Keeping motivated: secrets to sustaining your entrepreneurial drive

Running your own business is like living on a roller coaster, we’re up and we’re down constantly. We all go through this and sometimes can get stuck in the messy middle, so this episode is all about keeping the tank full of motivation.

Even if you are passionate about your work, there will be ups and downs. Accepting this as a reality can be pretty powerful and noting that motivation ebbs and flows will keep you from catastrophizing or wallowing. Through the episode, I share some previous podcast episodes that deal with this topic (check out the show notes!), a visualization exercise from my Power of Process course, and the power of tools, like time blocking.

Know you aren’t alone when you feel stagnant in your business; all things have their ups and downs. Identifying what lights you up and filling up your inspiration tank will allow you to have the tools ready the next time this feeling comes around.

Episode Resources

• Episode 194: A 5-minute motivator when you’re stuck in the messy middle
• Episode 188: Visualize your way to success with LuAnn Nigara
• Episode 186: Non-negotiable productivity hacks that changed my life
• Episode 175: Managing inconsistent income as a business owner
• Unique Ability Book

This episode is sponsored by Devix Kitchens

Read the Full Transcript ⬇️

Hey, hey, hey, it’s Rebecca and you’re listening to Resilient by Design.

Today I’m offering up another shorty episode and this time it’s all about how to stay motivated as an entrepreneur. And I really thought this would be fun to just have a short episode just to give you some tangible advice on the things that you can do. Specifically, I have podcast episodes that I have recorded over the past year and a half or so speak specifically to this, that you can go back to listen, depending on where you’re at, because the reality is I’m going to have some of my chamomile tea because I got an upset tummy.

Really sucks. Try and eat too many vegetables, guys. That’s what you get. Truth. But really, I do want to acknowledge that. Running a business, I don’t care what kind of business you run, it is fucking stressful. There. I said it. I swore. I’m using my foul mouth today because I feel like It’s a constant roller coaster and [00:01:00] you’re climbing, you’re climbing, you’re climbing, and like, you get momentum and things are killing it.

And then you’re like, Oh no, there’s a setback. Oh, there’s an obstacle. Oh, I don’t think I can do this. Oh, there’s self- doubt. Oh, there’s comparison. And it’s like, and then you have to talk yourself back up again. And I don’t know about you, but that’s been my experience over the last decade. Is the ups and downs, the tears, the joy, the uncertainty of being in the messy middle.

And I know that so many of you have experienced this at one point. And if you haven’t yet, you will, because that’s just the reality of running a business. It’s funny. I got it. I’m on all these newsletters. I’m subscribed to all these newsletters. And this one guy, I don’t even know who it was. He sent out a newsletter today and he talked about how in order to run a successful business, It’s not about following your passion, which is obviously quite controversial to say, because everyone always says, follow your passion and like, you’ll just be happy forever and you’ll make lots of money, but he was saying that’s actually not true.

What [00:02:00] you need to realize is that every single business, regardless if it starts as a passion, eventually is the same thing. Essentially every business ends up being. Managing people, dealing with customer service, crunching the numbers, like all the boring shitty parts of running a business will eventually befall your business, whether it’s a passion or not.

And so he talks about the power of accepting that. And I, it was really powerful for me when I read it because I thought, Oh, it’s so true. You know, this idea of like, I keep pursuing my passions and I don’t fully subscribe to what he’s saying. Cause I do think that if you’re passionate about something, you’re more likely to motivate yourself and to push yourself.

And that’s what today’s episode is about is, how do you stay motivated? Because like, how do you stay motivated as an entrepreneur when it’s not always rainbows and butterflies? Sometimes the people who are a little bit further behind you, they surpass you and then all of a sudden they’re somehow further ahead than you and you’re like, what the, huh?

What did I do wrong? And you know, if [00:03:00] you’re nodding your head, you can relate to this feeling of, am I doing it right? Am I good enough at this? And I think this might really more apply to the women in my audience because I know from being married to a man that he often says he never has those thoughts, which is amazing.

And I would like to have some of that so he could just give me more of that. That would be wonderful. But I do believe that there are, I’m going to talk you through kind of like four different areas and give you some examples of episodes. In this podcast that you can go listen to, if that’s where you’re at right now to help keep you motivated, because I will be the first to recognize and share with you and be super honest.

I am not always motivated. Regardless of what it is, whether it’s design projects, whether it’s podcasts, whether it’s, I don’t know, vacation with my kids, whether it’s a date night with my husband, whether it’s coaching like I don’t just wake up in the morning feeling naturally motivated every day. [00:04:00] In fact, I would probably say that.

