How-to Stay Focused and Create New Inspiration at Will to Continually Kick Ass and Grow Your Business

Do you ever feel overwhelmed in your business? Do you ever feel like maybe it’s just not worth it? Or that it just isn’t going to work?

I’d be shocked and question whether you were really being honest with yourself if you said no the above. The truth is as an entrepreneur you are going to feel all of those things, and probably more often than you want.

I think because, as trainers, we’re such analytical people; so detail oriented that we really get hung up on trying to make sure each step we take is perfect. When things are less than perfect it seems to send many of us into a downward spiral of in-action, it’s like we become paralyzed with fear or so discouraged it’s hard to continually put one foot in front of the other.

Maybe this is a little dramatic, but then for a newer trainer it might not be at all. I remember how I felt, and still do some days. Being in business isn’t easy, and what we do as fitness professionals requires massive amounts of emotional energy. When things don’t quite turn out the way you expect it saps that energy.

At the core of it all the only way you can ever fail is if you fail to act.

Unfortunately burnout and in-action is inevitable so what do you do about it?

1)   Make sure you make lists, and don’t overwhelm yourself. Only choose 3-4 things each day as “critical to get done.” Expecting to much of yourself each day sure leads to burnout.

2)   Slash and burn. Truth is we all do too much shit that doesn’t move our business forward, saps emotional energy and wastes time. Get over your scarcity mindset and slash and burn what doesn’t matter or find ways to delegate it to others.

3)   Every single one of you has someone in your network who would be willing to take on a few tasks to help you out. Ask them, service trades are a great place to start but never be afraid to pay people to do stuff that isn’t directly making you money. Your greater focus on growing your business will easily replace the money.

4)   Each month review your list, streamline tasks to stay focused on what your good at and pass off or get rid of the rest.

5)   Be careful of passion projects, the things that might lead to something, the things that are really fun to work on, the reality is they aren’t contributing immediate value best to set them aside and focus on what matters. Now everyone needs a hobby so I suggest adopt the Google philosophy allow yourself that 10-20% of your time to work on passion projects or those labours of love.

6)   Discover your “magic time.” What hours of the day are you the most productive? Everyone seems to have that time where you can accomplish in minutes what might otherwise take hours, focus dials in and you just get it done. What are you doing to protect this time? Don’t let anything get in the way, be sure to delegate or eliminate responsibilities that take up this time and may otherwise hold you back.

Feel so fortunate to live so close to a place like Banff, the Rimrock hotel is one of my wife and I’s favourite “burnout recovery” getaways.

7)   Last but not least, go have fun. There’s only one reason to work so hard and become successful. To enjoy the things you do outside of work. Recently I went to Peru on a whim for this very reason, it was time to step away from civilization in an effort to refresh, re-charge and become inspired.

Inspiration drives action; burnout is a sign that inspiration is fizzled. A job is something you might like, a career is a job where you continue to invest in yourself and a business allows you to love the process of earning your financial freedom. Lacking motivation shows you that you’ve pushed it too far or your handcuffed by things you shouldn’t be doing, recognize and act upon this and you will e continually propelled forward.