One of the biggest challenges facing small business owners is keeping high levels of motivation to continue doing what needs to be done in order to achieve success. It is not an easy thing to achieve. I think the key three ingredients are:
- Being clear on your goals
- Rest and Health
- Baby steps
Being clear on your goals. What are you wanting to achieve in the long term? Focus on your passion and the end goal and then the day to day tasks will fall out. Sometimes we get so caught up in the day to day tasks that don’t contribute to the end goal. In fact, they distract us so that we feel as though we are never going to reach our goal. Many goal setting experts suggest writing down your goals and looking at them on a daily basis. To take action with your marketing it is also good to set marketing goals and focus on what you are trying to achieve from your marketing.
Rest and health. Taking a break or time out is essential to re-charge your batteries. Some good signs that you need to take a break are; not wanting to answer the phone, resenting having to work, not being able to wake up in the morning and not enjoying your work. The ability to work on your business rather than in your business is facilitated by time away. Recently I spent some time in North Queensland. The scenery and climate was a complete change from Melbourne. It made it easy to relax and take a break resulting in the chance to look at things from a different perspective. Having a regular exercise program and good eating habits helps keep you motivated.
Baby steps. Most successful businesses don’t just happen overnight. In fact, in business and in life many successful people just keep ‘plugging’ at what they want to achieve and reach it just by staying on track. Taking action is the most powerful thing you can do but the action doesn’t have to be monumental. If you are wanting to get fit your action might be a ten minute walk each day and cutting out one piece of bread each day. The actions are easy to do and will make a difference over time. In business, your actions to grow your business may be as simple as making one phone call a day, one blog entry or following up one lead each day. Keeping your action steps to small steps means that you won’t get overwhelmed and the likelihood of you achieving what you set out to do is great. Keep your to do list to 5 things. Keep your marketing tasks to 5 things. That way you will achieve action, feel good and start to create a habit of success.
