Have you ever met someone that absolutely loves life? They have this energy that is so positive and full. Everyone wants to hang around them. They enjoy their work because it’s what they were created to do. They have beautiful happy families, because they know the quality of time and can separate work life from home life. They have spectacular health, because they know the better they take care of themselves, the more they can give to their work and others.
What is their secret sauce? When one pursues careers and activities because they love them, it’s because they’re intrinsically motivated. The activity or career path brings them joy. Sure they may get paid, but the money behind the career isn’t what motivates them. It’s the challenge of it, the fun factor, and sheer desire to be better at their craft.
When I was in high school, I was a part of an elite music singing and dancing group called “The Music Company.” I grew up in a low income school district (according to percentage on free and reduced lunch). We were in this group because it was the best group in the entire district to be in for musicians. Because I was involved in this group, I was reminded daily by our director Mr. Crouse (We called him Mr. C), to follow your passion and the money will come.
I lost that belief in college and after college for a little bit during the recession around 2008. I wanted to believe what Mr. C. said was true, but I was about $65,000 in debt from private school loans, and only a part time teaching job that paid me about $1,600/mo was available (meanwhile my student loans were about $650/mo), rent was $500, groceries gas and insurance usually made more month left than money. Also, there were no jobs available for part-time work because all companies were trying to stay afloat. It was a very scary time.
I went back to school and got a Masters in Sport and exercise psychology completely paid for by grace & a teaching background. I thought maybe this would open up opportunities for me to get a teaching job and enjoy my work. Only I was laid off of a guaranteed continuing contract I had signed and the district signed before I left for grad school. My RIF (reduction in force) letter was mailed to me the same week I presented my Masters Project.
As Les Brown often says, “There are no guarantees in life.”
The following summer, I applied for over 500 jobs (it felt like) and got zero interviews until the fall. The school district that RIF’d me, hired me back at a demoted FTE so I started with 2 part time jobs. Those didn’t pay enough so I added part-time job #3, then 4 and finally had 5 part-time jobs that school year in 2012-2013. I still was below poverty level and had 20% medical coverage since 2 of the jobs were teaching related. My student loans did not qualify as being covered under financial assistance and I found out after humbly applying for food stamps at making just under $1,600/mo working 5 part-time jobs, they said I made too much money too get food assistance. Talk about embarrassing gut punch when you’re down. Something within me said, “Erin there has got to be more to life than this situation.”
The following year I was invited to work with the United States Air Force and Army in a Pilot wellness program because I was a group certified fitness instructor through the American College of Sports Medicine. I didn’t apply for this position but I was definitely praying for it. This job paid me more than I had ever been paid in my adult career. Funny thing was, we were research assistants and they said you’re not ’employed’ by the government, but you’ll receive a monthly stipend.
This experience taught me that my schooling and my work ethic are what open up opportunities for me. It was a 1-year experience but during that year I got to learn how to do so much wellness baseline testing, coaching, group teaching, and see that adults were paying attention to my advice. I really enjoyed it because I care about helping people be healthy and be able to pursue things they love doing. I knew I wanted to be able to do something like this experience as my full career but I wasn’t exactly sure how.
So I went to work on me. I know it sounds silly, but being able to pursue your own happiness is a lot like selling. You have to believe in yourself so strongly and what you want that no matter what the world tells you, you keep after it. I knew I was created to lift other people up and bring people together. Those two things are my super power. I also am an incredible singer. I trained for many years because it was fun, but really it is something that comes naturally to me with minimal effort. I knew I wanted to combine these two gifts: bringing people together + lifting others up, and use my musical ability.
The Move Happy® Tour Begins soon. We’re keeping it local in the USA first. This event will be a 1-2 day experience where people will come and be completely transformed if they’re open to it. There will be speakers telling their stories to inspire, educate and move you to take action towards your dreams. There will be top level musicians that share their gifts with you to inspire you to pursue yours. There will be an opportunity to meet and greet these people, get autographs, sign up for 1:1 coaching from them and group trainings. Best of all, everyone that you’ll be hearing from at this event will be speaking their truth from their passions. They love what they do and they’re going to help you get to that point and leave changed and transformed.
The kinds of people I attract to my content are those that deal with depression, or know someone that does. There is nothing more challenging than living life not following your dreams. It can bring you to a deep and sad depression. The good news is, you’re not dead yet! You’re not a tree, you can change your life!
