A common trait among successful people is that they are highly motivated. From the outside looking in, it would appear that the successful person is inherently motivated or filled with a naturally occurring motivation that sustains their efforts making the success achievable with ease. While the successful person might have a strong sense of purpose and focus towards achieving a specific goal, motivation is something that requires continued fuel and a creative discipline to maintain. So how does one go about fueling their motivation and developing the creative discipline necessary to sustain their desired level of motivation? Just like anything worth doing that requires immense effort in order to be successful, it’s the accumulation of little daily doses of effort that yield profound results over time. Thus, it is daily discipline and healthy creativity that keep motivation freshly potent and effective.
There’s a character from the BBC show The Peaky Blinders named Bonnie Gold. Now Bonnie Gold is the son of an infamous and savage gypsy clan leader named Aberama Gold. Bonnie is a very driven and focused character with an innocent purity to him. Bonnie’s dream is to be the welterweight boxing champion of the world. He has very heavy hands and he is as hard as a coffin nail so his scrappy size is very much underestimated. Bonnie Gold has a unique ability to take a lot of hits to make it appear as though he is losing and then with full intention and control, he can one punch knock out anybody who steps into the ring. The combination of qualities of having a very clear singular focus, pure belief and confidence in himself, and the innocent child-like playfulness of his character make him a highly successful and seemingly unstoppable force within his realm of the story.
From the outside, one might see Bonnie as a boy born with the innate gifts of success which is why he easily knocks out so many other fighters with a smile on his face and a twinkle in his eye. But it’s not until a scene which takes place shortly before his big fight with a massive young man named Goliath that we learn the ‘why’ and ‘how’ Bonnie motivates himself to continue to be successful. After watching Bonnie train vigorously and tenaciously in the gym with a seemingly infinite amount of energy, Thomas Shelby, the Peaky Blinders main protagonist and promoter of Bonnie Gold, asks Bonnie’s trainer if he thinks Bonnie is ready for the fight. The trainer says that he has never seen a fighter like Bonnie Gold in his thirty plus years of training boxers. Almost immediately after the trainer has said this, Bonnie comes walking up to Mr. Shelby and asks if he has a fight for him. Mr. Shelby then says, “When you step in the ring, Bonnie, who do you see across the canvas, eh?” To which Bonnie replies, “I see myself. Forty years old having done fuck all except tramping the lines. I see my life wasted. I won’t let it happen. Me? I’m going to be a champion.”
When I witnessed this scene, I was very much inspired by Bonnie’s motivation. I loved how he used the vision of what he did not what to become as the tool of sustainable motivation for becoming the champion he dreamed to be. This is a wonderful example of what motivation looks like and how it is to be used in order to fuel the fires of achievement and success. I’ve heard Joe Rogan say that in order to train harder and access that deeper drive of force while training, he often envisions his family in danger. He will envision that he has to fight like hell to get to them and save them. I’ve heard David Goggins and Ben Greenfield both say that they used the Rocky movies as inspiration for training when they were younger. A good friend who has impeccable discipline and a highly consistent training regime will often watch the movie 300 while training. Many of us have playlists filled with songs that pump us up and inspire us to go deeper and train harder, especially when we feel like quitting. The possibilities of motivational tools are endless and always presently available. We are only limited by our own inability to use our creativity and discipline to find daily motivation.
So if you want to achieve your dreams and find the success you crave, create, build, and nurture the daily discipline of creatively finding inspiration for your motivation. Picture yourself old, out of shape, uncoordinated, inflexible, and the accumulation of a lifetime of dreams wasted. Picture yourself dominated by the fear of challenge reigning triumphant over your old tired mind, body, and spirit. Use this image of your tired old fear ridden self to ignite the fires of motivation to become the champion you know you can be! The champion and the old tired shadow of the champion both reside within you daily; which one you step closer to becoming will depend on what you seek for motivation and how you use it every day. The inspiration is always available. Thus, the motivation is always available. Use it! Use whatever you have to to get inspired. Let it motivate you. Then become the champion of your hero’s journey!
Below are some links to things I use to inspire motivation when I need it:
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