Are you struggling to motivate yourself? Have you tried and failed to increase your motivation? Growing a business is hard work, but there is one simple trick that you can play on your mind to increase your motivation. Trust us, it really works!
Reward
You must learn to reward your hard work with rest. Working yourself to death, 24 hours a day, may seem like a necessary evil to many of you and simply “par for the course” when growing a small business as an entrepreneur, but in reality this is not a positive mindset to foster if you are looking to enjoy the process of running a small business and be as productive as possible. It is much better to take a “craftsman” approach to growing your business, only making adjustments where necessary and focussing on improving the business processes that guide your business on a day-to-day basis, instead of being hunched over your laptop at 3am. Take some time off – go out with some friends, take a city break for the weekend or simply watch something funny on the TV. These simple steps will see you increase your motivation in no time! A change can be as good as a rest!
If you work constantly, with no reward, your mind (which hasn’t really changed since we were hunting for food and living in caves!) will not see the benefit of your labour. You need to understand that what you are doing is positive, you are moving in the right direction and that you deserve a well-earned rest. This well-earned rest will increase your motivation as your body needs as much of a rest as your brain does. This should be a time where you simply “switch off” (both mentally, as well as physically switching off any electronic devices that may interrupt this rest) and enjoy doing something outside of the business. If you don’t take the time to reward yourself, you won’t increase your motivation or even be motivated to keep working towards your next goal.
Working too hard, without reward, will encourage your brain to focus on the small things that it does get gratification (in the form of chemical releases into your brain) from. This could be checking social media, replying to emails, ticking small things off of your to-do list and so on. You can quickly see that these are not the hairy, audacious achievements that will enable you to grow your business. By working excessively you will lose sight of the bigger picture and your body will instead encourage you to tackle increasingly simple tasks, in order to be rewarded with the “happy chemicals” – endorphin (masks pain), dopamine (discovering what you were looking for), oxytocin (social situations) and serotonin (social dominance). Once you’ve lost focus and your motivation, it will set you back in growing your business and only serve to frustrate you even further. Watching after your health is a big step forward on the road to increasing your motivation. When you feel good, you’ll achieve more.
Rest
Your brain needs rest to focus and function properly. It will keep you on track and ensure your “eyes are on the prize” and that you can continually increase your motivation.
Have a long think about what you actually do on a day-to-day basis. Could some of your work be delegated for a week and, the parts that can’t, be put off for a week? It is crucial to fit in a break (even for a few days), somewhere if you want to increase your motivation and see your business progress alongside it. Feeling demotivated is a sure fire way to see a decrease in your work and the success of your business.
Learning to delegate is one of the most valuable lessons that you can learn, as otherwise you will simply never grow a sustainable and profitable business (at least one in which won’t fall apart at the seams if you stop working for a day). Think like an entrepreneurial leader, not like a corporate manager.
If you aren’t sure where to start looking for processes to outsource (either permanently or temporarily), look at your to-do lists for the past few weeks. Try to isolate individual tasks and business processes. Perhaps chasing invoices takes up a lot of your time? Or is it compiling and sending out that newsletter you committed yourself to?
Focus on what you are passionate about, start putting your plans in to action and increase your motivation.
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