In Chapter 3 of 16 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, motivation teacher Jullien Gordon answers "Where Do You Get Your Energy?" Gordon references Daniel Pink's book, "Drive" and shares how he gets his energy by living in alignment with his purpose. He understands living in his purpose acts as an intrinsic motivator that allows him to make the most out of each day. Gordon is the founder of the Department of Motivated Vehicles, a personal and professional development company that helps clients identify purpose and map it to successful outcomes. Gordon has written five books and speaks regularly to college students across America. He earned masters degrees in education and business from Stanford University and an undergraduate degree from UCLA.
Transcript:
Erik Michielsen: Where do you get your energy?
Jullien Gordon: To be honest going back to Daniel Pink’s drive I think purpose is where I get my energy from. When I’m in alignment with my purpose I get this wind behind my sail that allows me to do things that I couldn’t have imagined doing on my own. When you’re in alignment with a current of energy it just takes you in places as opposed to trying to swim against the current like no I’m going up this stream no matter what. No, I’m – when you’re in alignment with your purpose I feel like you’re going with this universal current and that’s where I think a lot of my energy comes from.
My diet isn’t the greatest diet, I don’t exercise, I want to do all those things well but I do know that where my high level of energy comes from is this deep sense of purpose. This intrinsic motivation that’s within me and that’s where I think my most powerful and my spiritual source is. My purpose is my connection to my spiritual source. It’s the single most important reason why I’m here.
Now a lot of us go through life and we have all these to do this lists and we check off all kinds of things on our to do lists and by the end of life we’re like yeah I checked off all this stuff but the big question is did you do the one thing that you were uniquely created to do and I feel like I’m moving in alignment with that right now and so that’s where my energy comes from.