Business

  • Business

    When You’ve Lost Motivation in Business + The Joy of Finding Your Way Back

    Have you lost motivation in business? Then this is the post for you. My oh my, this is a juicy episode. Why? Because if you’ve been in business for a while, when you’ve lost motivation in business it’s HARD to get it back. You’ll also know that motivation is like bathing, it doesn’t last which is why we have to do it every day. The late and great Jim Rohn said that quote so i can’t claim it as my own. It’s a great one right? 

    But what happens if you’ve lost motivation in business and just can’t find that motivation again or your way back to that energy you once had?

    Self Determination theory, people are motivated to grow and change by three innate and universal psychological needs.

    I get it. I really get it. Particularly with the shit show that was the last few years. We have collective PTSD from everything and it can be so so hard to pick yourself back up again when you’ve lost motivation in business and start again when the momentum is gone. 

    You see,  we are spiritual beings having a human experience, meaning, no matter how enlightened or whether we can get our foot over our head in yoga means nothing when global pandemics happen, grief hits or business revenue drops off a cliff. 

    Side note – I am still trying to get my foot over my head in yoga. Tried it last night. I wish I had filmed it, it would have been some comedy content. 

    The definition of motivation is the human need or desire to change something about themselves or their environment.

    The definition of motivation is the human need or desire to change something about themselves or their environment. 

    According to the Self Determination theory, people are motivated to grow and change by three innate and universal psychological needs.

    1. Autonomy – people need to feel in control of their own behaviours and goals. To take direction action that will result in real change. 
    1. Competence – people need to gain mastery of tasks and learn different skills .when you feel you have the skills needed for success they are more likely to take action to achieve your goals. 
    1. Connection – need to experience a sense of belonging and attachment to others.

    So if we can link our vision of what we want to each of these three categories, it can help to motivate us again. 

    Now the only tricky situation here is that sometimes our personal lives can stop the motivation completely. If we were a cup, it’s overflowing and not in a good way. We are so exhausted that we don’t have space for motivation and following someone’s theory. 

    So let’s look at a real life example to bring colour to the situation and see if it will help. 

    Let’s take a fictitious name, Alysia here. 

    Maybe you’ll be able to identity with Alysia here to let’s see. 

    What do you want? I want to feel more motivated in my business. 

    Why do you want it? I want to feel joy for me, I want to help others and it’s part of my legacy work. 

    What’s stopping me from getting there? I’m tired. I have a huge amount going on personally and I can’t concentrate. I feel like I’ve lost my spark and I don’t quite know how to get it back. I feel a film of fog over my head and can’t seem to clear it. 

    So what do we do first? 

    Let’s look at tiredness. If you’re tired, the greatest thing you can do is show yourself some compassion and rest. Business is a marathon not a sprint. Let’s not buy into the time is running out mantra right now. In order for us to speed up, we must also slow down. Rest is revolutionary and one of the greatest acts of self care we can give ourselves. So let’s give yourself permission to rest. And rest indulgently. More on that in another episode.  

    Let’s now look at what’s going on personally. If there is a huge amount; maybe grief, your child is worrying you over illness or behaviour or school or you’re having relationship troubles, it could be anything but it’s distracting you, let’s allow ourselves to actually feel those emotions so we can move through them.

    This is where we can take autonomy over the lack of motivation, release what we need to emotionally so then our completely full up cup can have a little space to let some joy and maybe motivation in. 

    To add to this, we can then develop a mantra, which I have personally used that I created with my therapist a while back which helps to realign. It goes ‘I can feel all the feels AND be a badass in business’. Feel free to create your own.

    Once we are feeling like we have control a little more through these self care practices, that’s when we can look at competence. Our belief that we can figure things out is paramount here. And given the personal situation we could apply a new theory here call the marginal gains approach. This is where we can tiny changes, 1% changes each day to get towards our goal and then once we have done that 1% change we go back to resting, to emptying a bit more out of our cup so we can then have a bit more capacity the next day. So what one task could we do today that would make the most impact to move things forward and get us closer to our goal?

    Then we can move onto connection. Is this a case of us needing a coach to help us move through this more or is it just a great meal out with a friend? The connection here is one to help us feel understood and held by someone before we then move on to being held accountable once the personal situation is better. (If you’d like to work 1:1 with a coach then you can check out my services here > )

    And this process can be repeated again and again until you start to gain more motivation back into your day. And it will come my friend. Because you have survived 100% of your hardest days. Every thought and moment you thought you couldn’t get through you did. You got yourself through it. This time too, shall pass. So honour yourself for how far you’ve come, rest now for it is a revolutionary act of self care and then once you’re ready, the motivation will come again.

