I’d bet you have lots of ideas on how to move your business & career forward, but feel you have too few resources to pull it off. Maybe you have a small team (or no team), too many existing responsibilities, not enough money, corporate red tape, and the like.
But the thing standing in your way is not lack of money, lack of people, lack of technology, or lack of any physical resource.
If you had 10 more people, 20 more iPads, a promotion and a box of donuts, you still might not achieve your goals or be happy. STUFF is not the thing standing in your way.
Your most precious resources are what drives your inspiration and desire to realize your goals. MOTIVATION is the single biggest factor determining whether your dreams will become reality. Preserving this – growing this – is the key to your future.
So how do to you maximize this resources? I’ll tell you how I try to do it:
- Be Inspired Every Day.
Even on the busiest of days, I try to take time to be inspired – to learn something new that will fuel my motivation, and push me closer to my goals. One way I do this is by watching interviews on Mixergy.com. Each day, Andrew Warner interviews an entrepreneur about how they built their business. He does a live interview at 2pm each day, which gives me a schedule as to when and where I can be inspired. Make it a priority to schedule something like this into your day. - Look at Your Goals and Processes with Fresh Eyes.
Analyze what you are doing that works, and what doesn’t. If you continue doing the same thing in the same way, then you can expect the same results. How can you improve yourself? How can you remove something you are doing that is standing in the way of your goals?Don’t be so quick to blame others, look inward.I try to be goal driven, even though my nature, I focus very much on relationships and process. To strike a balance, I creating to-do lists each day, and thinking about what I need to accomplish by the end of the week or month. This forces me to be more accountable, and harder to justify activities that don’t produce results. - Talk About Your Ideas.
So many people feel that they can’t share their ‘great big idea’ because someone else will steal it. NO ONE WILL STEAL YOUR IDEA. NO ONE WILL PUT THE PASSION AND DRIVE BEHIND IT THAT YOU WILL.Maybe you did think of the idea for Craigslist back in 1994. And maybe you’re a bit upset that Craig Newmark made millions with that idea just a few years later. The difference though, was not who had the IDEA, it is who DID it. Craig put more resources behind it than you – he had more inspiration and motivation to realize the idea.The idea alone is nothing compared to that. So share your ideas. Often. To everyone. People’s feedback will be helpful. Talking about it out loud will help you move forward and find inspiration and insight. It will also make you accountable – you are setting an expectation in the world that you might actually do it.Personally, I try to do that via Twitter, this blog, newsletters, and lots of conversations. It’s not easy to put yourself ‘out there’ each day, but I feel it is essential to the type of creative work I want to do.
- Step Outside of Your Traditional Role to HELP Others.
Everything about your day attempts to define you into a very specific role. When you can step outside of that, even for a moment, a world of possibilities opens up.The best way to realize this is to help others. Are you an accountant who really wants to be a professional photographer? Then offer to your neighbor to photograph his kid’s school play. Offer your realtor friend to photograph the houses she is listing.The goal here is not just the photos, but to create an identity. When someone changes their view of who you are and what you can do, that can be a very powerful motivator to evolve that identity further.
I’ve heard Jason Fried mention the value of motivation, and I know Daniel Pink has written about it too. Check them both out.
Thanks.
-Dan