Samantha Pruitt: 0:26

Hello beautiful humans. Coach Sam here Going solo today. Polly and I are in different places doing different things. It’s a busy time for us and I got inspired to tape a Coach Sam jam. Some of you may be familiar with that if you’ve been following me for a while. It’s a little bit like a rant, but better. Anyway, I’m going to do some flow today and in particular, on a topic I have had bubbling up a lot for me personally, as I’ve got a lot on the plate. Polly’s got a lot on the plate too. So just thinking about this particular thing, drive, personal drive versus motivation you know they’re just different. You know they’re just different.

Samantha Pruitt: 1:23

And people often think and say to me wow, I’m just not disciplined and motivated like you are. I couldn’t juggle all of life’s to-dos and work to accomplish big ass goals like you do. Where do you find the time and energy? How do you stay focused? I hear these kinds of things a lot and, truth be told, I am nothing special at all. Like many of you, I’m a wife, a mother, a sister, a daughter, a friend, a community builder. I’m a self-employed coach and event producer. I work on this weekly podcast and I’m always in training for some type of endurance race or big ass adventure, like right now I have an iron woman race in four weeks but also, true, on the regular.

Samantha Pruitt: 2:18

Honestly, I don’t have motivation, inspiration or even discipline many, many days, but what I do have is drive. So that’s what we’re going to talk about today. Drive is one of my character traits and it’s deeply attached to my value system. It never wavers. Attached to my value system, it never wavers. I am driven and you can be too. Maybe you already are.

Samantha Pruitt: 2:54

Drive is an internal fuel. It’s not fleeting like motivation or inspiration that comes in and out on the breeze. It’s not discipline either. That’s just structure and process and a way of operating. Driving some people is just a spark or a smoldering ember that needs air, but driving many of us hopefully you and definitely me is a raging inferno that lights and heats our entire life. Here’s what I mean. I don’t think my brother has inspiration or motivation to go to chemotherapy, but he is driven to crush his cancer. I don’t think my business client has inspiration or motivation to grind out another 80-hour work week, but she is driven to expand her customer base and hit her quarterly sales goals. That’s drive. Very often, my artist friend who’s a writer doesn’t have inspiration or motivation to sit down again each morning and bang out another three hours of words onto the paper, but they have drive and they want to be a published author and tell their unique story. They’re driven. And addicts definitely are not motivated or inspired to get out of bed each day, spill out their shame into recovery meetings, but their drive to recover and get their life back pushes them forward one day at a time.

Samantha Pruitt: 4:41

Drive is determination, the energy and fuel to keep going forward. I sure as hell do not want to work and train every day right now. Believe me, I’m tired, but I’m driven towards my goals. Truthfully, each one of us is driven to become a better version of ourselves. Yes, you, each one of us has the drive that feeds, fuels, activates our thoughts, our choices, our actions and our results each day. But what stops a person from having drive or being connected to this fuel source, this internal drive, fuel source, this internal drive.

Samantha Pruitt: 5:36

Many times in my coaching life I’ve experienced humans who have a self-defeating mentality. I call the all-or-nothing mindset. I help them break down this self-destructive and self-defeating mindset or way of operating, to break free from this vicious, negative cycle. If you have an all or nothing mindset. Your belief system tells you that you’re either going to do all the things you’ve been told to do that will create the outcome you desire, or you’re going to do none of them. You’re going to do all the things you’ve been told to do that are steps towards achieving this goal perfectly, and if they’re not done perfect every day, you will not achieve your goals and therefore you say screw it, you drop out or you quit. Sound familiar? Have you ever done this, or do you know people that do this on the regular? Have you ever done this, or do you know people that do this on the regular?

Samantha Pruitt: 6:45

Another reason people are not in touch with or fueling their drive is because of a sense of unworthiness they have. This one’s painful Feeling unworthy will steal your drive faster than anything. You simply cannot see or feel. It’s brutal. It’s like any human. Maybe you listening right now doesn’t feel they have worth or are deserving of new thoughts, new emotions, new actions that will lead to a better or their best possible life. And, lastly, by simply not being in touch with what your values are, you cannot be driven. It will keep you from operating, aka driving your daily life in the right direction.

Samantha Pruitt: 7:43

Do you know what your personal values are? Do you know what you stand for in the world? Prove it to me right now and write it down on paper your top three, or say it out loud my personal values are freedom, emotional, spiritual and physical health and fitness, and human connection. Therefore, my daily thoughts, emotions and actions are driven towards these three things. I make my micro and my macro decisions based on this personal value system. Having clarity of your values is critical to having internal drive for your life goals. If you do not, then perhaps you’re chasing other people’s goals instead of your own. If not, you might find yourself repeatedly not achieving your goals at all and, critically, it will be very, very difficult to achieve big or small goals without having the internal drive to do what needs to be done to keep moving forward. When life gets hard, it will be easy to quit and give up on yourself. This deep-rooted, non-negotiable value system will anchor your intrinsic drive to keep you showing up and doing what is required to reach your goals.

Samantha Pruitt: 9:21

If you’re struggling with unworthiness see, I don’t even want to say the word, it’s so painful If you’re struggling with a feeling of unworthiness, you need to get some help. You need to talk to somebody. It is not true that you are not worthy. Myself and countless others are here to tell you otherwise. You need to get some help and let somebody know.

Samantha Pruitt: 9:57

If this is the kind of feeling you’re struggling with, if you’re living in this mindset it’s all or nothing, do it perfect or don’t do it at all. It’s ludicrous. There’s no truth to that at all, but many of us were raised or have experienced things in our life that imprinted that really painful way of being in the world onto ourselves. Almost we operate from that place. If we can’t do it right, we won’t do it at all. Actually, I actually remember being told that when I was growing up. It’s insane. There’s no such thing as perfect. There’s no such thing as one way or the right way. There’s a thousand ways to do everything. Literally, I’m training for an Ironman and there is a thousand ways to do this and, frankly, I’m experimenting with half of them. Probably, talk to somebody about breaking that really bad habit or mindset.

Samantha Pruitt: 11:01

If you are an all or nothing person, it is holding you back from living a life that you deserve Drive. It deserves a lot more credit than motivation, inspiration or even discipline. You are driven, I am driven. That is truly what keeps us going day after day after day, showing up and doing the work required to reach our goals and build a life we deserve. My hope for you is that you create more sparks and blow some oxygen into your own internal drive fire to light things up in your own life. Then use that values-driven empowerment to set chase and achieve a lifetime full of goals. And you know what? I’ll be there watching and cheering you on. See you soon, friends.