Most days I wake up and I don’t feel like jumping out of bed and kick- starting my day. There are certainly days that are like that, but there are certain things that you can do, or certain hacks, or mindset tricks that you can do to help keep yourself in the game, even when you’re feeling like it’s a drag.

So the very first tip and bit of advice that I have for you is what lights you up really? What lights you up? And I don’t mean like, Oh, interior design. Like that’s my passion. Like that’s why I’m running that as a business. And it’s amazing. No, like what specifically is your unique ability? And you guys have probably heard me talk about this on Instagram, but I, a little while ago was doing reading that book, unique ability.

There’s a 2. 0 discovery and have these exercises that you can go through where you start to find out from other people in your life and from doing different personality tests and the Colby index and the Myers Briggs, like what is it that is unique to who you are? Because chances are, if you are feeling [00:05:00] unmotivated, you are out of alignment with the things that light you up with who you are.

And so. For me, I’ve become really hyper- aware of, you know, one of the things that lights me up. is that I’m an Includer. So for me, I get lit up when I include people and I bring in the marginalized or when I bring people together, gathering people. So when I look back at times where I’ve been maybe less motivated than last year, it’s probably because I’ve been doing less.

It’s been a lot of like zoom working one on one with my designer or my admin or, or a freelancer in my office. Like that is not the includer. The includer in me is not, that cup is not filling up. And so once you understand what is it that you’re doing. That lights you up. What is your unique ability? I mean, I have it pinned over there on my corkboard.

I have like a little cue card that I cut into a square and I have my five, the Myers Briggs personality, the top five things. I don’t know. One of them is communication. So [00:06:00] for me, If I’m not in a situation where I feel like I can communicate, I feel like I can present, then I’m going to start to feel a little stifled.

And so recognizing what your unique ability is will help you to ensure that you are tackling at least once a week, something that is in that zone, like that zone of genius, right? What is it that you can do? You know, I could go and be a guest on Darla Powell’s podcast, shout out to Darla Powell, wingnut social, love that woman.

And I feel freaking lit up and I feel motivated. I’m like, yeah. I love doing what I’m doing. I get to connect with her. This is amazing. I get to communicate my thoughts and I get to help people. And that kind of lights me up. And then I might go for a few weeks without that. So it’s looking for what are those activities that fall within your unique ability.

That you can then bring more into your life to help you stay lit up, which will in turn help you feel motivated. The next thing I want to talk about is an episode of the podcast. It’s episode 194. So if you have a pen, write this down. I’ll make [00:07:00] sure that Vera links these in our show notes. But episode number 194 is a five minute motivator. When you’re stuck in the messy middle. It was a short little episode that I did that I think is really powerful.

If you’re feeling like you know, like you’re dragging yourself and you just want to. Pick me up and a reminder and a reminder that like, you will get through this if you are feeling down about yourself or where you’re at, or you’re just feeling negative, go listen to that episode. I read like an excerpt from a speech from a famous, I think it was an American president.

And anyhow, we talk about the context of it. And I think it’s just, it really inspired me at the time. A lot of this podcast is when I’m dealing with crap in my life. I’m like, I need to work through this and I’m going to share what’s working for me with you guys. So. I think it was helpful. That’s why I recorded it.

So go give that one a listen. That’s 1. 94. Next, a really incredible tool to help you feel more motivated is to pause and have a vision session with yourself. [00:08:00] Like, lie down in bed at night, close your eyes and say, okay. What is my vision for the future? Get yourself excited about something. This is an exercise that I do inside Power of Process and I make everyone do a visualization with me and like obviously people don’t have to do it but I think that you will be successful with me if you do it.

It’s the woo woo in me but I recorded an episode of this podcast with Luann Nigara. I don’t need to remind you who she is. She is like the queen of podcasting in our industry, but Luann, who’s a phenomenal human, shout out to Luann of a well designed business. Luanne talked about how in her early years, she learned the power of visualization, which is why that podcast episode is titled Visualize Your Way to Success with Luanne Nygara.

Now obviously there’s much more that goes into being successful than visualization, but in that episode, she and I really get into the nitty gritty and into that. personal level of what does [00:09:00] that look like to visualize and how has visualization helped her with her confidence grow her business? It’s something that you could do, like listen to that episode.

That’s episode 188 of Resilient by Design, but also. So just close your eyes and visualize, or take 20 minutes, an hour of your day, put together a dream life, Pinterest board, a secret Pinterest board. Have fun. Envision. Create a I’m just staring up here on my wall. I have these vision boards, I have one there, two there, one’s really old, one’s newer that I just did last year.

