The Front Row Mentality: Motivation, Inspiration, and Success
Host: Eric Chow · February 22, 2022 · Episode 64 · 23 minutes
Transcribed from the episode audio and edited for names and terms. Wording can differ slightly from what was said; the episode itself is the record.
Quoted from this episode: 6 quotes on the quotes page.
Hey everybody before we get started with what this episode is going to be all about. Here is a quick message on how you can start your own podcast if you want to. Hey what's going on everybody? This is Eric Chow and you're listening to a brand new episode of the Eric Chow Empowers Podcast. It is so great to have you. Thank you for tuning in. And this is going to be a podcast monologue. For those of you who have been listening to the show recently, you already know this, but in between the interviews and conversations that I've been doing, which have just been absolutely fantastic lately, as you guys know, I love sharing these stories that are inspiring and empowering. I want you guys to be going, wow, what a great story. What, what?
What a story. Like what this person has been through is just so incredible, so inspiring, so empowering, and the lessons that they've learned and the things they've struggled through, etc, etc. I want you to have those reactions so that you can learn from them and get inspired, get empowered. But what I've been trying to do with these monologues is be able to sit down and chat. about a particular subject that has to do with empowerment. How can we empower you? What is something that you and I can do to empower ourselves every single day? And so that's what I want to do today. I have a few ideas that I want to talk about.
And actually, everything that I'm going to say is coming from one of the issues of my email newsletter. This is a Number 27, I've been having this weekly email newsletter that's just been fantastic. I've been doing it for 27 weeks and I've just been so excited about that. So this is everything I'm saying today is actually coming from what I wrote about or is inspired by what I wrote about in this email newsletter. Shout out to those of you who are subscribed to that. I really, really appreciate you.
And of course, I've just been incredibly consistent over there. So those of you who are interested and who find value out of this monologue, I definitely would encourage you to go subscribe to the newsletter, which you can find on all my social links. So today, a couple of ideas that I want to talk about. And it really actually came from last week. This past week was my first time back to classes in person. A lot of you don't know this, but I actually am a student in university. On top of building my businesses and hosting my podcast and everything else that I'm doing, I am still a student in university and its school's been fantastic lately. And of course last week, like I mentioned, was my first time back in person.
And a lot of my peers certainly felt pretty nervous being back on campus. I was actually looking forward to it. I like to be around people. I like to give hugs. I like to shake hands, all that good stuff. Of course, being incredibly safe now and not being able to do that as much, but whatever. And it's not that I'm a super social butterfly. I don't talk to everybody, but I just enjoy it. I also found that I actually learn a lot more. while in person than when those particular classes were online. And the reason for that seems pretty obvious, but I think that it's something that we neglect in our other areas of life.
And it's an important decision I made, which is I put myself in the first two rows of the class. In doing so, of course, I put myself in a position to learn more by putting the professor directly in front of me. Now.
This is super important because I think a lot of the time we talk about how do I get motivated because I'm not motivated or I'm not inspired or I don't know what to do or You know, I know I should be doing activity Z, but I'm instead doing activity X and So this is super important when your natural tendency is to do activity X and you want to be doing activity Z What you need to do is you need to put yourself in a position or Create an environment. We're doing activity Z feels more natural See, I'm not perfect. I'm not perfect When classes were online something I was doing was while lecture was happening.
I'd be checking messages checking email You know scrolling social media was solving a lot of chess puzzles and occasionally playing a few games of chess online because that's a hobby of mine. But now that I'm in person, I find that I'm actually paying a lot more attention. And I think that it shows in my understanding of the past week's material compared to previous weeks, we had a quiz and man, like some of those previous weeks, I really needed a study because well, I wasn't really paying attention.
So whenever possible, how can we put ourselves in the front row? How can we put ourselves in a position to win? Maybe that means instead of having activity X be easy to access easy to do, you need to do something to make it more complicated, make it more difficult to actually do activity X. Make it really easy to do activity Z. Make it natural, make it obvious. Make it so simple to do so that you can, you will more easily just naturally choose to do activity Z instead. Instead of waiting for motivation, instead of waiting for inspiration, put yourself in a position to win. Put yourself in a position to do the right thing because it's a lot easier when you don't actually have to deal with a tremendous amount of temptation.
a good person in a bad environment will very likely not do the right thing. This is also when it comes to being in front of people. Like I said, I put myself right in front of the professor so that I can learn from them, so I can get out of them what I want to get out of, so I can learn, so I can just take in their experience and their knowledge. And this doesn't just have to do with school. This has to do with so much. So many of my peers, so many students like to sit in the back because they don't want to be called on.
They don't want to bring attention to themselves, whatever, right? And we don't want to take that mentality and bring that into the other areas of our life, especially the areas of our life that are particularly important to us. If it's important to you, you don't want to take a back row.
