Finding motivation in your business.
June 13, 2008
I hate to exercise. I really do. I feel good afterward, and I'm definitely getting in better shape because of it, but I hate it. It's a real chore for me. What do my exercise habits have to do with finding motivation in your business? Hang with me for a bit and it will all make sense. It may even be enlightening.
My son is going to be born in late July, and I knew I'd have to be in better shape to chase him around and prevent him from hurting himself. I know this is going to happen because he's my son, and I was a hand full. That's strong motivation to get in shape, right? Sure it is, but that didn't make it easy.
I'd get on the treadmill bound and determined to walk for 30 minutes, and I'd find myself getting bored out of my mind and irritated with the soreness in my muscles 15 minutes into it. Half the time I would just give up, and the other half was so aggravating that I vowed never to do it again. Of course, my motivation was strong, and so I'd try again the next day.
Then my family and I went to the movies to see The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. I had read the Narnia series of books in the past, and the movie rekindled my interest in the series. So I got the full series of unabridged books for my iPod. But I'm a busy guy, and so I didn't have time to listen to them.
Lightbulb! I had 30 minutes a day of mind-numbing boredom to fill, so I started listening to the series while walking on the treadmill. I love the Narnia stories, and I get so wrapped up in listening to them while walking that I stop staring at the timer wishing it would move faster. In fact, now I often find myself not wanting to get off the treadmill because I'm in the middle of a good part! By coupling something I love to do with something I abhor, it made the task much easier to deal with. I'm very happy with the results in my energy level, as well as being able to listen to the stories I enjoy so much.
Let's face it: a successful business is rarely made up of only tasks that we love to do. There's always some real chores that are absolutely necessary. Why not apply the above lesson to your business-related tasks as well?
If you're working on something that you really don't like to do, break it up so you don't have to do it all at once. Put something in between that you love to do as a reward for your doing the dreaded task. That way you'll have something to look forward to. You'll have the needed motivation.
For instance, let's say you love to write articles, but hate to go through the drudgery of submitting them to the article sites. If that's the case, try writing an article and then immediately submitting it to the article sites, knowing that when you're done you can go write another article. If you wait until you have 20 articles written and then have to submit them all at once, the sheer magnitude of the chore will make it unbearable. But one at a time isn't so bad, is it?
Here's a personal example: I love to write code, but I get a lot less joy out of answering support requests. I have a fantastic support person now (Amin Motin), but there are usually some support requests each day that I need to handle personally. I make it a point to answer those tickets first, knowing that when it's done I can reward myself with what I love to do: write code. That gives me the needed incentive.
You probably do this kind of thing all the time in your daily life. It's just a matter of applying that same "reward yourself" principle to your business.
Here's a personal example of how I do this in day-to-day life: I'm not a fan of vegetables. I'm a meat and potatoes kind of guy. But I also want to be healthy. So I always eat my veggies first. When they're out of the way and I can move on to the slab of steak or fried shrimp that I really love and still feel good about having eaten the healthy stuff.
I'd be much less inclined to eat those awful veggies after having already downed all of those delicious, golden brown stuffed shrimp from PappaDeaux's. There's a reason we teach our children to eat their food before dessert! Not only is the food more nutritious, but who wants to eat veggies after a wonderful slice of apple pie?
The same applies to your business. Get the tasks you consider chores out of the way first, that way you can concentrate on the aspects of your business that you love to do. If the dreaded tasks are very time consuming, then break them up into chunks. For instance, if you find writing a chore, but you love the challenge of link building, then create some content when you first start working and then focus on your link building for a while. After you feel great about your link building efforts, go back to writing for a bit.
Failure to get through the drudgery and then reward yourself with the "fun stuff" can result in deadlock. If you do the fun stuff first, then you've already "had your dessert (or fried shrimp!)" so the mere thought of tackling the other tasks is loathsome and you'll find every excuse possible to put it off until later. Take it a little bit at a time, followed by an enjoyable activity, and you'll be amazed at what you've accomplished at the end of the day.
Please post your thoughts in a comment below.
Comments
60 Responses to “Finding motivation in your business.”
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Jonathan Leger has been earning his living online full-time since the fall of 2004. He regularly posts advice about search engine optimization (his current passion), AdSense and Internet Marketing. 
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Eat a toad first thing each morning. Nothing worse will happen to you all day!
lol Paul! But I don't think anyone reading this blog is in a business where eating a toad is a required task!
