Every business owner and business leader hits a ceiling from time-to-time; in fact, it often occurs and recurs over time, wondering how to get motivated. In pre-pandemic times we would normally be focused on finishing the year as we were reaching goals. That may or may not be true in 2020 as so many were forced to pause, change, or completely evolve from what it was in January. The great news is that the same techniques we use to get motivated to work in our current climate will also work in “normal” times when your effort doesn’t yield the results it used to, when you love your work and still seem frustrated, or when you feel like you need a vacation – sometimes on the day after returning home from a vacation.

Achieve your Goals and Stay Motivated

The following are my four best tips for how to get motivated at work in order to achieve your goals, lower your stress, and focus your energy. While there is not a “magic bullet” as they say there are many ways to regain your motivation, find focus, and get moving toward achieving your goals.

1) Write It Down

Even if you have a clear, concise business plan with little confusion about what you do, how you do it, and for whom you perform/create your product or service, there is a reason that so many business coaching companies start here when working with an organization. The reason is that a written plan, detailing both the foundation of your business as well as what you hope to achieve, becomes a structure for execution. It is also a living document, malleable in terms of measurable goals, yet foundational with regard to core values and focus. Every time you need to make adjustments, your plan serves as a starting and ending point; as they say, you don’t have to recreate the wheel; what you do need to do is check the tire pressure and health of the tread.

2) Communicate The Plan

The next tip is to communicate this plan to those that are vital to the success of your business; certainly, this includes business partners. However, you will also want to share key aspects of your plan with your team, including employees, contractors, and strategic partners. Every person that has an interest and investment, whether monetary or emotional, needs to know the mission, value, and purpose that is behind what you intend to achieve. Communicating key elements brings their support and helps tune them into how they can better serve the mission. In fact, most executive coaching companies spend a fairly significant amount of time working to increase their client’s communication effectiveness given how critical this skill is.

3) Take Accountability

Own the plan, the work, and the result. Set the tone in your organization for an ownership mentality with a sense of absolute (and collective) accountability. This means that every person involved with your organization knows precisely what their responsibilities are, the role they play in the overall result, and where to get the resources they need to accomplish their goals. Furthermore, make sure that everyone in the organization is unconditionally committed to others’ success. Having this confidence that comes from owning accountability removes the ‘worry’ that comes from uncertainty.

4) Control What You Can Control

When you feel frustration, demotivation, or perhaps malaise settling over yourself in response to worry stemming from hypotheticals, you know it’s time to grab your journal and ask: what do I have control over? Remarkably it is a very shortlist. We all have control over exactly two things: attitude and activity. We get to decide our thoughts and mood. We also get to decide what actions we will take. Therefore when we are “stuck”, we must decide what we will choose to think, feel, and do.

Conclusion

These four tips are designed to help you organize and execute around priorities in order to motivate by moving forward to achieve your goals. In fact the steps are similar to the techniques we use when working with business and executive coaching clients. By making a small investment of time in initial planning (tip 1), the other tips form a powerful work habit that helps keep you and your business moving forward.

Ken Kilday, CEO/founder of Leader’s Cut: The Ken Kilday Coaching Experience, is an Executive Business Coach and EOS Implementer®. He works with business owners in companies of all sizes to implement actions, evaluate success, and adjust to new, improved habits and actions to produce repeatable and predictable outcomes independent of changing business cycles. Ken is an entrepreneur himself who has designed, built, launched, and rejuvenated successful businesses. Wondering how hiring a small business coach can help you in 2021? Contact Ken to schedule a 15-minute Meet & Greet and discover how small business coaching services can best help you and your business.

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