The Power of Indignation

Books Referenced

Psycho-Cybernetics - Maxwell Maltz

Emotional Intelligence - Daniel Goleman

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I used to think that motivation came from only two places:

1. A desire to avoid pain
2. A desire to chase rewards

But there is another source of motivation. One that can be more powerful than chasing rewards or avoiding pain.

This form of motivation comes from indignation.

In today’s article, I will teach you how to leverage indignation to light a fire of motivation underneath you.

I better share a quick note before we get started.

This article is about how to leverage the opinions of others to fuel your motivation.

Normally, I would not indulge this kind of thinking, because f*** other people’s opinions (yes, I curse).

But in reality, we are social animals. We care about other people’s opinions. We may not care about everyone’s opinions, but we do care about some people’s opinions.

Heck, even psychopaths care about how others see them.

There is no getting around this.

While it is true you should be able to choose your path and actions regardless of other people’s input, we will inevitably hear what other people think.

This provides an opportunity to motivate ourselves and achieve more.

That being said… buckle up, and let’s go.

What is Indignation?

Indignation usually refers to the feeling of outrage or anger when something unfair has happened.

In our case, I am using it to describe the feeling you get when someone speaks rudely to you or treats you unfairly.

More specifically, it is the feeling of “how dare you say that… you don’t know me!”

As an example, I remember a situation in which I felt indignant.

When I was interning at a performance training center after college, my mentor had a bunch of athletes doing a specific exercise.

Naturally, I wanted to try, but he told me that there was no way I could do it, because I was just barely over the “general population.”

For those who don’t know, “general population” is a term used in the fitness world for people who are not athletes, or who have never been athletes training for an event.

My mentor was a judo Olympian… so to him, I was in the general population.

But when he said that I was not capable of doing something…

Oh boy… I was fired up.

I saw myself as an athlete, and to hear him say that I could not do a certain movement got my indignation engine revving up.

I had to prove the I could do the exercise, just to prove him wrong.

So, I put my game face on. Took off my watch. Gritted my teeth. And I got after it.

It turns out, he was right. I could not do the exercise.

But I almost succeeded. And I was motivated to continue developing to prove that I could do it.

Indignation.

It is a powerful motivator.

For my leaders out there, allow me to share another example which may resonate with you.

About 6 months ago, I was speaking with a friend of mine who is the leader of a large and successful tech product.

She is amazing. Skilled. Confident. A visionary. By all measures she is a superb leader.

She shared a story where her team was reorganized, and she was placed under new leadership.

To make a long story short, her new leadership did not feel her product was worth investing in, and their confidence in her seemed low.

Are you kidding me?

This woman grew the business to unseen heights, and they seemed to cast her product aside.

Who were they to think they knew what she was capable of.

She was fired up to keep crushing it and to continue being the awesome leader she had grown into.

She was motivated to prove them wrong.

So, she continued to lead and crush it despite what they thought was possible.

Indignation.

It is a powerful motivator.

(Yes, I realize I just said that for the second time).

If indignation is such a powerful motivator, then what can we do to call upon it and leverage it?

First, we simply need to understand the emotion and label it as “indignation.”

That way we can put a name to the feeling and not just react with anger and frustration.

To then leverage the feeling, we need clarity.

Clarity helps focus the feeling of indignation toward specific actions that move us forward. Again, without this clarity, we are more likely to react with anger and frustration, and it stops there.

Create clarity.

Specifically, we need clarity in 3 areas:

• Self-Image
• Self-Awareness
• Vision

Let’s address these one by one.

Self-Image: Who are you?

If you are going to get fired up about someone challenging your identity, then it is required you know what your identity is.

Another word for identity is “Self-Image.”

In his groundbreaking book Psycho-Cybernetics, Maxwell Maltz described “Self-image” as a mental blueprint or picture that we carry of ourselves.

It is shaped by past experiences, successes, failures, and the opinions of others.

This internal image profoundly influences our behavior, thoughts, and feelings, essentially acting as a control system that determines what we believe we can achieve and how we act in various situations.

Maltz argued that is impossible for us to act in ways that misalign with our self-image.

If you see yourself as a fit person, you will act in ways that support your health and fitness. You will exercise, eat well, and take care of your body.

If you do not see yourself as a fit person, then you will behave accordingly and NOT prioritize workouts and healthy eating.

Self-image dictates our behavior.

How do we gain clarity on our self-image?

Try this exercise:

Get out a piece of paper and take a moment to consider who you believe you are.

Write down your roles.

Are you a

• Leader
• Parent
• Husband or wife
• A fit person

And are you a good version of any of those? Do you believe yourself to be good at these roles?

It is not necessarily true that your self-image aligns with the roles you have.

You may have the role of a leader, but not identify as one (this is part of imposter syndrome).

Just make a list of all the roles you play.

Then, ascribe an adjective to each role.

• Are you a loving spouse? Might you be a distracted spouse?
• Are you an inspiring leader or maybe a servant leader?
• Are you a great mom or dad?

As you write, you will connect with what you believe to be true. It will resonate.

Also, write down your attributes and traits.

Are you a smart person? Are you caring?

These things you wrote down are all pieces of your identity… your self-image.

Self-image is where we start, because someone may get you riled up if they challenge your identity.