Jon,
Very good post. Check out this quote by Albert Gray:
"Winners have simply formed the habit of doing things losers don't like to do." Albert Gray
Having a successful business means persevering and covering the bases successfully.
Keep up the good work
- Dave
It's easier to start with "micro" tasks than it is to wait until you've mustered enough energy to tackle a "big" multitask project.
How do you climb Mount Everest?
One step at a time… each step is a small victory FORWARD…
Neglecting to do those chores defeats your spirit and deflates your energy, motivation and stamina.
As the saying goes… "Just do it!!"
Gerrit
RE: I'm a meat and potatoes kind of guy.
Aren't potatoes vegetables?
RE: …"had your desert (or fried shrimp!)" …
Two s's in dessert (s is for SUGAR!)
Google "The Secret" and you might be lucky and find a link to the best motivational movie ever made. Discover the law of attraction and how it affects your life. {snip: no personal promotion please}
P.S. if you cant find a link to The Secret let me know and i will show you how you can watch it FREE with DivX
Good advice, Jon.
Anything that can take your mind off of 'mundane' tasks will help.
I love building sites but hate generating the content, so I do that first.
Great post! I had a grin while reading, we share the same experience on treadmill!
I tried audiobook but they weren't for me, I need to listen something more "pumping" and at the meantime it is not enough.
You may find it stupid but I've solved the question with some dumb videogames on my smartphone. I would go for hours this way.
I love vgs.
About article submitting, it exist a software that does everyhing that you hate automatically. If I'm not wrong it is called Article Submitter
I like The Chronicles of Narnia too.
Thanks for your thoughts.
I better love designing and coding than creating content.
Dustin:
"Aren't potatoes vegetables?" — Not in my book!
"Two s's in dessert (s is for SUGAR!)" — Thanks! Typo fixed.
Mik:
Nothing stupid about it. If it works, use it!
Jon
Potatoes are tubers, not vegetables. They are also highly glycemic like most "white" colored foods. Vegetables of any color are better for you in regards to healthy eating. My 2-cents worth!
Glad you enjoyed Prince Caspian, I hope you've seen (or listened to) The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe as well, otherwise parts of Prince Caspian won't make sense.
As for the guy advocating The Secret, the *real* secret is in the world's best selling book!
David
Hey Jon,
Good points there.
But I'm afraid you'll have to upgrade on your workout. There's a Fitness Robot out there that will get you done in 4 minutes.
{snip: no personal urls please}
Jon,
A great post. I use the reward system to myself. Only thing is I like the reward so much I have to kick myself away from it.
I'm thinking 15 minutes of reading and posting on WF forum and then back to real business of writing articles. 15 minutes turns into an hour. LOL
But the self reward does help to motivate me. Also gives me the necessary break I need to get my mind clear and refocused on necessary work.
Ken
Great advice as always Jon!
A lot of people find it's easier to tackle all the "little" items on your task list each day and put off the "larger" ones. At the end of the day you feel good because you get a lot of items marked off but you still know you haven't got to the more important larger tasks.
It's a lot better to tackle at least 1 or 2 of the hard things first and move on to a few of the smaller ones. In the end you'll feel much better because you know you are actually getting more done.
Always remember to check yourself and your activities to ensure you are being more "productive" rather than just "active".
My 2 cents…
Van
Another great article, Jon!
Here's some inspirational excerpt from the Tao Te Ching verse 63:
"Begin a difficult task in its easy stage, because large problems grow from small ones.
Begin a large task in its formative state, because complex issues originate from simple ones."
Have a wonderful weekend everyone!
Yes, yes, Jon, this method we use all life. Unconsciously. You are forced to think about than something. About systematize unconscious movements. On awareness. In fact this is the system "sticks - carrot." Do not you think?
Potato is not a vegetarian diet, as well as a large quantity of starch, which the body is converted into glucose, a surplus - in fat.
Thanks.
Quite interesting. This Friday as the day was drawing to a close and i started going over what had NOT been accomplished, the dismay started settling in.
Then i read this article and realize that i need to combine all the yucky stuff with the stuff that i love to do like swimming, biking, marathons etc.
But on further reflection i see people here who love to write and others who love to link build, some who love to design and others who might love putting the technical side of things.
