The Motivation Manifesto: 9 Declarations to Claim Your Personal Power

by Brendon Burchard

Free and motivated people do not neglect reality.

The first role we can play in our lives is observer, or the conscious viewer. This is the role and responsibility we are charged with through the gift of self-awareness. As observer, we can float above our reality and view the totality of who we are in life and the minutia of how we are acting and reacting in the very moment. It is not a detachment from ourselves or the moment, but rather a careful observance of it.

The second role is the more proactive role as director, the conscious and intentional creator of our lives. If we can imagine life as a movie, then we can imagine ourselves as the one directing each scene and character within it.

Mastering the role of the director requires us to be detailed in our intentions for each scene in our story.

What shall our life’s story be and how can we direct our thoughts and actions to make that vision a reality?

The third role deserving our attention is that of guardian to our mind, body, and soul. We must stand at the gates of our life and protect ourselves from unwanted contaminants: negative information, people, and habits.

Most people would feel guilty for destroying someone else’s property. Yet they wreck the very temple their Creator gifted them.

If we let the energy of our body fade, our motivation soon goes with it.

The next role is the warrior. Should we sit in our homes and find life wanting, then we must stand and venture out to fight purposefully for something more. We must be bold, fierce, and unrelenting in chasing our dreams. We must push aside our fears, struggle with conviction, battle through all obstacles. We must want to win, to bring back treasures and glory to our homes, to leave nothing on the battlefields of life but the legend of our courage and might.

The essence of the warrior spirit is readiness—a bias toward action. Warriors do not waste time in making decisions.

They are giving their lives to something that matters.

While on our quests, we must never forget whom we are fighting for. There are people we care for and who need us. No victory is sweet and no life fulfilling without someone to celebrate with and care for. And so let us master our role as lover.

We must learn to sit down each day and think about the health and growth of our loved ones as much as we think about the growth of our careers.

There are men and women counting on us and looking to our example. They await our direction and action. We owe it to them to be outstanding in our role as leader.

We must begin again the great work of uplifting humankind.

The sunshine of enlightenment spreads to those who understand that the moments of our lives must not go unnoticed and unlived.

We mustn’t avoid this day’s reality or wish for a better one. We must learn to live in reverence to the moment and all we have been given by it and all we choose to give to it.

The day is always his who works with serenity and great aims. RALPH WALDO EMERSON

Nothing burns more fiercely in our soul than the desire to be ourselves and pursue our dreams. And so the great joys in life come when we are spontaneous and authentic each day while engaging in activities that we care about. And the great miseries of life come when too many days stack up where we are conforming and posing while doing things we have no passion for.

Did you use the time I gifted you each day to be a purposeful being? Did you follow your own path and make your time count? How faithfully did you tend to the dream I sowed in your soul?

What they did not do was waste their days meandering about or marching under the banner of someone else’s ambitions.

Let us make this day the day we take back our life’s agenda from the grips of conformity and distraction. Let us have our aim in life and move toward it swiftly and diligently. Let us not forget that our simple efforts and daily triumphs can gather weight and motion to become an unstoppable force toward a focused and free life.

We have to say no more often. We have to focus more. We have to fight harder to safeguard our time and our dreams and our souls.

We Shall Reclaim Our Agenda.

Fine is the calling card of conformity.

If we are merely fine, we are not alive.

In this conformist silence there is nothingness— no sound of life, no pulsing and cracking and thunder of individuality.

If we are to measure and monitor and improve anything, let it be our story, our character, and our conduct—a mindfulness of who we are and how we are experiencing and relating with the world.

Our defining moment will come as we either continue to slide into the oblivion of the deep digital stream, clicking and swiping and drowning in distraction, or take a higher vantage point apart from all the noise and, finally, after all this time, choose to refocus on what really matters in life.

What will give us a sense that we are one more in command of our life’s agenda? Clarity. Direction. Progress.

We begin developing clarity about the current state of our life’s agenda by realizing that all human experience is segmented into two fields: meaningful activities and nonmeaningful activities. This forces a clear distinction when evaluating our days. Do I find what I am doing each day of my life meaningful? Is all this busywork in line with what I feel is my life’s work?

If we don’t like the work we are doing, we have three choices: Continue hating what we do; Change our perspective and find meaning and joy in our current tasks; or Quit the dispassionate work and seek out what will make our soul sing.

What will our mission be from this moment forward? What will be our plan of action? What steps must be taken?

What am I really after in life? What do I truly want to create and contribute? What kind of person do I want to show the world each day? What types of persons shall I love and enjoy life with? What great cause will keep me going when I feel weak or distracted?

What shall be my ultimate legacy? What steps must I take to begin and sustain these efforts? What will I orient my days to accomplishing this week? This month? This year?

No one around us can tear us from progressing toward our dreams.

Believing otherwise is accepting the role of victim in life. Our day is ultimately our choice.

In dealing with the needs of others while maintaining our life’s agenda, we must learn the stunning power of no. There is no rule written anywhere that says we must say yes to every passing request that crosses our desks or burns in our ears from a crying whiner.

This is not to say we cannot be loving and responsible to those who need us and when it brings us joy.

I am not in charge or responsible for the wrecks others have created in their lives and I do not need to save everyone in my life.

The more we say no to demanding people, the more life opens up to pursue our passions and happiness and to serve and spend time with those we love.

It is worth repeating that we can and should give time and attention to those we love and lead—when we desire to do so.

If we can see a dream in the distance, let us move toward it with real force, will, and consistency.

Real progress often comes in our lives once we make people our allies in accomplishment.

A person who doubts himself is like a man who would enlist in the ranks of his enemies and bear arms against himself. ALEXANDRE DUMAS

Greatness belongs to those who have mastered their internal world. We are all plagued by doubt, but the great nevertheless find faith and begin.

We deserve to be free from all those stirrings within us that compromise our magnificence. For this, let us declare: We Shall Defeat Our Demons.

Defiance can roar all it wants, but we can choose to ignore it as we might a pesky yapping dog.

The only thing Doubt can do to survive is avert our strength by whining and singing its pessimistic song: I’m not so sure, I’m not so sure, I’m not so sure…

It is the allowance and repetition of doubtful questions that stall most people from living free and fulfilling lives.