100 Ways To Motivate Yourself, Third Edition

37. Make a relation-shift

Motivate yourself by giving someone else the ideas necessary for self-motivation. You can have any experience you want in life simply by giving that experience away to someone else. John Lennon called it “instant karma.” In most of our relationships we stay focused on ourselves. We’re fascinated by how we’re coming off. We’re constantly monitoring what others must now be thinking of us. We live as if mirrors surrounded us.

Norman Vincent Peale used to observe that shy people were the greatest egomaniacs on earth, because they were so focused on themselves. You can see that when you observe the body language of a shy person. The looking down and turning in. The curling-up with self-consciousness—as if surrounded by mirrors. ...