Why Small Business Owners Struggle With Motivation (And How to Fix it)

So you’re a small business owner and you’ve lost your motivation? Try these tips for gaining your mojo back!

Let’s discuss three examinations to revisit why we may not be moving on our business tasks.

I’ve heard many folx say lately that they’ve lost motivation… or have they?

Motivation to get tasks done is too often associated with feelings of boredom, malaise, or meh-ness.

However, motivation has to do with reasons rather than feelings … the reason or reasons one has for acting or behaving in a particular way.

When you’ve found you’ve lost your motivation? You’ve most likely lost your reasons.

Are your reasons for getting tasks done not clear?

“I’m not sure what my personal or business goals are.”
or
“I’m not sure of the next steps I need to take to achieve my goals.”

Are your reasons not strong enough to incite change?

“This task brings no significant change, growth, or forward-moving progress to me or my business – even over time.”

Perhaps we’ve forgotten the ultimate long term, positive outcomes that the temporary “to-do list items” will help us achieve. We tell ourselves things like, “Setting up my email sequence, that will get my potential clients to know me, is boring.”

If we can’t clearly define our good reasons doing the thing, then we risk losing motivation and the chance of it actually getting done.

This is a GOLDEN opportunity. An opportunity to revisit and see if we are forcing our round pegs into square holes… OR… if we simply need to be reminded of our goals and their importance.

The next time you “lose motivation”, go back to your reasons.

If our reasons aren’t strong enough to motivate us into action, we can try these three self examinations:

• Explore if the reasons may be borrowed beliefs – the dreaded “should” monster! Are the reasons we have our own, or something that we’ve imposed upon ourselves based on someone else’s story?
• Double-check if we’ve lost sight of the long term impact of what we are trying to get accomplished. Sometimes it’s difficult to see the connection of a micro-task with a macro-goal.
• Get clear on whether we are sure of our desired outcome
  • If we ARE sure of our desired outcome, then we can determine if we simply need guidance on the next step
  • If we are UNSURE of our desired outcome, then we can reach out for guidance on goal setting

Motivation is one of those buzz words that creep into the productivity-life-hack-be-your-best-self world often. And it’s accompanied with ideas of bootstrapping and discipline. Sometimes, this may be true.

There is a time and a place for a good old fashioned “suck it up, buttercup.”

More often than not, though, a gentle revisiting of our reasons will do far greater good to rejuvenate the motivation mojo than a shaming. Or, give us permission to let go of something that is no longer serving us.

Here’s my question to you:

What are some ways you can invite a remembering of reasons into your daily routine? Let us know below.

All my BeastyBoss,

P.S. Sometimes we need others to help us remember our reasons. If you’ve been curious about The SpeakEasy Cooperative, and how we do this collective remembering, I invite you to reach out at hey@faithculturekiss.com, and put “I want to know about SECO” in the subject line. We’d love to connect with you and be a place to examine and explore with you.