This blog is a brief Cliffs notes version of the strategies behind doing what you’re passionate about through intrinsic motivation. This by no means completely covers everything you need to know about intrinsic motivation. However, you’ll learn enough and be introduced to more research to be able to dive deeper if you so choose.
If you love what you read, I’d be honored if you’d share this with someone you truly care about.
Essential Truth #1: Know The Difference Between Extrinsic Vs Intrinsic Motivators⠀
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Intrinsic = something you do because you 💕it, its fun, its challenging
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Extrinsic = something you do because of some external force (like a 🏆, t-shirt 👕 , 💰 or comliments)⠀
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All of my content is geared towards getting you motivated intrinsically to want to move more, have a more positive mindset, and build community⠀
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It takes time to develop, or rewire your brain if you had a negative experience (maybe you got cut from the team)⠀
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With fitness, anyone can do it. I NEVER force anyone to do anything in my groups beyond what’s comfortable for them. It serves the long term picture of your lifetime fitness path.⠀
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Comment below on your favorite physical activity, sport, or dance and let’s get this conversation started 🙌 ⠀
Essential Truth #2: Know how to increase intrinsic motivation through a variety of ways
Which Way Is Your Favorite Way To Increase ⬆️ Your Intrinsic Motivation? Comment below ⬇️ ⠀
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Check out this article on 25 ways to increase your intrinsic motivation.⠀I especially love #2 and the opportunity to work on whatever you want at this Australian company for 24 hours and come back and report on it. Some of the greatest inventions and ideas were birthed upon the freedom of choice in the workplace.
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Comment below on your favorite # from the article above⠀
Essential Truth #3: Rethinking Rewards: Only for Simple Tasks
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For simple tasks, a reward is really effective⠀
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For complicated, out-of-the-box tasks, a reward can actually decrease performance, & increase errors⠀
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Think first if this task is simple or if it’s a complicated and from there offer a reward based on the interest of the person performing it (i.e. ask them if they want money, recognition, etc).
Gary Vaynerchuck said something really smart related to this topic on his podcast this last week. He was speaking to CEOs and said it’s really easy to adjust employee behavior. Adjust the way they get bonuses and they’ll change their behavior stat! For example, if you are really wanting your employees to sell more products to a certain age group, bonus them when they sell to that age group. ⠀
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Would love your thoughts, comments below!⠀
Essential Truth #4: Let’s Make Mastery Experiences Cool 😎 ⠀
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A Mastery Experience is when you’re learning a new skill and you have a positive experience during the learning process (mostly the first time experiencing a new skill).
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When someone is learning something new (no matter what age), they need lots of positive reinforcement, encouragement and whatnot. Like “way to go” “attaboy”⠀
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If someone is an expert in something, all they have is like 1% of room for improvement. They actually don’t need as much positive reinforcement but more so challenging comments to get them up over that plateau. Ask that individual specifically how they like their feedback as they’ll be the best resource.⠀
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Someone that’s brand new to the skill has a HUGE amount of improvement and opportunity for growth – and thus they need a LOT more encouragement because they SUCK for the most part 😂 . You want them to come back again and again and get better (like a new employee for example). ⠀
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My first time singing at home my mom said, “you’re flat” – she didn’t mean to hurt my feelings. She was invited to grad school at Carnegie Melon 100% paid for, sang the National Anthem at the LA Dodgers game in the 70s, and tons of shows, weddings, and funerals (I was like 8 years old- a little young for that tough of a comment). Her personal expectation of musical excellence rubbed off on me and I didn’t like it 😆.
Being able to take constructive feedback well is a skill. In my pedagogy training we learned the optimal way to send feedback and for it to be received and then behavior changed is through the feedback sandwich. The way this is done is by saying something positive you liked (be real), followed by the constructive comment, and end it with another positive compliment). It only will work if you’re authentic. People can smell BS a mile away.
