Writing this from seat 6L on a flight from Newark to Tokyo, to connect to Vietnam, where I’ll be giving a speech on the customer economy before heading home a few days later.
Anyhow – I know three of the flight attendants working this flight today. (When you travel to Asia a lot, UA78/79 becomes your regular commuter bus – You connect in Tokyo to go anywhere else in Asia.) One of them asked about my daughter, and like the good dad I am, I brought out my phone to show my latest photos.
“Peter, she’s so beautiful,” the flight attendant commented. Then, she followed up with, “um, why do you have a photo of a shirtless Matt Bomer as your phone wallpaper?”
The answer to that is quite simple. Shirtless Matt Bomer keeps me on track.
Let me explain.
I use my phone for virtually everything. Whether I’m ordering a pizza, or paying for a sandwich, whether I’m texting my trainer to cancel an appointment because I want to sleep in, or going to my Peloton app to cancel a class I booked for tomorrow morning, my phone is connected to almost everything I do – and as such, everything I can undo.
So when I don’t want to work out in the morning, or want to eat bad food on a whim, I turn to my phone to make that happen, and I’m greeted by a photo of Matt Bomer and his ridiculous abs – And it gets me thinking. It gets me to “play the tape forward,” and think about how I’ll feel if I order and eat that whole pizza. Or if I don’t work out. Or if I do that detrimental thing that I’m this close to doing at that moment. Then it reminds me how I’ll feel after I make the right choice.
I remember that I’m making the decisions I make because of what I want. I want Matt Bomer’s abs. I want to be thin, muscular, and chiseled. And while I know a lot of that is genetic, (and some Photoshop as well,) what’s NOT genetic are the decisions I choose to make every single day. I look at Matt, and remember what my long-term goal is.
Does it always work? Nope. But it works more than 85% of the time. And that’s 85% of the time that I got the workout in, or ate an apple as opposed to a pizza, or didn’t sleep in and ruin my day. And that, my friends, is motivation.
What’s your motivation, no matter how crazy it might seem to others? Hit reply and tell me.
To good decisions,
-Peter
PS: If anyone in my world knows Matt Bomer, I’d really like to take him to lunch and shake his hand. He’s partially responsible for me dropping close to 40 pounds, and making a TON of good decisions in the past few years.
PPS: Once more: ShankMinds: Vegas – One day of Amazing keynotes, pro headshot photographers, an amazing after party, and 100 other entrepreneurs who will become friends and allies for life. JOIN US!
Agreed Peter. I use similar motivations.