I want to talk about a topic that I think is relevant for so many of us entrepreneurs – How to stay motivated to reach your goals.
As a business owner, setting goals is so important. Setting goals for your business gives you direction and helps to provide motivation to keep moving forwards. They also help to keep you accountable and to measure the progress that you’ve made.
But writing down your goals is the easy part. The hard part is staying motivated in order to achieve them.
Motivation is the driving force behind you reaching your goals. Staying motivated can be tricky though. Making changes in your life and business requires persistence and many of us will find it hard to stay motivated.
If you’re fed up with writing down your goals and not achieving them, then listen (or read) on because this episode is just for you.
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1. Know your why
One key factor in self motivation is really knowing the why behind what you are trying to accomplish. When you can truly connect to the why behind your goal, you’ll find it so much easier to stay motivated.
Let’s look at a non-business example…
Simply going to the gym because it feels like something you ‘should’ be doing means that it’s unlikely that you are going to keep it up. However, if you go to the gym because you want to feel fitter, healthier and perhaps fit back into those jeans that you love, you’re going to be motivated and are therefore more likely to stick to it.
The same goes for business goals. If you want to hit six figures just because everyone else seems to be doing it and it feels like something you should be doing too, then that isn’t enough. There’s nothing there pushing you forwards.
However, if you want to hit six figures because you know that it will provide a better lifestyle for you and your family, you want to pay off debts or buy your dream house, then that right there is the motivation to keep you moving in the right direction.
Can you see how having a reason behind each of your goals can drive you to keep going? Make a list of the reasons why you want to accomplish your goal and keep revisiting it when times feel tough.
Better still write them down frequently. This leads me nicely onto my next point…
2. Begin journaling if you don’t already
Journaling is something that I’ve known about for a long time but it’s not something I’ve ever done myself until very recently and I can already see how powerful it’s going to be for me.
I know the power of writing down goals and I know the power of writing them down on paper as opposed to on the computer but that’s where it ended for me really.
However, since discovering journaling, I know it’s going to move me forwards, help me to untangle my messy thoughts and keep me striving to achieve my goals. The feeling that I get from setting time in my day and really focusing on certain areas of my life and business is amazing.
I’m not an expert on journaling (yet!) but I use the freewriting method which is where I write down my thoughts without really thinking about them or correcting myself. I also go back to my why regularly and write down my goals weekly to keep them at the forefront of my mind.
3. Don’t let money be your sole motivator
Income goals are a great thing to set in your business but it’s important that it’s not your sole motivator. It’s easy to think that money alone will be enough to motivate you but after time, you’ll realise that it’s not. No matter how much money a particular offer is bringing in, if you don’t enjoy doing it, you’re going to start resenting it. It’s very difficult to sustain motivation if your only goal is financial and what you’re doing doesn’t align with your passion and mission for your life and business.
After all, money follows passion.
4. Simplify your goals
The easiest way to lose motivation in reaching your goals is to try and achieve too many things at once. When you have multiple large goals that you want to reach, your attention becomes split and you can lose focus.
By simplifying your goals, it will help to avoid overwhelm and create space so you can focus all of your energy and do everything you can to make it happen.
5. Visualise the results
Now I’m not an overly spiritual person but visualisation is a powerful tool for achieving our goals.
Similar to journaling, this is also something that I’ve only started doing recently but already I can see the power in visualisation. Visualising the end goal and how you will feel when you’ve achieved it, is so powerful and is a great motivator to keep you striving forwards.
I’ve heard that athletes visualise their performance before a big event right down to the smell of sweat dripping down their face as they cross the finish line. Sounds lovely right. By visualising things down to such fine detail, you stimulate your subconscious which helps your mind stay motivated.
6. Break down your goals into smaller steps and reward yourself for each milestone
Looking at this big goal that you have set for yourself can feel overwhelming. 99% of the time, your goals are going to have smaller steps that live within it. I recommend that you break your big goal down into smaller, more manageable steps.
This way you can easily see steps that you need to take and you can track the progress that you have made along the way. Every task you complete brings you closer to the ultimate goal, and acknowledging this always feels good.
Along with breaking down your goals, you should also reward yourself for each milestone.
So, instead of focusing only on your big goal and celebrating when you achieve it, celebrate each step that moves you towards it. When you’re breaking down your goals into smaller milestones, set rewards at certain points. These rewards are going to help spur you and keep you moving forwards.
Rewards don’t always need to be big things. One thing that I love to do to reward myself that doesn’t cost anything is treating myself to a daytime bath during the ‘work day’. As a mum of two, daytime baths are a luxury for me so I’ll often reward myself with these. For slightly bigger milestones, I might treat myself to a new bottle of gin or I’ll buy myself a little something nice.
The more you reward yourself for the progress you are making, no matter how big or small, the more motivated you will feel about progressing towards the next milestone.
7. Find a support system
It can be lonely being an online business owner. Just us sitting at our desks all by ourselves. It sounds quite sad doesn’t it. No matter how much you love your own company and are perfectly happy working by yourself, you still need a support system around you.
Support systems exist in many forms. One way is by having supportive family and friends around you. However, I know that it’s not always possible for everyone and it’s also not always enough.
By seeking out an accountability partner or accountability group, you have a person or group of people all with the same outcome in mind – to achieve an end goal. It doesn’t matter if that end goal is different but the power of community and not going it alone should never be underestimated in business.
Many people have accountability partners or groups that are free and if that is working for you then great! I personally find though that when I pay for something, I’m more likely to use it. This is why I love having a 1:1 coach or being part of a paid community such as a group program or mastermind.
My clients often say to me that the accountability they receive through working with me is worth the price on its own. Let alone the learning and support that they are receiving along the way too.
8. Don’t be afraid to hire help
Similar to that above, as well as having a support system, you should also look to hire help where possible and if needed. After you’ve written out your goals and broken them down into smaller steps, you might see that you need to hire help with certain things. If that’s financially possible then I would strongly recommend you do so. Hiring help can move you towards your goals faster. After all, it takes a village.
So there we have it, 8 tips to help you stay motivated to reach your goals.
I really hope you’ve enjoyed this episode and you’ve managed to take away some key points that you can go and implement in your own business so that you can be well on your way to achieving those big goals in business. To recap, here are 8 ways you can stay motivated in reaching your goals.
Remember, change doesn’t happen overnight but every step forward that you take is progress.
