Hey, guys. Welcome to the podcast. Today is a very special solo episode where I'm gonna talk to you about motivation and how motivation means nothing. Obviously, there's a little more to that equation. Thank you for joining me. This is gonna be a very quick episode, but something that I've been dying to talk to you guys about. So I thank you for listening. I know you're gonna enjoy it and get a lot out of it. Don't forget to follow me on LinkedIn. Check us out on YouTube.
And also check us out on MSL talk live, which is typically the 1st Tuesday of every month at 1:30 PM EST. It does vary, so check times on LinkedIn. We announce everything, and, actually, we record that on LinkedIn as well. So thanks for joining me, and I look forward to seeing you guys again soon. Welcome to MSL talk with Tom Caravella, a podcast specifically designed for MSLs and all things field medical. Okay, guys. Thank you for joining me on this very special solo episode.
I am super fired up and excited to share this information with you. It's actually something that I've been planning for a while, and I've been meaning to share this with you. And and I'm I'm taking the opportunity right now to do so. And I want you to to be ready to take notes on this. Share it with your family. Share it with your friends. Share it with your kids.
Because I really think that the information I'm about to share with you is going to have a tremendous effect on your life and your ability to achieve your goals. You know, like the title says, motivation means nothing. And that's because there's something that comes after that. I know you guys probably think I put out this, like, click baity thing to make everybody listen to it and pay attention and everything else. And maybe I did. And maybe I didn't. But here's the point.
You guys know me, and you know that I'm really big on motivation. You know that I'm big on inspiration. And I like to support others and serve others and get people fired up to achieve their goals. But here's the thing. At the end of the day, I truly believe that motivation is a term that's totally overused. Because by itself, motivation and inspiration and even intention are not going to help you achieve your goals.
The fact of the matter is, and here's where I want you to take a note, not if you're driving or not if you're obviously doing something else, you're working out. Maybe listen to this later on, when you're ready to sit down and take some notes. But motivation means nothing without discipline. Motivation means nothing without discipline. So what is discipline? Discipline is the ability to consistently force yourself to do the things every single day that are required to achieve your goals.
So discipline means your habits, your daily routines, your daily disciplines, what you fill your calendar with, and what actions you take every single day that will move you closer to achieving your goals. That's discipline. That's what I mean by discipline. So you could be the most motivated person in the world. You can read all the books that are out there on this. You can go to seminars. You can watch videos on YouTube, listen to podcasts.
You can have the best intentions to be the most inspired person in the world. If you never take action, nothing's gonna happen for you. Nothing's gonna change. You're not gonna make any progress. You're not gonna achieve your goals. Things aren't just gonna happen for you. And I know I know that we all want the best for ourselves. We all are working at trying to get better. But I think this is the missing piece that a lot of people don't take seriously enough.
They put way too much emphasis and effort on consuming information, finding motivation, finding inspiration, but then they never take action. So the question that I have for you is how disciplined are you? How consistent are you? Are you going through the motions every day and just getting by day after day, kinda settling for mediocrity and just doing whatever it is to fill your calendar and get through each day thinking that because I'm busy, I'm making things happen.
Or are you digging deep every day and doing the hard stuff? Are you coming out of your comfort zone? Are you doing things that are going to get you closer to your goals? So let me help you with a 4 step process. I'm just gonna make this 4 steps so that it's easy to help you follow along and create a plan to put some action into place. But here's where it starts. So number 1, the first thing I want you to do is you have to get in touch with your vision for yourself, for your life.
What do you want for yourself? What are your goals? What do you want to see happen? So I'll give you an example. Let's just start very simple. Let's just say you have a goal to lose weight. Let's say you wanna lose £5. Let's say it's £15. Let's say it's £30. Whatever it is, set a vision in your head. Get it down in writing. Put it down on paper. It's very, very important to put things down in writing because when you write it down, you're basically making a promise to yourself.
There's something very powerful about the written word. Let's think about this, guys. The first thing that happens when we're real little kid and we go to school, the first thing that happens is we get there and they give us a pencil, and they give us peep pay piece of paper, and they make us spell out the a b c's. It's the very first thing we do. And then we get to learn how to write our name. And then from there, everything else follows.
