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Power Your Research w/ Dr. Sheena Howard
Welcome to Power Your Research w/ Dr. Sheena Howard, hosted by professor, author, TEDx speaker, ghostwriter, and academic brand expert Dr. Sheena Howard. On this podcast, you'll hear how to build a big brand, build a community, and leave a legacy, as well as the many failures and lessons Dr. Howard is learning on her path from building a 6-figure business to $1M in net worth.
Power Your Research w/ Dr. Sheena Howard
The Key to Overcoming Doubt
What drives you when the going gets tough? In this episode of "Power Your Research," I reflect on tackling moments of doubt through the lens of intrinsic motivation.
Follow Dr. Sheena Howards' socials:
@drsheenahoward | Power Your Research
And in talking to him, you know, I get to ask him you know what keeps you motivated?
Speaker 1:Why are you still?
Speaker 1:You could just sit down, chill, kick your feet up with a Mai Tai on a beach somewhere every day, but he doesn't do that because the reason why he's doing it has nothing to do with money, because he's actually spending money doing all of these things, and so the thing that he said to me is like he still has more lives he wants to impact.
Speaker 1:He still has things that he wants to impact. He still has things that he wants to do, and it's not about the money, it's about the legacy that he wants to leave. I don't want my work to be stuck behind an academic paywall. I want to leave a legacy. I want to reach my potential and I want to change lives. This podcast, power your Research, is my attempt to help the smartest people in the world do that very thing. My hope is that you use the lessons I share to make more money than what your higher ed job can ever pay you. I've done it, my clients have done it, and so can you. My hope is that you'll apply what you learn here and one day join the Power your Research program where you can work with me one-on-one.
Speaker 1:I want to talk a little bit about staying motivated. I was on a call with a friend the other day and we were both talking about those moments that I think that we all have, where we're like what is the purpose of me working so hard? You know, like does any of this even matter? Why am I grinding it out and pushing myself to do all of these things? And for the most part, I am just an intrinsically motivated person. It doesn't take me much to get up and do the work that I need to do. But, like everyone else, I have these moments where I'm like what is the point? Like why am I running two businesses and I'm a full time professor and I'm trying to raise this kid and all of this, and the times that I feel like that I fall back on three things. That helps to keep me motivated, and I want to share those three things with you because I think that it will help someone out there. The first is I remind myself of the parts of the things that I do that I would do regardless of the money, right? So showing up here to give information is something if I had millions of dollars and I didn't need any money at all. I still want to talk to people and give them advice and help them get to the level that I had reached.
Speaker 1:I would want to do that and it's interesting because I get to have a lot of conversations with DMC from Run DMC and he's a hip hop legend. He has all the money. He doesn't have to be out here doing all of these panels and starting new ventures, like his cookies and his graphic novel line and documentaries that he does, and talking to youth and foster kids. He doesn't have to do all that. And in talking to him I get. I get to ask him you know what keeps you motivated? Why are you still? You could just sit down, chill, kick your feet up with a Mai Tai on a beach somewhere every day, but he doesn't do that because the reason why he's doing it has nothing to do with money, because he's actually spending money doing all of these things. And so the thing that he said to me is like he still has more lives he wants to impact, he still has things that he wants to impact, he still has things that he wants to do, and it's not about the money, it's about the legacy that he wants to leave. It's about the lives that he knows he can still impact. And so what parts of the thing that you are doing would you do no-transcript Again for me?
Speaker 1:I show up, I give information. I would do this even if I had all the money in the world, because I want to help people. I am a teacher at heart. I can't know something and not teach other people how to do it, because I wanna see other people be successful and win, right? I don't wanna hoard information. So that's the first thing. I'd say hey everyone, real quick. I don't run any ads on this podcast, so I have to rely on word of mouth. If this podcast has helped you in any way, please share it with a friend and follow me, dr Sheena Howard, on LinkedIn, where I give more free content on building your brand as an academic. If you tell me you came to my LinkedIn from the podcast, I'll make sure I accept your request.
Speaker 1:The second thing is know your purpose and mission. What's your purpose and mission for doing this work right? And this is going to be personal to you. This is why I spend so much time in my content and in the Power your Research program. The first thing I have people do is follow this exercise, write out your purpose statement, put it on the wall and make this the essence of why you do the things that you do. So, the days that you don't feel like showing up, you know why you're doing it, and that reason cannot solely be for money, because just getting money is not going to help you pull through the days that you do not feel motivated. The reason has to be deeper, bigger, more important, based on your values, and that's going to be personal to you.
Speaker 1:The third way to stay motivated on those days where you're questioning everything is to reward yourself. Today, before I started any work, I went and got a foot massage for 40 minutes. A lot of times when I have big things to accomplish, I'll say I'll work on this for five hours straight, and if I do that and accomplish the things that I want to accomplish in this five hour block, I'm going to reward myself with something, and I, I it's very important to me to reward myself, to reward myself with something healthy. You know, a foot massage, a full body massage, um juice that I like you know something that I wouldn't typically have, but that that is actually good for me. So I used to reward myself with things like ice cream or a Snickers bar, but as I get older, I'm understanding that rewarding myself with something that's going to actually be good for me is better. I'll reward myself with a one hour walk to just walk and think with my thoughts.
Speaker 1:I'll reward myself with a day off. I do this today. Tomorrow I'm just going to take the day off and just be free, and so I think that we all have these days where we're questioning why we're even doing it, and those are the three things that work for me every time. And also, just give yourself grace and don't be so hard on yourself, like you don't got to accomplish everything in one day or even one year. Sometimes we want things to happen in a year that really are supposed to take like 10 years to happen, and so just give yourself some grace in that regard. I hope this helps someone out there. If you have any questions or comments, leave them. I always circle back to answer your questions. You.