    _________________________

    Want to listen to The Sparks and Space Podcast? You can listen here on Apple and on Spotify

  • Business

    The Joy of Feeling Good About Your Business

    If you’ve clicked on this episode then I’m guessing you are curious about the joy of feeling good about your business whatever stage that you’re in. 

    We’ve all been there where we feel burnt out, frustrated, completely overwhelmed and in need of a little guidance. So I hope this episode can guide you on your way to the joy of feeling good about your business again.

    Remember that you’ve chosen to do this business, it’s a magic adventure that pushes you to breakthrough to levels of yourself that you previously only ever dreamed about. It’s hard to do, to commit to yourself and your dreams in a way that doesn’t yet feel familiar.

    Now, the joy of feeling good about your business. And that word joy. It’s not really cool, is it? Joy is happy, fun, enthusiastic, not nonchalant, ambivalent, calm and cool. But when we think about our life, isn’t joy a much better feeling than ambivalent and cool and always looking at the negative side of things? It’s the same with business. Being excited about your business, in hopeful anticipation of what’s to come and feeling joy around something we have chosen to do should just naturally come, shouldn’t it?! 

    As I’m sure some of you will relate, it can feel joyous right at the beginning, when you’re starting out and there’s the huge mountain you have to climb. But when the initial excitement wears off, then the joy starts to wane, the shiny sparkliness of the mountain your climbing starts to ware off and you’re left on the struggle train, feeling overwhelmed and wondering how everyone else is ‘doing it’ on social media with their seemingly overnight success. Or, you’ve been in business, like me, for a while now. And maybe you’ve lost your way. Felt like you’ve climbed the wrong staircase and realised that what you really wanted to do was different, or you love what your do but it’s just feeling a little stale, a little bleurgh and it has lost it’s spark. 

    as the great Dolly Parton says,if you want the rainbow, you’ve gotta put up with the rain.

    I wanted to address this so we can firstly acknowledge that it’s OK not to feel joy all the time. We are human after all and as the great Dolly Parton says,if you want the rainbow, you’ve gotta put up with the rain. Feeling all of the emotions is what’s part of the journey and being human. There is no light without darkness. But it’s also something we have to pay attention to and check in with daily because we can very easily start to go down a little hole of despair when we get caught up looking at what everyone else is doing, seeing their achievements, because let’s face it, we aren’t going to see the non sexy side of business, sat working at your desk for hours and your office being a mess. We only ever see that highlight reel which makes it extremely hard sometimes to be able to keep joyous what what we are doing and where we’re going.

    And if we start to experience emotions that are negative repeatedly, then these become feelings which then turn into identities and inform the way we do business and life. 

    So how can we feel good about business? 

    Firstly write down where you were 5 years ago and what has happened since that is amazing. Personally, i had just moved back from new zealand from a relationship that didn’t work out. I had moved back in with my parents at the grand old age of 34, and had decided I was going to set up my first business. When I think of the adventure that then unfolded, the craziness of it all including living in Portugal, winning awards, living by myself through a pandemic, growing my business, meeting my partner, getting burnout, coming through the other side, becoming a step mum. It’s been quite the journey. And the reason I mention personal things in here as well as business is because it’s hard to separate the two. One very much affects the other. 

    I’m proud of the person I’ve become. She is no longer even remotely what she was last year or even last week. 

    So I want you to go through and look at everything that’s happened. I bet it’s been a wild ride and there is more adventure, joy and magic to come. Feel so proud of yourself for everything you’ve achieved and know you’re daring greatly with how you’re living your life through the very nature of even starting a business.

    Now let’s look at some questions which you can write down, everything will be in the show notes too in case you’re in the car, doing your washing or something like that.  

    • What stories am i telling myself about who i am and my business? What is a more empowering story that makes me feel good? 
    • What do you want? 
    • Why can’t you have it? 
    • How can I believe that good things are coming when times are tricky?

    So I ask you today, to follow the joy, follow the bliss inside of you. And if you’re struggling with feeling joy and you’ve lost motivation, to watch the episode on ‘when you’ve lost motivation in business and the joy of finding it again’ as this has some amazing tips on how to start to do that again. 

    Remember that you’ve chosen to do this business, it’s a magic adventure that pushes you to breakthrough to levels of yourself that you previously only ever dreamed about. It’s hard to do, to commit to yourself and your dreams in a way that doesn’t yet feel familiar. Keep showing up for yourself, keep believing in that high vision, keep dreaming and doing with one foot in joy and the other in motion so that magic can show up in the most amazing way. You are worthy of your dreams and desires. You’e got this + I’ve got you. 

    If you’d like to work 1:1 with a coach then you can check out my services here >

    Want to listen to The Sparks and Space Podcast? You can listen here on Apple and on Spotify