The European team’s Ryder Cup victory is an historic come-back. Two days ago they were being written-off by the pundits, who had spent several days “softening us up” for an “inevitable defeat” because the Americans were on home ground buoyed by a loud crowd. Oh how wrong those pundits were…!
What is interesting is what happened to change the play of the Europeans? How come they were not quite good enough on the first couple of days and then wiped the floor with the Americans the next day? Listen carefully to what the European golfers have all said in their interviews. Each one of them pointed out that their captain, Jose Maria Olazabal, gave a rousing, inspirational and emotional speech at dinner the night before. He evoked the memory of his dear friend Severiano Ballesteros who died from cancer last year and who almost single-handedly revitalised the Ryder Cup 30 years ago.
When the team went out to play on Sunday they were all “doing it for Seve” and all appeared to believe that he was with them every stroke of the way around the course. Now whether or not you believe that might be possible, there is one thing for sure – each member of the Ryder Cup team was hugely motivated to change their play, achieving things only the day before they thought were not possible. It is evidence that motivation can change behaviour.
Interestingly, the Ryder Cup victory coincides with the start of “Stoptober” a campaign to get people to stop smoking during October. Often people say that stopping smoking is about willpower. But that is not true. It is about motivation. Because with the right motivation anyone can stop smoking overnight. Just ask the women who discover they are pregnant – if they smoke many of them immediately quit their habit without any fuss or bother or need for nicotine patches. The motivation of caring for that young life growing inside them is enough to change their behaviour. The reason why many smokers cannot quit is because they are not motivated enough. Unlike the golfers at Medinah who had significant motivation to change, many smokers are not so well motivated.
And therein lies the problem for many website owners – lack of motivation. They want to achieve more with their website, but don’t quite get round to it. Or they want to improve their email marketing, but somehow it never seems to happen. Or they would love to sell more products online, but don’t quite manage to get organised enough to do it. This is all symptomatic of lack of motivation.
It is not about time management, nor is it about lack of knowledge or skills. If you are motivated enough you will make the behavioural changes necessary.
So if your website is in the doldrums and you want things to change maybe you should stop thinking about the practicalities of what your web presence needs, but think instead of what would motivate you to make the necessary changes. Tap into that motivation and your success will follow. That will be as true for many people quitting smoking this month as it was yesterday for the victorious European Ryder Cup Team.
