I get this question ALL of the time: “After 20-plus years of doing what you do, how do still bring your passion and fire EVERY SINGLE DAY?!”
If you haven’t met me before, you should know that I’m quite the fireball LOL. If you have met me before, you know I’m very passionate about what I do and I bring a strong personality every single day. This is a result of me being able to stay greatly motivated throughout the years…
Now, whether you’re a new entrepreneur or you have years of experience building and running new businesses, you’re going to have times when you feel unmotivated. You’re going to feel like you just can’t do it, or you’ll feel like it can all wait until tomorrow. You’ll find yourself spending hours on Facebook instead of getting the work you need to do done.
Somewhere in the back of your head, you know that you have deadlines approaching. They may not be set in stone, but if you put them off long enough, you will have major problems. If you take 6 months to write your business plan before you approach investors, someone else is likely to have a similar idea to yours and jump in ahead of you.
So how can you keep yourself motivated when all you want to do is watch cat videos and take a nap? Try these tricks, and you should find yourself motivated and driven to get it all done and then some.
How’s Your To-Do List Looking?
To-do lists are incredibly useful. They make us feel like we’re really getting things done. Just making a to-do list and crossing things off can give you a motivational boost, but what if you already have a to-do list, and it’s not really helping you? Well, what have you written down to do today?
If your list looks something like:
- Laundry
- Write business plan
- Found the next Apple
…then it needs a little work. Your plan is too vague. Writing a business plan is a big undertaking, not to mention founding a Fortune 500 company. If this is your to-do list for the day, you’re only going to be able to cross off one item. The other two are going to sit there staring at you for a long time. Instead, why not write something like this?
- Get someone to do your laundry
- Write business plan introduction
- Brainstorm*/ business strategies
- Write company mission
Breaking up your big tasks into smaller tasks that you can check off your list will get you to your goals a lot faster than staring at a seemingly insurmountable, giant task all day and doing nothing.
Incorporate Breaks Into Your Day
It can be hard to take time off for yourself, especially when you work from home. However, think about your workday when you worked in an office. You had scheduled morning and afternoon breaks, as well as a lunch break. When you take the time to step away from your desk, you give yourself time to clear your mind and rest your eyes for a moment.
Just taking a 5-minute break every 25-30 minutes can increase your productivity immensely. After all, you’ll be a lot less likely to check your phone or log into Facebook while you’re working if you know you have designated break time to do that in just a few minutes.
And make yourself take a good, solid lunch break. You may feel like you haven’t gotten enough done to justify a break, but your productivity is not going to increase by sitting in your chair, wishing you could eat lunch. You can’t help that your morning was slow, but you can take a step back and come back with fresh eyes for a better afternoon after lunch.
Get Help
If you were trying to lose weight, your coach and doctor would advise you to include your friends and family in your efforts. They would tell you to build a support network and use it whenever you feel down or discouraged.
You can do the same thing for your business ventures. Whenever you feel unmotivated, call someone you know who can help talk you through your rough patch and help you get driven again.
