Insights from The Motivation Manifesto by Brendon Burchard

If you're lacking motivation, you've likely forgotten one crucial thing: Your power to choose.
When you spend enough time being pulled around by fears, cravings, and other people's agendas, you forget that you can choose the
direction you want to take your life. You'll arouse a powerful energy inside when you choose to be, have, or do something greater in your
life and believe that "something" is truly inevitable (because of your innate ability to learn and grow).

Once you believe something great is on your horizon, you can "choose" to connect everything to your vision. When you feel obligated to
tidy up, you can reframe it as an opportunity to optimize your environment for mental clarity, which will help you work towards your aim.
Getting groceries and cooking dinner can be a motivating experience if you choose to see that preparing a healthy meal could help you
reach your goal. If you're told to do something at work, make it feel like your choice by choosing to see how it can lead to something
greater.

In essence, you can choose to see that every disciplined action gets you closer to where you want to go. After all, discipline breeds more
discipline. The root of motivation is "motive" ‐ reason to act. Choose the reason behind your actions, and you'll never be short on
motivation.

Reaffirm your power to choose every day and resist the pull of fear, cravings, and people's agendas, by looking in the mirror and declaring:
"Today I shall choose something greater." This declaration will activate your motivation.

Here are two more declarations that will amplify your motivation:

Motivation Declaration: “Today, I shall inspire greatness.”

Everyone has greatness inside them waiting to be ignited ‐ you can be the one to ignite it by showing
them what greatness is. Greatness has two underlying qualities: consistency and courage.

 Embody consistency by deciding what values are most important to you, such as learning,
excellence, or honesty, and aligning every action and decision with those values. Move closer
to greatness by consistently working to improve yourself on days you don't feel like it.
 Put yourself on the line and courageously take full responsibility for your performance. That
way, when you fall short, you point the finger at yourself and use that pain to accelerate your learning and deepen your
commitment to greatness. Most importantly, have the courage not to care what people think about you as long as you act
according to your values. The late, great Kobe Bryant was asked, “How did you deal with the critics who said you were
overrated early in your career?” He said, “I was so focused on becoming one of the greatest that I literally could not hear what
people were saying. It was like the gates opened and I ran with the blinders on, like Secretariat.”

If you need help determining what your greatness looks like, look to those who have inspired you. Specify the exact reason they inspired
you, and then amplify it. Suppose your inspiration comes from a teacher who significantly impacted your life through their ability to explain
complex subjects simply. Emulate and amplify their qualities by aiming to make challenging ideas accessible to everyone around you. Use
their torch to light yours, and then expand your flame with consistency and courage so that others can see it and feel it.

Motivation Declaration: “Today, I shall slow time.”

How much of your life have you allowed to pass this week without fully absorbing it?

 How many conversations were you completely there for?

 How many meals did you thoroughly savor?

There will never be moments exactly like the moments you experienced last week. If you're to have a
type of FOMO, it should be the fear of missing out on the present moment.

Being distracted by thoughts of the past and future, and failing to embrace what is happening here and
now, is like living in a low‐oxygen environment, like the death zone at the top of Mount Everest. The more time you spend there, the
weaker and less motivated you feel. Time in the death zone is necessary to attain a goal, but time spent there should be as brief as
possible. You should quickly mine the past for lessons and survey the future for good courses of action. Then, quickly return to the present.

The present is a rich energy source. Prolong your time in the present to restore your motivation and love of life. One reliable way to return
to the present is to make each moment last two beats longer. Brandon Burchard says, “Do not breathe so quickly. Take in air for two
beats longer. Do not merely glance at her. Look into her eyes and hold them for two beats longer. Do not gulp down the next meal but
savor each bite for two beats longer, let the tastes melt and linger.”

Whatever you're seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, and feeling, make it last two beats longer by turning up the volume on your senses.
When you consciously enhance your senses, you prolong your time in the present. As you read this summary, turn up your senses by trying
to expand your peripheral vision and take more words in. Or, pay attention to your body against the surface of the chair or feet touching
the ground.

“If we want more motivation in our lives, we must make clearer choices and more deeply commit to them.” ‐
Brendon Burchard

www.ProductivityGame.com