I know this sounds like a whacky idea, but sometimes from wackiness is born strong viable "things that probably won't work either, ha ha"
Anyway, in the same way that you built shareapost.com how about shareATask.com
A place where the submitters can submit and the article writers can write and the db guys and and php guys can do whatever sql queries blah blah blah…
Just another idea looking for a solution, ha ha ha
home business guy:
That sounds like a web site waiting to happen!
I'm not a runner by nature. But, in order to build my endurance up for martial arts wherein I spar against guys half my age, I run.
But I've learned to breakup my running to make it more interesting. I don't run to exhaustion. I run to get my heartbeats up and to get my lungs pumping. This simulates a sparring match.
Then once so "primed" I throw punches, kicks, twists and turns while I walk with small weights in my hands. Once I catch my breath, I run a little more. I repeat the process for about a mile, stopping along the way to get some "quality time" punching "things".
For me, this took the dread out of running. Now, I don't mind it so much and in fact I look foreword to those runs and workouts.
Good article, good advice.
PS: I hate reading blogs. So I Copy N Paste the blog, blow it up in Word to full screen. Not so bad now. :O)
Good stuff as always John…
By the way, anyone ever tell you, you look a little
like Ryan Deiss? lol.
Joe
Hey,
That's a really good idea to put in something that seems a chore with something you love to do.
Great post Jon.
The part about the vegetables brings back memories of my childhood. I hated vegies so I left them for last. My Mom wouldn't let me get up from the table until the vegies were gone (yup, I'm from the generation where we all ate together at the table).
Well, I thought like you and ate my vegies first to get them out of the way. It backfired - my Mom thought I loved the vegies so she piled more on my plate (gotta love Moms).
So true; it's a process not an event.
Happy Father's Day to Dads past, present and future.
And to Tim Russert; a great American.
Jon,
Thanks for the motivational ideas . Sooo many times during the day i dread the chores I have to accomplish, but with a little push I somehow complete my tasks.
It;s nice to know I'm not alone! Now I'll get busy and complete my chores … Today prehaps I'll even get to my "Honey Do List"
Once you have a kid you will have a lot less time and energy for everything, trust me. Enjoy the last few days of your normal life while you can!!
Hey Jon,
Long time no speak. Been up to my eyes in it!
Great post and so very true… I got to the point of being stuck behind the screens upto 18hrs a day at one point and myself not being one to be an iPody type person decided to load up a bit of Mass Control & PLF 2 and now I get myself down to the gym at 6am every day and find insights I get as I listen… well they give me some little AHA's! and it don't half put a kick in my step and get me that all important "extra rep"! =0>
Then… off to McDonalds for brakfast! =0D only kiddin (or am I )
Keep up the good work Mr L and speak soon
Best wishes to you and yours from me and mine
Lewis
Hi Jon,
I cant speak my mind cos you already spoke it. I met de ja vu, Thank you brother
Tim.
Effective business building, like exercise, is most efficiently done when it becomes habit. Those people in shape will tell you that that thy HABITUALLY excercise, and something feels terribly wrong when they don't. You need to get into the same habitual mindframe about doing SOMETHING to build your business EVERY DAY. It should nag at you when you don't.
You're so right!!
Breaking a task up into manageable blocks is definitely something
that helps getting over the drudgery of doing the task. I've tried it myself with varied positive results.
But what i've never tried to do is accomplish something in between that you love, as a kind of reward. Definitely worth a shot!
Joneil
Jon,
Great post on an essential issue. No health = no business.
Here is something personal I wrote recently:
Personally I have had "challenges" maintaining physical fitness in the past (for a lot of my life), mainly because I find exercise incredibly boring. As exercise and associated excellent health is a life essential I had to find a way to overcome this. I never really enjoyed sports and the only exercise I enjoyed when I was a young man was stuff with a very high mental stimulus such as some army training. Later I trained in Ninjutsu (green belt) so that helped too.
These days I build exercise into my life so I don't notice it - such as cycling from A to B on business. Recently I have cut back on the cycling and substituted walking which is great for meditating on the hoof too. Cycling can be a bit easy/cruisey. I also do weights so as to build muscle* mass (* which as you may know burns calories faster). When doing weights I can meditate too, which helps.
I have cut my "vices" such as chocolate, chips, biscuits and cake back to one day a week for each. Because they are strung out across the week and time goes so fast I seem to have a semi regular supply to get my fix. I eat a lot of organic food. (Warning: organic chocolate, biscuits, chips and cake are much more moorish than the ordinary kind).
