How to Get Motivated Without Trying

Everyone is vibing.

My neighbour who lives in a green house is a professional landscaper.

He does not let anything grow wild and he thinks au naturel is a joke.

He made a mini lake that runs through his back yard and his bushes are always in perfect shapes. (Right now, they’re round bubbles.)

What’s most ridiculous is how he motivates everyone to mow their lawns without knowing it.

Curious?

You might not have a landscaper-neighbour, but you can get motivated without trying too.

Where is your free help?

I suspect the neighbour took off all the leaves to this tree last fall so that he didn’t have to suffer the wrath of the loose leaves over his lawn.

It’s almost summer now, and those leaves haven’t grown back yet. This is a photo of the poor tree:

See, the other tree is green already. That tree is still trying to grow its leaves back. That’s how far he goes to keep a manicured landscape. After all, his yard might as well be his portfolio.

My mom, on the other hand, loves to grow things. That’s her sunflower up there, in the photo I took last summer.

She freaks out if someone trims her plants. (To be fair, my dad goes crazy and turns big plants into little twigs.)

The neighbour and my mom have two different vibes when it comes to gardening and yard work. Depending on what your goals are, being around either person will change your actions.

I’m not spiritual except I can open my heart in yoga; when I’m talking about vibes, I don’t mean white doves and crystal balls. The closest I’ve been to touching a crystal ball is zapping myself on an electric globe.

Your vibe is a mix of experiences, environment, etc. that change how you act.

Why someone else will help you get motivated for free

My neighbour mows his lawn every single day. When everyone else hears the sound of his lawn mower, it reminds us to keep up with our lawns too.

The sound of his lawn mower is like his vibe.

So we play a symphony of lawn mowing. When someone else mows their lawn, it’s a given that my neighbour in the green house has mowed his. Which means that on any day, at least two people are mowing their lawns (sometimes at the same time).

The Cue

When you hear two people mowing their lawns and your own lawn needs some trim, you’re more likely to get up and mow it because everyone else is doing it. That’s the cue.

By the end of the week, whoever hasn’t mowed their lawn is the weird one– everyone sees the unkempt grass that springs up one foot from the ground. How unsightly. And it begins again the next week, like a habit.

Did I mention that the neighbour in the green house has some high-powered lawn mower that makes twice the amount of noise?

Everyone has a unique vibe, and other people’s vibes will rub off on you, changing the way you think and act.

People around you will influence you, just like my neighbour in the green house influences everyone else to mow their lawns.

I like to stay positive, start projects, and enjoy myself. I’m around people who have similar interests because we keep each other in check and on track. Someone who’s forever complaining and ranting will drain my energy. We all have bad days, but it’s no fun being around a constant complainer.

How to get motivated

People are happy if they earn as much as their friends, according to Daniel Kahneman, the Nobel Prize winner who applied psychology to economics.

We check ourselves based on how our friends are doing; our friends influence us more than we realize.

1. Find people who inspire you and have the same interests as you; bounce ideas of each other and see what they’re doing that’s different from you.

There are tons of interesting people who own studios and teach piano on the other side of the world.

High achievement doesn’t mean stress and whining. If you want to do good, then surround yourself with people who have the same goals.

Think of whether you want their vibes rubbing off on you (like the constant lawn mower).

I found out early on that playing and teaching piano gets pretty lonely. I wish I did something about it earlier. Like hang out with a bunch of other pianists, bounce ideas off each other once in a while, learn from each other, maybe even play together.

2. Be big on groups. (Like group classes.) Students’ vibes rub off on each other. Someone who’s taken years of private piano lessons might lose interest gradually. I went through this.

Put that student in a group with people who have the spark and motivation, and you’ll see that student’s own spark come back.

What it means for you

I’m not saying you should hunt down pianists and stalk them.

1. Think about what vibes are rubbing off on you, and who is around you. The vibes, like the sounds of the lawn mower, are around you all the time.

Teaching at a private studio can get lonely and uninspiring pretty quickly, so getting together with other studio teachers and pianists who have the same goals as you is a good idea.

I used to be close friends with a piano teacher who hated teaching. She loved to rant at me. And it drained my energy. I didn’t even know how bad it was until I found a few other pianist/teacher friends who actually energized me.

If you don’t already know people with the same goals as you, look around on Twitter, or other places online, and find people who inspire you.

2. If you teach piano and your students aren’t motivated, a group class is a quick fix. (And there are lots of ways to do this.)

Keep in mind: putting students in a group class is a quick fix but like everything else, it’s not an end-all. If someone starts spazzing out then the entire group can lose it, because their vibes rub off on each other.

Students need to find motivation from inside and you can help them do that.

Have you ever gotten motivated from someone else’s vibes? Join the conversation by leaving a comment below.

And if you know someone who’ll find this useful, feel free to send it to them.