MBA2290 How to Stay Motivated When Times Are Tough

0:09Heyo! Welcome to the$100 MBA show because a better business begins with you. That's why we deliver daily 10 minute business lessons for the real world. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher, Omar Zinhome. I'm also the co-founder of Webinar Ninja, an independent software company. I started with my co-founder back in 2014. And in today's episode, you will learn how to stay motivated when times are tough. Things are not always going to be great in your business. Sometimes you're going to go through some challenges, some dips, financial challenges, technical issues, personnel issues, and it's going to affect you.

0:42It's going to make it harder and harder for you to get up in the morning and feel motivated. Listen, when things are going well, it's easy to be motivated. It's easy to get things done. You're inherently incentivized to be motivated. But when things are not going so well, when you got to make some tough choices or you got to dig deep and start working on different things or new things or change or pivot, this is when motivation really starts to wane, when it starts to really be on low. So in today's episode, I'm going to give you my best tips when it comes to how to get motivated when times are tough.

1:14Everything I'm going to share with you today, I've tried myself. And this is why I feel so strongly about these strategies. Some of these are so good, you're going to want to keep on doing them, regardless of times are tough or not. So let's get into it. Let's get down to business. This episode is sponsored by Time Doctor. Measure and improve productivity wherever your people work. With accurate and employee-friendly time and activity tracking, you can empower your staff to work from the office, home, or anywhere else with total peace of mind. Time Doctor gives you a detailed in-depth analysis for a real-time view of you and your team so you can manage productivity, engagement, and staff attrition in your business.

1:54Well, how do I know? Well, we've been using Time Doctor as a part of our partnership with them, and we've boosted our productivity in a big way. And I'll share more about that a little bit later in the episode. So why wait? Join over half a million happy customers and unlock the power of visibility, accountability, and productivity with Time Doctor by starting a free trial today. Visit the Time Doctor website at www.timedoctor.com to get started. Again, that's timedoctor.com to get started for free. In the book, The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz, he talks about the concept of a wartime CEO and a peacetime CEO.

2:35Now, in the book, he mainly focuses on leadership style. You as a leader, as a CEO, you have to do things differently when things are tough, when you're in wartime versus peacetime, the way you talk to your team, the way you lead, the way you organize your day, the decisions you make. And I definitely think this is true when it comes to motivating yourself. When things are challenging, when you're even just down in the dumps because things are not going your way. It's very hard at times to motivate yourself to do the things you need to do. Some people will find it even hard to get up from bed in the morning.

3:10So in this episode, I'm gonna share with you my best strategies, my best tips to get you motivated when times are tough. First thing I wanna address is that when times are tough, you are very fragile. I'm not saying you're weak or you don't have what it takes. I'm saying that anything can really affect you the wrong way. When things are going great, it's hard to kind of put you in a bad mood. But when things are not going so great, it doesn't take much for you to really get deeper in a slump. This is why you have to control the inputs in your life when times are tough. This means you have to control the things that enter your brain.

3:49The things that you see, the things that you experience, the things that you hear. That means you have to be super mindful about the people around you, the people you spend time with, things you see on your phone. This is why I think when times are tough, the best thing for you to do is to monitor the inputs that are going on, especially at the start of the day. So removing social media apps from your phone is a good start. You can always use social media on your computer. The reason why I like the idea of removing social media from your phone is because those inputs are not at arm's length, okay, especially when you get up from bed.

4:22The start of your day is so important. I see every day is kind of a new chance, a restart. And not having the ability to be affected by the outside world and social media on your phone is a huge plus when it comes to starting your day. Don't look at your phone. Why? Because it's going to affect the way you feel. And yes, you could be affected in a positive way, but the chances of it being a negative impact on you is also there. You need everything on your side when things are tough. You need everything to push you in the right direction and nothing the other way around. This is why I give you this advice.

