Let's Think About It Podcast

Episode 75: The Glue Your Goals Are Missing

• Morice Mabry • Season 3 • Episode 75

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Episode Summary 

Momentum doesn’t come from motivation. It comes from purpose.

In Episode 75, Coach Mo breaks down Why-Power—the most overlooked and most powerful force in the S.W.A.G. framework. After laying the groundwork with self-awareness in the previous episode, this conversation goes deeper into purpose as the fuel that keeps you showing up when motivation fades and the inner critic gets loud.

This episode challenges surface-level goal setting and exposes why external rewards—money, titles, recognition—rarely sustain long-term fulfillment. Coach Mo shares a personal story of building the DOJ Coaching and Career Development Unit to illustrate how clarity of purpose generates energy, conviction, and momentum that can’t be denied.

If you’re heading into 2026 with goals but no follow-through, this episode calls out what’s missing—and shows you where to start.

Key Takeaways

  • Why-Power beats motivation every time
    Motivation fades. Purpose sustains action under pressure.
  • Surface goals collapse without a deeper “why”
    Money, titles, and outcomes won’t carry you through resistance.
  • Values create clarity when decisions get hard
    Identifying non-negotiable values sharpens purpose and filters opportunities.
  • The punk-ass inner critic thrives when your why is weak
    No purpose equals easy distraction, delay, and self-sabotage.
  • Momentum for 2026 starts now—not in January
    Purpose built today creates execution tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01:

Subscribe now and join me on YouTube at Swag Coaching. So let's get your reps in. Welcome to another episode of the Let's Stick About It Podcast. I'm your host, Coach Mo. And we're going to keep this momentum going in December. Remember, at the beginning of the month, I talked about building momentum leading into 2026, not waiting to start your goals in 2026, but let's build our momentum first, then lead into 2026, going after our grows. And we focus on the swag framework. And so the last session, we talked about self-awareness and what that looks like, and how just being aware of that punk-ass inner critic, right? That kind of slows that momentum down and really interrupt us. And just having consciousness of when those doubts, those fears, that negative talk is starting to show up, all of that, that's aligned with self-awareness. And initially, that's what swag is self-awareness, why power, aligned action, and grit. And so last week we focused on self-awareness. So this time I'm going to tap into the why power because why power is purpose. It's really the glue in the swag framework. This is episode number 75. That's a big, a big accomplishment for me. Why is it a big accomplishment? Because I continue to show up, 75 weeks, that I continue to show up and provide value and provide insights to help you think about just very a lot of different things around consciousness. And that's really what I'm going to get into. So if I'm showing up for 75 weeks, I do these once a week, and I'm on episode 75. So that's 75 weeks. I'm really excited about that. But why am I doing this? See, that's the why power. I just got to bring value. I honestly believe that God put me on this earth to be a coach, to be a leader of self-coach. And that's what this podcast is really about. It's about helping you get out of your own damn way. And this is a platform for me to provide that type of value for people. And so I continue to show up regardless whether I feel like it or not. I just want to give you value. And that's what we're going to talk about today is the why power, right? I'm showing up because I want to give just wisdom, knowledge, insights, whatever I possibly can, so that you can get out of your own way. And that's where the swag framework comes into play. And let's tap into the why power. Because as we move into 2026, you guys, we have certain goals. And if you're not even thinking goals, that's because the S in the SWAG framework is not present. And that punk ass inner critic is always going to distract you away from thinking about goals. And then when you do think about a goal, he's going to show up to try to talk you out of following through on the goal. And so, how do you limit the punk ass inner critic from showing up to limit you from even going after your goals? To limit you from even trying to set goals. Why power? You gotta have a purpose. Whatever it is you're going after. Look at companies, right? They have a mission. Why do they do what they do? What is their purpose? And that's what the successful companies have. And so as we're moving into 2026, let's start talking about what is my why power? Why power and how I break it down is your core belief and value of why you're trying to move to accomplish something. Okay. So if your goal is to get a promotion, move up the chain in your career, why is that important? And I don't mean why, because I need to make more money and pay my bills, because I want a new car, because I that's top-level external surface type reasoning. Because when you promote and you're doing it just to make more money, and then you start making them more money, you still can feel unfulfilled, right? So we got to take a deeper dive to understanding why, though. Why? And how do you find your white? If you have no clue of what your purpose is, where do you start? The first thing that you can do is just understand what your core values are. Let's just start there at the very basic. What are those core values? And we all live through certain values that we carry. We all do, right? We naturally acquire certain values through our upbringing, our culture, our marital status, our income, all of these things, from being a kid to where you are today, we've been endured in certain traditions and certain traits, all of these different things starts to shape our values, and we just live through it. We naturally live through it. But then when we get to this point in our lives and we have this unfulfillment that we're carrying, how do you solve that? How do you find that purpose? Ask yourself what's important to me. You gotta continue to challenge asking those questions.

