We all have those times where we just can’t muster enthusiasm or motivation for doing our jobs well. If you’re a business owner it will be even more important for you to be motivated. It’s up to you to keep your business going and keep morale up amongst your employees. You need to be excited about your work for clients to see why it’s worth spending money on. So, how do you keep yourself motivated when all you want to do is give up?
Know What You’re Working Towards
If you don’t know why you’re doing it, you’ll be less likely to give your best. Why are you running a business? What is your motivation? Are you doing it for an income or because it’s something you love to do? You need to have goals in mind so there’s something to work towards on the days that are tough. Take a step at a time. You don’t need to see your goals come to fruition straight away. Reaching milestones takes time, so go easy on yourself. Once you’ve tackled one hurdle, then you can think about the next. Reaching your goals makes all the hard work worth it.
Keep Learning
When you stop learning, you may as well give up. There is so much to learn from running a business and working with people. Even if you learn from your failures, you’re still learning. The same goes for staying ahead of new information. Your competitors will be constantly searching for the newest and most relevant information to your industry. You need to be doing the same thing. Stay on course by getting your basic Visio training done and then move onto more complex technology that could catapult your business into a new and better phase.
Take Breaks
Every worker needs a break now and then. If you attempt to work too hard, you won’t be doing yourself or your business any favors. You need time to recharge your batteries so you can come back fighting. Even if you’re a small business that’s just started to make a name for yourself, a few days off isn’t going to make a huge difference. If you don’t put your physical and emotional health first, there may come a time when you won’t be able to run a business anyway.
Accept Criticism
Constructive criticism isn’t meant to get you down, it’s meant to motivate you to do better. If you’ve surrounded yourself with good people, the feedback you get will be for your own benefit. It all depends on how you choose to look at it. You could choose to take it personally and take nothing from it, or you could choose to swallow it whole and learn from it. Criticism is part and parcel of working with others, and you have to work with others to run a business.
Loosen the Reigns
We all like to be in control of things, but there are times in life when things happen that we have no control over. If those things tend to make you miserable or make you feel like giving up, you may need to change the way you think.
By accepting the fact you can’t control everything, you may just motivate yourself to work harder on the things you know you can control and forget the rest. When something happens that was unavoidable, fix the problem as best as you can and move on.
Reward Yourself
Nothing motivates a person more than the idea of a reward. When you’ve worked hard and you didn’t particularly want to, it’s okay to reward yourself. Whether it’s a bar of chocolate at the end of the day or a new gadget to make work easier on you, you deserve it. If you’re finding work particularly difficult, divide it into stages and give yourself a small treat for every stage you complete.
Is it Time for Something Else?
There are times when you won’t be able to find the motivation you need because you’ve lost the passion for what you do. During these times, you need to seriously consider whether it’s worth pursuing what you’re doing. You may find your motivation by looking into other alternatives.
If you find that you become excited at the idea of other prospects, it may be time for you to move on. That may be diving into a different aspect of the business; something new and refreshing. Or, it may be that you need to find a new job altogether.
If you’re willing to look for it, motivation can be found easily.