5:00Second, start your day with some form of positivity. Okay. The reason why this is so important, this is scientifically proven by many, many experts. The one that comes to mind, Jocko Willink, New York Times bestselling author, Navy SEALs expert and trainer. He talks about getting your wins in the morning, starting the day with wins. So you got to do something positive. Any form of self-wellness. For many people, that could just be starting the day by going to the gym, but it also could just mean going for a walk or just stretching for five minutes, even if those stretches are in bed. Listen to something positive.

5:36During a tough time in my business a couple years ago, I started every morning by listening to Jim Rohn, who is like the godfather of personal development, but he just really has a positive vibe and puts in great positive ideas in your brain. I was listening to his audio book, which is like the best of Jim Rohn collection. And I would spend my morning listening for about 15 minutes and it centered me. It allowed me to really start the day on a positive note, on a win. So personally, I like the idea of doing exercise, going to the gym, getting your workout in. I like to walk to the gym. So that just also gets my blood moving, feeling like a human being.

6:16away from technology. I might even listen to a podcast. One of my new favorite podcasts is Arnold Schwarzenegger's new podcast called The Pump Club, which is a short form podcast. It's kind of unique because he uses AI to mimic his voice to give you short snippets of advice of positivity. I listen to that in the gym. I have a good breakfast. I start the day really, really in a good space. If the day ended there, if I got nothing done at the end of the day, I still feel like I've accomplished something because I got my exercise in. I got some good positive information in my brain. They went for a walk to the gym.

6:53It's not a waste of a day. Okay. Now, obviously what happens here is once you have a win under your belt, once you're like, okay, I started the day right. You don't want to mess it up. You kind of want to have a streak. So the next thing you have to do, like maybe answer emails or get on to phone calls or meetings or get some work done, you have a little bit of motivation to keep things going in the right direction because now you have some momentum. Next, this is an exercise I think is incredibly helpful. And as soon as you start feeling stressed or you feel things are not going well in your business, do this exercise because it's gonna help you tremendously.

7:28It's called the worry list. I know this sounds kind of negative or weird, but it's actually really helpful to kind of write down all your worries. What are you concerned about right now? What's keeping you up at night? What's bothering you? What are you anticipating? What are you worried about? Just write it all down. Get it out of your head and put it on paper. The reason why you want to do this is so you can analyze it, so it's not all jumbled in your head and you'll realize, oh, maybe it's not as bad as I thought it was, or it's not as many things I'm worried about. Or now that I can identify what the issues are, I can say, okay, what is the biggest issue here?

8:02If there's one domino that needs to fall so that I can have some momentum or the other issues can get solved. What is it? And once you've identified, you know, one thing that you can do or fix or improve in your worry list, you can then get laser focused. And this is my next tip, whatever that might be, focus on one thing for every day. Okay. You can get overwhelmed when things are not going right. You can feel tired. You can feel defeated. So the best thing to do in these situations is just to focus is to say, Hey, I'm just going to focus today on getting one thing done that's really important.

8:37So for example, if you need to get more sales in your business, we're going to talk more about this later this week. In fact, I just checked my schedule and it's tomorrow's episode, a Q &A Wednesday question. So let's say you need to get more sales. And one of the ways you're going to get sales is through partnerships. Maybe you're going to do some partnerships with affiliates or people that you can get to help you promote. They can have you go in front of their audience. They can promote you via email or whatever it might be. In order for you to do that, you need to contact people and you need to contact people.

9:05You need to make a list of people. Okay. So maybe today your only focus is like, I need to write a list of 50 people, possible people that would be a good partner for me that I can reach out to, that I can get their contact from somebody, get an introduction. And then maybe I can get started after I list those 50 people by contacting five people. I like this concept because it's like, only have to do one thing today. I don't get overwhelmed. And if you do this, it's actually going to put you in the right position, meaning you're making some headway with something that's actually important that actually will help you relieve you of the worries that you have.