SPEAKER_02:

Let's start with those values though. And the simplest thing that you can do, and this is where AI comes in. Leverage it. Something like that, right? And I teach this workshop as at the same time. Do that, and it will list 100 values.

SPEAKER_01:

Just get a highlighter and go through and highlight your top 25. Just start there, whatever resonates with you.

SPEAKER_02:

And as you do that, just highlight what just sticks out to you. Okay, so you do that.

SPEAKER_01:

Then what I want you to do is knock the 25 to your top 10. Okay, so then you knock it down to 10, right? And it may be a little bit of a challenge because you're trying to prioritize and things like that. But here's the other thing that I forgot to mention: do it for work and do it for your personal life. Okay. So let's talk about the work side. So, how we're trying to figure out what our why is as it pertains to maybe a career, business, something along that line. So when you ask Chat GPT to give you those hundred values, we're gonna break it down on the 25, the top 25 values as it relates to work aspirations, business aspirations, things around making income. Okay. And then after we get the 25, we knock it down to 10. With the 10, I want you to break it down to your top three to five values that are non-negotiable. So, what this really starts to do is creating consciousness around what your values are. So now as you're starting to think about what your purpose is and what your why is, you have some values that you can start to tie to, right? So if you're on the fence on what type of promotion that you want, now you have these values. As you're looking for jobs or career change, an executive position, you got to really start to connect if these values that you carry that are important to you mirrors what this organization is offering. And I think that's just huge because when there's alignment there, you naturally show up as a better version of yourself. And then when you're going through the interview process and the hiring process, and you know what those values are and the non-negotiables, as you're going through this process, you can start to really read the organization through their behaviors and pick up certain signals if this is a good alignment for your decision-making process, whether you want to work there or not. And the same with businesses. If you're an entrepreneur and you're looking for certain guidance, certain help, certain vendors, certain people that you need to outreach to, outsource with, and you have to make certain decisions, you lean on your values, right? And so when you understand that, now you could start looking at why? What's your purpose? And it's just an easier path for you. And let me tell you the story. I work at the Department of Justice, the California Department of Justice. And one of the things that I was able to do at the Department of Justice was create a coaching and career development unit. Okay, never done before. I had the opportunity, one, to create my position and create a new unit. If you work in any type of state agency, city, county, federal, all of that stuff is already structured. Classifications, positions, things like that. I went outside the box, and I was able to create what I just mentioned, a coaching and career development unit, right? I think God put me on this earth to really be a coach and teach leaders how to lead themselves and how to just be a better version of themselves, right? And so my why power was the driving force for me to create this unit. And at the time I didn't know that. As I was going through my coaching cohort program to get credentialed as a certified coach, it hit me that DOJ the people that I work with can use someone of my caliber to coach them.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. I think that's what I want to do. But why do you want to do that, Mo? I just want to help these leaders get out of their own damn way.

SPEAKER_01:

