How To Stay Motivated In Your Own Business
No matter how interesting running your own business is, and how enthusiastic you are about all the great opportunities it offers, there will be some days when you struggle to stay motivated in your own business. You just don’t want to sit at that desk another minute and answer yet another email, write another blog post or tweet another message.
If your “get up and go” has got up and gone, here are a few suggestions to help you get your mojo back.
6 Tips To Staying Motivated In Your Own Business
1. As Nike Says – Just Do It
Chances are you might not be in the mood when you start, but you’ll gradually relax into a groove and get on with your to-do list. No matter how badly the work comes out, such as a new blog post, you have something you can edit and improve. Even is your motivation for doing business is low, procrastinating will not gain you anything.
At mealtimes, eat high-quality protein and avoid simple carbohydrates such as white bread, cake, cookies and so on. They have no nutritional value, and can spike blood sugar and leave you with peaks of energy and chasms of exhaustion and hunger even though you just had a sugary donut an hour before.
FREE Checklist: How To Achieve A Mindset For Success
2. Stop Trying to Be “Perfect”
Many business owners overwhelm themselves by thinking everything they do has to be perfect. It doesn’t. It just has to get done. Do your best, of course, spellcheck your work and make sure you’ve said is what you really mean and won’t offend anyone before you hit the Send button. But otherwise, doing your best is better than doing nothing at all.
3. Avoid Overwhelm
Motivation for small business owners can be a struggle because they are so overwhelmed with work that they literally have no idea where to start – and so they don’t do anything. If this is the case, it’s time for an honest assessment of what you are spending your time on each day. Consider outsourcing some of these jobs to affordable freelancers. But until you find the right helper/s, just pick anything from your to-do list and just do it.
Also exercise actually gives you energy, and improves mental health as well as physical. You may feel totally exhausted, but you can still probably manage three 10-minute sessions, which have been shown to be just as effective as one sustained workout.
4. Outsource Tasks That Drag You Down
There are always going to be tasks you love doing and look forward to each day. Chances are you’re good at them, they’re interesting, and you are proud of your work. Then there are the tasks that are dull, boring and you hate them. You might even be so bad at them that you dread them and procrastinate until things come to a standstill in your business.
The truth is, there are millions of freelancers online who can take these tasks off your plate so you can happily spend your time doing the things you love. And here’s another reason: You’ll never be able to earn $50 per hour if you’re spending all your time doing $5 per hour tasks.
So be honest and write down all the chores you hate doing most, and start looking for reliable freelancers who can help you grow your business by freeing up your time and making the hours you spend on your business more positive and productive ones.
5. Manage Your Time Better
One reason that you might struggle to remain motivated in your own business is that you’re spending so many hours working on your business, but don’t seem to be getting the results you were hoping for. There might be a couple of reasons for this. One is that your hours aren’t really as productive as you think they are. Create a spreadsheet to track typical work days (or work sessions if you’re running your business part-time). Every 15 minutes, write down what you have accomplished.
If most of it is emails and phone calls, these chores are eating away at your workday and not doing anything to really help your productivity. Consider doing these chores only at certain times of the day, such as morning, lunch and evening before leaving for the day, and see how much more of your work sessions can be spent on things that really grow your business.
6. Reward Yourself
Give yourself a little treat at the end of each task you complete. It could be a break, a nice hot cup of coffee, or five minutes of online backgammon. Avoid working long days and working every weekend. Set vacation days for yourself and take them. Take a mental health day and do something you really enjoy, or go somewhere different in order to get a change of scenery. You will feel less burned out and stuck in a rut, and more in control of your own life.
Try to get plenty of rest, at least eight hours of sleep per night. Sleep deprivation of even just one lost hour, such as when we switch over to daylight savings time, is actually the cause of a significant number of accidents every year, so don’t skimp on sleep.
Free Checklist:Â Cultivating A Mindset For Success
Being a business owner can be overwhelming and exhausting and it’s no secret that it can be a struggle staying motivated in your own business all day, every day. There are numerous factors that motivate a person to become an entrepreneur. But why do some thrive and achieve their goals and dreams while others struggle? The answer is mindset. To learn more about embracing a success mindset download my free checklist, Cultivating a Success Mindset and start achieving your business goals today.