9:41And you'll start to feel better because you feel like getting closer to solving the problem. See, the thing about feeling motivated is that doing nothing is the worst thing. Just sitting around, worrying, being in your head, that's the worst thing you can do. So you have to do something, right? They say emotion creates motivation. So you need to do anything to move you in the right direction. That's why even the smallest task is something. And the reason why we write the worry list is so that we write down all the things that we can work on, the things that we want to fix, the things that are bothering us, instead of being paralyzed with just living in the emotion of being defeated.

10:19When things are really tough in your business and you are not really sure what the future looks like, and this happens sometimes. My advice is always take things day to day, okay? Just worry about today. Just worry about seeing today end well and having a good day today. Don't worry about tomorrow so much. Don't worry about the next week. Don't worry about next month. Sometimes that can get you feeling overwhelmed, getting you feeling depressed. You have to control the parameters of your worry, okay? Right now, just worry about today, okay? Just focus on today being good, being a solid day, being a productive day.

10:54Why? Because one day that's productive, two days that's productive, three days that's productive, that turns into a productive week, that turns into a productive month, that turns into a productive life. Stay focused on just today right now, making it a win. Because at the end of the day, that's all you have control over, the present, right? You don't have a time machine, you can't go into the future, you can't go into the past and change things. So make sure the present is solid. This episode is sponsored by Time Doctor. Measure and improve productivity wherever your people work. We've been using Time Doctor for over a month now.

11:26And as promised, I want to share with you the journey that we've been going through implementing Time Doctor in our business with our team. One of the things I love about Time Doctor is you get to see how much idle time each of your team members are experiencing. Idle time basically means they're not doing much. They don't have enough on their plate. It was great to find out this information because we could talk to the team member and say, hey, we notice you have a bit more time on your hands. How about we give you this new challenge, this new task to help us move our goals forward? Sometimes your team members just don't have enough to do.

11:59And if you don't have the data to show it, you're never going to know it. And this was a win-win for both us as a company and the team member because now they have something new they can work on. Something that gets them excited and their life and their job is not as boring. Why don't you join me and over half a million happy customers and unlock the power of visibility, accountability, and productivity with Time Doctor? You can get started today with a free trial. Visit Time Doctor over on their website at www.timedoctor.com to get started. Again, that's timedoctor.com to get started with a free trial today.

12:35A few more tips when it comes to feeling overwhelmed and not feeling motivated when times are tough. Let's talk about life outside of work. Okay, make time to meet people, see people, have dinner. Now, you don't have to kind of neglect your work or your business, but carve out some time on the weekend. Why? Because by going into the real world and talking to real people, you're going to get perspective. You're going to start to realize things are not as bad as you think they are. And you have it better than a lot of other people in a lot of ways. You start to realize that life is more than just your business or your work.

13:07and that maybe you need to lighten up a little bit and stop trying to control everything. And at the very least, it's going to put some laughter in your life. It's going to put some joy in your life to give you some relief from the stress that you have. I'm not saying that we're going to forget our problems and never look at them. I'm saying sometimes you just need a break to recharge and go at solving your problems again the next day. Another tip, I love journaling because it allows me to write down things I need to hear. One of the exercises I like to do when I need motivation is I write down, why am I doing this?

13:40Why did I start this business in the first place? Why did I become an entrepreneur? What are the benefits of this lifestyle? Why am I even trying in the first place, right? So it gets me to remind myself of why I started this journey. Those whys really help you get pumped. You know when people say you need a purpose in life? Well, the reason why they say that is because that purpose, that why, gets you through the tough times, right? It's not always going to be easy. So if you started a business so you can be your own boss, create something for yourself, be independent, get to financial freedom and flexibility, if those are your goals, then those are worthy goals.

