From Low to Lifted: Mastering Motivation and Elevating Your Mood
Last month we talked about Consistency and Focus and the challenges we face in our businesses. When we maintain consistency and focus it helps us to achieve our goals and grow a successful business. We shared strategies with you on how you can do this.
Another area of challenge for women running their own businesses is how to keep motivated when everything feels like hard work. We are tired, our energy levels are low, and we are finding everything a struggle. It becomes difficult to keep motivated and maintain consistency and focus.
Does this sound familiar?
You are not alone this happens to us all from time to time. This time of year, especially as we all look forward to summer holidays it is even more likely to happen.
What is motivation?
The definition of Motivation is:
The essence of motivation is energized and persistent goal-directed behaviour. When we are motivated, we move and take action. Motivation is influenced by the satisfaction of needs that are either necessary for sustaining life or essential for wellbeing and growth. Source: https://positivepsychology.com/
Let’s look at reasons why we struggle to stay motivated:
Perfectionism
Are we putting too much pressure on ourselves to be perfect in all areas of our lives. The perfect mother, daughter, partner, businesswoman. It can be exhausting when we set the bar impossibly high for ourselves. We are setting ourselves up for failure before we start.
Rather than aiming to be perfect, we need to show ourselves more compassion. Let’s focus on being good enough and one strategy that demonstrates this is the Pareto principle also known as the 80/20 rule. This principle is used in business, time management and even sport.
Research shows that 80% of our success comes from just 20% effort. So, as we strive for perfection, we are undoubtedly spending far too much time doing things that will have no impact or results. You are good enough as you are. Can you relate to this?
Are you measuring the success of the actions you take in your business? Are you doing it out of habit rather than for success? If its not working for you or your business, then it is time for a change.
Stress and Life Changes
When we look back how often have, we overcome life changes that came about completely unexpectedly. How did we react? We made changes and got on and did it. It is amazing how resilient we can be when we have no choice. Therefore, worrying about what may or may not happen in the future is counter- productive. Think back to times in your life where, now in hindsight, you would never have imagined you would have been able to overcome yet you did.
I am by no way downplaying anything here because life changing things happen to us and take a huge emotional toll on us and the people around us. In these situations, always be kind to yourself and get all the help and support you need to help you through tough times.
Depression and Low Energy
Depression can severely affect your energy levels leaving you with a lack of interest in your business. It is important to monitor your low moods and determine whether you should seek professional help. If you have been diagnosed with depression again it is important to be kind to yourself and respect your limits and don’t push yourself too hard.
Trying to be and do too many things is a huge drain on our time and energy which leads to low mood and lack of motivation.
Imposter syndrome
You are having a wonderful day, you are ticking off your to do list then suddenly a ping notification with an email or social post, you read it and Bang! The self-doubt has kicked in, you are comparing yourself to this other person who you are making huge assumptions about “Look at her, she is doing everything so much better than I am, she must be earning more money than me, she must have more clients.” Suddenly there you are on this downward spiral and your motivation to get yourself out there and shine has hit the floor.
Manage your environment and what impacts you. If you are triggered by certain people or content protect yourself, unfollow these people or focus on what helps and motivates you so everything around you is inspiring and uplifting rather than the opposite.
Hormones
As women our hormones affect us at all stages of our lives right from puberty onwards. Hormones have a habit of catching us unawares and you suddenly feel all you want to do is either cry or kill someone? Or is that just me? I am assured post menopause it does get better and our worries over what people think about us start to fade. We adopt a new outlook on life, stop sweating the small stuff and appreciate what life is all about and let go of all the drama!
Let’s be honest staying motivated is hard at the best of times but let’s recognise when it starts to happen so we can pull ourselves out of it and move on.
We shared strategies for consistency and focus which will help you to organise yourself better and that can be a great start for keeping us motivated. If we are managing our time well, achieving our goals, creating new habits, taking care of ourselves, minimizing distractions, and feeling fully supported by our network of likeminded women then it will all help us to keep on track.
But what more can we do?
Mindset
Our mindset is the biggest contributor to our motivation. We know that our minds control everything we do, who we are and what we become all starts from what is happening within us all. How we treat ourselves, how we talk to ourselves, how we see ourselves and how we see others.
Starting to really tune into ourselves and how we are feeling is key.
A good strategy to find out what is going on in your head is to find a quiet place away from distractions. Grab a pen and paper/notebook and just write, empty your head of all your thoughts. Let it all come out. Ask yourself how am I feeling about myself, my business, my lifestyle etc.
Journalling
Journalling is an amazing way to gain a deeper clarity of understanding of where you are right now.
Make a list of
- What’s going well?
- What’s not going well?
- Can you change it?
Anything you can’t change can you reframe it and look at it from a different perspective. Can you find the positive in the situation or an opportunity for change?
