Chase The Match
“Figure out what lights your fire then chase the match.”
- Unknown
What do a candle on a table - logs in a fireplace - a car - a firecracker - a gas stove - a bullet in a gun all have in common?
They’re all waiting to be ignited.
Should your name be on the list? Are you stuck? Do you need something or someone to light your fuse?
Finding Your Match: External
So where do we find the push that gets us moving faster and further along our journey? Sometimes external motivation is the thing that gets you excited.
For example, if you watch the Michael Jordan documentary, “The Last Dance” you will see that he will go out of his way to find something that will take him from a great player to the best ever.
Jordan was always looking for an edge or a TRIGGER. It could have come from an article or it might have been something he heard an opponent say about him on TV. One time an opponent said, “Good game, Mike”, he took this as a slight and it ignited him into scoring fifty points, against the same team, the next night.
Some people will find their motivational sparks from EXTERNAL sources. These might be found in videos on the internet, a motivational speaker, or a book that you just read. Watching and listening to speakers such as Eric Thomas or Les Brown always help to push me through some slow times.
You might find your spark from an INTERNAL source. It may be a person you work with who always gets excited about being better at what you are doing. These INTERNAL motivators can come from anyone. It also may be a negative comment that sparks us to say, “We’ll see about that.”
Whatever gives you your spark, continue to use it so you don’t get stuck along your journey.
Finding Your Match: Internal
The use of external motivators is fine. But when we use internal motivation where we motivate ourselves to be better, this is the best way.
The biggest motivator occurs when we TRUST ourselves. When we push ourselves and don’t limit our own capacity to be great, we can accomplish so much more. To gain trust we need to understand that we may not be successful in everything we try. But when we do fail, we find value because we know we will learn from each attempt.
I catch fire every time that I push my professional envelope. This happens when I UNDERSTAND MY OWN STRENGTHS better. For example, one of my Crayons (Strengths / Ability) is that I am a great communicator. When I learned that I could make social media posts to help my message get sent out to a larger audience I got so excited. I wasn’t only helping my clients and people in my audiences but now I was helping people across the globe. When you learn how powerful you are you will be unstoppable.
A third way to light your own fire is to be clear with what your true PASSION is. Do you know what your PASSION is? Not your whim. Not something that “seems fun”. But what is it that you can’t live without in your life? When you find clarity in your PASSION you will find your lane.
When you find your “lane”, you will wake up understanding exactly what needs to be done that day to push yourself farther down. You will not waste time doing tasks that take you away from what you NEED to get done. Your life will go from aimless to having a mission.
Igniting Your Team
Whether it be external motivational factors (Triggers – Outside Voices – Inside Voices) or internal motivation (Trust – Understanding – Passion) they are all around us. The important thing to understand is that the spark that lights your fuse may not work for everyone.
When you are in a leadership position don’t think an article talking about Kobe Bryant’s competitiveness might not elicit the same response from everyone on your team. Some people may not know or like the person that you use.
The way to be a better leader is to make sure you understand what ignites each of the people that you are trying to motivate.
The Key to Success
The reason that I wrote this article is that the struggle to get to the top, to be the best you possible, doesn’t happen overnight.
Once you start chasing your passion it’s just not one win after another. The key to success is to continue to show up every day, even when things don’t seem to be moving. Too many lose momentum. They grow bored or disenchanted. And then they quit because they didn’t become the best by the end of the day or by the end of the week or the month or the year. They go through the three stages of being average. They get stuck, they stagnate and then they die … professionally.
When we are able to find our sparks in our life, we can continue to be excited every day. Even if we are taking baby steps, we continue to get closer to accomplishing our goals and in the end, we achieve our dreams.
As a leader it’s the same way. If we can find what lights the fire under the people who we depend on, they will be excited to continue to work for the better of the organization.
I use all the tools that I talked about. I find motivation every day to keep moving Move or Die ahead. Most nights I find it hard to go to sleep because I am too excited about what lies ahead of me the next day.
When you find your sparks, you will always find success!
