Episode 3: Three things you can change right now to change your motivation

Dawn McGruer:

So welcome to Dawn of a New Era Podcast, the podcast Chronicles of a Serial Entrepreneur with me, Dawn McGruer. And in today’s podcast, we’re going to address three things you can change right now to change your motivation. Because in the first couple of episodes in my podcast, I really kind of hone in on what it’s been like for me as a business owner from starting my business at 21 and charting my journey over the past 20 years now through to 41.

The biggest thing that I’ve noticed is that it is so easy to get caught up in the day to day. And the busier we get, the more we just kind of start focusing on doing, doing, doing. Our to do list becomes out of control. And we start just kind of using all of our time, all of our energy, just trying to wade our way through. And what that does in turn is our motivation is depleted because we are time poor.

So the three things I really want to focus on, are three things that I focus on each and every day. These are my kind of principles for getting my time back, and getting in control, and making sure that I’m doing the things that I love. Because in business, you are expert in your own field. But it doesn’t mean that some of the things you have to do in business, you love.

Now I set up my business with my passion, I was really, really motivated in the beginning. But sometimes that dwindles, and to try and maintain that motivation each and every day and that discipline of being an entrepreneur, when you do experience the highs and lows, it’s tough. And anyone who says that business is easy, really has not been an entrepreneur, because it isn’t.

And every day I learn something. I have so much experience in the world of digital marketing, but as an entrepreneur, I am learning and honing my skills each and every day so that I have what I wanted. And what set out to achieve was time. I wanted freedom. I didn’t want to be working in a corporate organization. But I have fallen foul to being kind of driven by my business. And where my business is driving me, I don’t have time to work on my business.

So what are the three things? Well, the first thing that always makes me feel better is that as soon as I hit a state of overwhelm, I sit down and I start looking at my to do list, and I start shifting all of the things that I know I want to do into one list. And I start looking at what I can delegate. Because delegation is something that, again, I have not been amazingly good at over the years, because I’m a control freak. As many business owners, we want to make sure that the job gets done to the best of the ability it can be, and we believe that we are the only people who can do that. But it’s not true.

You need to empower other people so that they can come along on the journey and work with you. And scaling and growing really, really does mean that you need to delegate. Because you are one person, there is a limit to what you can do day to day. And we are human after all. We’re amazing humans, and we are amazing business owners. But let’s be honest, there are times that we’ve hit burnout. There are times that I have literally just thought, “I just want to jack it all in.” And have they come frequently at times. And then sometimes I’ll go on a merry journey for a while, and then I’ll crash.

But the thing is you have to have a process. You have to have a way that you can claw this back. And delegation is great because as soon as I start delegating, I am taking back all of the things that I love doing, the things that I’m not going to procrastinate over. If there’s things I don’t like doing, what is the point of me doing them? If there are things that in the business are not actually revenue repaying, I am the main fee earner. Yes, there’s 17 people in our team, but it’s me who’s hosting the training, it’s me who is the content creator. Those are the things I should be spending my time on, because those are the things that I am an expert in. They’re my special power.

And we may as well give people the things that enable them to be their special superhero. And accounts are something that is not my thing. Bookkeeping, there’s no way I’m going to do that. And so many times I have tried and epically failed. So I identified the things in my business that I’m not good at, and I know that I’m going to leave. And if I have a feeling that just kind of weighs me down, that I’m not wanting to do it. That’s an ideal task that I need to get out of my business and out of my mind, because motivation comes from feeling like you’re doing what you love.

When you are in your genius zone, that is when we are the strongest, most powerful people. And that is when we can really make changes and be the best for our clients. Because if you’re not motivated for your business, then you are going to feel that you’ve got this overhanging overwhelm of other tasks. And it does quell where you are in a creative space as an entrepreneur. So delegate, make a list, get rid of the tasks that you hate doing. The ones that you’re not good at. The things that don’t bring out this genius in you and are not appealing to your superpower.

Now, the second thing, this is something that if you have ever experienced kind of the, “I’m really excited,” and then you start looking at what you’ve got to do, and then you just go into the, “Oh, I don’t want to do this now.” Because it just seems like too big a project. It’s mammoth, and it spirals out of control to the point where you just start thinking and you’ve start backtracking.

So when you get excited about a project, or you’ve got massive to do lists. Literally I have so many things, so many ideas every minute of the day, but I can’t keep them in my head, because it would literally explode. I need a way that I can get back the control. That I can make sure that I’m not missing anything or forgetting anything. And the only way that I found that really makes me feel in control is brain dumping, and getting everything out of my head so I feel organized. And I am definitely a list writer, for sure.

