How To Stay Motivated During “The Dark Times”

Photo via Catie Rhodes ~ WANA Commons

Welcome to Thoughty Thursday here at More Cowbell!

Thanks to more than a week down with the flu, I’ve got motivation on my mind. I need some BAD, to get me moving from my bed this week when pretty much I want to curl up and go back to sleep.

The only other time I needed motivation to get out of bed, I was in sales. (We call that “The Dark Time” at my house.)

Sales was a terrible job for me and I needed a TON of pick-me-up every day.

Why did I hate it? Besides the crappy boss and all the paperwork?

I’m a trainer and a writer, both in equal measure. In fact, writing is easier if I teach often and teaching is better if I write often. I love to interact, to watch people learn, to see the light bulb go on. And I love to tell stories. I like to BE in the moment, and then I like to go home and write some stuff. Most of sales happens on the phone.

My life got a lot better when I realized this and left that sales job behind me.

It takes a lot of motivation to keep doing a job you hate and the guy who could keep me hopped up was Zig Ziglar, one of the greatest motivators of all time. (Y’all know he passed late last year, right?) Zig was ALL about people, as the best sales and motivational people are, and he could keep me fired up.

He still keeps me fired up.

This was the Zig advice that got me out of bed this week:

“You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.”

Another of my fave motivators, Harvey Mackay, put out the following collection of Zig quotes in one of his newsletters. I’m positive the quotes below will be useful to you as you prepare for your weekend.

As Ziglar said, “People often say motivation doesn’t last. Neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.”

Ziglar realized the important truth: in order to educate, you need to entertain. And he knew that stories and thought-provoking quotes could be great teachers, which is why he collected them and wrote them down.

On marriage:

• “Many marriages would be better if the husband and wife clearly understood that they are on the same side.”

On success:

• “There are no traffic jams on the extra mile.”
• “If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time”
• “Outstanding people have one thing in common: an absolute sense of mission.”

On failure:

• “Failing is an event, not a person. Yesterday ended last night.”
• “Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have 24-hour days.”
• “If you learn from defeat, you haven’t really lost.”

On character:

• “Every choice you make has an end result.”
• “If you go out looking for friends, you’re going to find they are very scarce. If you go out to be a friend, you’ll find them everywhere.”
• “It was character that got us out of bed, commitment that moved us into action, and discipline that enabled us to follow through.”

And my absolute favorite Zig quote EVER:

“You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.”

Are you helping other people get what they want? Are you helping yourself? Who is your favorite motivational person? What quote helps you keep going through “the dark times?” Enquiring minds LOVE to know these things here at More Cowbell!

Jenny