How to motivate yourself when you're the boss.

Shut up and focus!

That’s what I reckon I need to be told some days.

Maybe most days actually…

Can you imagine?! 

Some scary mofo stationed at your door yelling:

 Get in here, sit your arse down, and do the ONE thing that’s going to get you closer to your goal!

Right now!!

I’m closing this door for at least 3 hours.

And don’t even think about getting up to make tea, get a snack, take an ‘urgent’ phone call, check social media, respond to that email notification sliding in bottom right corner now or any other excuse. 

And I sure as shit don’t want to hear whinging, lame excuses or see any eye-rolling.

Just get it done!

Okay… I admit that’s a bit extreme. 

But my point is, when you own a business, there’s no boss. 

(Or at least that’s what people tell themselves… The truth is that you work for your customers and employees)

But this idea of not being accountable can make it damn near impossible to motivate yourself to do the thing that will get you to where you want to go. 

Even when it’s your own business!

Instead, you keep yourself busy doing all of the comfortable things. 

The fussing, checking in, welcoming distractions… 

And before you know it, another day vanished.

I’ve always found it weird that it’s so freaken hard to keep yourself on track.

You should be hyper-motivated right?!

Ahh not really. 

You’re human. 

And every human needs to learn how to kick their own arse to stay on track (or have someone else do it for you)

But instead of risking getting yelled at by Yelly McYell-face that I mentioned earlier, let’s explore some more reasonable options I’ve used in the past to keep yourself on track: 

1. Triggers and Habits.

This is one of my favourite quotes about building habits: 

“I only write when inspiration strikes;

fortunately it strikes every morning at 9 o'clock sharp”

1. Somerset Maugham.

It’s about setting aside time each day at the same time to do the hard work that will get you towards your goal - Even when you don’t feel like it.

Using this method, I learned to love repetition because of what it can do for your productivity and eventually, your results. 

But just putting time in the calendar didn’t motivate me to do shit…

I needed about 20 reminders and triggers leading up to that appointment with myself. 

(at least at the start)

But the good news is that it gets easier.

If you looked at my calendar, you’d see waaay more reminders (triggers) than events. 

Each one prepares and prompts me to take an action such as the following:

• Get coffee and walk around and chat with the team
• Write a handwritten note to someone
• Think about a complex topic
• Connect with a customer
• Write a text to someone
• Make a sales call
• Drink water
• Stretch

If I don’t get a nudge to do shit that helps me get to where I want to be I get lost in the day, forget to eat, drink water and all that.

Success for me started happening when I began doing the right things repeatedly.

So put triggers in place to build good habits that make it impossible not to succeed.

2. Pull. Not Push. 

Everyone talks about motivators as a push. 

A deadline on a project. 

A coach or boss who holds you accountable. 

Or the pressures of home life dictating the cadence of your day. 

But I’ve found that having a reason that pulls you towards a goal is more powerful. 

There’s less mental resistance. 

For example, I struggled to write online for over a decade.

But I’ve now been at it for almost 2 years. 

What changed?

1. I saw other people getting ahead of me who weren’t as experienced.
2. I can see the value of linking trusted personal brands to a company to achieve future success

Basically, I connected a juicy long-term outcome to a simple daily action I was prepared to take.

 3. Context Switching

When you run a business you wear many hats. 

It means you spend your day switching between a million different tasks. 

If you’re like me, you might feel like you’re crushing life but then the results don’t demonstrate that.

You’re still always playing catch up.

The only way I managed to move forward was by implementing time blocking.

Actively putting time in your calendar for everything you do and then ONLY doing that thing at that time.

I now set aside time each day to check emails, engage on social media, conduct meetings and even think. 

By grouping similar work on similar days I can get into that mindset and maximise it rather than switching tasks all the time.Woah… This email ended up a bit longer than I expected sorry Dian.

Thanks for sticking with it!

 I hope it helps!