So basically, we are taught to learn by the written word. So write this stuff down. So first thing you wanna do is write down a goal for yourself. And here's what it should look like. Maybe your goal is, and use I am statements. I am going to lose £15 by May 15th for my cousin's wedding. Maybe attach it to an event. But make it something that's very real. Something that's going to to keep you excited about that. And that's gonna be you know, a lot of times you hear about what's your why.
That's gonna be your why. That's your vision. That's your why. Maybe maybe it's something career oriented. Maybe you're looking to get a new job. Maybe you're looking to get a promotion. Maybe you wanna break into the pharmaceutical industry in your first position as a medical science liaison. Maybe that's your goal. Well, establish an I am statement. I am going to land my first position as a medical science liaison before 2024, by the end of this year.
I am going to get that promotion by December of 2023. Set that in motion in your mind and start working towards it. So that's step number 1. Step number 2 is you have to develop a plan. You have to have a plan to do this. And your plan is what your habits are gonna be. That's what your daily disciplines are gonna be. And those are the action items that are gonna get you closer to your goal every single day. So this is a very, very important piece of the equation.
So let's give go back to the losing weight thing. What are you going to do and incorporate? What habits, what actions, what disciplines and routines are you gonna incorporate into your schedule every single day to help you lose that weight? I'm going to go on x y z diet. I'm going to count macros. I'm going to work out a certain number of days. Maybe I'm gonna work out 4 days a week. I'm gonna walk on weekends. I'm going to drink a certain amount of water every single day.
You know, I'm gonna start getting up earlier so that I have more time in the day to work out. So these that's what I'm talking about when I say habits. So you have to figure out what are the actions that you're gonna do that are gonna serve that goal. And you have to put it in your calendar so that you keep yourself on track. And those are the disciplines that are gonna get you there. Now let's just say we're talking about a job search.
Well, define all the things that you're gonna do for that job search. We're gonna spend 30 minutes every morning doing maybe you're gonna research companies for job opportunities that are out there. You're going to put together a very organized spreadsheet of those opportunities so that you know where they are and you can follow-up on those. You're going to apply to different positions on a regular basis.
Maybe not every day, but, again, if you take 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes at night and you do these different things, collectively, you're gonna build up this body of work during each week that are going to help you find success in your job search. You're gonna send out a number certain number of LinkedIn connection requests for networking purposes every day. Maybe it's 10 a day. And then at the end of the week, you wanna go to 50 to 70. So this has an exponential effect.
It has a compound effect. So you wanna do that. So whether you're losing weight, whether you're looking for a new job, whether you're trying to get a promotion, what action items are you gonna set in place every single day to help you get to your goal? Now the third thing, which is really, really super important, is you have to execute. You have to be consistent. You can't just put this in motion. You have a vision. You set a goal. You have a plan.
And then you just get to it every once in a while because it's gonna fail. It'll fail miserably. You can't just do this every other day. You can't do this every other week. You have to be super, super disciplined. You have to be consistent. Consistency is the key to this success. And then the last thing is number 4. You have to believe. You have to believe that this is going to happen for you. You have to believe that you are going to attain your goal.
If you don't believe in your heart, and if you can't visualize you getting to your goal, celebrating your goal, then you are probably not gonna go after this with the type of energy, excitement and enthusiasm that you should. So one of the most important pieces to this equation is you absolutely need to visualize and believe and expect. You have to live with expectancy. So every single day when you get up, this should be your motivation.
This should be what gets you out of bed and get you excited. When you get up out of the bed, you need to say, okay. Today, I'm gonna get one day one step closer to to my goal. I'm excited that I get to go out and do these things that I have on my schedule to get to my goal. That becomes the motivation. And then the discipline and the actions become the the engine that's gonna get you to that place.
But if you don't have the why and you don't have the vision, and if you don't really believe and visualize yourself getting there, well, then you're probably not. And what I mean by visualize is start to really receive it. Start to think about how good it's gonna feel when you get on the scale. And you see that not only did you make that goal weight, but you overshot the mark and you surpassed that goal. Start to see yourself trying on dresses for your cousin's wedding.
