Mr. Trotter was my freshman basketball coach. Short and squatty, he once told us during practice, “I only yell because I care.” I didn’t think so at the time (or even today), but he must have been one of the most caring people ever!
One of his favorite phrases to use, yelling or not, was “dog meat.” He could use that phrase as a noun or adjective, even turning it into a verb on occasion. “Hensley, that pass was dog meat.”
He never called you by your first name and if he didn’t like what you did, it was “dog meat.”
Needless to say, Coach Trotter wasn’t the best motivator I’ve been around.
Many of us fall into the trap of using external motivators to motivate ourselves and others. Reward or incentive, fear or guilt. These external motivators provide a momentary bump but are hard to sustain. More importantly, many of them just aren’t healthy in the first place.
When Paul wrote to Philemon, he landed on the best motivator of all — love.
8 Therefore, although in Christ I could be bold and order you to do what you ought to do, 9 yet I prefer to appeal to you on the basis of love … But I did not want to do anything without your consent, so that any favor you do would not seem forced but would be voluntary. — Philemon 8-9, 14