But what I do is I use Trello. And Trello is a free tool. Think of it like your project manager, okay. It’s an online tool. You can sign up in less than 60 seconds. I have no affiliation with them whatsoever, but I love it because I create one board with all of my different lists. And each of the lists is a project. So if, for instance, I was building a new funnel. If I was doing a podcast, for instance, I would build a list with all of the things I need to do for that. And then I start going back through that list and I start putting timescales on them. And then I start putting people into the actions, the people who are going to do each specific task. And the great thing is with Trello, is it notifies the people of when the deadline, is who’s got to do it, and it’s project managing, and you have got your control back. You’ve got your sanity because you’re looking at everything in one view.

I’m a really visual person. I have to see it. I have to see each bit in its own cluster. And the most cathartic feeling is when one of those actions gets completed. The other great thing is, is you don’t have to keep harassing the other person to actually get it done, because Trello does it for you. And this is why I love tools that take control of your life. Because once you get control back, you feel motivated, you feel invigorated, and you feel ready to take on the next new project.

When everything feels like it’s in control, and you can see it, what happens is psychologically we start to feel better about it. We get our vigor back and it all feels like it’s achievable. Because as soon as we start thinking, “Well, I’ve only got to do this part of it.” As soon as I’ve actually charted it down and looked at all of the processes, it also does something really fundamental for me. It cements the idea and the project into actualization. I can see how it’s going to work. I can see the different stages of the process, and it’s actually aligning with my thinking and I’m charting it out, and it’s like my visual flow chart.

But it also means it’s very understandable for other people in your team. And that you’re not just carrying this burden of everything that has to happen, people can share that burden. Okay? So it brings us back to number one, which is delegation. So number two is obviously getting control, using a project management tool, getting everything out of your mind and having that clarity.

And then that brings us nicely on to the third thing. The third way that I get my motivation back, and this is something you can do right now. All of things are actionable. You need to take time out. It seems weird because when you’re so busy, and you have this to do list, you’re just work, work, work. I used to sit at my desk for six, eight, twelve hours at a time. I didn’t even move for a drink. I mean, it’s just ridiculous. As soon as I started actually building into my day breaks, lunchtimes, and also looking at taking calls at certain times, doing emails at certain times, but taking time out for head space.

So doing exercise, going for a walk, just even sitting and doing nothing, it gives you something very powerful in business. It gives you perspective. Everything feels better when you have head space. When you step out of a situation and look back on it, it’s very hard to feel that emotion again. And when you get head space and you get perspective on something, everything feels like you can get past it.

Sometimes as an entrepreneur you’ll hit a problem, and you just feel like you’ve just been hit by a lorry. And you just … It stops you in your tracks, but how do you pick yourself up? How do you get past that? Well, we’ve all had it. We’ve all had times where something has happened, it’s just really derailed us. And just set us off this path that we thought, “Well, we were doing so well.” You have to take the time out because to get the clarity and purpose have on it, it’s almost like taking you out of, obviously … The situation, you get this objectivity against what you are actually trying to do. And really everything is hopefully a challenge that you can overcome. And there’s very few challenges day to day in business that you can’t, there’s normally a way out, okay? And there’s always something that you can try and do.

And just by kind of quelling that emotion and looking at it as your business owner, as the entrepreneur, and even talking it through with other people will help you be a better business owner, a better leader, and a better marketer, because clarity is everything. And being able to create content and come up with ideas for your business, and really look at the bigger picture, you do need to take that step back. Because being immersed in your business every day, you are just in the kind of firefighting, you’re doing your tasks every day, you’re not actually looking end to end and thinking, “Well, how well am I doing this? How well is this actually working?”

So this is about kind of really taking a step out of your business and working smarter, not harder. And looking at it with a bird’s eye view and the objectivity to actually say to yourself, “Well, maybe this isn’t working, maybe I need to change.” Because if you do the same thing over, and over, and over again, it’s never going to have a different result. The outcome will always be the same. So head on over and download my little checklist that I’ve done for you. And really kind of look at what you can do today. These three things are quick, easy tasks that you can do, but they really change your focus, but massively change your motivation.

So hopefully you have enjoyed today’s podcast and come and join me on my next podcast, because I’m going to be talking about something that is very close to my heart, and also something very important for us entrepreneurs and business owners. And we’re going to be talking about mindset and the fact that if you’re happy, it changes everything, and it changes your outlook. So join me next week each and every week and have a super time. And let me know how you get on with taking control of your life, and your business, and how you’ve managed to put the motivation and mojo back into your business.

I hope you enjoyed this week’s episode and don’t forget I’m going to be with you each and every week. So download and listen on DawnMcGruer.com, or on iTunes, and come and join us in our Facebook community too. All the details are on the website and I’ll see you next week.