You don't want to be in the backseat. You want to be in the front. You want to be driving it. You want to be in a position to win. You want to get the attention so that you can learn, so that you can get out of the situation or the person or whatever as much as possible. You want to make the most of it. Don't take a backseat in your life. Be in the front seat. Be in the driver's seat. Like let's go. This is life. Come on. So That's the first key concept. Be in the front row, get in a position to win. Put yourself in an environment where doing the right thing, we're winning, we're succeeding, we're learning, whatever.
The right thing is, feels more natural, more easy and just just, it almost is like a byproduct. It's not something you really have to try to do.
And this kind of ties into the concept and the topic of motivation. Instead of waiting to be motivated, create it. Create your own motivation. Create your own inspiration. Can you design your life in a way that is motivating and inspiring? Because motivation comes and goes just as feelings comes and go. What we need to do is we, there's never going to be a point in our life where we are always motivated. We're never gonna, I don't think we're gonna reach that. Maybe we will. I don't know, maybe that is the thing. I'm still a young guy, so I have time to figure this all out.
But right now, from what I've understood, from what I've learned is you can't rely on motivation. It's gonna come and go, it's gonna ebb and flow. What we need to do is have discipline. And the easiest way to have discipline.
is to create the right environment, to design your life, to put yourself in a position to win, to make it easy to do the right things. So, one of the things I do is, as I mentioned earlier, I have this email newsletter, and I've been writing for this email newsletter every week. Now, every week I designate a particular day to write the majority of the email newsletter. Because I'm not just doing updates in my life. I'm not just talking about oh I had this happen this happen Like I'm actually doing my best to talk about a subject just like I am right now and provide value to the people who have chosen to subscribe So usually I'll designate like a Thursday or a Friday or Saturday Email newsletter comes out on Tuesday at least in my time zone so Occasionally, I get this spark of inspiration that makes the process really easy.
It's just I sit down and I'm like, I know exactly what I want to talk about. This is going to be fun. This is going to be easy because it's something that's been on my mind. Most of the time I actually sit down, I have no idea what to talk about. And a lot of authors and writers talk about having writers block where they just don't know what to write. And what I've learned by studying the absolute best of them is they create their own inspiration rather than waiting for it.
Because there is no guarantee something in particular is going to motivate and inspire you See for me, I'm an incredibly ambitious person I have these lofty dreams and goals and a lot of the time I think about them I envision them I talk about them and I get so fired up and excited and Determined and I'm like let's go you know But sometimes I don't even With all the dreams and ambitions I have, sometimes it's just not enough. And I need something else to fire me up. And so the trick is to find as many things as you can. Healthy things, of course. You don't want to use anything that's unhealthy.
But the trick is to find as many good, positive motivators as you can in the hopes that when you need it, one of them will work. When it comes to creating content, finding ideas, One of my incredibly important habits every single day I'm listening to several audio's talks and podcasts while I'm driving, while I'm out and about, while I'm working out, whatever. When I hear an idea that resonates with me, I either take out my physical notebook, which I have here on my desk, or I take out my phone, my computer, and I write it on a digital note that syncs to all my devices.
Another important habit is I'm reading 15, 20, 30 minutes every single day and I do the same with those books. Whenever I have an idea that resonates with me, I write it down. Sometimes even when I'm relaxing, I'm watching YouTube, I'm watching a show, I'm watching a movie, watching an anime, whatever I might be doing and I don't do this super often but when I do find myself relaxing and just watching something, there may be a one-liner. that I just note down because I'm like, yo, that liner is brilliant and it relates to something I, the going on in my life. So every single day I do that and very regularly daily, weekly, I will review those notes. And I'll see. Does one of these ideas, yes, they're all brilliant.
because I wrote them down, they resonated with me. But does one of these ideas, can I make this applicable in my life and my business? And maybe I can share this with somebody that's going to help them. Whatever it is, like, can I make something, make use of this idea? And I create my own inspiration that way. Hey, maybe this can help my business. Hey, maybe this is something I can talk about in my next email newsletter, my next podcast episode. Or I know I'm gonna have a conversation with this person, this friend of mine in a few days, and I know they've been going through XYZ situation, and I think this would help them.
Let me just make a note of that and make sure I use that. So I've put myself in this situation where I'm getting all these great ideas, I'm synthesizing them, I'm thinking about them, and when it comes time to use it, I can review those ideas and I have them, and it creates my own inspiration. So when I sit down and I have no idea what to write about, for example, in my email newsletter, I can review those notes and maybe something can spark one of these ideas. The other thing I do is by dedicating this particular day to writing my email newsletter, I allow my mind to get into the mode for writing.
I may sit down for my morning session and actually this was exactly what happened last week. Sat down for my morning session, sat there for like 10 minutes, came up absolutely blank, had zero clue what I was gonna write about. Close my laptop, disappear for a few hours, ended up sitting down for lunch, opened my laptop, reflected on the past few hours, bang, came out with something to write. So sometimes it's just that you need to put your mind. into the mode for the thing you're trying to do. And that may take some time. So what I did is I dipped for a few hours.
