What Motivates You?

Whether it’s Money, Family, or just having the thrill of achieving a goal, we all have our own unique motivating factors as business owners/entrepreneurs. Motivation is key in the world of business. Whether it be motivating staff, yourself, or even your customers, motivation is how we survive. When you first begin your venture, your motivation levels are high due to the excitement of being your own boss and the possibilities of making “tons” of money, however this feeling may begin to diminish when things start to fall short of your expectations or become harder than first realized or expected. One of the hardest things in business is figuring out how to stay motivated or how to increase your motivation when things go wrong. Some of us listen to tapes of popular motivational speakers, or chat with that one friend that sweats positivity and loves to give their own insight. Doing this is a great way to get a quick boost of positivity and motivation, however just like caffeine after a while this boost tends to slowly fade away and your outlook tends to go with it. There are a few steps that you can follow to create or keep this intense motivational high going.'
 

1. Write Everything Down. This is one of the most important things to do when trying to stay motivated and will also help you obtain your objective. You have a busy life between managing your business and your personal life, and sometimes we tend to get overwhelmed and forget important tasks, and trying to mentally remember these tasks causes us to not only waste our energy but our time as well. Writing things down will also help you, when you do talk to that special positive friend or listen to that motivating tape, by writing down the important quotes that you hear. After you take these notes, stick them to your computer or put them somewhere visible, so that whenever you have doubts, you can get that quick boost of motivation.


 
2. Create Weekly Obtainable Goals. Key word in this is “Obtainable”, create goals weekly that you would like to accomplish but make sure that they are realistically achievable. Having a different small obtainable goal the first couple of weeks will help you to start building your motivation and confidence for creating and completing larger tasks.


 
3. Give Yourself Incentives. Everyone does better and tries harder when they are rewarded. Although this is your company you should still set a reward for yourself when you reach a goal. It can be something small like a dinner at a nice restaurant or something big depending on your task, like a nice vacation.  Gretchen Rubin in her article “The Psychology of Rewarding Yourself with Treats” makes a good point by saying “If I give more to myself, I can ask more from myself. Self-regard isn’t selfish.”  This is true when it comes to how our brain processes rewards, we reward ourselves when we feel that we reached an accomplishment.


 
4. Get Help with Other Tasks. Unless you’re the incredible hulk, you can’t lift a 600-pound rock on your own, so why would you try to achieve an overwhelming task on your own. Having a team is great because, a team can help ease your stress on a difficult task, reduce the timeframe for completion, and can free your schedule so that you may focus on your next goal. When selecting your team members, pick subject experts that have a full understanding of what you are trying to accomplish, like if you have a difficult accounting task, you should hire a team that knows about accounting.  Selecting a subject matter expert will relieve your anxiety, give you great motivating advice about the task, and you can trust that the work will be completed correctly.


 

Doing these few steps can help you Stay Focused and Grow Confidently!