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Keeping Your Motivated When You Are Not Finding a Business that Gets a Good Response

October 26, 2013 by Paul Edwards Leave a Comment

How do you keep yourself motivated when in searching for a business and it is taking time to find something that clicks? If you get into a funk, there’s a tendency to shoot down your ideas or listen to people who will do that for you.Believe You Can

First, a business does not have to be only one in your community or on the web. What makes you think you have to be the only person in the world to start whatever business you come up with? Very few businesses are so unique that no one else is going to be doing them. Many of the best business ideas are ones that lots of people can do because there is ample demand for them.

Second, what makes you think you have to be the first one to do something? Just because someone else has started something similar before you get to doing what you had in mind doesn’t mean there’s no room for you. Who’s to say you won’t do as good or better job as they will? Virtually all businesses have competition. But chances are they won’t do it like you can, because you are unique.

Find out what your competition is offering and compare it to what you had in mind. You don’t eve have to compete head to head, if you don’t want to, although you could probably find a way to out do the competition if you gave it your all. But that’s the hard way. The best way to is carve out a niche of your own — something that distinguishes you from them. Who are you best suited to serve, for example that they aren’t serving as well? What can you offer that they aren’t? What can you add?

Listen to your inner dialogue as you consider these options and you’ll find out how you shoot yourself down. It sounds one way you do that is to beat up your dreams with doubts. The part of you that has such great ideas that someone else is always coming up with them too, needs to develop some mental muscle. You have to learn to stand toe to toe with your doubts, build your case and convince your practical side to join you in coming up with a strategy to get going.

Keep in mind, you don’t have to make an all-out commitment before you get started. You can start by testing and exploring and building your case as you go. The results from what you discover once you start taking action will point you in the direction of what will work and what you need to do next.

Comments and questions on the substance of this blogs are welcome. If you have other questions about this website, please contact me directly for a consulting appointment.

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If you think we can help you, we offer webinars and consulting.

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Filed Under: Counseling Tagged With: carve out a niche, Inner dialogue, keeping your motivated. shoot down your ideas

Following through is a Key to Developing a Sustainable Living

April 20, 2012 by Paul Edwards Leave a Comment

Follow through needed for change

There’s probably no greater power than the power to follow through on what you say you want to do.   It’s an essential skill when you want to take your life in a new direction. Yet we often set goals only to let ourselves down.  The best strategy, goal setting and scheduling in the world are useless unless you can get yourself to put them into action.

Performers have coaches and others to help them, but we have only ourselves.

To change directions we have to step into the role of the coach. You have to know exactly what gets you going, what calms you down, and what helps you focus. You have to know how to follow through on what needs to be done.

What Moves You?

How well do you know yourself?  Can you motivate yourself to do what you say you want to do? There are lots of different ways we can motivate ourselves. Some of us set up incentives to reward ourselves; others are motivated by the satisfaction we get from our work. Some say that money is motivating. What ways do you motivate yourself?

Knowing what de-motivates you can be as important as what motivates you. To discover your motivators and de-motivators, pay attention to what you complain about versus what excites you. What gets you down? What picks you up?

 Talk to Yourself

One of the important ways we motivate, or de-motivate ourselves, is by what we say to and about ourselves. If you begin to listen to your inner conversation and observe its effects, it’s amazing what you’ll learn. Inner dialogue or ‘self-talk’ is one of the primary ways we coach ourselves to do what needs to be done and to do it well. It’s especially useful to notice what we say to ourselves in response to the problems or difficulties we encounter. The conversations we have with ourselves at times like these are like those that a coach gives the team at half time. It’s important to notice if your pep talks are working or not. Are you more committed and determined to succeed afterwards? Or do they send you into an emotional sinkhole? Being able to be give yourself an effective pep talk is a valuable skill when you’re changing directions.

 Adopt the Right Attitude

 We need the skills, abilities and strategies to do what needs to be done to get the results we’re seeking. But just as we have to re-structure our time, our energy, and how we manage and relate to ourselves, we may also need to restructure our attitudes. All our attitudes, assumptions, and expectations affect the way we experience everything we encounter. If we perceive a situation inaccurately, we’ll be prepared and ready to respond to something quite different than the situation at hand. Clearly, our attitudes can go along way in determining both our experience and our results.

 Are You on Track?

If you’re following your plan, observing the results, measuring your progress and adjusting your strategy accordingly, you should be on track.

Check your progress here:

Are you taking specific steps each day or each week to implement your strategy?

  • Are you following through on the activities you initiate?
  • Are you seeing measurable progress?
  •  Are you any closer to changing directions?
  • Does your strategy need revising?
  • Have you been operating on some misperceptions or false assumptions?
  • Are there other steps you need to take that you haven’t considered?
  • Is your strategy taking more time and energy than you anticipated?

A part of following through and moving forward is stepping back and assessing you progress. Are you on the track to make the changes you need to develop a sustainable livelihood?

If you think we can help, we offer counseling.

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Comments and questions on the substance of this blogs are welcome. If you have other questions about this website, please contact me directly for a consulting appointment.

Filed Under: Counseling, Sustainable Home Businesses Tagged With: Following through, goal setting, Inner dialogue, motivate yourself, self-talk, sustainable livelihood, Talk to Yourself

About Me

Paul with his wife, Sarah Edwards, are award-winning authors of 17 books with over 2,000,000 books in print.

Paul provides local marketing consulting through the Small Business Development Center. He is co-founder of a new website: DigitalDocumentPros.com.

Prior to becoming an author, I practiced law, served as CEO of a non-profit, and operated a public affairs consulting practice. [Read more...]

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