Simply speaking, we cannot cheat the natural laws of life. Eating loads of pizza, guzzling Coke, all while being a computer potato, just won't do. By building exercise into my life as above I am following my "natural law or flow" so it is much easier to get it done.
On top of all this, I have found the mind and thinking patterns to also be essential ingredients of good health.
I know what you mean about hating excercise. My biggest issue with it is that I'm not 25 anymore and I still have my "military mentality" that tells me to kick butt, but my 45 year old overweight body receives the message as "butt kicked".
Anyway, I've been hard at it for two months now and I'm dropping weight and getting toughened up again. I'm adding hill sprints to my program next week. Those are really going to suck with a capitol SUCK, but I really want my old body back so I've gotta make some sacrifices. Most importantly, I want to be around for my kids for a long time.
I highly recommend everything that Matt Furey has written. His book, "Combat Conditioning", brought back a lot of memories to this old SGT.
Keep at it!
Great stuff Jon.
I am a web designer by trade and struggle staying motivated when designing new sites for clients. They usually don't have the same kind of vision, or budget for that matter, as I would like to put into there site. So it can get extremely monotonous. This is why in the past year or so I have started learning how to make money online in different ways. Now my play time is spent on SEO. Through trial and error I am slowly beginning to get it. So now each work day I spend a few hours designing and a few hours playing (SEO). This definitely makes designing sites a lot more enjoyable.
Your Online Business Buddy
Gilbert
This article really inspiring me. When it comes many tasks, sometime I don't know what to do first. But to choose 'not so like' job first to do, make us motivate to do it more fast and right away doing something we like.
Thanks for the tips.
I know just exactly what you mean. Article writing is OK, but I absolutely hate the link building part — it doesn't seem to contribute anything to the common good, as far as I can see. (Ya, I know it's supposed to contribute to MY search engine rankings, but that hardly qualifies as a 'common good'.)
I love designing systems, though. So, home business guy, do get your services exchange website up, and we can all start some exchanges!
Hi,
Great post. Another good tip when exercising is to go 'further than yesterday'. I did it every day for 6 months and ended up running the London Marathon last year!! When I started I couldn't run one mile, let alone 26.2! Worked for me, thought I'd share..all the best, Allen
Hey Jon
Great post…. too often we forget to have FUN. If you put the FUN back into what you are doing it is no longer work but FUN… Yeah!!
I'm having fun being of service… are you?
Simon
great post…thanks for the tips.
definitely will apply it to both my exercise & internet biz.
I hate vegetables too..so i eat them in the same bite as my chicken / meat / pasta to cover up the taste
-varie virtual-
Learning time management and doing tasks that you don't really care for is a pain in the butt….Fortunately this stuff can be outsourced….Because doing what you love is really what keeps me going..
I'm impressed by people like yourself Jon who do pull it all together - it's why i'm subscribed to your list
The shareatask idea is kinda nice but all being marketers we're probably very protective of our 'ideas'. It would be great for peripheral projects tho', maybe based on the openmoney system.
Great Information Jon!
I don't like running, but put a Frisbee in my hand with a friend or two, and time passes much too quickly. I think I'll go take care of a couple of those tasks I have been putting off now. Then I can get to the fun stuff!
Ted
I can relate to your exercise scenario, as I am a professional trainer turned Internet entrepreneur. I have put together a FREE ebook on fitness motivation (for golfers, but really applicable for everyone) if you want to give it a read.
I don't know if it's okay to put it in here, but here goes:
{snip: no personal promotion please}
I hope you find it valuable.
Mike
Hi Jon,
I am going to attempt to adopt this mentality.
I absolutely hate writing articles.
This is now going to be top of list from now on.
I might be a bit biased, but I also love audio books as a way to pass the time on the treadmill. I'm sure you wouldn't mind me giving a blatant plug for my audio book website would you? It's {snip: yes, I would. no self-promotion please}
Thanks again.
Brett
Jon:
I read while exercising on the life cycle. There is no way I could exercise every day without reading. Try getting a juicer and juicing vegetables and fruits. It's a good way to get your required vegies. Also find a good tasting green drink mix and drink it every day.
Thanks,
Linda
I randomely found out on google about this nice software you can use to get people find you and be attracted to your headlines in search engines. I think it was called glyphius…
I think I'll try it to advertise my coming up business.
You pretty much type a headline and it gives you a score. You keep editing it and changing few words until the score gets higher and higher and i guess next thing you know, you have a catchy headline
Being fit physically has come by making myself accountable to my personal trainer. When I believe I can do ten, he believes I can do fifteen.
