Is the answer to demotivation really about finding the "WHY"?
I want to share a little story about a recent conversation I had with Chiēf Brabon from the 'Original Boot Camp'*.
Those who came the last Excelerator in Sydney will have heard Chief speak firsthand.
This conversation, had as the morning sun was rising over another great Coogee Beach session, was about the fact that I was feeling like my focus was drifting. I wasn't feeling motivated and it was starting to feel like everything was getting bit hard.
Have you ever been there?
Well, I'll share you the advice he gave me that enabled me to get back on track, because it was (as usual) truly insightful.
I'm grateful to have someone willing to share not just the solution, but also make it personal ...
First, he recommended getting to know Dave Goggins. So, I grabbed his audiobook "Can't Hurt Me" which is a great, great listen.
But also, he indicated to me that everybody feels like that - even him - which I found quite comforting.
Here's a guy who gets up at 5am every day and trains. He doesn't need to, yet he still does it. It's not what he does, it's who he is.
So I asked him, what's the main thing that he does when he has a client who's feeling a bit off track. And he said;
"The number one thing I do is
reconnect that person with their why"
Now, normally I'd be a little skeptical, because sometimes the whole "find your passion" thing can feel a little like the cool thing to say, right?
But this is Chief saying it, so I decided to trust in the process, because whenever I trust in the person and they're talking "how", it pays to act first and then question.
So, I grabbed Julie Littlechild's book Absolute Engagement and I ran through some of those things, getting really, really clear about why I wanted to do the things I'm doing
- Why do I coach?
- Why am I dedicated to building our online content?
- Why do I want to see the way online coaching is delivered reinvented?
In a recent webinar with Kim Payne, which is on YouTube, we covered this as well. She said the same thing;
"The number one thing I notice with people who succeed in their business or in their life, is they are very, very clear about their end game."
I want to share this because, particularly with what's going on right now in the industry, there are a lot of people out there who may be feeling under threat. They also may be feeling things just aren't fair. They may be feeling a little bit despondent.
But in times like these, it's easy to lose sight of the fact that at any point in time, you can change anything about your business because it's your business. Right?
At the end of the day, you don't need to worry about 16 million Australians needing to get advice.
You just need to find 100 great clients whom you can help, you get on with and you can add value to and work on getting those ones. You can build a great business around that!
The key thing to understand is:
What kind of business do you want, and why do you want it?
Then you can nut out those things and get really clear about them.
To help you gain the clarity you might need to spend some time away from the office. This may include chatting to some people about what it is that you do best and perhaps ask some really close friends about what they've noticed about what you love most.
You can try and reconnect with that 'why'.
The take-home
Most of us will go through that period of time where we just feel demotivated and, when it happens, often keeping going is not the answer. Sometimes we need to step back and really understand whether we might be just that one degree off track.
Reconnecting with your 'why' is one thing that can give you renewed focus and renewed energy.
I hope this helps. It certainly helped me.
If you've already got your 'why', and you know it really well - drop me a line - I would love to know what it is and /or the method you used to find or reconnect with it.