MAWMonday Motivators 08/06/2017

by: Dr. Michael A. Wright In Blog, Coaching DiaryTagged , , , , , ,

How Their Myopia Can Be Your Motivation?

We have lost so much in the way of civility in today’s conversations. This fact is accentuated through anonymous posts on social media, promoted through the ease of home-office-blogger cruelty, and exacerbated by our one-view-fed polarization. It is a problem. But, I also think it is an opportunity. It’s an opportunity that can inspire and serve as a motivator for you. It is a promise that the message you hold will find fertile ground. If you endeavor to open perspectives, expand options, and feed constructive dialogue, you can make a real difference in the world.

Twitter is with me, as always. What’s your position? How will you share it with the world? How will you call your listeners to listen and contribute to civility and constructive dialogue?

1. Think Before

It’s a message to them and a mantra for you. You need to be ahead of the curve and thinking at a level beyond the ordinary. Not just a step ahead, but 3 steps from 6 different angles. The intended consequences and the unintended consequences must be accounted for, in context and without context. Then, you will see the window of opportunity. Thinking before you speak, post, or react is not just a pause for courtesy. It is a calculation of the costs and benefits. May your costs forever be covered, and your benefits always include authenticity.

2. Be a Lighthouse

I often suggest that those who have a problem with what you say are only pressuring you so that they know how to respond when a similar challenge is leveled against them. They need your example to comprehend another way. Their experience, up to this point, has been devoid of a suitable reaction to this situation. They pose it to you for your guidance and insight. Don’t disappoint. Realize that it is not about you personally. It is about their need desperately. Lead in the way only you can. Hopefully, they recognize your guidance as a call to awaken their genuine self, not to be a copy or reflection of your shine.

3. Make a Difference

Not about you personally means that the challenge was not created by you. It does not mean that you are not important to the equation and solution. You may be small in the grand scheme of things, but you are by no means insignificant. What is more, the ripple effect of your actions continue beyond the moment of your interaction. The beauty in the physics of your contribution is that an authentic impact is felt by you and by the others perpetually.

4. Getting Together

What could we accomplish together? Civil. Engaging. Listening. We could change the world. If only that the world would see again what civil discourse looks like. That would be a significant difference. A reductions of conversational train wrecks that draw millions of eyeballs. An absence of the need to call names and dehumanize in the hopes of proving our point. A return to logic, rhetoric, self-questioning, and humor. Ourselves less serious as a decrease in ego while an allowance to change based on new knowledge. An allowance of the listeners to make up their own minds. A call for those onlooking to constructively contribute. It can only happen together. It can only happen if we also listen.

5. To Inspire

Inspire. That’s it. Get out there and inspire.

So many are looking to be motivated. It is another way to say “seeking to be led.” Pushed is not a sustainable life plan. Inspiration, on the other hand, pulls. It calls you out of bed each morning. It whispers encouragement throughout the day. It asks for just one more contribution before bed each night. Seek to be inspired. Then, seek to inspire.

Dr. Michael A. Wright received his Doctor of Philosophy in Social Work degree from the University of South Carolina - Columbia. Since 1997, Wright has led MAWMedia Group, LLC, a firm helping individuals and organizations tell stories and translate ideas into capital.