I had to go to class and then I sat down for lunch and bang, I had exactly what I needed to do. So you prepare your mind for the situation you're going to be in. I prepared my mind for writing. Once I start writing, I'm in the zone and I actually find it very easy to come up with more.
to talk about. Once you start talking, sometimes you have ideas and that gives you more to talk about. So I was writing, you know, this is exactly what happened last week, right? I sat down for lunch, reflected on the past few hours. And I came up with the first section of my email newsletter, issue number 27. After writing it, my mind reflected on two conversations I had the day before. And that came out with the second section of My email newsletter and then that second section inspired the third section because reflecting on something else So our lives are full of inspiration and I think that's two things that I want to point out with this number one How can you create more of those moments of inspiration?
How can you have more interesting conversations consume more interesting material that will give you those ideas that you need to hear. When you have these positive inputs, your mind has something to synthesize and create positive ideas. The other trick, tune your mind into the channel of inspiration. If you guys remember how we had to tune in our car radios, like before Spotify and Apple Music, you actually had to tune your car into a radio station. If you remember that, same idea.
Frequency. Same thing when you used to use TVs and you would change the channels on the TV. Tune your mind into the channel of inspiration and positivity and whatever it is that you want. So it's two things. Our lives are full of inspiration. We just need to learn how to tune our minds into it and create more of it. This isn't just inspiration and writing. This is how we get inspired and motivated in life, how we find joy in our days. If we wait for motivation and inspiration, we won't get much done and we won't live a very motivated and inspired life. We have to take responsibility for it.
We have to create it. So, you know, it was amazing because as I was writing all that for my email newsletter, it was funny because You know, I finished writing that section and everything I just shared is literally what I talked about in number 27 of my email newsletter. And it's as of today, you know, when I'm recording this podcast, it's going out tomorrow and this podcast will probably come out in a day or two after that. But, you know, it's funny because I finished writing this email newsletter a few days ago and I closed my laptop and I ended up doing a couple of things and it had been a few hours and it's funny because I was about to leave campus because I was sitting down at cafe and while on campus and I was about to leave and before I did I figured what I would try to do is I would call two friends who I know go to the same universe and I haven't talked to them or seen them in a very long time.
and I recently had reconnected with them. So I just randomly like gave no warning at all. I just randomly gave them a call and I said, yo, you know, would love to meet up and actually neither of them answered. A few minutes later, I'm literally walking towards the parking garage and one of them calls me back and says, hey, sorry I missed your call. I was in a meeting, but I'm on campus right now. Are you still here? And I go, yeah, I'm still here. I'm about to leave, but where are you? And it turns out she was in a building that I was literally walking straight towards.
And so I was like, okay, let's do it. So we met up, we sat down, we had a phenomenal conversation. We talked for literally an hour, just chatting, catching up. And then, you know, they needed to go. And I needed to obviously head home as well. And right before we walked off, a gentleman came up to us and said, Hey, I'm so sorry to interrupt, but I stopped right over here to just check my phone and I eavesdropped a little bit on your conversation and I just want to say it was really inspiring and I heard you guys talking about a podcast and wanted to know how I can listen.
So, brother, I didn't get your name, but if you're listening to this, thanks for saying hi. And for the rest of you, there are three points to this story. Number one, say hello to people. That's putting yourself in a position to create these moments.
It's just amazing to catch up. I had a fantastic time chatting with my friend. By the way, if you're listening to this, shout out to you as well. Number two, when you talk about what you care about, people are attracted to it. So figure out how whatever it is you care about, get in the front row. You want the attention. Even if you're an introvert, you want the attention. I'm telling you because it's important to you. It's what you care about, right? So be in the front row. Put yourself in a position to win. Talk about it, damn it. You care about it, right? And number three, when you live your life looking for inspiration, wanting to create these moments of inspiration, I promise you, you'll find it.
Thank you for tuning into this episode of the Eric Chow Empowers's podcast. It's been my pleasure. And I hope I was able to add value with what I've shared today. I think it's very, very simple.
But you know this show is the Eric Chow Empowers Podcast and I hope that this concept the reason I wanted to talk about is because I feel that is incredibly empowering to understand and apply the principle of putting yourself in the front row to what you're doing in life especially when you care about it. See you in the next episode. Thank you for tuning in. I appreciate you. Obviously you can find me everywhere. Listen to more episodes of the Eric Chow Empowers Podcast, Spotify, Apple podcasts, wherever you listen, we're on a more than a dozen platforms. So I appreciate that. Follow me on social media if you're not already at Eric Chow Real, E-R-I-C-C-H-O-W-R-E-A-L at Eric Chow Real. Yeah.
Obviously the links are in the podcast episode description everything so you can definitely find me there as well and don't be afraid to say hello. I love You know, I mean this random gentleman. I don't know if he's gonna listen to this episode or not, but I Love you know just just getting these little halos and you never know you never know what can happen out of a little conversation as it's a good friend of mine likes to say so Thanks for tuning in and I'll see you in the next episode