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117. I’m Not Motivated…

A few weeks ago, I asked Instagram what you guys were working on this year.  So many of you said “motivation” or “consistency”.  That’s what I want to talk about today. I think this is a very, very important conversation.  I know I’ve talked a bit about motivation, burnout, and things like that before, but let’s hit it again.  This is one of those topics that always comes around because we have ebbs and flows of motivation and inspiration about our business.  We go from feeling motivated, to feeling defeated and down.

Motivation

Motivation is not consistent.  Motivation comes and goes.  Motivation can die.  Motivation can be vary dependent on your schedule, what’s going on in your life, your health, your mental health, pregnancy, your kids, seasons of the year, etc.  Motivation is not something we can rely on. The sooner you realize that motivation does not stick around, the easier it is going to be to run a business.  Instead of relying on motivation, you start relying on discipline.  Discipline is a skill that we can master.  Discipline is what keeps us going.  Discipline is what grows our business.

Motivation

Let’s talk about how we can separate those 2 things…

We need to realize that we aren’t going to feel motivated all the time. In fact, I think I feel “unmotivated” more than I feel “motivated.” That may surprise you, but to be honest, if I really gave in to my lack of motivation, I’d probably only work a few weeks out of the year.  I’m not motivated to do the things to grow my business – that’s okay because I have discipline.

I also want to speak to burnout as well.  Are we doing the things that HAVE to be done, or are we doing things that we feel like needs to be done or things we want to do. Burnout can cause you to feel unmotivated.  There’s a difference between doing what needs to be done every day, and doing extra things because we feel like we need to do them.  It’s important to listen to our bodies, intuition, nudges, and promptings.  Sometimes, that feeling of burnout means we need to let go of some things, or we need to change our course just a little bit.

It’s your business HAVE to vs. your WANT to.

I know that to grow my business, I HAVE to focus on my marketing strategy – my SEO and social media.  I know that I HAVE to post on Instagram 3 times per week and on my blog 3 times a week. Thinks that I WANT to do, but don’t necessarily HAVE to do, are things like: creating new courses, create new downloads, do group coaching, open new programs, or host retreats.  I do these things because I WANT to do them.  When I HAVE to do something, it goes on my to do list.  When I WANT to do something, I wait for when I’m feeling motivated.  I save the WANTS for that inspiration so that it can feel exciting and fire me up.

Motivation

Discipline is doing the things we HAVE to do every single day even though we don’t WANT to do them. It’s hard, especially when you’re in a very unmotivated space.

If you’re feeling like your motivation is really lacking, or that you can’t grow your business because you haven’t been feeling very inspired, take the motivation away and go back to your NEEDS.  Examine what things you HAVE to do daily to grow your business.

Let me give you an example of something I HAVE to do every single day, and what tools I’m using to make sure those things happen.

 

  • I post 4 reels a day on social media right now (on each of my pages)
    • I never post in real time… ever. I have tools to help me stay on track even though I’m not posting in real time.
    • I create content 2 weeks at a time. It’s usually a whole day project to gather the audios, film the videos, edit the reels, and schedule them in my scheduling app, Loomly.
    • I set alarms and reminders in my phone to make sure I’m accomplishing all these things.

 

What tools do I use?

  • Alarms on my phone
  • Reminders app on my phone
  • I time-block my weekly/daily tasks
  • I put to-dos in my calendar – it’s an appointment I have with myself
  • Notebook to brain dump ideas

 

Find that discipline.  Recognize what you HAVE to do, and what you WANT to do.  Let go of the idea that you can only work when you’re inspired to or that you can only work when your motivated to.  Leave the motivation and the inspiration for the times that you want to create and do more.

 

117. I’m Not Motivated…

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