7 ways to stay motivated for the long haul

7 Ways To Stay Motivated For The Long Haul

Staying motivated for the long haul is both challenging and necessary. We live in a fast-paced society where instant gratification is the norm. We may discover that we need skills and attributes to help us stay positive and on course as we deal with the ups and downs of business. We come to learn that growing a business is a process that requires patience, flexibility, trust, and the ability to deal with uncertainty, among other things.

It is important to note that we can ...

Motivation, realistic, Entrepreneurship, Business, Employee to Entrepreneur

Staying motivated for the long haul is both challenging and necessary. We live in a fast-paced society where instant gratification is the norm. We may discover that we need skills and attributes to help us stay positive and on course as we deal with the ups and downs of business. We come to learn that growing a business is a process that requires patience, flexibility, trust, and the ability to deal with uncertainty, among other things.

It is important to note that we can learn new skills and attributes to help us in our business. Entrepreneurship is no longer something someone is just born to do instead it is something we learn. Through practice and patience, we have the ability to change what is not working and enhance what is working so that we can successfully grow our business.

Below are 7 ways to stay motivated for the long haul:

Make/Renew your Commitment Being committed to ones business venture is essential to staying motivated for the long haul. When we make a commitment to ourselves and our business, we are able to move beyond fears, doubts and insecurities that in the past may have held us back. I know this to be true because I experienced it. I didnt make a commitment to my business until I was in business for almost three years. I would fluctuate in my commitment depending upon the circumstances. When things were going good, I was committed, when they werent, I thought about giving up. It wasnt until I made a written and verbal commitment to myself that I was going to give this business my all, no matter what, that I began to reap the benefits of being an entrepreneur. What I learned is that when we are most challenged is when we need to be committed the most.

Be Agile/Flexible Combined with being committed is being agile and flexible. Bill Rancic, winner of The Apprentice reality-tv series was recently a guest on my radio show, The Entrepreneur Hour. He said, having a business plan is important but being flexible with the plan is more important. Bill completely revamped his marketing strategy for his cigarsaroundtheworld.com business when his original business strategy wasnt working. He shared about how we need to leave our egos at the door and just do what needs to be done.

Develop a support network A support network includes friends, colleagues and family who celebrate our successes and help us through our challenging times. While it is easy to call a support person to celebrate a success, it can be difficult to call and ask for help or express a difficulty. Its at the moment when we reach out and share our challenges, or ask for help that we begin to experience relief from the problem or challenge, see solutions and recognize the value of the people who support us. The support we receive is as strong as our ability to share the good times and bad.

Stay Balanced When we are balanced within ourselves by getting enough rest, having healthy eating habits and taking take our spiritual needs, we are better able to cope with challenges. If you find yourself becoming irritable, impatient or the like, check first within your being mind, body and spirit to see is you are in balance. We are always better able to cope and stay motivated when we take care of our human needs.

Be Realistic Being realistic means that we know and expect ups and downs while growing and operating our business. These ups and downs may include anything from success to disaster. Our opportunity in being realistic is to know and believe that we have the skills within us to deal with any situation, regardless of the circumstances.

Choose a positive attitude Having a positive attitude is a choice we can make at any moment of any day. We might be dealing with a difficult situation and while our natural tendency is to feel negative, we can choose to be positive. A positive outlook and attitude is a necessity in staying motivated for the long haul.

Stay Present When we stay present to our business and to ourselves, we stay out of fear and worry. Staying present means that we stay in the day in our minds. We do this by not projecting our fears into the future or worrying about something that may or may not happen. Just like worry is a habit, we can develop the habit of staying present and being free from worry. Sometimes it helps to remind ourselves that all is okay for today.

Staying motivated for the long haul is a one day at a time journey. Enjoy the ride!

 

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7 ways to stay motivated

7 Ways To Stay Motivated

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You know what its like. You set yourself a goal, something you want to achieve. You are excited and ready to take on the world, and then a few months later you cant even be bothered to spend 10 minutes working towards achieving it. Well welcome to being human! It is so easy to go from excitement to complete apathy but there are things you can do to ensure you stay motivated towards your goal and following are seven great ones!

1. Is Your Reason WHY Large Enough?

When...

stay motivated, writing goal,overcome procrastination, podcasts, podcast directory

You know what its like. You set yourself a goal, something you want to achieve. You are excited and ready to take on the world, and then a few months later you cant even be bothered to spend 10 minutes working towards achieving it. Well welcome to being human! It is so easy to go from excitement to complete apathy but there are things you can do to ensure you stay motivated towards your goal and following are seven great ones!

