Many of you may or may not know this but I really love and hate golf. Golf like real estate is one of the most humbling things I do, but I love it! One of my favorite lines I say out on the course when I miss a shot is, “Golf is hard.” Like being a golfer is tough, being a real estate agent is rough. Things never go as planned and take 10 times longer than intended. There are highs and lows, and many times it feels easier just to give up and throw in the towel. Here are the top ten ways you can keep your motivation levels up and never give up!
1. Know Your Purpose & Work On It.
The secret of the most successful people I know is they can stay motivated, activated, inspired, and moving no matter what happens around them. Motivation is that inner drive to move toward or away from something. To get and stay motivated, you must find your purpose. So many people are going to work doing something they don’t believe in. You don’t get burnt out from work. You burn out because you aren’t working on your purpose. Get motivated, get on purpose, and you won’t feel like giving up.
2. Don’t Ever Feel Sorry For Yourself.
All my best successes came on the heels of a failure, so I’ve learned to look at each belly flop as the beginning of something good. If you just hang in there, you’ll find something is right around the corner. It’s that belief that keeps me motivated. I’ve learned not to feel sorry for myself, ever. Just five minutes of feeling sorry for yourself takes your power away and makes you unable to see the next opportunity.
3. Achieve Your Goals.
I always focus my mindset on achieving my goals no matter what’s going on around me. Every savvy entrepreneur understands we solve problems for a profit. If you can’t handle getting punched in the throat by market conditions, changes in consumer behavior, teammates quitting, losing clients, or working 100 hours per week, get out.
4. Remember... It’s Supposed To Be Hard.
Understand if it were easy, everyone would be doing it. This keeps me going when I encounter struggles. It’s OK to fail, make mistakes and get frustrated, but it’s never OK to get discouraged. I accept my failures, learn from them, and persevere with a positive attitude. But persevering with a maniacal Type-A drive is highly overrated. My first ambition is to enjoy the heck out of life. Business should never get in the way of that. If it does, then I’ve compromised my values for the sake of a dollar.
5. Stop Viewing Problems As Accidents.
Fixing problems is part of your job as a business owner, so you should stop seeing problems as accidents to be afraid of. Problems don’t go away as you grow and make more money. They become bigger. Once I changed my perspective and stopped labeling problems as negative accidents, I developed a thicker skin and focused my energy on fixing them more effectively.
6. Look At The Obstacles Others Had To Face.
In my first business, it took me three months of getting kicked in the teeth every day to land my first paying client. In my latest venture, it took nine months to get my first signed contract. I always look to the backstories of successful entrepreneurs. I study their successful actions, but I get really motivated by the massive barriers they had to overcome. There are hundreds of examples of wildly successful people who had to go through worse problems than I have. This reminds me I can do it, too.
7. Remember Your "Why" and "Why Not".
I remembered why I am doing this in the first place: To help people. Just as motivating was the "why not": I did not want to work for someone else or be a person who couldn’t truly take care of himself. Every day I can impact people personally and professionally and provide a very nice lifestyle for myself and my family in return. Zig Ziglar “Help others get what they need in their life, and they will help you get what you need in yours.”
8. Relentlessly Focus On Your Mission.
Entrepreneurs are extremely passionate about their company or current project. That passion is born out of the end-result desired, which is the "why" or mission of what you’re doing. We believe people will be better off with our product, solution, or service than without it. For me, Helping you is what I do, and I simply focus on that, and it provides massive motivation.
9. Keep Your Vision Clearly On The Top 1 Percent.
When your vision is clear, nothing can stop you from accomplishing your goal. If the feedback you receive is not as planned, then don’t waste time labeling it and allowing yourself to be distracted. Stay focused and persevere because there is very little competition in the top 1 percent.
10. Take Time To Reset.
I believe true motivation only comes from within and passion is the best motivator. I love what I do, and it gets me through the days I don’t like. When things get tough, I remember my clients chose me to be their leader, mentor, and coach. I take time away to meditate, train or travel to clear my mind and reset.
So, there you have some of the top ways to keep yourself motivated and avoid throwing in the towel. I challenge you to implement and review these strategies daily, weekly, and monthly and never give up!!
Strength and courage,
Wade
