How To Deal With A Lack Of Motivation
This week, I received an email from someone asking how to deal with a lack of motivation when it came to their business. It's something I see quite often: someone has a great idea for a business, they feel extremely passionate about it, but when it comes to actually taking the steps towards making that business a reality, they freeze.
What can seem like a lack of motivation, or "laziness" is most of the time, not that at all.
Today, I'm going to share a few prompts with you that I hope will help you to uncover why you're "lacking in motivation" and how to move past it. I highly recommend grabbing a pen and paper, or your favourite notebook, and jotting down the answers to the questions below. You don't need to show anyone, and you can even dispose of it when you're done if you'd rather, but the idea is that you're able to be honest with yourself, without fear of judgement.
1. What is the business idea you have?
Get as specific as you like with this. It can be one sentence, or a whole paragraph, but write down exactly what it is you want to work towards.
2. How does the idea of creating this business make you feel?
It might make you feel: excited, scared, intimidated, hopeful. Take some time to really tune in to yourself with this one. Are there any feelings in there that you didn't expect? Write them down.
3. Why do you think you're feeling resistance towards your business? What's holding you back?
Let me be honest, I don't really have the answer to solving your "motivation" problem. I say that in between speech marks, because as I said, it isn't anything to do with motivation. You know, deep down, all on your own, what is causing the problem. You just need to let yourself figure it out, listen to your intuition, and then figure out what you can do to move forward. You have the answers to all of these questions within yourself.
4. What can you do to move past this resistance?
Think about what could help you move past your resistance to moving forward within your business. Could you read a book all about the topic you want to specify in? Or maybe listen to a really inspiring podcast? Or maybe it's to meet up with a friend and chat about your ideas, and get some moral support from them. Perhaps it's hiring a creative or business coach to support you along the way. Let yourself dream big; there's no silly way of tackling your problem. Do whatever it is that would make you feel better about moving forward.
5. Take some time.
I'd recommend that once you've done the above exercises, you take some time away from the notes you've made for a day or two. Come back to them when you've got a different state of mind, and re read. Have you got anything new to add? Has something else come to you in the last day or two? Or perhaps something doesn't feel like it's actually very true to you. You'd be surprised how sometimes our ego can really get in the way of our clarity in the moment!
6. Take baby steps forward.
Now that you've got a better idea of what's causing your resistance, and what you'd like to do to move forward, create a mini action plan. I say mini, because I always encourage taking baby steps towards business. There's no need to rush things. Perhaps you want to start sharing your business ideas with your online following. How could you start doing that? Think about the small actionable steps you could take to get you one step in the right direction.
7. Re-Do this exercise.
Feeling like you're back at square one all of a sudden? Don't worry, it happens to all of us. We all wake up one morning and the motivation, passion, drive, is totally gone. Don't panic! It usually lasts one or two days. However, if it feels like it's dragging on, I recommend sitting down and redoing this exercise. You might have totally new answers to the questions!
I hope that this has helped you! If you have any more questions, please feel free to comment below, or send me an email and I'll do my best to get back to you and help in any way that I can :)
