When you don’t feel motivated in your business

Do you have a goal or a task that you have been trying to start or trying to finish for quite a while?

If you are feeling stuck or unmotivated, check out these tips to start fresh and move forward:

Listen to the audio:

What to do when you don’t feel motivated

Have you been stuck with a goal for a while? This might be something that you keep putting off starting. Something you keep moving down your to do list. Something that you started a while ago, but you just can't seem to finish. So what do you do?

Well, it can really be tempting, especially at this time of year, to just wait until January to get started. But the truth is, you can start fresh at any time.

It is never too late to start something. It is never too late to move forward.

If you have had a bad day, a bad week, a bad month, don't let that hold you back from accomplishing a goal and moving forward in your business.

When you consistently put something off, you don't prioritize it, you don't take action on it, but you keep putting it on your to-do list and planning to do it tomorrow and then you don't, you are breaking trust with yourself.

So then you might start thinking putting something on your to-do list doesn't actually mean anything, because you might do it and you might not. This really makes it hard to gain momentum on that thing and actually move forward, because you stop believing that you're actually going to do it.

The more you put it off, the harder and harder it becomes to take action and the more you start associating anxiety and shame with this task. So if that's where you're at, please don't feel bad about yourself. This is completely normal and we're going to go through some things that you can do to try to get unstuck and actually start moving forward.

Step One: Check in with yourself

The first thing that I invite you to do is to ask yourself, "What is it that is actually holding me back?" Are you afraid of failing at this thing? Are you afraid that it won't be perfect? Are you afraid of getting it wrong? Or maybe this is something that you legitimately don't actually want to do anymore.

Whatever it is, see if you can dig deep and find the actual thing that's holding you back from acting on this goal.

You can do this by journaling, by meditating on this question, by talking it through with a friend - whatever works best for you.

Step Two: Is this goal relevant?

The next thing I encourage you to ask is, "Is this goal even still relevant to me and my business?"

This goal might legitimately be something that you don't need to do anymore. It might not be the best thing to actually move your business forward. Or it might not be something that you need to do right now.

Be honest with yourself - is this something you need to postpone? Is this something that you need to let go of? Not that you need my permission, but I give you permission to actually let this thing go if that is what makes sense to your business. (Although don't just let it go because you don't want to do it. But you can release it if it's not something that is actually going to be helpful to your business anymore.)

Step Three: What are you excited about?

The next thing I encourage you to ask yourself is, "What goals am I excited about in my business right now?" These are the things you really want to be focusing on.

Chances are if it's something that you are excited about, it's probably going to be something that's going to move your business forward in the direction that you want to go. I hope that you're moving your business in a direction you're excited about!

Really focus on these things that you feel passionate about and that light you up. If you focus on these goals that you are excited about, they are either going to be better replacements for these things that you are stuck on or they can help you create some momentum again so that it's not so challenging to go back to these things, because you're already making progress.

Step Four: Don’t wait to start

The next thing that I would like you to keep in mind is something that I've already mentioned: You can make a fresh start anytime. You don't have to wait for a “good” starting point like a Monday, the first of the month, or the beginning of a new year or new season.

You can start fresh literally anytime. On a Tuesday. At 4:00 in the afternoon. Any point.

I find sometimes that waiting for that “good” starting point can actually contribute to holding you back, because if you're waiting for a Monday or the start of a new month, it's so easy to get to that point and come up with a reason why you actually can't do it that day.

Then it's so tempting to wait for the start of the next week or next month, and then eventually you never do it. You keep putting it off any time you get to that “good” starting point.

But if you eliminate waiting for a "proper" starting point and just start now, then it's so much easier to actually take action and move forward. I encourage you to take one small action towards this goal today - this step can be as miniscule as you want, as long as it’s moving forward in some way. Then do that again tomorrow.

I don't care if you only devote 5 minutes a day to this goal. Any sort of forward action is going to help you start building up momentum again so that you can either start this goal or finish this goal.

Step Five: Visualize success

Another exercise that can help you create momentum towards this goal is to ask yourself, "What will I be able to do once I have accomplished this thing?" What is it going to create for you or open up for you? How is it going to make your life or your business better?

Actually visualize it. What is going to change once you have accomplished this thing? If you really focus your attention on why you want to accomplish this goal and how it's going to make things better, that is going to make you feel more motivated to do it.

When you're thinking about this vision of the future when you have accomplished this goal, focus on how you are going to feel. That sense of accomplishment or excitement or whatever it is, depending on the nature of the goal. When you focus on that feeling and that why, it makes it easier for you to move forward on the goal and get unstuck.

What if you’re still stuck?

Now, what if you have done all of these things and you still can't take action on this goal? You still aren't feeling motivated. You are still stuck and trying to create a fresh start with this goal just didn't work.

Well, at this point then it's probably time to get some support.

This could look like getting an accountability partner who's going to check in with you on your progress with this goal or the tasks to accomplish that goal. Sometimes that's enough of a push to actually take action, because you know somebody is going to be asking you about it.

You might need a coach or a mentor to help you with this goal. Again, they can provide some accountability and they can also give you some advice and maybe help you move forward.

If this is a goal that is necessary to your business, but you just don't feel motivated to do it yourself, this could be something that you could consider outsourcing. The best course of action might be getting someone else to do it so that you can accomplish it and check it off your to-do list, but you don't actually have to come up with the motivation to do it yourself.

I hope that these tips have helped you get unstuck with whatever goal you are trying to start or finish, and that you're able to move your business forward. If you have any questions, please let me know down in the comments or feel free to reach out.