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What would have worked better when my mom critiqued my ‘flatness’ is, “Erin I LOVE that you’re singing 🎤 like mama, if you take a deeper breath, it’ll sound more powerful like Mariah your favorite singer. Come on let’s try together. I’m so proud of you for trying.”⠀
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Comment below on a new skill you’re learning this week!⠀
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Essential Truth #5: Use Your Resources When Facilitating Groups
I’m so honored and proud to share The Move Happy Facilitator Program© that I designed specifically to move my patients towards their own happiness through intrinsic motivation with you.⠀
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They encouraged me multiple times to share it with other hospitals, other mental health facilitators, and other fitness instructors⠀
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It includes:⠀
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✅ Questionnaires to measure happiness and fitness⠀
✅ Participant Journal I designed with daily questions related to the weekly topics on happiness content⠀
✅ Curriculum to help you run the program smoothly⠀
✅ Over 60+ workout demo videos (with minimal equipment) I designed to help you facilitate a safe and effective program whether you have a background in fitness or not. ACSM Format⠀
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It’s 16 weeks, 4 days a week for 45-60mins depending on how long you want the workouts to last⠀
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Share with a friend who might be interested ♥️ ⠀
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To Order The MHFP Go Here.
First ✌️ that order this month get entered into a drawing for free access to my VIP Course that dives deeper and provides you an opportunity to become a certified Move Happy® Coach and earn Continuing Education Credits (CECs) (Normally a $4,997 value). ⠀
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Move Happy® Updates & Announcements
The Move Happy Podcast is in full swing! I’m excited to have two BIG names taking part in the next couple weeks. One is the CEO of Live Happy® and who also is the president of a multi-billion dollar wellness/skin care company that completely transformed my outlook on life. She is also a mom and I’m so excited to share her tips with you guys soon! Make sure to check out her book on Amazon and Audible all about Happiness. I have a signed copy from a few years ago when she first released it. I read it to my patients in my Move Happy program and they LOVED IT!
The other guest is a high-level social media coach who’s worked with Bill Gates, Google, and only takes on 3 clients a year. He is the nicest guy! You’ll love his strategies for social media growth and make sure to follow him on all social media channels: Ash Sobhe. He’s got an excellent Tedx Talk where he speaks on a very debilitating condition that has opened up his eyes to really living life fully.
The Move Happy® Annual World 🌎 Tour Begins soon. I’m SO excited about this. I have been planning this in my mind and dream boards for the last 3 years. This is a combination of everything that I am passionate about and everything I was created to do: bring people together + bringing out their greatness, and sharing my musical 🎼 gifts and other musical connections with you. I am working out the details of raising the funds to have it in a downtown Nashville location. I’ve got the musicians and the speakers. All we need is the 💰 😂.
If you know anyone that would like to donate to this cause, I will not be keeping any money for myself but donating funds to keep it an on going annual tour and visit different countries, have different musicians/speakers each year and empower people to move towards their own happiness through mindset, community, and fitness strategies. I envision people’s lives transformed by attending this event and taking action to move them towards their own happiness. To donate send any amount of money here. Email me your information and amount donated for a shoutout at the event (or in writing for all attendees to take home with them, it’ll also help me keep things organized for my future accountant 🤣).
So there you have it folks. Intrinsic motivation is a big key to the pursuit of happiness. When you are doing something because you love it and are challenged by it, you’ll continue to want to do it. If it’s something fun you enjoy, that also helps. If you are going day in and day out to a job that you absolutely hate but it pays you well, you’re slowly killing yourself.
Take it from me. My father worked his ass off to provide for us in a sales career. He didn’t really like the job but he was able to come home every day. Yet he worked in the middle of the night 12-14 hour days and was isolated from the world. He had Wednesdays and Sundays off for 19 years and was always so exhausted he didn’t have any time to do fun stuff with us because he had to recharge his body. Prior to this job he was gone from our family 5-6 days a week for another 17 or 18 years. This was an upgrade.
Dad used to work with Jim Rohn in the 70s and when he did, he had so much more belief in following his dreams. Jim Rohn taught Tony Robbins everything he knew about goal setting and creating a dream life. At the time dad worked with Jim he also was a high level manager in California and had just met my mom. Something happened over the years and he stopped believing in the pursuit of happiness. Maybe it was when I arrived (baby #3) and life and expenses got too tough to bear. I’m not sure, all I know is that dad would have definitely lived longer and enjoyed his life so much more had he been spending every day doing what he loved, instead of what he felt he had to do for our sake.
Your kids are paying attention. They don’t want you to pay for everything. Even if they tell you they want your money. They want you happy, so you have energy to teach them life stuff, and live a long and healthy life so when they decide to have families you’ll be able to keep your legacy alive by teaching them from your wisdom. I don’t get that luxury since dad passed 3 years ago. Take heed of my advice. Do what you love and the money will come.
Thank you Mr. C. for instilling this in me 💜
PS: Don’t forget to tell someone you love them today
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