---
title: "An Illusion Within being Motivated"
description: "For anyone waiting on a burst of motivation before they begin."
author: "Rahim Rasul"
type: "Podcast episode"
series: "Halftime Talks"
episode: 185
published: "2019-10-01"
duration: "15 min"
theme: "Work and mentors"
tags: "motivation, inspiration, self-reliance, teaching"
audio: "https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/rahimrasul/HTT185_NoThankToMotivation.mp3?dest-id=175061"
url: "https://iloveprocess.com/halftime/an-illusion-within-being-motivated/"
site: "I Love Process"
---

# An Illusion Within being Motivated

_For anyone waiting on a burst of motivation before they begin._

**The question:** Is there still a delta between where you are and who you want to be?

Listen: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/rahimrasul/HTT185_NoThankToMotivation.mp3?dest-id=175061

## Before you listen

Over the last 20 years we've come to think there is something valuable and redeeming in motivation. Motivation gives a temporary burst, and the recipient has to keep coming back to the external source. It's the age old idea of give a man a fish or teach him to fish.

Tony Robbins pushed back on being labeled a motivational speaker, and when people told me I'd make a good one, it always felt a little funny. Motivation works like a Coca Cola: a spike in energy that falls off soon. Somebody can blow air into your balloon, but it seeps out, and when you're empty again you take it as a personal flaw. Inspiration has to be discovered within, and a true teacher helps bring out what is already there.

Listen for the answer near the end, when I'm asked whether I want to be a motivator, and for how I define inspiration with a Mario Mushroom: you hit it and you're yourself, but better.

## From the talk

> Thinking that you are looking for motivation is like drinking a Coca Cola for sustainable energy.
>
> Within you, just like within your DNA is the instruction manual for all that which you can possibly become.
>
> When I'm asked, Do you want to be a motivator? I shake my head. I want to be an activator.

## Sit with this

- How far do you still have to go?
- When it is just you and the act of creation itself standing in front of you, can you rise to the challenge?

## Transcript

Welcome everybody to another episode of Halftime Talks. My name is Rahim Rasul, and you're listening to the podcast. We recognize that in the middle of your game of life, whether you're up by 10 or down by 20, we all need halftime talks to uplift us, inspire us and challenge us to bring that level of performance you and I know it's gonna take to win the game.

So we're here with a groove, slightly transformed, ready to break into another episode of halftime talks. And if you know how we begin, I'd like to add that we begin with appreciation. So today, I'd like to appreciate that which comes with cultivating your creativity. So I appreciate all the people who stood there at the beginning giving me encouragement, letting me know that, hey, you're pretty good at this, despite how how talented I was in that moment, they saw a seed and watered it and nurtured it and fostered it and reinforced its ability to see themselves as an artist. So all the people teach your family friends who said, man, you're good at that, stick to it. I stuck to it. I'm an artist today. I love being an artist today. And sometimes I question, would I still have been an artist if it weren't for them? I appreciate you guys.

You're back. I know you come back. I'd like to thank you guys for coming back, and if you haven't been here before, I want to appreciate you for finding your way here. That's super dope. So in today's episode, this is an episode I've been toiling with for a while, because a I don't want to come across as Mr. Super cynical. So to give you the title of this episode, which obviously, if you've seen the show notes or what you just downloaded, you'll know it's called motivational speaker. No thank you. In this episode, I just want to give you a little preface, per se, we play with the idea, what is it to be motivated and what is it to be inspired?

What is it to go and either compel somebody toward action, or ignite that inner light which allows the best of us to really rise to the surface and hopefully connect some dots, hopefully that it offers some perspective, so that the essence of The work that this is another work that I do can really be seen in this true light. Ultimately, I want everybody to win. How we go about winning, though separates everybody on the stage. So without further ado, let's just get into this episode.

Well, my journey toward this moment right now has taking has taken an interesting path after college, I I realized that it was more than just hard educated skills that were going to be the factors that separated me from everybody else. So I found a very cool teacher, I found Napoleon Hill, I found Dennis Kimbrough. I read thank and Grow Rich. And then Dennis kimbroughs Thank and grow richer black choice. A few years after that, I subscribed to Nightingale con, its weekly program, where I then found more audio books, and then found Tony Robbins, and these were all people giving me an alternative education, an education at where it was opening my mind to the possibilities that existed within my blonde spots that were there, but yet, I was not doing my part in accessing what stood around me.

