Nubie Blog

Motivation is crucial for success in the creative economy. Not just because you need to be persistent to suceed in any business venture, and not just because the economic storms we’re flying through are fearsome enough to test anyone’s nerves. It’s because motivation has a huge influence on creative performance. If you’re not motivated, you will begin to question what you are doing in the job – and once you get to that point, you may struggle to get through the day and begin dreading to go to work in the morning. As your job takes up so much part of your life, it is really important that you don’t let yourself reach this point. Here are some tips to avoid such a scenario:

Avoid Repetitive Tasks

Repetitive tasks like general paperwork, filing, accounting, etc. is boring and they are the last things you would want to focus on to stay motivated. Also, no investors will be happy if you are spending time and money on them. Outsource these tasks or hire someone to do it for you. You are in the business not because of these tasks so why let them bog you down?

What doesn’t get measured, doesn’t get done.

It’s all very well having goals and a vision, but you can’t measure them, or your progress in achieving them – they’ll always remain elusive. So if you want to get 10 new clients by the end of the year, set yourself monthly targets and action plans and establish how you’re going to achieve that goal. Simple, but crucial for success.

Develop a support network

A support network includes friends, colleagues and family who celebrate our successes and help us through our challenging times. While it is easy to call a support person to celebrate a success, it can be difficult to call and ask for help or express a difficulty. It’s at the moment when we reach out and share our challenges, or ask for help that we begin to experience relief from the problem or challenge, see solutions and recognise the value of the people who support us. The support we receive is as strong as our ability to share the good times and bad.

Make Sure Break Times Are Really Break Times

This is an area where most entrepreneurs fail. You become so intense and deeply involved with a project or situation that you refuse ease up. You allow yourself to be deeply engrossed with the project thinking that it will be solved in the next few seconds. I want to tell you that staying motivated implies regularly adhering to a specified break schedule, even if you are the boss. Taking breaks eases stress and releases the tension. If you work more on a computer, this is even a greater problem. Before you realise it, you have been working in that same position for hours. The best answer to this is to set yourself a reminder on your appointment calendar for every 2 hours, and let the computer reminder chime send you the alert to move around or take a break

Failure isn’t the end of the world.

Remember that you are learning what works and, by the same token, what doesn’t work: whether it’s a new software package or way of dealing with a particularly difficult client. Often we expect to be perfect at something we haven’t ever attempted before and are too hard on ourselves. Remember that each time we make a mistake, we learn something valuable. Take a risk, apply what you learned and up your chances of success next time round.

Maintain a Positive Attitude

To stay motivated, you must realise that life is only 10% of what happens to us and 90% how we react to it. You must accept the fact that you are responsible for our own actions and attitudes, and you can change them when appropriate. When you are around people, say things that are uplifting and positive. Even in the face of failure or challenges, express enthusiasm and optimism. You must strive to be a source of inspiration to your employees. If you can maintain a positive attitude, you will create a workplace filled with happy workers and this will in turn lead to higher production. You might even be surprised to find out that your employees are always looking forward to seeing you at work.

Stay Present

When we stay present to our business and to ourselves, we stay out of fear and worry. Staying present means that we “stay in the day” in our minds. We do this by not projecting our fears into the future or worrying about something that may or may not happen. Just like worry is a habit, we can develop the habit of staying present and being free from worry. Sometimes it helps to remind ourselves that all is okay for today.