I have often been asked to help others work through issues of burnout. As a business owner you’ve most likely experienced days (or weeks) when you feel you’ve been running around like a chicken with your head cut off and typically when the tail wags the dog you immerge feeling that you have little or nothing to show for your effort.
Go Back Where It All Started
Whenever I speak with an entrepreneur about potential burnout, I have them take the opportunity to go back and reexamine their original purpose. I have found that the process laid out below always results in ignited productivity, passion and helps preserve their sanity.
The first key is re-igniting your drive which is born from your internal motivation, your “fire in the belly”. We are never more productive than when we perform functions because we want to – not because we have to. One way to motivate your self to achieving this is to remember the original reasons that motivated you to choose the business that you’re in. That is; why you chose to pursue the business opportunity in the first place.
Recognize The Warning Signs
When we first began this entrepreneurial path we took every day and made the most out of it, enjoying the simple feeling of daily accomplishment. We were convinced that this was a defining time in our business life and we were committed to making the most of it however, much like a chandelier on a dimmer switch, the illumination of that original inspiration has slowly faded without us noticing. For many of us, if we do not halt this track, it will translate into full-blown burnout and can eventually be the beginning of a slow death of our business.
Recalibrate What You Focus On
In order to feel accomplishment through the process again, we need to define what the process accomplishes or satisfies in us as an individual. So what’s the question we need to ask ourselves? It’s a variation of the question “what’s in it for me?” However we need to alter the question to get the answer we can use. The actual question we should ask is “what’s in it for me other than money, that fulfills me?” Take a piece of paper and write down as many answers to that question that come to mind in 5 minutes.
As entrepreneurs we’ve made the choices we have made because we were deeply inspired make them. When we force ourselves over a period of time to perform a function through manufactured motivation it is the first step toward eventual burnout. It is a sign that you have lost your original inspiration, which will have a direct adverse-effect on our drive and focus. It extinguishes that “fire in the belly”; the foundational purpose that fuels why you do what you do. Unless we define the main needs in our life that this role can satisfy, we can never justify any extra effort and sentences us to living our business life at the lowest common denominator…. we might as well be an employee and have a regular job! This is the polar opposite of what will sustain long-term high effort as a result of the deep satisfaction.
Rewrite Your Job Description!
So in light of this, how do I relate to the process in a way that reconnects me with enjoying it on a daily basis? I must basically redefine my job description in a way that emphasizes the parts of the process that I most enjoy doing. Note that it does not mean that you won’t need to perform tasks that you least enjoy but rather it allows you to acquire the motivation to do them. What fulfills me daily is to tirelessly work to unlock the potential of others who truly want that for themselves. Everyday I am inspired to coach my team and my clients to individually attain their defined short-term and long term goals while experiencing a sense of accomplishment throughout every step of the process.
Enjoying The Process Again & Rewarding Yourself
Your road map to success is not solely focusing on the end result but rather the daily process, which if executed vigorously, will ultimately give you the results you desire. I cannot say this strongly enough: allowing yourself to take satisfaction in the daily process is paramount. We are all able to feel that sense of accomplishment when we concentrate on the A+B of the success formula on a daily basis and not focus solely on the end result (i.e. monetary results). Notice I said “not solely”. Satisfaction from our end results and goal attainment is important but it also comes far more naturally.
I’m suggesting that one just cannot starve themselves on satisfaction, only to binge like a starving man at an all-you-can-eat buffet when they reach a long term goal. That method causes the individual to appear to others as an ego-maniac when they experience success because of the co-dependant relationship they have developed with it. No one else understands that they are actually eating all they can now because they have no idea when the next time they’ll be allowed to dine on satisfaction again.
Conclusion
If you set daily activity goals, you can feel satisfaction in your job everyday (make certain that you reward your self when you reach those). Remember: The only way to achieve any long-term end result is to focus on being fulfilled through the process on a daily basis, which naturally results in greater effort. There will be no need for a forced increased in daily discipline when you enjoy and are fulfilled through the daily processes you accomplish.
The 4 Keys to avoid burnout and maintaining a healthy daily perspective are:
- Define what you truly enjoy in your present business role.
- Make your goals to reflect daily activities you can control rewarding yourself when you reach them knowing that they will eventually result in growth over the long haul.
- Don’t negatively evaluate yourself on results you can’t control – it will damage your efforts to control the things you can.
- It is practically impossible for you to be a successful, inspirational entrepreneur if you believe what you do is only about the bottom line…. so don’t let it be!
So take a business time-out, recalibrate, refocus and re-ignite the excitement about what you do!
Written by:
R. Patrick Daugherty
The Biz Coach
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