I really do. I really believe that I can help them. And I'm just this guy who truly enjoy having these type of counseling, mentoring type conversations. And I just I never had this methodological approach and how to help people get out of their own way. I just naturally show up and talk to them and just provide help without a strategic approach. And as I was going through my cohort program to get certified as a coach, it taught me that process of how to help leaders. And when I started learning that process for myself, I was like, wow, I think I can do this at the Department of Justice. And then it would align with my purpose, where I have the ability to coach people every day without the grind and hustle to try to find clients. My clients are DOJ leaders, and that was just my mindset. And because my why was so powerful, it generated this energy, this passion that I was not going to be denied. I was not going to be denied. And as I was going through the writing my proposals and coaching people in a department, it was just like, man, this guy is just like crazy passionate about this coaching thing. I need to listen to him. It was literally like that. And I remember I was close to finishing up my cohort because to in order to get your certification, and any coach can tell you this, you got to coach people. You got to get your reps in. And my thought was, man, I need to get my reps in with the employees at the Department of Justice. Hey, let me coach you. I'm in this cohort program. I need to get some coaching hours and I got to practice. Can I practice coaching on you? I was like, yeah, sure, Mo, absolutely. And I just started coaching people just because I enjoy it. Then it wasn't hard for me to ask people. And then a lot of times I'm naturally having these conversations with people, but they didn't know I was coaching them. But I'm asking all of these questions. I was being a coach, and I talk a lot about that. I talk a lot about being a leader and doing leadership. Being leadership and doing leadership. Two two separate different things. And a lot of times, what I experienced with a lot of my peers, they were trying to do coaching, meaning they naturally carried a lot of fear and they're showing up with the inner critic telling them that you need to make money, be paid in order to coach somebody. So they naturally would have this fear and hesitation to bring coaching into their organization if they were working with an organization, working in an organization or an employee out of an organization, or whatever that reason is. And that's a judgment on my part. But for Maurice Mabrie, I didn't want to carry that judgment because I knew how important coaching is to me and what it meant for me and my legacy and my career. And that was my why. That's my why. And because I carried that, everyone around me feels it. They feel it, they currently feel it, they felt it. And they got on board with it, and people championed my idea to bring this into the department. And it just took off. And I hired a staff, I got a coach that works with me, all of this stuff. It's great. So when I talk about creating this momentum for 2026, I'm highly recommending Y Power in the SWAG framework. Because whether your goal is to lose weight, exercise more, be more organized, get a promotion, be a better husband, wife, parent, whatever, you gotta tap into the why.

SPEAKER_02:

You got to. Because if you truly understand your why.

SPEAKER_01:

We get into a good one-on-one conversation and we start talking about coaching. Oh my goodness, they feel it. They feel the energy that comes from it. Because I understand my why. I understand my why. And when I set up a goal, I understand that I got to figure out why I'm setting this goal. Because if I can do that and create an understanding of why it's important in me, it's going to radiate this type of energy that's going to propel me to achieve that goal because I understand my why. And that's so powerful. It's so powerful. But here's the trick, though. Here's the trick. That punk ass inner critic is lurking. It's lurking. And it's not going to allow you the time in the day to want to figure out what your why is. Because it's going to create this lazy thinking mantra. Oh, I don't feel like doing that right now. Oh, it's too hard to think about why it's important and I don't know. And it's easier. Let's just go watch TV. Oh, let's go do this over here to distract you away from the why. But here's the secret sauce. If you don't know what your why is and you're struggling to figure out what your why is, right? We already did the core value thing, and you've identified three to five core values, and this is important, but you still don't know what your purpose is. Start with ChatGPT. Just get some ideas. Just, hey man, ChatGPT. Guess what? I just worked out that I got these three to five values. I feel as though I want to be, I want to go after this promotion for a supervisor position, and I've been doing this for X amount of years, but I'm having trouble figuring out what my why is. But here are my core values. What ideas do you have for me just to get me thinking? Boom. Start there just to get the juices flowing in your mindset so that you can start to understand what your purpose is and why you're going after this goal. That's it. Start there, baby steps. As I said, this month is the opportunity to create the momentum for 2026. But the reality of it all is you probably even listening to this right now. And then you cut it off and go on about your business. And some of you are already high achievers, and you probably already do this. Kudos to you. But for those who's in that cycle and can't get out of their own damn way and keep repeating the cycle and don't understand why they're still in the same position that they're in and nothing's really changing. One is the punk ass inner critic that's making things louder in your head than it really is, and it's talking you down because you're feeling this change is happening, but you don't know what the outcome of the change is going to be because you can't see the future of what the change is going to be. So that punk ass inner critic steps in, brings up an old ass memory to make you feel afraid and doubtful and stay comfortable. And guess what? That's what you do. Prime example. Here's an example. You want to lose weight. You want to lose 30%. And I'm guilty of this too. I'm not immune to the inner critic. He gets in my head and my shit too. But here's what he does, right? Trying to lose weight. Let's just say the goal is to lose 25 pounds this year. Okay. And you got your diet plan, you got all of this stuff set up. You invested in a diet program, and you bought a gym membership, and you mapped out your days when you go to the gym, how many calories you're gonna take in, all of that stuff, right? And you're feeling excited. The first week is great, you knock it out, but then the second week is cool. By the third week, something creeps in that punk ass in a critic. Oh man, it's early.

