Are you having a hard time getting yourself motivated? Have you attempted to boost your motivation but been unsuccessful so far? Building a successful company requires a lot of hard work, but there is a simple mental game that you can perform on yourself to boost your drive. Have faith in us, because it truly does work!

Reward

You have to acquire the skill of learning how to reward your hard effort with relaxation. Working yourself to death, 24 hours a day, may seem like a necessary evil to many of you and simply “par for the course” when growing a small business as an entrepreneur, but in reality, this is not a positive mindset to foster if you are looking to enjoy the process of running a small business and be as productive as possible in the process. Instead of hunching over your laptop at three in the morning, it is in your best interest to take a “craftsman” approach to growing your business. This entails making changes only when they are absolutely necessary and concentrating your efforts on improving the business processes that are used to guide your company on a daily basis. Take some time off and do something pleasant, like hanging out with some friends, visiting a nearby city for the weekend, or just watching something entertaining on television. Boosting your motivation to get things done will be a breeze if you follow these easy measures. Altering your routine may have benefits comparable to those of taking a break.

If you work constantly with no reward, your mind (which hasn’t really changed since we were hunting for food and living in caves!) will not see the benefit of your labour. You need to understand that what you are doing is positive, that you are moving in the right direction, and that you deserve a well-earned rest. Your body needs just as much rest as your brain does, so taking a well-deserved break can help you feel more motivated once you go back to work. This should be a time where you simply “switch off” (both mentally as well as physically switching off any electronic devices that may interrupt this rest) and enjoy doing something outside of business. If you don’t take the time to reward yourself, you won’t increase your motivation or even be motivated to keep working towards your next goal.

Working too hard without reward will encourage your brain to focus on the small things that it does get gratification from (in the form of chemical releases into your brain). This could be checking social media, replying to emails, ticking small things off of your to-do list, and so on. It is easy to understand that they are not the daring and ambitious accomplishments that will allow you to expand your company. You will lose sight of the bigger picture if you work too hard, and your body will instead encourage you to tackle increasingly simple tasks in order to be rewarded with the “happy chemicals” – endorphins (which mask pain), dopamine (discovering what you were looking for), oxytocin (social situations), and serotonin. These chemicals are released when you complete a task that your body perceives as rewarding you in some way (social dominance). Once you’ve lost focus and your motivation, it will set you back in growing your business and only serve to frustrate you even further. Watching after your health is a big step forward on the road to increasing your motivation. When you feel good, you’ll achieve more.

Rest

Your brain needs rest in order for it to concentrate and carry out its functions correctly. It will keep you on track, ensure that your “eyes are on the goal,” and ensure that you can continue to boost your motivation in a sustainable manner.

Take some time to really reflect on the activities that make up your typical day. Could some of your job be handed off to someone else for a week, and could the portions that can’t be delayed for a week? If you want to boost your motivation and see your company advance with it, it is imperative that you take a vacation (even if it is only for a few days) somewhere along the way. If you’re lacking motivation, you may expect both the quality of your job and the progress of your company to suffer as a direct result.

Learning how to delegate tasks is one of the most important skills you can acquire since, without it, you will never be able to build a sustainable and lucrative company (or at the very least, one that won’t break apart at the seams if you take a day off from working on it). Imagine yourself in the role of an entrepreneurial leader rather than a corporate manager.

Look at your to-do lists from the last few weeks if you aren’t sure where to start searching for procedures to outsource (either permanently or temporarily). Make an effort to distinguish between different business processes and tasks. Could it be that following up on bills consumes a significant amount of your time? Or is it the compilation and distribution of that newsletter to which you have committed yourself?

Put your attention on something that excites you, get started putting your goals into motion, and work on becoming more motivated.