ve had, as I know more about Jared than most guests, and because he’s one of the more “woke” people I know. His level of personal awareness and introspection is rare, even more so when combined with a completely down to earth perspective. Even his elevated place in space is aimed right back here at our own terra firma out of love for the humans that tread upon it. Find him at jaredangaza.com

In this episode of the Motive Podcast I bring you Jordan Harbinger. Jordan is podcasting royalty. He wasn’t a celebrity. He didn’t have a NY Time bestselling book. He didn’t grow a multimillion dollar business. He had a lonely childhood and ended up going to law school because his parents wanted him too. He got a job on Wall Street and realized progress and success was won by people skills. But instead of using that to become a Wall Street tycoon he started burning CDs of his learning and then progressed to early podcasting. Today his Jordan Harbinger podcast is one of the tops on planet earth and I cite him as being the modern day purveyor of Dale Carnegie’s “How To Win Friends And Influence People.” He is one of the best interviewers there is and doles out great guidance on personal relationship skills to get ahead in life. I get over 450,000 downloads per month in my shows. Jordan gets over 6 million. For perspective. In this conversation I of course quiz him on what motivated him all along the way, up until now. You’ll hear some top rate business counsel on keeping it simple, why he’s bailed on social media, and doing what gets the most impact. You’ll do yourself well to subscribe to the Jordan Harbinger podcast wherever you get your podcasts!

This is where we now begin to get clarity on your true, authentic wants. For a lot of people the biggest revelation is actually becoming aware of wants that are not in fact, true and authentic. Things you may have been pursuing a long time. Maybe your whole life. Expectations you’ve had but now you realize...they aren’t inherently important to you! That can be discouraging or freeing. In this personal development industry all our focus is on what we go after and achieve. Over my lifetime, especially the last decade, I’ve found some of my greatest joys, not in what I achieved, but from what I let go of. They may have been good things, but they weren’t great. Then true clarity on what we want and our motives for wanting it, is beyond powerful. You don’t need so much inspiration and motivation once you have clarity on what you want and why and confidence in the alignment.

I bring you the story of Chad Jeffers. Whether you know Chad or not you’ve likely seen and heard him, as he has been a primary performer with Carrie Underwood for the past 13 years. If you’ve seen Carrie on stage you’ve seen Chad face to face with her as he supports her with his majestic guitar playing. What were the motives, the reasons, that drove Chad to be able to climb onto literally, the world’s greatest stages? I’d be lying if I denied how impressive it is that Chad Jeffers is frequently on the world’s greatest stages as Carrie Underwood’s guitarist, playing live and on camera in front of millions and millions of people. It’s the rock star fruition of countless dreams. I’ve known Chad for a long time and been privy to his journey where he’s at times questioned his career trajectory. Today he’s at peace and I wanted to hear the story, of course, not just of what he’s done and accomplished, but why? What motivates a kid to do what it takes to end up having his guitar featured in the Country Music Hall of Fame? Why music? Why guitar? Why not his own band after initially getting picked up by a label? And of course my point as always is to showcase real motives to you so you can better discern and establish your own. Find Chad at chadjeffers.com and you can check out a new course he’s offering for performers at Backstagenotes.com

In the world of personal development and self-help we often find ourselves with a desire that just doesn’t light on fire. We really struggle to take action and find ourselves frustrated or feeling guilty and ultimately thinking less of ourselves due to the inaction and lack of progress. It finally dawned on me as I looked at some of my own areas of languishing that I didn’t fully want it. I wanted...to want it. I really did want the end result, but I either didn’t see myself doing what it took or I couldn’t yet envision myself having claimed the final objective. Or I was still comfortable remaining where I was. I’ve seen this happen countless times but the concept didn’t clarify in my mind till recent years. If this is you, which it undoubtedly is in some area of your life, it’s a powerful revelation because you can now address the root issue. And though I won’t claim it’s necessarily easy, though it may be for you...the step to flesh it out is quite simple. Join me now and we’ll walk through the concept and treatment.

Benjamin Hardy has written two bestselling books that I reference over and over and over. Paradigm shifting tools in the personal development world I literally recommend everyone read. First is, “Willpower Doesn’t Work” that dispels the myth we are supposed to just grit our teeth and withstand anything at all times. Then more recently, “Personality Isn’t Permanent” which dispels the myth that we all fit into a personality profile, which we get into some in this show. But of course here I dig into his story. You’ll hear how his ultra religious parents divorced, left their faith, his Dad became a drug addict and his mom ran a health club and he barely graduated high school with no skills, work ethic, or interest beyond playing video games. And then...what happened? How did he go from that, to the most read blogger on Medium will millions of readers, in a very short time? Then to a multi six figure book deal on his first real book. You can connect with Ben at benjaminhardy.com

When I ask people to list out what they really want in life, a shocking amount of their answers are in truth, imposters. Two categories that make up so much of what we think we want but at the core, do not. This is why people go to college, get degrees, and go to work in areas they find no fulfillment in. And it’s why competent people who have success in some areas, languish in others even when they seem to apply the same effort that should equate to producing success. It’s not rocket science or any big secrets. We as humans and a culture are prone to veer away from what is good and true and it becomes lost like old Mayan cities. I’m merely going to point out a couple things and you will likely realize where you’ve been following your own motive imposters. Things you were pursuing for the wrong reason. And you can now...correct.