Daily Inspiration: “Let your passion drive your actions – then let your action drive your motivation!”

“Let your passion drive your actions – then let your action drive your motivation!” – Futurist Jim Carroll

You can learn a lot when you are out for a round of golf to motivate you through your day – whether it’s dealing with a particularly bad round or figuring out what to do when your business model has been trampled.

I was out for a round on the weekend with my good buddy, Ian Bates. He’s a grade 5 teacher, and has currently found himself, like most teachers, locked into the suddenness of distance education. In a previous life, I visited his classroom twice to work on cool projects with the kids – and later this week, will finish off another project where I’m working with them on a virtual project related to the future. Here’s a clip as to what it’s about.

Every time I get involved in real education, I get inspired from what I learn.

And here’s what I learned from Ian over the weekend – your actions drive your motivation. When things are not quite where you want them to be, keep putting in the effort, since that action itself will give you the motivation to keep on going despite the state of demotivation that can come from the current state of reality!

Let me explain.

Since’s Ian is but a youngster, he’s certainly had no challenges in adopting to the technology or the format of online education – I dare say that if I was a grade 5 student, I’d find him a pretty decent teacher. From a “virtual classroom clip” he has just sent me, it’s pretty clear that the kids would relate to him. (Don’t tell him that – I could never let him know I’m praising him!)

The problem is, there’s not a lot of kids showing up, whether due to complex family circumstances, the lack of appropriate technology, or other substantive issues. Right now, he’s only getting about half of his grade 5 kids into his classroom for his virtual lessons.

But here’s the thing – he keeps putting in the effort. He’s been working hard to put together relevant lesson plans, delivering it online with his trademark delivery (an online teacher review site had two kids reporting that his jokes were ‘corny’ ; I’d agree!), following up on assignments, pursuing innovative ideas to keep them engaged and their knowledge moving forward.
In other words, he gives a shit. He keeps on working away, despite the lack of the steady state of progress that he would have seen with ‘his kids’ in the real world.

I found myself learning from his thinking. In the last three months, my business has essentially collapsed. There’s not a lot of companies booking insight on the future, trends, innovation and disruptive thinking.

Yet I keep putting in the effort; I keep showing up for work; I keep on filming and writing and thinking and developing. Why?

What drives me? Why don’t I just pack it in, retire, or move on to something new?

One simple reason: because I have a huge passion for helping people to understand what comes next and what they should do about it. I find this current global economic challenge a massive new complexity to think through – and KNOW that while the global leaders who have previously been part of my client base aren’t yet ready for my message, I’ll be ready when they are.

My passion drives my actions. And my actions drive my motivation. It’s a wonderful structure to focus on to approach each and every day with a sense of excitement, not one of dread.

And so my simple reality is the same as Ian’s – while the corporate world might not yet be ready for the insight I can provide them, they will be.

Just as Ian’s classroom kids will be.

Thanks Ian! See you on the links!