If you want to succeed in business, you need to have two things – motivation and passion. They complement each other and yet, one without the other is also pointless. You need to know what your passion is, if you want to stay motivated to achieve something, and you also need to know what your passion is, in order to stay motivated.
But often, we’re so busy working hard to build a successful business, earn the income we need and attract the clients we want to work with, we can lose our focus on one of these two things. We lose sight of those things that motivate us to keep going, as well as the passion that drove us to start our own business in the first place!
Here’s some simple steps you can take, to reconnect in with your passion and your motivation.
How to reconnect in with your passion:
- Find your why – What is the reason why you wanted to start business? What is it that you care about; the thing that gets you fired up? What drives you to keep working, even when the going gets tough?
- Make sure you have the right motivator in place – You need to ensure you have the right motivation in place. In last week’s post, we looked at intrinsic and extrinsic motivation – and it’s crucial that you know the differences between them.
- Ask the right questions – Often, when we try to reconnect in with our passion, we end up getting further away from it, as we ask the wrong questions. Questions around the money we need to earn or the number of clients we need aren’t going to help find our passion. The right questions are those that get you really thinking: What fulfils you? What would you do consistently, if money were no object? What do you love doing and makes you lose all sense of time? What would you gladly do, 24/7, if you could? What makes you spark?
Once you’ve re-established what your passion is, it’s time to reconnect your motivation.
How to reconnect in with your motivation:
- Remember your why – always, always make it about your why. If it helps, write your why out as a mission statement or affirmation, print it out and pin it somewhere you can see it regularly.
- Set a goal – What is it you want to achieve, as a result of your why? What is your main goal? You want a goal that is big enough to capture your imagination, in order to be compelling enough to motivate you to take action, but you also need to make sure it isn’t too big, that it overwhelms or delusions you. If need be, break it down into more manageable-sized separate goals.
- Measure your gains – You can’t improve what you’re not measuring, so find a way to measure your progress.
- Don’t do it alone – You may feel you need to do it alone, as you’re a solo-business, but that doesn’t mean it’s the best way forward. You need a support network in place. You need people to help encourage you forward, to share advice and tips with and to celebrate your wins.
Which brings us to the final point – celebrate your wins. It’s not going to help you, if you hold your celebrating back until you’ve reached your end destination. You need to be celebrating every step forward you make, every small achievement you reach. Not only will this help keep your motivation high, it will also ensure you don’t lose sight of your motivation and your passion.
How did you get on with today’s post? Have you been struggling with your motivation and/or passion? Was there one point from today’s post, that really stood out for you? Why not share you’re a-ha moments in the comments box below!
Image courtesy of Yuriy Shevtsov/Stock.Adobe.com