Hey everyone, this is Micah Johnson out in Houston, Texas. I work in the finance industry. For the prior seven years I was the Senior Analyst, Head Trader, and Co-Portfolio Manager for the fourth largest team in Merrill Lynch. I left Merrill in August of 2019 to start my own shop, as I was finding opportunities for private transactions where we can we produce a superior performance relative to a lot of other structures. So, I left the firm to launch my own partnership to go after these opportunities.

I wanted to talk to you today about motivation. The way I’ve always thought about motivation is really focused around what I call “the two I’s,” as in the letter ‘I.’

So the first “I” would be “influence.” When I think of motivation, it’s something that is really awakened in you and that you express from the inside, outward. But in order for motivation to be awakened in you, you really need to have influences that are external, and that feed into your daily thinking and your daily approach toward whatever projects or goals you’re working on, no matter what that may be, whether at work or outside of work. And so at the end of the day, to stay motivated, it is your influence, in my opinion, that is most important. Specifically, your external influences. That can include the things you read daily and the things you listen to daily, whether it’s audio books or music. There are certain external influences that are going to contribute positively towards your goals and efforts, and some that will contribute negatively. And that includes the friends and colleagues you surround yourself with. I always use a saying that my mentor taught me in high school, “show me your friends and I’ll show you your future.” Because, at the end of the day, whatever your influences are and whoever your friends are, a lot of times that will help really pave your path towards the future, whether positive or negative. So the first “I” is influence, and your external influences are what really drive the makeup of what you’re probably going to be reciprocating internally daily.

The second “I” is “inspiration,” and everyone gets their inspiration from different sources. For me, some of my greatest inspirations come from two sources. The first one comes from having mentors that I meet with in-person, sometimes even for lunch. Usually it’s going to be business owners, or colleagues in the finance industry who have been in the business for much longer than I have. And so my first area of inspiration is really those mentors and those business owners who I can have those conversations with. And then number two is really a lot of what I read. I’ll gain inspiration from sources that I read, whether it pertains to the industry I’m in, or whether it pertains to leadership. You put the two ‘I’s together: influence and inspiration. If you consistently bring those external sources into your daily activity and feed the right sources in that are positive towards your goal and your motivations, then usually that will result in you being motivated.

Hope this helps. Thanks guys.

I agree with Micah Johnson that motivation can be determined by external factors.  Without good inspiration and influences it can be nearly impossible to complete your personal goals. 

I think its wrong to assume that motivation comes naturally. Just as a person’s health is determined by the quality of the food they consume, a person needs to feed their motivation to keep it thriving. But I also think that this requires a lot of discipline. It can be hard to eliminate bad relationships or distractions that are already tangled in your life. But unfortunately there are only 24 hours in a day and to make room for positive influences you have to eliminate some of  the junk. 

My approach to motivation is to force myself to look at the bigger picture: “how will my actions now determine my future?” I think this is what makes highly motivated people unique. They are able to ignore their present cravings and orient themselves towards the future.