Josh's Weekly Insights - Nov. 19, 2025

“Pursue what catches your heart, not what catches your eyes.”

-Roy T. Bennett

My class this week had a conversation about motivation. The question came up, “What can I do to motivate someone to invest in themselves if they don’t seem to be self-motivated?” My answer was very simple. I don’t think you currently know what motivates them.

A mistake many leaders make is assuming that because something is motivating to them that it will be motivating to their team member(s). However, everyone has different motivations and reasons we pursue things. If we don’t see the value in something, we won’t pursue it. And other times, even if we see the value in something, we won’t pursue it because we don’t like the amount of work it will take to accomplish it. 

You see, your brain is always performing a calculation of risk and effort versus reward. If the risk and effort outweigh the reward, you will decide to quit. This is why New Year’s resolutions are so dangerous. People want the reward, but once it starts to get challenging, they give up because the reward no longer seems worth it. Then we give up even though we know the goal we set was something we should be working to achieve.

So,

if you are a leader and you want to help motivate your team, think about these factors:

1) What are the goals of my team members? (or to put it another way, what motivates them?)

2) If I know the goals they want to achieve, how can I be there to encourage them to keep going when things get difficult?

3) Celebrate their wins along the way so they can see their progress.

4) Keep pushing them not to quit when they reach their wall

If you aren’t a leader, do those things for yourself. Know your goals, push yourself not to quit, celebrate little milestones, and remember that the goal is worth the work even when it gets hard.

Now get out there and crush your week!