But they can also get you fired up if they challenge your skills. This is why we also need self-awareness.

Self-Awareness: What are you good at?

Self-Awareness goes beyond your identity and extends to your skills and impact.

What are you skilled at? What is your impact on others? What are your weaknesses?

Daniel Goleman writes about this in his book Emotional Intelligence.

He describes self-awareness as the ability to recognize and understand one's own emotions, strengths, weaknesses, values, and motivations.

Goleman considers self-awareness to be a core component of emotional intelligence, which is crucial for personal and professional success.

And I agree… but this article is not about EQ, but indignation, so let’s look at it from that lens.

Self-awareness is simply a form of clarity… again, clarity on your strengths, weaknesses, and impact.

And clarity leads to confidence.

This clarity gives you confidence in what you are good at so if someone challenges you, or assumes you are weak when you are actually strong, you are more likely to feel indignant… motivated to prove them wrong.

Without this clarity, you are more likely to believe that another person’s sh*t talking is true.

How many times have you heard a story of a successful person who had a teacher who once told them, “You won’t amount to anything.”

In the moment, they may have believed that person. But someone who has self-awareness may react with indignation, “you don’t know me!”

Imagine if a person told you, “You can’t do that! You don’t even know how!”

Will you crumble?

Or…

(Cue the kindling and get that fire burning)

Will you react with indignation because they don’t know what they are talking about?

Clarity leads to confidence.

As an exercise, continue adding to your clarity list.

• What are you good at?
• What do people praise you for?
• What are your weaknesses?
• What are you confident in?

The more you write, the more you will identify and resonate with your list of strengths.

Again, this builds confidence.

Confidence in who you are is great, but there is another factor we need to consider which can really spice up our motivation.

Vision.

Vision: What do you want?

Someone can insult your identity or skills, and you can feel a desire to prove them wrong, but…

When you add “Vision” to the mix, you add rocket fuel to your fire.

Think of Elon Musk. How many times did people challenge his vision?

How many people told him he was crazy to build and reuse rockets… that his goal to land humans on Mars was impossible? How many naysayers have told him what he CAN’T do.

A lot.

(I get fired up just thinking about it)

Did he quit? Heck no. He kept pushing, and even started more businesses in the meantime. He is consistently proving people wrong.

It may look like he doesn’t care about people’s opinions, but he DOES. Did you see the interview where he reacted to Neil Armstrong’s negative criticism about SpaceX?

(You can check it out here… And listen to his mission!)

When you have a mission and vision that is important to you, you have something larger than yourself to defend.

Elon Musk (in his mind) is defending all of humanity.

Someone can challenge you, and you can defend your identity. But when someone challenges your vision, they are challenging the future impact you desire to have on other people.

They are challenging your resolve, your dedication, your creativity, your motivation, your PURPOSE.

These are challenges to the values you hold dear.

Are you going to let someone do that?

I hope not.

So, pick up your list.

Write down your vision.

Write down your purpose.

Write down your values.

Create more clarity.

But now that we have this clarity, how do we put it all together and leverage it to fuel motivation?

Getting Fired Up

As mentioned earlier, I am not a huge fan of relying on other people’s opinions. But this is a mechanism that works, so we can use it to our advantage.

I will also comment that motivation is an emotion… it is NOT something that is meant to be turned on all the time.

However, it is possible to summon motivation when we need it.

All we have to do is remember back when we felt someone treated us unfairly.

Maybe they said something mean or underhanded. Maybe you were overlooked for the promotion. Maybe you were cut from a team. Maybe you were asked to find another job.

Think of a time when someone said something to you that got your fire burning.

Steep in that for a moment. Notice how it impacts you. Notice where you feel it.

Now… if you want to save this feeling for later, we need to capture this story and these feelings and bottle them up.

Yeah… I just said to bottle up your emotions.

I would not normally recommend this, but this is for tactical use, so roll with me.

Envision the story, the experience, your feelings, and your fire, and imagine yourself tucking them into a bottle or a box. When you do this, you should notice your strong emotions subside.

Put that box on a corner shelf in your mind.

When you want some motivation, open the box.

There are other methods to this, too…

David Goggins says that he made a recording of all his haters talking sh*t about him… and he listens to it while he runs.

That is SAVAGE.

Whichever way you choose to leverage indignation, let is kindle the fire within you.

But let me add one final thought here.

Even though indignation is a powerful motivator, do not let it be your primary source of fuel.

Your effort, your focus, and your purpose should be all about your goals, and not what other people think about you.

Do not overindulge in this and give the power of your motivation to other people.

There are other ways to fire up your motivation, and I will write an article on these methods soon.

But in the meantime, it is OK to recognize we are social animals, and we track “fairness” very well.

We can leverage indignation for motivation.

But use it at your own risk.

The Wrap Up

Indignation is that feeling you get when something is not fair. When someone says something rude to you, you can feel indignant and motivated to prove them wrong.

This is motivation you can leverage to get more done.

To make sure you feel indignant, and not just angry, create clarity in 3 areas:

• Self-image
• Self-awareness
• Vision

You can turn indignation into fuel for action.

But beware of giving too much power to others to fuel your drive.

Remember, you are in this game of life for yourself.

F*** what other’s think.

But also, use it to your advantage.

Take action, my friends.

And crush it!

Clark