Start me up. Motivate yourself.
How do you motivate yourself?
👀 This is for anyone wanting some inspiration / motivation to get on and do, particularly at this time of the year. My inspiration for this is Stephen Fry. There’s a link to his most excellent article within. Thanks Stephen, you’re a legend.
✅ Change is Constant is all about helping people with personal development and/or change for their organisation. It is:
🔝 Insight, opinion & tips from c40 years of practical know-how from Change to Transformation applied to challenges of today’s working world.
I’m Mark, I hope you like it, maybe you’ll find something that resonates?
What’s this one about? / Who’s it for?
👀 This short opening post of the year is for anyone who wants some inspiration or motivation to get on and do the stuff they want to do. The credit for this should go entirely to
. Yes, that Stephen Fry, absolute legend, seemingly thoroughly nice bloke and author of several books and here on Substack.
created by a human using craiyon.com 1
Words words words.
As I was sitting here in the new year intending to start my first post of 2025, continuing to write Change is Constant content to help people change themselves and/or their organisations, I came across Stephen’s article from several months back.
Stephen’s article is called “words words words”. You should be able to find it here. https://substack.com/home/post/p-143459842
His whole post was great but there were 3 things that stood out to me that seemed to apply to the personal development / change themes I focus on here in Change is Constant.
So much so that I have changed what I was going to write about in my opening post for 2025.
My first steps into Substack in the last quarter of 2024 were to just write some early entry level type posts to let people know I was here and what I was thinking about doing.
I wanted to become more familiar with Substack, start to get my act together, learn about writing on here and test out some initial content and ideas. Which I’ve done.
I imported a contact list. Whilst I haven’t gained that many new subscribers, in the round I haven’t lost many either. That counts as success for me.
My loose plan was to get a few things done, work out how I might be able to do Change is Constant, having recently had a big life change myself and see if could find a rhythm.
And then for 2025 I’d move onto putting some higher value learning tips content together and perhaps open up a paid for channel. At that point I was undecided whether I should write another book perhaps by serialising it on here, or for example whether I should produce content that would lend itself to a paid for learning course / webinar etc.
I remain undecided, and in part some of the things Stephen discusses are my reasons for this.
What were the three things that stood out to me from Stephen’s note?
Three things that... start me up.
Writing (also) happens in the unconscious.
Read Stephen’s article. I think he essentially says it’s not just sitting down at a desk and typing that equates to writing, it’s all the unconscious stuff going around one’s head all the time that counts too.
And that I like that thought. It resonates.
Perhaps it’s because I spend a lot of time pondering stuff, running ideas around my head 😂. More seriously though I find, for example, that “sleeping on it” often helps me in the following days to get what I am doing right and, in the round, then getting it right actually takes less time overall.
🗝️ 👉 Because more likely, you start in the right place, know what you need to do better, and are aiming for the right outcomes.
🗝️ 👉 Honestly, few things in life are that urgent that wouldn’t benefit from a little more thinking time.
That said, please see point 2, because:
👉 Procrastination can be the thief of time.
It’s worth saying that I do quickly make some thought notes to guide me back to me thoughts as and when I return to them.
My thought also motivates me.
If I haven’t actually written a blog, note, book yet this year… or even started 😜 so what! I’m still doing things. They just aren’t publishable yet.
We’re (also) working when we’re not working.
Writing, can solve a writing problem.
Read Stephen’s article. I think he essentially says putting things down on paper, to describe the problems being dealt with, works to solve the problems.
Those that don’t write things down… are just kidding themselves.
How often have you heard:
“It’s all up here (in my head)”. Yup loads right? Or:
How often have you also heard:
“I’ve got way too much on right now”? “I can’t get my head around it”.
and furthermore...
“The pace of change doesn’t stop; it just gets quicker and quicker”?
We live busy lives in a busy world, don’t we?
Perhaps back in the day, when things were seemingly simpler, with less going on, less change, and frankly when writing implements were less available or when people could not write at all, maybe things were kept in one’s head, passed down from generation to generation.
But even then, things were still written down. Let’s face it, the Magna Carta is 1000 odd years old. And for that matter, how old are the cave paintings?
🗝️ 👉 Documenting something not only helps to get clarity on the issues, but it also helps you think about things you haven’t done / could do to solve them.
🗝️ 👉 You don’t need to write an essay, just a few bullet points can work. Keep it simple.
Know the plot.
What is a plot? Well in my language, a plot is also a plan.
Going back to point 1, I’ve been going around in my head for a few months formulating a plan of what content I’m going to write about.
I’ve made some notes. I have half an idea of where the source content is that I intend to use. I’ve even diarised days to focus on doing Change is constant.
But as yet... I don’t really have a plan, that I can work.
🗝️ 👉 Plan your work, work your plan.
That is a key message / top tip. Note to self!
Reflective thoughts.
And there we are.
Spending time thinking, is doing.
I once gave a seminar where I told the audience that (for leaders / managers etc) good practice was to spend 80% of your time doing and 20% of your time thinking.
A member of my team who attended to give me support, came up to me afterwards and said:
“I didn’t know I was allowed to think” 😂.
Well, you are!
Writing things down helps.
You’ve heard the phrase that a problem shared is a problem halved? Well, if you write it down for yourself, maybe you’re in effect also sharing the problem? (Even if it’s with yourself).
Try it, it works. It works even better when you then tick something you’ve written down as complete.
Piss poor planning makes for piss poor performance.
I’m not sure I need to say anymore than that.
So, my plan basically is that I need to do a combination of the 3 things above.
Order my thinking. Write my plan down. Shape out the chapters, the themes, the tales I want to tell. Let it simmer for a bit, not too long and:
🗝️ 👉 Just do it.
But doing it, can take many forms, so don’t beat yourself up unnecessarily. For me, if my unconscious is still churning stuff around. That’s ok too. That motivates me.
It’s also Ok because I’m not here to make a living out of Substack.
I am here because:
✅ I want to give something back.
✅ I want to keep my little grey brain cells ticking over.
🤔 If, I can also earn something... happy days.
What’s on the cards for next time?
Well I was going to write about a New year, new plan? I guess in part I have. But I think there will be more to it than that. We’ll see.
For now, Happy new year. Hopefully a safe and enjoyable one 🤞.
What was in the last post?
You can find it here:
The spirit of the (Xmas) radio
What other notes are there?
This is a link to my notes. You’re welcome to follow me / watch this space too.
https://changeisconstant.substack.com/notes
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If you like Change is Constant subscribing to the free (&paid for, if/ when that arrives) stuff, and sharing with people who you think might like this too - would be great!
#change #mindset #motivation #positivevibes
And of course the musical link this time in the title is - The Rolling Stones, Start me up.