Day 5: “The Second Brick”

Day 5.
The second brick.
The one you lay down after you’ve finally given yourself permission to matter.
This brick is heavier than I expected—not because it’s complicated, but because it asks something honest:

How do you move when you don’t feel like moving?
And even harder—
How do you spark motivation in people who look at you like they’re made of wet wood, refusing to catch fire at all?

Running a business taught me something I didn’t want to learn:
you can drag tasks, you can drag deadlines, but you cannot drag people.
You can’t make them care.
You can’t light a fire in someone who’s determined to stay cold.

Stephen Covey said,
“Motivation is a fire from within. If someone else tries to light that fire under you, chances are it will burn very briefly.”
And man… that one hit harder after the fiftieth time I tried to hype someone up who wasn’t even listening.

So this part of the rebuild—
this second brick—
is all about redefining what motivation even means.

Because motivation isn’t some lightning bolt that strikes you like a divine blessing.
It’s not the perfect playlist or the inspirational quote or that one productive Monday you keep trying to recreate.
Motivation is friction—
the spark that comes from rubbing discomfort against desire until something ignites.

But what about days where even that feels impossible?
Days when you’ve been pushing for so long you feel hollow?
When you’re tired of pep talks, tired of carrying the team, tired of trying to be the sun for people who give you shade?

Here’s the truth I wish I’d learned sooner:

You don’t need to feel motivated to move.
You just need to move enough to create momentum.
Motivation is a byproduct, not a prerequisite.

And inspiring others?
It starts where your fire actually is—not where you wish it would be.
People don’t follow hype.
They follow heat.
Your consistency.
Your integrity.
Your example.

You don’t motivate others by lighting fires under them.
You motivate them by tending the one inside you—
even when it’s dim, even when it’s flickering, even when it feels like the smallest, saddest flame.

The second brick is this:
Show up anyway.
Show up small, show up tired, show up imperfect.
You don’t need a blaze to keep going—just a spark.
And that spark grows every time you honor it.

This brick is the discipline brick.
The “I’ll do it even though I don’t feel like it” brick.
The “I can’t control who cares, but I can control how I carry myself” brick.
The “my fire matters” brick.

Lay it down next to the first one.
Feel how they connect—
your permission to matter,
and your decision to move anyway.

Day 6?
We’ll talk about the third brick—
the one where momentum turns into direction,
and direction starts feeling like purpose again.