Flash forward, until recently, I remember watching an interview with Tony Robbins, and he was very ardent. He was very passionate about how people have mislabeled him as a motivational speaker. I think even at one point I did. And so. So the way that he pushed back made me take a step back and ask myself, like, what do you really want? And recently, I had people who who've come on to me and said, Yo, Rahim, you would make a really good motivational speaker. And so deep within that that has always felt a little funny. Now, I'm not one of these people who are anti woo, woo stuff.

You always hear that or I meditate, but it's kind of woo, woo. I'm not that guy. I'm a I'm an everyday let's figure out if it works, and incorporate what does and leave what doesn't. I've also learned that people are quick to label you if you don't define yourself, and in the absence of a story, people will tend to make up one, because least effort wins all the time. Now to get back to the premise, why? No thank you toward motivational speaker, let's look at the challenges with motivation. Thinking that you are looking for motivation is like drinking a Coca Cola for sustainable energy. Yes, I do agree, you do get a spike in energy, but it falls off soon.

The kind of sustaining energy that you want is the kind of energy that you can continue to tap the well that you can generate yourself. The second challenge is, is that there is a risk of dependency. And when I say that is, somebody can blow air into your balloon, but ultimately it starts to seep out, and as soon as you get back to zero, you're going to go back to that same Well, like I can't keep this up. I need your help. I was on fire. I was alive with your motivation. The third piece is, as we find ourselves a little empty again, we will self condemn and think that this was not a feature, but a personal flaw from ourself.

I think motivation is a different stages in your process. I think it's essential. I think you can get inspired. I think motivation can lead you to a place where you see yourself in a different light, where you're able to perform beyond the standards and expectations that you have for yourself previously. So the delta between what motivation created and what you typically create was vast enough that you might have attributed motivation as a pure essential thing to add to your process. It's not I remember watching a Gary Vaynerchuk interview and he says, My ultimate wish is that you don't watch me. You know, I don't. And ultimately, motivation is somebody motivating you.

I know that's redundant and self redundant, but think about it. What is your bank account balance right now, how far do you still have to go? Are you in shape? Are you where you want to be? Is there still a delta between where you are and who you want to be? I would contend to you that these factors alone are motivation enough, and so to stand on the stage and to hype up and to bloom up energy within you doesn't do anything but stir you up. Some of my favorite teachers, including the ones I referenced earlier, including the ones that I found at Nightingale Kona, including some of my spiritual teachers, including some of the authors of the books that I read, some of my favorite people, like Jido, Christian murti, or others like him and Even myself.

It is all about giving you the tools that you can connect the dots, giving you the ability to turn on your light, drawing a set a path, a map toward inspiration to breathe in the spirit inspira means to. Breathe in the Spirit, so that you go beyond how you typically relate with the world. And it's like that Mario Mushroom. You hit it and you just you're yourself, but you're better. And so that's how I define inspiration. And at the same time, I'm not essential to the equation. Now, there are things that can inspire you and there's moments that can motivate you, but the more sustaining ingredient in cultivating the best part of who you are, I would contend, comes with inspiration.

And inspiration, like I said, is not something that anybody can give. It's something that you have to discover within yourself and turn on to enable to activate. It comes from your experiences, your memories, your abilities. It comes from the way that you see the world. And now you may have a guide. You may have somebody that can offer perspective and connect the dots in a way that makes sense, that totally renders some really silly beliefs obsolete, and that is the ultimate advantage of a true teacher, a true educator, educie, Latin term means to bring out that which is within and there's some really cool basis of that thought It It allows you to understand that that which you seek resides within.

It's nothing that I have to pour in or another has to pour in to allow you to see yourself as whole. There's nothing more to accomplish. You are the worthy recipient with all the life experience that you've lived. You are beloved, you are seen, and within you, just like within your DNA is the instruction manual for all that which you can possibly become. And so how do we activate that. How do we build that? How do we get us into that space, that beautiful space where we acknowledge, accept, and step into an engaged experience which allows us to Dawn more of who we really are in the moment.

So when I'm asked, Do you want to be a motivator? I shake my head. I want to be an activator. I want to be an influencer. I want to be a teacher, an educator that allows you to see yourself in your true life and go forward and find ways to flourish. Because when the party's gone, when the crowd is gone, when it is just you and the act of creation itself standing in front of you, can you rise to the challenge? My name is Rahim Russell, this has been another episode of halftime talks. Make sure you go to iTunes, subscribe, rate and review, share with a friend.

The more who know, the more we grow. I appreciate everybody who's been along the journey so far, man, if you think about it, since January 14, it's crazy. Now we're several years in almost 200 episodes in and I appreciate and I want to thank you guys for following us in this journey towards connecting more dots that empower, enable and engage the best of who we are In the world for who we can be. Peace. You