Ways to Stay Motivated as an Entrepreneur.
As an entrepreneur, staying motivated is key to the success of your business.
In the beginning, staying motivated might not be that much of a hustle for you. But, as days go by, your motivation reservoir may run dry once in a while.
With so much work to be done, working long hours, and burning the midnight oil to get things done, you will feel overwhelmed.
Also, there are days you feel you just can’t find a balance between your entrepreneurial life and your personal life. There are days your business is dealing with one set back after another and feel like you can’t do it anymore.
With all these, losing motivation as an entrepreneur is very easy. But, you literally can’t afford to give up or stay down. You have to force yourself to get up and keep going on those exhausting days.
Motivation is what will keep you going and push your business to success. When you are motivated to get work done and keep going, those who work with you will also feel driven.
There are few ways you can stay motivated and keep going on those grueling days when you are overwhelmed and entrepreneurship is taking a toll on you.
Remind yourself of your WHY
What better way to stay motivated than reminding yourself why you are doing what you are doing?
When you feel tired, overwhelmed, and giving up, remember why you started your business. When you don’t remind yourself of your WHY regularly, you are likely going to lose track of your bigger picture.
You probably started your business to be your own boss, choose your own salary or as an opportunity to grow a business you are genuinely passionate about.
Establish a personal mission statement in line with your WHY and go back to it from time to time.
Remembering why you chose the entrepreneurship path will help you stay focused and keep your eyes on the prize.
This is a great way to remind you of how far you have come in fulfilling your WHY and where you want to go.
Establish a solid Routine
A routine is about all the things you do in a day, when you do them and how you spend your day generally.
Establishing a solid and healthy routine will make the magic happen for you as an entrepreneur.
A routine helps you cut down your stress as an entrepreneur and improves your efficiency. With a solid routine, you will be able to control how you use your time and make the most out of it.
Have a routine that guides how you start and end your day. Include your meals, exercise, and time for yourself away from work.
This will help you stay in-check mentally and physically and it’s a good way to deal with daily inevitable stress.
Make use of your mornings
Studies show that the first few hours of the day when we wake up are when our brains are most productive.
Create a morning routine to help you start the day properly. This morning routine helps tune your mind to the activities of the day.
Use a few of your morning hours to get important tasks done instead of running around the house doing things that are not important. You can come up with a social media marketing strategy, work on a business proposal, research, and contact potential partners or investors. You can create content for your business’ social media pages to help in marketing your products or services.
Consider writing a list of the things you need to do on that day – set business and personal goals. This is going to help you stay focused and organized throughout the day.
Map your goals and tasks to be done
As an entrepreneur, you definitely have goals you have set for your business and for yourself.
Having the goal is not enough, but having a plan or a ‘map’ that shows when you want to accomplish these goals is what matters.
Write down each task/ goal you want to accomplish and when you want to accomplish it as research shows this increases your chances for success by 42%.
Write these goals or tasks somewhere you can see them when you need something to ignite your motivation.
Set reminders
With all your goals set and even written down, you are still likely going to forget some or lose focus.
Setting reminders for yourself on your phone or your computer is a good way to remind yourself to get things done.
Set alarms reminding you of tasks to do during the day, e.g. to send or reply to emails, and make a business call. It could be an alarm to remind you to write a post for your blog or create content for your social media pages.
Go to the extent of having alarms set to remind you to put your phone away and focus on your work.
Don’t face the challenges alone
Sometimes the motivation you need comes from people you know – your family or friends. This is the best motivation – knowing they are there for you.
Family and friends have a way of gassing us up even when things are thick. Involve family members and friends you love during such times. They can help you get up when you are down, congratulate you on your wins, remind you of your past wins, and your goals. They will encourage you when you are in a dump.
So, when you are having those grueling days, call one of your loved ones and see how it goes.
Cut yourself some slack and give yourself some personal time
Don’t be too hard on yourself just to get work done and forget to have time for yourself.
Get time aside to just chill and relax. Don’t expect to stay motivated if you don’t give your mind and body a break.
As they say, “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”.
Allow yourself to have some personal time away from the business to decompress and watch a movie, play cards, read a book, or sleep.
Look for inspiration
Another great way to stay motivated is to look for inspiration yourself.
A good way to do this is by reading or listening to success stories about entrepreneurs.
Use these stories as a source of motivation when you feel stuck. Learn from these entrepreneurs and see how they overcame the hurdles and became successful.
If you have a specific problem or challenge you are facing, look for ways these entrepreneurs solved similar issues.
This is a good way to remind yourself you can get to the other side.
Engage in activities that are motivational
There are things outside yourself you can find inspirational/ motivational.
Don’t bury yourself in work all day every day. On your personal time, get to do things you find inspirational.
Watch inspirational films – fiction and documentaries, listen to motivating podcasts or uplifting music.
These things put you in a positive mindset essential for staying motivated and getting through rough times.
Celebrate your small wins and reward yourself regularly
This is a great way to remind yourself that you can do it. Look at the things you have accomplished since you started your entrepreneurship journey.
They don’t have to be huge things but those small wins are the ones that will keep you going. The small wins are stepping stones to the overall success of your business and to your journey as an entrepreneur.
Reward yourself for a job well done whether big or small. Take yourself to a nice restaurant for dinner, go for a vacation once in a while or buy yourself something you have always wanted once you had your finances straight.
Treating yourself motivates you to work harder and keep going.
Keep your focus on the positive
There are days when things just seem to not be working out, things are hard and its one blow after another.
On these days, you need to keep your head high and look at the few things or one thing that is good and working out.
The positive energy will help you keep pushing through. Give it your all even when it’s hard to do that.
Come to think of this, you are trying to do something you love and not everybody gets such a chance.
Final Thoughts…
Remembering why you started your entrepreneurship journey is the main key to staying motivated as an entrepreneur.
Anytime you feel overwhelmed, stay positive, and see how far you have come and all the victories you have had so far and focus on where you want to go. Look at how far other entrepreneurs have come despite having grueling days too.
The power to keep going is in you. Choose to beat self-doubt, stay determined, and keep pushing.
