You Don’t Have a Motivation Problem — You Have a Meaning Problem

Well, hello there, my friend.

Welcome aboard to the Daily Podcast.

My name's Jonathan Doyle.

I am glad you are here.

Hope I can be a blessing to you.

Listen, let's just jump straight in.

Have you ever had a goal or set a goal that you found really difficult to attain,

and after a period of time, you're like, "Why am I getting nowhere near this?"

We're gonna get into something really important here, something

very subtle, something that I've, like, experienced myself.

What I wanna suggest to you is this: that you don't actually have a motivation

problem, you have a meaning problem.

Let's make this really simple.

That if something is important enough to you, you will find a way

Like, if you're a parent and one of your kids is, like, really sick and

they need this experimental treatment that can only be got on another part

of the world and they need a million dollars US, and that's-- They, they won't

negotiate, and it's a million dollars.

It's a revolutionary treatment.

The data is excellent, and you've got six months.

Like, can we agree you are going to find a way to get that money?

Whether it's GoFundMe, you know, cake sales, just busking, I don't care.

You will find a way.

Your brain will go into massive overdrive.

You will lose all fear of asking people for things, doing things.

You will find a way because the meaning you attach to the circumstance is so

powerful that you will go through just about anything to make it a reality.

But if someone just came along to you and said, "Hey, listen, I want

you to write a goal to generate a million dollars next year," like

you'll go, "Yeah, it's interesting.

Yeah, I guess.

Well…" But it's very hard for people to do it.

I had breakfast with one of my daughters this morning, and I said to her, "You

know, listen, if I walk up to a thousand people and say, 'Do you wanna be wealthy?'

like, almost everyone's gonna say yes." There'll be some people that are just

happy with a simpler lifestyle and say, "Oh, look, I'm not that fussed."

But most people are gonna say, "Yeah, absolutely." But I can promise you

after y- decades of doing this kind of work, that the, the, the number

of people who actually really go after stuff and do stuff opposed

to what they say is important to them is a significant difference.

So I've come to believe that this idea that you don't have a motivation

problem, you have a meaning problem, is an important idea.

So what I wanna suggest to you in this episode is I don't think

that you necessarily need to find ways to motivate yourself.

See, what happens every January, right, is, like, everybody

takes out a gym membership.

Now, I've been going to the gym since, uh, I was, I reckon, 16 years of age.

So we're talking 35 years plus.

So I don't get to January and go, "You know, I really should get into the

gym." It's like, this is what I do.

I attach this significant meaning and identity to who I am, what I do,

how I train, and all the different meanings that come with that.

So I don't have to get up every day and go, "I gotta motivate myself."

And again, as I said in a recent episode, that doesn't mean it's not hard sometimes.

But I don't really have a motivation problem because I've attached

this very significant meaning So what is it in your life that you

are telling yourself is a goal?

It might be, "I need to exercise more.

I, I wanna get a promotion.

I wanna try this.

I wanna do that.

I want this to happen," and it's not happening.

This is tough, but it may be that you need to have a very

long conversation with yourself.

And in that long conversation, you go for a long walk, or you sit up by

a beach, or you find somewhere, and you say to yourself, "Self, let's

have a very honest conversation about what actually matters to me."

You know, one of the biggest things that helped me, like this is, this

was transformative for me, is I was always driven, I was always

motivated, I always loved business and entrepreneurship and motivation

and speaking and helping people.

And in building my goals, you know, my business goals, my financial goals, I

was always kind of writing goals for what I kinda thought I should have.

It's like, "Yeah, I really should go after that goal and build this and, and

get that much revenue, and then, then I'll live here, and I'll drive this," and

these things I'd always be writing them.

And sometimes, you know, a lot of them, by the grace of God, have come to pass,

but sometimes I'd find myself writing them going, "I write these a lot, but I

don't seem to be, you know, really finding them coming to be as much as I'd like to.

What's going on there?

'Cause I'm writing them.

I'm telling myself it's my goal." Do you know what really changed for me?

Is there came a day where I suddenly realized, you know what?

