In my 10 years as a business owner, I feel I’ve experienced many of the emotions, from the most beautiful highs, to the darkest of lows, and the feeling of constantly working/grinding when the excitement or energy is low and it becomes truly exhausting.
So, (be prepared, puns incoming) … if you’re feeling a little flaccid, stuck in a sticky spot, or you’re having trouble rising to the occasion, then I hope you find these two pieces of advice helpful.
I had a question hit my inbox recently from a regular listener to the Business of Hearing podcast.
They naturally asked for their name to be kept confidential, but the question asked:
“How do I keep going when the excitement has gone? I feel exhausted, I’ve lost the energy but I’m in too deep to stop”
For clarity, and to take your mind out of the gutter, this question was in relation to running their clinic. I feel this is a question that every business owner can sympathise with.
The truth is, operating a business is tough.
To combat that exhaustion, here are the two biggest things I’ve learned that helped me to rebuild excitement in the difficult times. Ensuring that I can go harder for longer… essentially, the lessons that serve as ‘Viagra’ for business owners.
#1 – Drive Your Day, Rather Than The Day Driving You
One of the reasons that we often feel burned-out, like the excitement is dwindling away, is because we feel helpless to the situation around us, like we have no choice/control.
This often happens when your day runs you, rather than you running your day.
You know how it is; you turn up to the office, you have voicemails you need to sort, then you have a staff issue, then you have patients turning up, you’re dealing with challenges, and before you know it – it’s 6pm and you feel you’ve not achieved anything.
Your email inbox has filled up. You feel you now have more “jobs” than when you started the day, and you’re chasing your tail.
You turn up the next day … and it happens again, and again, and again.
If this sounds familiar, then one of the most effective things that you can do is ensure that you drive your day, rather than your day driving you.
That may sound easier said than done, so let me explain HOW I do this (and how you may be able to borrow my approach).
On a Sunday evening, I grab a notepad and I put three headings:
- Progress
- Projects
- Personal
I then consider the key things that I need to achieve in the week that follows, and drop it into the relevant category.
- Progress is focussed on actions that move the business forward (high-value activities)
- Projects are focused on things I need to deliver in the business (whether customer, staff or admin related)
Personal is focussed on things outside of the office, like personal commitments, family commitments or even reminders to go to the gym 3 times
Once all of these are mapped out, I then assign each action to a day of the following week, ensuring that each day has at least one task focused on progress.
This then creates my action plan for the week.
I then make it a non-negotiable that my ‘high-value’ progress tasks are completed every single day, no matter what. In my world, the way I get this done is by having a 60-90 minute window every morning (typically at 6am-7.30am) where I focus on tackling this action.
This approach of prioritising the actions that move the business forward, ensure I feel in control of the business, that my work is making progress, and I feel energised.
Rather than turning up and doing what feels urgent in the moment, or having a ‘to-do’ list that you hope to get a chance at even reading by the end of the day. Then this approach may be more beneficial.
#2 – Focus on Actions, Not Goals
Another big reason why we often feel burned-out is due to lack of progress.
If you’re working your arse off every single day, and you feel that you’re not making any form of progress, or your business feels like it’s going backwards, then this is mentally exhausting.
I have been caught in this trap many times, and it’s soul-destroying.
In my experience, the main reason that I felt like this was because I was to focussed on big ‘outcome’ based goals. I wanted to achieve a certain number, or a certain outcome. If I didn’t feel like I had made progress then I felt beaten up.
One quick flip that I made, was to instead focus on actions, rather than outcomes.
For example, I know that if I take a certain action every day, or every week – it will result in the long-term outcome often being achieved, and the only thing I can truly control is the action, not the outcome.
Therefore, striving to do that ONE (or more) things per day and seeing that as the success was a game-changer.
It could be to hand out at least 10 referral cards everyday
It could be to ensure you ask every patient for a review
It could be to go to the gym and do that workout
But making these actions, the goals, will have you feeling much more in control of your success, and create momentum as you achieve your goals day after day.
The long-term outcomes will then often follow.
In Summary
I hope you found this helpful!
The most important thing that you can do when you feel like you have lost passion is to take back control … once you’re back in control, you’re often empowered and feeling motivated.
The above two actions are truly tried & tested on me … and I hope they also serve you.