Getting a true understanding of where you are is the first step on the road to improving your mood and motivation.
Visualisation
This is something I have added to my toolkit to help me to achieve my goals.
Try this
- Visualise what you want your business or life to look like.
- Who do you need to become to achieve all the things you want in life.
- Keep manifesting the life you want and act as though you have already achieved it
Acting in this way raises your energy and vibration to attract in more of what you want. Don’t forget to focus on “what you want” and not “what you don’t want” as the Law Attraction attracts what you think about and can’t differentiate between the two.
Support network
Having a support network around you like Womens Business Network is a huge benefit. When times are hard, and motivation is low you have people around you to lift you up and support you to get back on track. You have a safe space to discuss your challenges and learn from others who empathise from a place of true understanding. Friends and families are a great support, but they don’t always fully understand what we are going through or how to solve it.
If this blog is resonating with you and you are feeling lonely and isolated please get in touch for more information about our fabulous community of supportive women.
Your Why
When my motivation towards my business is low, I tend to come back to “My Why.”
Are you really clear on why you are in business? Why do you offer the product or service you do? Do you feel enthusiastic about what you are doing, the clients you work with, the money you are receiving.
Identify the things that are making you feel low and remember your Why. Remembering your ‘Why’ will help to re-energise you and get you back on track.
Energy levels
Are you doing too much? Are you trying to multitask and juggle too many plates and feel on the verge of it all coming crashing down?
Give your business and life an audit. Look at how you are filling your days. Is it all necessary. Take time to reassess and reflect. What are your priorities right now?
Are your goals still aligned?
Do you still want all the things in life you have been aiming for?
What can you let go off or ask for help and support with?
In business we are never standing still goals and priorities do change.
Reassess your goals
Revisit your goals and if they are not aligned change them to reflect what you want now. Break them down into manageable tasks. Have you read the book Eat That Frog or heard of the saying “How do you eat an Elephant.” Huge goals with no action plan of steps will completely demotivate you as you will not be able to see the path to take to achieve your goals.
Look at your business goals and break them down into small tasks with timescales to achieve. Use the SMART goals principle make your goals Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timebound.
As you tick off the small tasks recognise and celebrate the small wins along the way. Notice how you’re feeling and what happens to your motivation.
Self-Care
In all of this self-care plays a huge part. We cannot be and do all the things we want if we do not take care of ourselves first.
Prioritise you and your health, as without it, you can’t be there for your family and friends, and you will struggle to be successful in business. Add routines to your life which become daily habits.
Healthy eating, exercise and sleep will all help with mood and energy levels.
Don’t fear change
Change is good and essential for success. I don’t believe in failure just lessons learnt. Women who have seen huge success in business didn’t always succeed. Vera Wang was a former figure skater who was poised to succeed when she failed to make the US Olympic team in 1968. She pivoted into fashion and starting out working with Vogue Magazine in 1971 where she was promoted to senior Fashion Editor within a year and in 1987 became Editor in Chief. She worked for Ralph Lauren before launching her iconic Vera Wang Bridal House.
Katy Perry’s recorded a gospel album “Katy Hudson” in 2001 which was released under Red Hill Records. The album was a flop, selling only 200 copies and the label went bankrupt. For five years Katy had to sell her clothes to make her rent, borrowed money. In 2004 she was signed as a lead vocalist in the band Matrix but the project was shelved before completion. In 2006 she signed to Capitol Music Group where her hit single “I kissed a girl” launched her to success. Source: Becoming Self Made
The moral of this is that you learn from your failures and make room for whatever is coming next.
Acceptance and Self Belief
We started with perfectionism at the start of this blog and to end we must talk about acceptance and self-belief.
We must learn to accept ourselves and embrace all our flaws and nuances as they make us who we are. What makes us a success and why we attract the clients we do is because they buy into us? They resonate and trust that we are the right person for them.
Striving for success is healthy but constantly berating ourselves for what we are not is fruitless.
Take the pressure off, recognise, accept, and celebrate the amazing woman you are. Show gratitude for all you have. Visualise what you want for your future, set the goals, make the changes, and become the person you know you are meant to be. That person is inside you already waiting to flourish and shine. Don’t let self-doubt, comparisonitis or the words of others take that away from you.
We see ourselves in a very different light to how others see us. Ask families, friends, business contacts to tell you what they see in you. Believe in yourself and absorb what people around you say about you.
All of this will help you to keep motivated and striving for all that you want. Try these strategies and see how your motivation increases and helps you to become who you want to be.
Want to continue learning about Motivation we will have a guest speaker at our meeting on Thursday 25th July 1.00-2.30pm Dawn Owen is a No BS coach who thrives on the High Vibe outlook on life and goals. Dawn will use her coaching skills to give us the tools to reframe our thinking when motivation and mood is low.
