How to motivate yourself by connecting to happiness and meaning.
Reading author Marshall Goldsmith's book MOJO: How to Get It, How to Keep It, and How to Get It Back if You Lose It, I realized my mojo had vanished. Last night, the zombie reanimation powder canister was almost empty, so I went to the kitchen to whip up a batch. While adding the monkey fur soaked in kerosene, I was suddenly struck by an overwhelming sense of futility. Why bother dominating the world, anyway? Can you imagine? You sit around all day and saying, "I'm king of the world!" B-O-R-I-N-G. When you discover you're going through the motions, maybe you've lost your Mojo.
What Is Mojo?
Mojo is the combination of happiness and meaning that excites and motivates you. Marshall suggests using a daily mojo log to find out where your mojo has gone. When you're done with an activity, jot down on your log how happy it made you, and how meaningful you found it. By the end of the day, you'll have a good idea of where you have high and low mojo.
How to Use a Mojo Log
Bernice created a mojo log. Not surprisingly, filling out expense reports had low mojo. The task was not meaningful, nor did it make her happy. But her log brought some surprises: her Goddess rituals were meaningful, but didn't make her happy, as they conflicted with her Sex and the City reruns. Eating ice cream Bon Bons made her happy, but didn't seem meaningful. Offering me useful advice on how to do my job? She rated that as both happy and meaningful. Sigh. Great.
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About the Author
Stever Robbins was the host of the podcast Get-it-Done Guy from 2007 to 2019. He is a graduate of W. Edward Deming’s Total Quality Management training program and a Certified Master Trainer Elite of NLP. He holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School and a BS in Computer Sciences from MIT.
