How to Overcome a Motivation Slump

Being a small business owner takes a lot of passion.

Unlike working at an office, there’s no one checking in to make sure you show up on time. There’s no one looking over your shoulder to make sure you actually are improving your marketing and finding new customers, and not just watching Netflix all day. There’s no separate team in charge of growth and development — it’s all on you.

Which is why it’s a huge problem for a small business owner when you find yourself in a motivational slump.

And yet, it happens to all of us. Why?

It’s easy to lose motivation for the everyday minutiae that comes with running a business. Running your own business, setting your own schedule, and being your own boss are all exciting things. But the day to day tasks of being a small business owner can be less than thrilling.

Inbox is full every morning?

More social media to schedule?

Call with a customer that always has complaints?

There’s always more to do, and no one but you to make you do it.

If your passion for your small business is suffering from lack of motivation, try one of these six tricks to get back in your business-loving groove.

1. Remind yourself what your goals are

Take a step back from the day to day tasks that you have to tackle and focus on why you started your business in the first place. What goals are you trying to achieve — not in your business, but with your business.

Are you trying to provide for your family while creating a flexible work schedule?

Do you want to have a portable business because you move a lot?

Is it your dream to work with a specific group of people, and your business lets you do that?

When you focus on business goals like “Start an e-course” or “Increase my income by $1000 this month” you can get overwhelmed and — lets be honest — a little bored. But when you focus on the life goals that you are using your business to achieve, then you’ll find yourself with a motivational boost once more.

2. Decide what you actually want to be doing

A few weeks ago, I read a fascinating blog post breaking down how an entrepreneur built, promoted, and sold her new e-course. I immediately began brainstorming ideas for an e-course of my own — even though I actually have no desire to create and sell an e-course. I like working with clients one-on-one. I like writing and hope to create an e-book or two. I do not actually want to build and sell a course, but I felt like I needed to do that because that’s what entrepreneurs do, and the internet was showing me how.

The internet is an amazing thing. It puts tons of information right at your fingertips. It helps you learn and improve. It provides you with countless ideas for new ways you can grow your business. The problem with all those ideas, though, is that they can distract you from what you actually want to be doing.

If you’re getting distracted from your actual goals and plans, not only are you not working towards them, you’re putting your time and energy into something that you don’t have any real interest in. And when you don’t have real interest in something, you’re going to lose motivation. Take some time to decide what you want to be doing with your business, not what other people are doing. And then focus on that.

3. Take care of the distractions

I love the flexibility of working from home. But it has the downside of surrounding my with distractions, especially since I’m the sort of person who needs tidiness and organization to focus. If my space is messy, my brain is messy. If I have dozens of little things to do around the apartment, I lose my motivation to get my actual work done.

Sometimes the solution to distractions is to walk away. Head to a coffee shop, a library, or a co-working space. Get yourself away from whatever it is that is draining your motivation and refocus on work.

Sometimes the solution is just to spend a day taking care of everything else. Do the laundry, unpack the last moving box, buy your tickets for your New Year trip. Get it all done — and then the next day, you’re out of excuses and can focus on work once more.

4. Tackle a few easy tasks

When your to-do list feels endless, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. When you get overwhelmed, your motivation trickles away, and instead of doing anything productive you end up watching Hercule Poirot reruns on Netflix all day (just me?)

Instead of staring at the huge tasks on your to-do list and wondering where to start, give yourself a few easy wins to start feeling productive again. Reply to a few emails. Brainstorm ten new blog posts. Update that page on your website that you’ve been meaning to update.

Do these actions get your closer to your big goals? No, not really. In fact, if you just do them and nothing else, you’re really just procrastinating. But when faced with a long list, you have to start somewhere. Take care of the easy things first. Cross them off. Feel proud of yourself for achieving something. And then press forward with the bigger things.

5. Simplify your to-do list

On the other hand, sometimes you need a big victory to get back on track. If you are constantly aware of every little thing that you need to do for the next six months, it’s going to feel impossible to get started on anything. When everything needs to get done, more often than not, nothing gets done. And you end up back on Netflix once more.

Instead of worrying about all the details and the small tasks, give yourself permission to simplify. Don’t worry about your next blog post, your inbox, your social media… don’t even worry about the dishwasher that needs to be unloaded or the laundry that needs to be folded. Do one big thing: create a new freebie for your opt-in; put together a perfectly researched proposal for a new client; outline and write the training modules for your new e-course. Force yourself to do that big thing that’s hanging over your head, because once you finish, you’ll be so proud of yourself, you’ll just want to keep going on everything else.

6. Give yourself a break

It’s easy to look at other business and business owners and think they all have it figured out. Everyone else is productive 24/7 and their businesses grow 500% every year. But slumps happen to every small business owner. They can be caused by anything: a low-income quarter, lost customers, a move across the country, illness, or simply a bad week. Sometimes it’s important to get back on the horse and keep working anyway.

But sometimes a motivation slump is your brain’s way of telling you that you need a break. Your mind and body can’t go full speed every day of the year. If you’ve been pushing and pushing and all of a sudden you find yourself uninterested in anything to do with your business, it’s probably a sign that you need a break. So take one. Steer into that motivational skid and give yourself a few days off. Take a staycation. Take a real vacation. Take time off for lunch with friends. Whatever you need, give yourself permission.

You’re motivation will come back when you take care of yourself.