SPEAKER_02:

Let's just take the day off. Ain't nobody gonna miss it. Right?

SPEAKER_01:

Or remember last year we tried this program and how hard it was to lose 25 pounds. What makes you think it's gonna work this year? Let's just let's try something different, and then it just starts planting these little seeds in your head, and then you step on the scale, nothing's changed, so you start to believe it because you see the picture of last year of it not working, and then the inner critic is writing shotgun, cosigning that bullshit, and you believe it. And so, guess what you do? You start tearing off slowly but surely. Next to you by March, you're off the plural, you're off the program and you ain't lost no weight. In fact, you probably gained a couple of pounds, but that's what it does. All because you don't have a why power though. You don't have a why power, you haven't thought through what your purpose is and why you're even doing it. And when you try to think about it, you don't feel like it because it takes a lot of effort to think through this. And so that's the punk ass inner critic telling you to shut it down and let's just go to bed. Let's not think about it right now, and that's what it does. Real talk, you know this, you know it, right? I'm not immune to it, but I'm putting awareness on it. I'm calling out that punk ass inner critic for you right now. That's why power. When you have that why power, when you have that, you start taming that punk ass inner critic. But you need self-awareness first. Get the self-awareness that the inner critic is talking you out of this stuff, or what happens is you don't remember that you even forgot. If that makes sense, that's because your why power isn't strong. If it's not strong, you're gonna forget. Because it's not as important because you don't have a white power, and this applies to any goal, anything that you're trying to go after. So that's why the W in the swag framework, in my opinion, is the glue to this all, to all of this, to my framework. It's the glue. First, I believe you need to have the awareness, right? You need to have the awareness that you even want to have a goal. And if you decide that you do want to have a goal, what's the feeling behind it? That's self-awareness. And what is it when it's all quiet? What are your thoughts about yourself? Ooh. Ooh, I know some of you out there are beating yourselves up. That's that podcast inner critic. Real talk.

SPEAKER_02:

And when you have self-awareness around that you're beating yourself up, now there's power of choice. Do you continue beating yourself up, knowing that you beat yourself up? That's self-awareness. And I I spent last episode talking about that, so I'm not gonna continue to go there because I'm on why power. What is your purpose, and how are you gonna get there? And I'm not gonna tell you that. That's for you to figure it out, that's for you to challenge yourself.

SPEAKER_01:

What's your purpose?

SPEAKER_02:

And I guarantee you this you may forget to even challenge yourself because that's what the podcast and a critic wants you to do is to forget to challenge yourself.

SPEAKER_01:

Because if you forget to challenge yourself, that means it's gonna be stronger, it's gonna be more present.

SPEAKER_02:

That's what it is. So why power? Y power next week, aligned action. And we talked about aligned action today, but I didn't call it out. The glue today is why power. And if there's one thing that you take away from this episode, one identify those values. Just start there. Identify the values, and from those values build that white power.

SPEAKER_01:

Challenge yourself, ask yourself, what is my purpose? Why am I going after this goal? And keep asking those questions. Shit. At the end of the day, ask chat, ask chat GPT to give you some questions to ask yourself so that you can understand your why. It's out there. Google, whatever, figure it out, and that's why power. At the end of the day, you got to get into the swag framework, self-awareness, why power, aligned action, and grit. And you're in someone's framework, you're in someone's cycle. I'm just trying to get you in the right cycle, and the right cycle is the swag cycle. And why power, baby? That's what it is. I appreciate you. Thank you for listening, and I'll catch you on the next round. That's another rep in the inner arena. You didn't just listen, you leveled up your swag. Self-awareness, why power, light action, and grid. If this hit home, share it, subscribe to the Let's Think About It podcast, and lock in with me on YouTube at Swag Coaching. Until next time, stay aware, lead with your life, in the one minute, and keep your grid stuff.