Settling is death.
Entrepreneurs know this fact all too well. When wearing all the hats in your business, you cannot afford to let up for even a second. The moment you stop looking for new leads on clients, new ways to expand your business or even new skills to learn, you begin to stagnate.
Entrepreneurship is a long journey
Embarking on the journey that is entrepreneurship, whether its freelancing or launching a startup, always has to be a forward journey. Looking back at past experiences (and even looking at recent situations), I’ve found that the times that were the hardest were ones where my progress slowed. Since success is so hard to come by, it does get easy to settle when you make any measure of success. But don’t. Stay motivated and use those opportunities of doubt to push forward. Here are a few tips to keep you inspired.
1. Don’t let fear run your business for you.
It is easy to fall into this trap. When resources are tight (as they often are when owning your own business) you don’t want to risk anything unnecessarily. While this maybe a smart position sometimes, it can bog you down from taking advantage of opportunities. There is a good way to avoid this: research. If you can make informed decisions with in-depth information, there’s nothing to doubt. Let knowledge beat indecisiveness.
2. Make failures work for you.
Even though you can take steps to minimize your risk when you make decisions, times of failure are inevitable. However, you don’t have to look at this as a bad thing. Incidents of failure can be learning experience s if you look at them optimistically. If you have a situation where you don’t reach your goal, analyze it. Look at where the final outcome deviated from your initial plan. See what you could have done different. Cataloging and analyzing your failures along with your successes will allow you to make stronger moves in the future. Seeing failure as a learning opportunity not only makes your decision making stronger, but takes the fear out of failure as well.
3. Stay passionate and set goals.
Remember why you started on the journey to entrepreneurship. If you are like me, you started because you wanted to be able to bring your creative ideas to life your way. Always keep this in your mind when you are going through difficult times. Having purpose is a strong motivator. Also, make sure you set goals for yourself. Whether daily, weekly, or monthly, having goals gives you something to strive for constantly. Make these goals specific so that you don’t get bogged down in ambiguity. Something as easy as “Call 5 potential clients today”, sets a expectation of progress. Experiencing the joy of success as you reach these smaller goals will keep you motivated and moving forward to your overall goal of a successful business.
Make sure you think about these 3 ideas as you continue on your entrepreneurship journey and keep success in your mind! I would love to here about some of your best ideas to stay motivated as an entrepreneur.