1. Is Your Reason WHY Large Enough?

When I wanted to lose weight setting a goal to look great in clothes was not big enough, what didnt help was the fact that I loved who I was and what I looked like, but my health had begun to show signs of being affected by my excess weight and this is the WHY I used to ensure I stayed on track. I started with 6 weeks of no diary, no wheat and red meat only once a week. Do you think I needed a big why to stay committed to such a regime??!! I knew that health is my true wealth. Having been unwell for 6 months and hardly able to walk had taught me that without my health my goals were useless. So maintaining a healthy body that would allow me to enjoy the fulfillment of my goals was the big WHY that kept me on track.

Stop and think about your reason WHY? What reason is big enough to keep you motivated at times when you want to give up and/or give in?

2. Create a visual and emotional image of what you want

Writing your goals down is an essential tool but not always enough to keep focused. Writing your goals down and having a visual image of you completing that goal adds fuel to the motivational fire. Writing goals down, having a visual image of your completed goal AND connecting this image with your emotions is the power of 3 that will ensure your motivation remains high. At any point during the day, or at any time when you are feeling in need of encouragement, you can simply stop, close your eyes, see your goal and evoke all the emotions achieving that goal holds for you. Nothing is more powerful!

3. Questions to ask before, during and after!

It is important to know not only why you are doing something but also WHAT. What achieving this goal will provide for yourself and your family. It is easy to believe that what you want is to make a million, but for many it is the lifestyle and the time freedom that this money has the potential to provide that will be the real motivation.

Spend time asking yourself questions that will help you identify what achieving your goal will provide. Questions such as:

What will it bring me?
What will it do for me, my family, and/or friends?
What kind of lifestyle will I be able to have?
What sacrifices will I need to make?
What will be the impact on my current routine?
What will be the impact on my family?
What outcome do I want to achieve?
What contributions will I be able to make

Motivation and staying motivated is easy when you know what the achievement of your goal will provide for you and we only really lose motivation when we lose sight of our goal or end result.

4. Creating a visual representation of what you want

Keep the motivational fires burning by creating a collage with the family of what your end result will look like, or paint a picture, write a poem, sing a song, or whatever creative endeavor excites you enough to complete it.

Whatever you create keep it in a place where you can see it constantly, I remember listening to someone talk about sticking a poster of making their first 100,000 on their ceiling so that as they woke up it was the first thing they saw each morning, and the last image in their mind before falling asleep.

Leave yourself reminders on your fridge door, on your bathroom mirror, in your car. The more places you are able to leave yourself little notes and reminders about what you want to achieve the better. Doing this will help your unconscious mind bring you the results you desire, whilst also supporting you in staying focused and motivated towards achieving your goal.

5.Get Support from people around you

Support from family and friends is important but also consider what other support is available to you. Books, mentoring, work colleagues, life coaching, forums these are all things that can support you as you work towards achieving your goal. Also think about WHO can support you in staying motivated, can you buddy up with someone, do you have a boss or lecturer who will be happy to help you keep accountable.

One thing I recommend is that you tell as many people as you know about what you want to achieve, this has the effect of keeping you motivated to complete your goal because you have told so many people. However, a word of caution is needed here because it is easy for people to trample your dreams and fail to support you. You must first pick and choose carefully those people you know will want to support you, but also you must gain enough inner personal strength to be able to continue no matter what negative comments may come your way.

6.Develop Inner Personal Strength

Ultimately, the person who will determine whether you stay motivated and achieve your goal will be you. Your thoughts will determine your behavior which determines your results. Developing a strong inner personal strength about your ability to achieve and your ability to motivate yourself when you are in an unproductive state of mind is essential. Being able to see setbacks and failures as opportunities for continued growth and upset and emotional turmoil as opportunities to discover what you want and need, will determine how you view life. One of the best ways to inner personal strength is to read and listen to audios that inspire and motivate you. Continued learning is an essential part of being able to stay motivated.

7. Support from Continued Learning

If you are going to need to learn new skills to ensure you complete your goal then you it is a good idea to identify what learning you will need to undertake as early as possible. If you have planned out how you will achieve your outcome then you will already be aware of any areas where you need to strengthen your skills or out source to others who will be able to fulfill what you need.

There is nothing worse than getting halfway towards the completion of a goal and to be stopped because you are not able to complete something because of lack of knowledge and/or skills. This is a surefire way of dampening your excitement and your motivation.

Make a list of what you can and cant do and who might be able to help you. Knowing this in advance can help you avoid getting frustrated because things arent getting done. If you are serious about developing your personal and professional life then I recommend getting yourself a Mentor or Life Coach, to ensure you stay on track.

You should also look at continued learning as it relates to your own personal development, continuing with your own personal development will ensure you are able to work through set backs quickly and stay motivated.

Staying motivated when you are looking to achieve your goals is essential for ultimate success. I have provided you with seven practical ways to achieve continued motivation and I recommend you use them all. Some of them such as creating a collage will be activities you perform occasionally, but others, such as continuing your personal development will be a continuous learning process. There is not one single thing that will determine your success in staying motivated but a combination of many, finding the combination that is right for you will change from goal to goal and will be an ongoing (fun filled) exploration.

 

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