Get some magazines out, tear out pictures, and actually something that’s really neat that I just. did for the first time last year and I’ve always, not always, but I would say for the last decade, I’ve really leaned into vision boards. And to be honest, I did do them back when I lived in Vancouver and I was in design school.

I did start vision boarding them, but I haven’t done it consistently until maybe the last five years. And it’s something that last year I just learned from my friend where she does it differently, where she like, [00:10:00] before I’d be really intentional with my vision board, I’m like, okay, I would do that. Come up with the vision.

Then I would find images that match my vision, which I think is a great way to do it. But what she suggested to me, and you guys could try this too, is she gets all the magazines and there’s something about the physical magazines that’s different than digital, I have to say, because I’ve done it both ways.

She just goes through and just starts ripping things out that speak to her with no agenda. So this, in this scenario, she is letting the universe, some higher power, Just kind of like director and she’s like pulling things out and then she just starts cutting out words. So I did that the last time. And it was really interesting.

I kept ripping out golf courses and women golfing. And I was like, yeah, I mean, I’ve always kind of wanted to learn how to golf. Like. Is this my side from the universe that like I need to take golf lessons? It was a really cool thing and it kind of got me excited about life again. So I recommend that as a tactic.

The next one I’m going to share with you is just an episode. [00:11:00] Go give it a listen. It’s episode 186 titled non negotiable productivity hacks that changed my life. The reason I sort of threw this episode in here as a recommendation is because I think how you. Time block and organize your week and or how you organize your time is everything to keeping you motivated.

And so once you listen to that episode, I mean, I share five hacks, but I do talk a little bit about time blocking and it’s been really powerful for me to take chunks of time that I know are dedicated to certain activities. And so that I don’t feel at the end of the week, like I’ve been pulled in 500 million directions.

Cause that’s how it wasn’t the first couple of years running my business. I was so exhausted. I was also a new mom. Like, I don’t know. I just wish I had had this, oh man, I wish I hadn’t been like that as a new mom because I feel like I just made my life harder on me, but I didn’t know any better. I didn’t know.

And I didn’t have the nerve or the balls or the guts to like be [00:12:00] strict about my calendar and be strict about my business. boundaries with clients when it came to like text messaging and getting in touch with me in the evening or the weekends and that type of thing. But that really will help your mental sanity because you could also find ways to schedule in those things that motivate you, those things that light you up that are your unique ability.

Maybe it’s connecting, like maybe you’re a connector and you just want to be with people in person, but your job now is very little of that. Well, maybe you intentionally go every Wednesday afternoon to see three vendors. Or maybe you meet a friend for coffee on Fridays, like I don’t know what it is for you, but looking at your calendar to try and get routine activities.

And I think this is what’s key, is routine activities that are going to contribute to that big long term picture that you’ve envisioned. Because you’re going to feel motivated on a regular basis, so you don’t get burnt out. Lastly, I, I just think this is really important. It’s relevant. It’s not exactly a motivator, but I [00:13:00] think it’s kind of an inspiring episode because it reminds you you’re not alone when it comes to the money and it’s episode 175 and that is managing inconsistent income as a business owner because that can really get us down is this sort of inconsistent, like, I just.

Collected 7, 500. I just collected 130, 000 like restoring and then three months in and you started paying out all your vendors. You’re like, where’s my next project coming from? Oh my gosh, I’m stressed out. How do I manage this? Listen to that episode. I help kind of talk you off the ledge when it comes to that so that you are better prepared for those highs and those lows.

of your money. I think if we can start to eliminate some of these stressors in our business, then you’ll feel happier and you’ll feel more motivated and you’ll be more excited and you’ll want to step out and go and meet a new potential client and you’ll get excited about it. All right, I hope those were helpful.

Go check out those episodes again. They were episode [00:14:00] 194, a five- minute motivator when you’re stuck in the messy middle. Episode 188 is visualize your way to success with Luanne Nygara. Episode 186 is non- negotiable productivity hacks that changed my life. True story. And then episode 175 is managing inconsistent income as a business owner.

Go forth and prosper. I hope this helps you kick up the motivation, get a little bit excited. It’s spring, the weather’s improving, and it’s going to be a really great spring, summer. I’m excited for it. I’m excited to support you guys more in your business. Come designer’s room. If you’re not already in there.

So much exciting things going on in there. Just go to RebeccaHay. com forward slash join and you can learn all about it. I would love to welcome you inside our community. And that’s it for this shorty episode. I’ll see you soon.