14:17It's worth the hard work. It's worth the hardship sometimes. It's worth the grind you're going through right now. So writing that down in your journal really helps. We talked about a worry list, but one of the other exercises I do to stay motivated, and Again, it sounds counterintuitive, but it really works, is to write worst case scenario. What's going to happen? What's the worst case scenario right now in this situation? That I don't close the deal, that the launch doesn't go well, that my business doesn't grow as fast as I wanted it to grow. Maybe it's going out of business and you have to start all over.

14:47Is that the worst case scenario? Are you going to still live? Are you going to still breathe? Are you going to see another day? Do you still have your faculties? Do you still have the tools and the knowledge and your intellect to rebuild yourself and make it all happen? Yes, it's unfortunate if that's the case, but by writing down, like, what's the worst case scenario, you start to realize, okay, it's not that bad. I can survive. I can make this happen. Now, let's try to avoid that altogether, but let's make sure we understand, even in the worst case scenario, it's going to be all right. The reason why this is scientifically proven to be a healthy exercise is that it actually helps you feel more fearless.

15:23because if you face your worst fears, the worst that can happen, and you actually live it out, you actually close your eyes and imagine that happened, you're not that scared anymore. You're not that worried. You're not that paralyzed anymore because you've kind of experienced it in your mind already. This gives you a little bit of motivation and energy to go after your problems because you kind of have nothing to lose because if the worst case scenario happens in your mind, you know you'll still be okay. I want to wrap up with some really interesting body hacks. Okay? I talked about exercise at the start of the day and just doing anything physical.

15:54And there's a big reason for that. It's because dopamine. Dopamine is a real thing that you get when you exercise, when you move your body. It's a chemical that gets sent to your brain that makes you feel happy. It's like taking a pill that makes you feel happy. Except it's natural. There's no side effects. There's nothing wrong with it. You're good. But there's many ways to get a hit of dopamine, especially when you need it the most, when you need motivation. Some of your favorite songs, music, dancing, looking at some of your favorite memories, maybe some photos, talking to a friend that always makes you laugh, watching a movie that motivates you.

16:27If the movie Pursuit of Happiness makes you feel better, do it. Watch the movie. You need everything on your side to make things happen, to feel more motivated. If going over your mom's house and she cooking you her favorite dish or dinner makes you feel good, call up mom. Hey, can I get some dinner? Okay. For me, my happy place is basketball. I love playing basketball. It makes me feel grounded and centered. It's where I feel like I'm my truest self. I give my friends a call or message them on WhatsApp and say, hey, let's shoot some hoops. You have these things at your disposal. And many of them, if not all of them, are free.

17:04Okay. It just requires you to take action and to grab it from the buffet of life. Okay. Put it on your plate, consume it so you can get that extra motivation to get you through that tough time. Thank you so much for listening to the$100 MBA show. Hope today's episode helped. I've used all these strategies, all these techniques, and they've helped me. They've helped me so many times in tough times, in tough moments, in rough days, on mornings that I woke up just not feeling like doing what I have to do. It happens. This is not a secret. The reason why people that are successful are successful is they find a way to get things done even when they're not feeling it.

17:39Because not everybody feels it all the time. Okay? That's just not how we're wired. Circumstances change. Things happen. You're going to have challenges along the way. If you love this podcast, if you want to show it some love, hit subscribe, hit follow right now on your favorite podcast app. Find the triple dots on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and make sure you follow the podcast so you get our next episode automatically. It's also the best way to show the algorithm that, hey, this podcast is pretty cool. Give us a rating and review if you have a moment as well. Before I go, I want to leave you with this.

18:11I mentioned Jim Rohn, one of my favorite people to listen to and learn from. He says, motivation is like showering. It's recommended daily, right? You can't just say, hey, I don't really need motivation. That's for weak people. No, it's your responsibility to find those things that motivate you every day so that you can renew your commitment to your craft, to your work, to your business. Thanks again for listening. And I'll check you in tomorrow's episode, Q &A Wednesday. I'll see you then. Take care.

18:50Thank you.