I’m the kind of person who loves quick results. So, I understand that it can be really difficult when you’re doing all the work, setting up your business, and creating great offers, and getting started, and you have to do a lot of work that doesn’t necessarily yield the results that you want.

It’s really tempting at these times to go after things like tweaking your website, or joining an E-course, doing sexy things like starting a YouTube channel or becoming obsessed with Instagram.

The reason why it’s so easy to get tempted by these things is because they’re totally parts of your business.

Having a great website will help your business.

Creating an Instagram following that has all people who are your ideal target customers in it is definitely part of running a business, growing that audience.

The problem, though, is that none of those things matter if you’re not doing the things that do lead to the important stuff, which is making money.

I know this isn’t necessarily the thing that you want to hear. I know that a lot of people want to launch an E-course instead of offering one-on-one services when they’re getting started.

Unfortunately, this is how most people get stuck in the mud and their businesses never take off, because they don’t have a foundation. They’re trying to skip steps, and they’re building a house … they’re basically building the roof of the house without building the foundation of the house, which obviously isn’t going to work.

Watch today’s video to learn my 5-part “stay motivated” process:

What I want to talk about today is how to stay motivated during those times when you’ve got to do the work that doesn’t give you that instant gratification. You’ve got to do those things that are maybe outside of your comfort zone, things you don’t feel like doing, but you know you need to do in order to move that needle towards getting more clients, getting consistent income, and creating that revenue for your business.

#1 – CLARITY

The first thing is to get really clear about what your goal is. If you’re not excited about where you’re headed, about the vision that you have for where this business is gonna take you, and what it’s gonna create for your life and the life of other people, then you’re definitely not going to be motivated.

So, what is your compelling vision?

What is the compelling reason why you want to have this business?

I really recommend journaling about that, thinking about that, having a moment every single day where you remind yourself of what that vision is.

#2 – GAME PLAN

The second thing is to have a proven game plan. If you’re just throwing strategies at the wall and kind of dabbling in this and trying that, one day you’re focused on Facebook, and the next it’s email marketing, and then you’re watching a webinar over here and you’re taking this E-course and that course, you’re gonna get really haphazard results.

The good news is, is you don’t have to do it perfectly. You can also have your Netflix binges and do 80% of the work and be a little late on your deadlines, though I want to recommend that you work on keeping up with your self-integrity, which is another point I want to make later.

But having a game plan, a step by step plan, something that you know is gonna work, as long as you do the actions, will help you to have that motivation to take the actions in the first place.

#3 – SELF-INTEGRITY

My third tip is that what you want to do is build your self-integrity.

This is something I’ve struggled with a lot and something I am getting better and better at now, and it is the thing that gives me the most confidence, happiness, and energy of anything else. And that is keeping promises to myself and others.

Do you do what you tell yourself you’re gonna do?

If you tell yourself you’re gonna wake up early tomorrow, do you actually do it or not?

What I want you to know here is that I really want you to only make promises to yourself if you really, really, really want to do that thing.

Start with small things that you know you can do, because you’ll build that muscle of being able to depend on yourself. And you want to be able to depend on yourself. Again, this is where your self-worth is gonna come from is knowing that you’re able to achieve goals because when you say you’re gonna do something, you do it.

#4 – PRODUCTIVITY HUB

You need to have a central hub in your business where you’re assigning yourself to do things, and if you are the only person working in your business, you are the person who needs to be in charge of this.

I’m at a place in my business where I have a team, and I’m able to outsource some of that, and have a project manager and somebody who helps me to take the load off of that for me, because it’s not something I’m naturally good at.

You need to learn how to set goals, break those goals down into small tiny action steps, and then you need to have a place, a system where you assign them.

The project management system that we currently use is Asana, it’s the one I’ve been using for years. There’s plenty of different project management systems from Trello to Basecamp to 17 Hats to Dubsado, there’s lots of different systems that you can use.

You can even just have a great system of writing things down on paper!

#5 – MEASURE INPUT

Step five is measure your input, not the results.

This was a huge mindset shift for me when I shifted from measuring my actions, my output, what I’m actually doing, versus measuring the goal being achieved.

It’s great to be goal driven, but if you are focused on getting your next thousand subscribers, booking three new clients, doubling your business, getting media mentions, getting a speaking gig, whatever it is, and you’re focused on that outcome, then you’re gonna be overwhelmed and paralyzed by the gap between where you are right now and where you want to be.

Set those goals so that you can then break those actions down, like I mentioned in step four, and then what you want to do is to measure the input of the actions that you’re achieving taking action, not necessarily that the result is happening.

Remember, if you have a plan that you know is gonna lead you to the goal, if you do at least 80% of the actions, you take at least 80% of the actions towards getting the goal, chances are you’re gonna get pretty damn close to hitting your goal.

That’s my total system for setting goals and keeping motivated!

Which one of these steps are you MOST excited to implement in your business?