A positive attitude and a lot of passion are absolutely necessary to running a successful business over the long term. Your passion and dream will be your motivation during this process. However, the daily ups and downs of running a business, along with the occasional misstep, will often diminish your motivation. This can have severe consequences. Without proper and long lasting motivation the odds of your business surviving for years to come will be reduced. The good news is that there are plenty of things you can do to help maintain your own motivation and to help motivate your staff.
Section 1: Positive Thoughts
Again, so much of running your own business comes down to positive thoughts. Staying positive and changing how you think about life can help ensure that you stay motivated during difficult times.
#1- Seek out support.
Being an entrepreneur is difficult work. Sometimes it can help to reach out to others, especially if they are also entrepreneurs. Seeking out support from other people who are facing similar challenges can help you retain your motivation and find new innovative ways to solve your problems. Support from others can also help you have a little fun and remember why you wanted to be an entrepreneur in the first place.
#2- Believe in your ability to accomplish your dreams.
However you go about achieving this, it is important to replenish your belief in yourself on a regular basis. Some people accomplish this by creating a motivation wall, while others have regular meetings with a mentor or life coach. Even just taking a few minutes each day to tell yourself that you have what it takes to succeed can motivate you to keep going.
#3- Get away from work for a while.
Every mind needs a little rest. It is important to get away from your business and your entrepreneurial mindset every now and then, simply to allow your brain to rest and recuperate. This is a great time to engage in a hobby and get some exercise. Exercise is vital to a healthy mind and by taking some time to relax and refresh you will find that you are able to return to work with more motivation.
Section 2: Learning How to Manage Your Time
Properly managing your time will help you not only to be more productive, it will also help ensure that you remain motivated. Every successful entrepreneur has good time management skills.
#1- Forget ‘clock time’.
Traditional time management wisdom is designed to help you manage your ‘clock time’, or actual minutes on the clock. This is not really how you spend your day however. You may want to consider forgetting about ‘clock time’ and focus on real time. Real time is how much of your day you spend on each activity, both in work and at home. Real time is relative.
#2- Choose how much time you want to spend on specific things.
Since real time is relevant, you have the power to choose how much of your time you spend on specific activities. As a business owner you may not be able to stop interruptions and problems, but you can choose how much time you want to spend dealing with them. Decide how much time you want to spend thinking about things, conversing about things and acting on things, then match your available time appropriately.
Tomorrow I will continue with sections 3 and 4 of Staying Motivated.