And being at the wedding and people coming up to you and saying, wow, you look amazing. How much weight did you lose? How did you do it? I'm so proud of you. Start to think about what it's going to feel like when you go to that wedding and you're the belle of the ball. Or think about how awesome it's gonna feel when you get that offer letter that comes to you when you sign the offer letter for that dream job that you've been that you've been working towards.
Or when you get that promotion and you look down on that piece of paper and you see the new title, your new title that now redefines you in your career. Think about that stuff. That's the stuff that real motivation is about. So, guys, I wanna leave you with a with one last thing, and that is you can start small with this. You don't have to try to hit a home run. Start small and just do it. Just get something going. Don't put this off. Don't say, oh, you know, Tom, this is a great idea.
I'll wait until next year, and this will be my new year's resolution. I'll start doing this stuff. No. Don't do that. Do it now. You know? And maybe if if you're like, well, you know, I need a week because what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna put down a plan, and I'm gonna take a weekend. And I'm gonna really define how I'm gonna do this and what I'm gonna do. And I'm gonna go shop for the right food. And I'm that's fine. I think that's great.
Because to me, that's where the expectancy and and and and the plan starts. I think that's perfect. I think you should set aside a little bit of time, but don't put it off for months. Don't wait until next year. Do this for yourself right now. Make this something that you're a gift that you're giving yourself, and it'll get you excited. It'll get you back in the game.
It'll get you it'll get you motivated to do things that you've maybe always wanted to do, but you just have been putting it off because you think the task is too daunting. It's not too daunting. Just start small. Start somewhere. And the last thing I'll tell you, and this is really important, and this may be a number 5, but I didn't have a number 5. But I'm gonna tell you right now, you have to adopt a 0 compromise mentality. There can't be any compromise in your habits.
You have to really convince yourself that when you set this in writing and you set this in motion, that you owe it to yourself to do it. There are gonna be days when you're gonna be tired, when you're gonna be burnt out, or maybe you're you're not feeling it, or you're just not excited about it. You're not seeing the progress and you get discouraged. And those are the times where you have to dig deep. Those are the times where you have to just do the work. Do the discipline. Do the habit.
Stay on track because I guarantee you not every day is gonna be easy. I'm talking about this like it's easy and then you're gonna be excited every day and you'll be motivated every day. And every day you're gonna wake up and you're gonna have all of this excitement. And then there's times when you're gonna be knocked off your perch and you're gonna have there's gonna be something that's gonna derail you in some way, shape, shape, or form. Here's the thing. Get right back at it.
Go right back to it. Get back to your plan. You may not be perfect, but try to develop a no compromise mentality so that you don't give yourself the excuse that's derailed you so many times in the past. That's why things like this aren't successful is because you compromise with yourself and you never get to your goal because along the way, you sabotage it. So let's stay positive. I'm rooting for you guys. I know you can do this. Just understand that you're not alone by doing this.
There's gonna be a lot of other people that are gonna take this step. And there's 2 things I'm gonna ask of you. 2 things. Number 1, when you hit your goals, shoot me a note on LinkedIn. Shoot me a a a message or a DM or whatever it is on LinkedIn. And tell me about it. Because I'm rooting for you. Whether you may see it or not, I could tell you right now. Anybody that's listening to this episode, just understand every single day, I'll I'll be thinking about you guys rooting for you guys.
Because I know I do this stuff. And I know there's other people rooting for me. So we're all in this together. So that's number 1. Number 2, share this with someone who needs it. There are a lot of people out there that need to find some change in their life for the better to help them. To help them get out of a situation. To help them move things forward for for their life and and for their career. Maybe for themselves personally.
So please share this with someone who needs it because I think it can make a huge, huge difference. And just, guys, believe in yourself. Last thing I'm gonna say, you can do this. I'm I'm I'm 1,000 percent convinced that this works, and I'm gonna support you every step of the way and root for you. And I wanna see it happen. So I'm gonna leave it there. Love you guys. Thank you for listening. Thank you for all your support, that you've given this show over the course of the past 3 years.
Couldn't couldn't have done this without you. And, I I hope that this is really helpful for you. So we'll see you next time. Thank you for joining joining us, and thank you for, all your support. Thank you so much for listening to the show. And if you enjoyed it, please subscribe so that you don't miss an episode in the future, and feel free to leave a rating or a review or a comment. Thanks again, and we look forward to seeing you soon.