How To Get Motivated About Your Business

Dear Entrepreneur,

Where do you find motivation to begin and finish a task for your business? Do you find yourself wondering how to get motivated about your business?

I know I have, and I really want to know! Honestly, I want to understand because I’m lacking motivation in a few specific areas and I am becoming sick of it!

The other day, my Business Coach, Diane Cunningham, commented on Facebook –

“Ummmm…… GoDaddy just favorited one of my tweets. Now that is rather nifty! I might just dance around the room and then go buy another domain. I love being an entrepreneur!!”

She’s hilarious! She’s on fire! She can show you how to get motivated about your business! She’s a cheerleader and I’m hiding under the bleachers. I want to be her – I want to “dance around the room” and “buy another domain” because I’ve persisted and reached some of these goals that I just can’t seem to find the driving force to complete!

I began to wonder how to find the motivation to finish some business projects – my PhD Dissertation, for one; unpacking and organizing the closet full of boxes at our new Counseling offices for another; there is a list. Can you relate to this?

I’ve prayed for inspiration and enthusiasm as if it is God’s responsibility to light a fire under me so that I will dutifully and thoroughly persevere. After all, He is Sovereign. He can do this! He turned the hearts and heads of the most unlikely of characters to bring about His Good Purposes (consider the rebuilding of the wall and city of Jerusalem as told in Ezra and Nehemiah)!

In the movie, Dances with Wolves, Lt. John Dunbar arrives at his post on the American Frontier ready to work diligently, only to find it abandoned with no explanation. He sets up camp, encounters his first Sioux Indians who come upon him while he’s bathing in the stream (totally exposed, totally unprepared), Sioux children try (unsuccessfully) to steal his horse, Sioux warriors try (unsuccessfully) to steal his horse (he has a really smart horse!), he tries (unsuccessfully) to defend himself and ends up with a concussion, and more.

Then we see him cleaning his uniform, polishing his brass and his boots, preparing to take action. Dunbar writes in his journal,

“I realize now that I have been wrong. All this time, I have been waiting. Waiting for what? For someone to find me? For Indians to take my horse? To see a buffalo? Since I have arrived at this post, I have been walking on eggs. It has become a bad habit and I am sick of it. [I LOVE THAT!] Tomorrow morning, I will ride out to the Indians. I do not know the outcome or the wisdom of this thinking, but I have become a target and a target makes a poor impression. I am through waiting.”

How to Get Motivated About Your Business:

Instead of asking God to provoke me toward motivation and business success, I began to seek Him in His Word (ah, what a novel idea!) and remembered 4 important things:

1. PURPOSE: My primary purpose in life has to be to bring Him glory and honor. My sense of motivation or inspiration comes from God, not from the things of the world. David spoke of his motivation: “I desire to do Your will, O my God; Your law is within my heart” (Psalm 40:8).
2. MOTIVATION is really a matter of obedience for me! Jesus was concerned with pleasing His Father; He always did the Father’s will, motivated by pleasing Him through obedience (John 8:29). His obedience extended all the way to the cross where He humbled Himself and “became obedient unto death” (Philippians 2:8). My motivation should be the same as His—the obedience by which I prove I am truly His. “If you love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15).
3. TRIALS PRODUCE STEADFASTNESS– According to James (Chapter 1), I must ask for wisdom as trials like this can produce steadfastness so that we may be “perfect and complete”; resoluteness so I can finish a task (even an undesirable task!). I’m responsible to communicate joy, even in the midst of trials.
4. JUST DO IT– So I have to just get up and do the next right thing with determination, dutifully, unwaveringly, and loyally! James says this will lead to righteousness, salvation, blessings!

SO, I’ve blocked off specific times this month to work on the “blessed” Dissertation and I’ve called in the troops for help with the office closet full of unpacked boxes!

Now, how do you get motivated about YOUR business?

Just follow these 4 steps on how to find motivation about you business and do the next right thing! And may you be BLESSED!