The more Revenue and success that I build in this business,

the more I can help people.

It was the most transformative idea.

It just went, "Oh, I've got enough, right? I got more than I need, but I

can actually do cool things with and for people, including my family, but d-

lots of other people." And the minute that happened, my goals began to shift.

I, I got more focused on business, more focused on revenue, 'cause I'm like,

"I wanna show people how to do this.

I wanna bless more people.

I wanna give more people-- I, I wanna live this and show it to

people so that they can do it." And so the meaning that I attached to

my goals became quite different.

It moved from what I wanted to what I could give.

So you don't have to feel that way, and it's just one example.

But once the meaning shifted, the goals became more passionate, something

that really had significance for me.

We are such subtle beings because sometimes with my own goals, I was like,

"Oh, is this selfish to…" You know?

'Cause I'd lived long enough to know that sometimes when you reach

a goal, you kinda believe that your life's gonna radically change.

You're gonna get this goal, everything's gonna be different,

and then you'll be happy.

And of course, any of you that have lived long enough know that whenever you get

to a key goal, it's awesome, it's great, but then within a certain period of time

you're like, "Okay, I'm not euphorically happy all the time, and I did this goal.

What went wrong?" Nothing went wrong.

You're human, and nothing on this earth is ever gonna completely satisfy you except

blessing, loving, empowering, encouraging, caring for other people and finding

deep meaning in what you do each day.

Why do you think I'm here in this studio, you know, talking into a microphone?

But in my brain right now, I'm imagining all of you out there, some of you driving,

some of you walking, some of you on a plane, and, and my desire is to help

you, is to see you flourish and grow.

So, so I don't have to write myself a goal that goes, "Jonathan, go

into the studio 365 days a year and record podcast and Instagram content

and YouTube content for people."

I don't have to write that goal, because there's a meaning underneath it.

I don't care if one person listens or one million people listen.

I'll do it for one, because the meaning that I attach to it is real.

So I want you to understand that you don't have a motivation problem

if you're not reaching a key goal, you have a meaning problem.

It doesn't mean enough to you.

And I know that's confronting, 'cause you might think, "No, I really wanna lose the

weight. I really…" Friends, until you build enough meaning around a significant

goal, I'm sorry, it ain't happening.

Until you build enough meaning around a significant goal, it's not happening

Because once you have the meaning, you will find the way.

So Friedrich Nietzsche, I don't quote him very often.

My post-grad, my second master's program in philosophical anthropology,

we did a huge amount of work on Friedrich Nietzsche, and, uh, let's

just say he's complex and problematic.

But this quote of his is quite interesting.

He says, "He or she who has a why to live can bear almost any how."

He or she who has a why to live can bear almost any how.

If you have enough of a meaning for what's important to you, you will find the how.

You just will.

You are going to.

I wanna encourage you 'cause I've lived this, I can feel it in myself.

Your problem is not motivation, your problem is meaning.

So get a journal, find a quiet space, and before God, have an honest

conversation with yourself, all right?

And ask yourself, what is important to you?

What do you really care about?

What-- And if there's a goal that you think you should have, like health or

something else, then say to yourself, "Why do I want this?" Now, one of the

reasons I train the way I do is 'cause I kind of want to encourage people.

I love people, sort of showing people that at this age, and my kids have grown up

with it, and it's like, you can do this.

Yeah, it's not easy, but you can be really fit and healthy and

energetic and, and feel fantastic.

You can.

So the meaning of me training every day is like, I wanna encourage everybody.

There's a meaning there, so I don't get stuck with, "Oh, well,

you know, I've gotta drag myself there one more time." All right.

That's it.

Hope that's useful.

Please make sure you've subscribed.

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a comment, 'cause if you leave a comment, Spotify goes, "Hey, good

podcast. Listen to this." Uh, Instagram, you can find me @jdoylespeaks.

One word, jdoylespeaks.

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Everything else is on the website, jonathandoyle.co.

God bless you, my friend.

This has been The Daily Podcast.

You and I are gonna talk again tomorrow