Being fit mentally has come as I accompany myself with an inspirational book and my journal, awaiting the latest idea, everywhere I go.
Being fit spiritually has come by reading and sharing with others 'the greatest book ever written' on a daily basis.
Being fit for business and life has come as I continue to surround myself with others who have allowed me to delegate my weaknesses to them so that I can concentrate as much as possible on my strengths.
Great post. I find that holds true…doing a certain amount of something you enjoy gives you the fuel to move through the tasks you don't enjoy.
I love to code too but creating the input forms and validating the input is boring.
For exercise, I run outdoors, it is much nicer than running on a treadmill, as long as you have a nice environment to run in.
I am least motivated to keep good business records, I have tried creating spreadsheets, making slides of how I will do a monthly review etc. But I normally leave it all until the deadline of my tax return is looming.
Great post! You're right, I use the reward yourself principles mentioned in my everyday life too. I just never looked at it in that light.
Doing fun stuff while doing work stuff is a great way to get through it all. When I do business related tasks I often listen to music, although when I'm writing an article I usually don't because it's too distracting. Great post!
Jonathan:
We all have to find a way to get things done that we don't want to do. There are plenty of mind tricks to use, and you've outlined a few of them. I linked to your piece from my blog at the Innovators-Network in hopes of sending reticent readers your way, if they can figure out how to get their acts together and click on over! Thanks for the thoughts on "doing!"
You love writing code? I KNEW something was wrong with you. LOL. This is a great post. Wii Fit is an amazing work out too. It is silly playing a game but man is it great for working muscles, balancing and posture.
I got the Friends DVD's for a birthday present. 10 years of 22 minute TV shows, 236 shows, 10 hours of extra behind the scene things for a total of 5,792 minutes of programming or 193 30-minute walks. Almost 6 1/2 months of viewing! The other way to see this is to watch 1 22 minute show for 236 days then you would have another 20 days of behind the scenes stuff to watch for a total of 8 1/2 months of material to view.
I try to break my business down this way too. Each day of the week has different focuses so I get to do the things I enjoy, building sites and messing with code (me too) 3 days a week but I write and do housekeeping other days. It all balances out to make for a great business and a happy Rhonda.
Reading sure helps with a treatmill, and a treadmill desk adds another dimension. Googling the phrase will turn up lots of options, but I was lucky in that a prefinished shelf was exactly right for my treadmill.
Jonathan you have always valuable stuff to be said.
Thank you it is good to be reminded to do the onerous tasks first.
When I first entered the full-time work-force in youth, as a pampered nouveau middle class suburbanite, I had to pray to God for the gift of likin to do certain tasks for hours, for example washin dishes, or repetitive food prep. He gave it to me right quickly, did He not?
Folks have been in the habit of eatin more meat than they ought. This is a guarantee of arthritis, eventually.
Eatin the vegetables first hopefully also reduces the amount of meat eaten, to closer to a healthy amount.
In a forum thread about Biblical dietary laws, someone did a lot of research and found that the animals prohibited in the laws in the Torah are exactly those which are the most damagin to health. Shrimp is included.
Another great post Jon, The reward technique works for me too - but I need to work on the self control aspect a bit more as I think I focus too much on the reward and not enough on the nasty bit! Thanks! Susan
I'm with Mr. Rogers. I find creating content can get very monotonous and my brain just locks up. I have to plan out my articles and get them done first. Then I can play.
Passion is one of the most important factor to consider. Find what you need to do and outsource the rest.
Finding the intersect between passion and work is important to make it fun.
I've recently written about passion to build a blogging business.
Excellent point that is well worth remembering for all of us.
Like when you were a kid and had to clean your plate before you can leave the table, might as well eat the veggies first so you can finish with the "good stuff" at the end!
I've always found motivation in the thought of keeping the wolf away from the door. "If I don't get this done, I won't make my [you fill in the blank] payment."
I also follow the advice given by Jon above regarding breaking up tasks into realizable portions then getting those tasks completed. At the end of the day, I can look back and say, "At least I got that much done! Only a little bit more to go." Keeping your attention focused on completing the smaller tasks allows you to eventually complete the larger task.
Thom
Yeah I agree Jonathan. Its all about pacing yourself. And mixing things up with some fun stuff in between the drudgery. You gotta do it like that. Or else you burn out !!