How do you guys stay motivated being self employed?

[LexBrah]

Any tips/tricks?

I feel like I probably know all of them, but nothing is working anymore.

I just find myself having zero drive with work these days.

I always used to use financial/sales targets to hit each day, or week or month - but I'm finding im just working for a number now and its boring the **** out of me.

Even with some kind of incentives. Feels almost like ive completed all my goals now / have nothing thats exciting enough for me to work towards.

I used to be SERIOUSLY motivated/driven/ambitious to the point where it was probably pissing people off. Now im just like "yeah whatever"

Any tipz?

[etet1919]

You are very sales-driven... that's one challenge that really stimulates you. Why did your circumstances (job duties) change if things were successful? Are there other more competitive skills you can use on your job...or outside your job (the gym, for instance) to feed that ambitious aggressive nature of yours? If you're self employed, and not constantly working overtime, it may be "easier" to fit in some "ambitious and hardcore" gym time in order to fulfill some of your needs...

[JCubb12]

$$$ man. Thats the ultimate motivation in my book. You can never have enough of it. Whether it is to buy a yacht, retire in an ocean front house, or to fund a charity. Find a financial goal to motivate you to bust your ass every day and learn new things to make that goal attainable.

[MrCarrot]

Sorry, can't really help all that much, but for me running my own business is more about enjoying the job and my lifestyle than it is earning $$$

Over the years I've had various opportunities to earn more money and I've always passed them up if it doesn't feel right or doesn't fit in with my plans (which is to enjoy life and work, not necessarily to earn as much money as possible).

[buenavides]

Will it be better if you take some break? People get tired of their work or tend to be demotivated when they focus on their job for the long run. As for me I can't quit as I have bills to pay, I am honestly excited to send my vacation letter to gain happiness again.

[ANIMALISTIKZ]

You're too rich OP, time to rot in Florida.

[liza32]

you have to spare some time in the morning and after job, you have to balance work life and training excercise, take a break from your regular schedule write down the things you want to do and achieve and do work on them.

[Cavalerium]

Just do and don't stop - that's all secret

[okkkorniienko]

I always think that i have to be the best version of my self.Cause life don't have any sense without self-improving.

[LexBrah]

Those asking for updates.

I focused on an area of my business that I had been putting off, but I knew would be successful. Its nice focusing on something slightly different. I've also employed someone to do the boring chit I didnt want to do, so I can focus more time on doing the bits that I do enjoy.

Still bit bummed out with it, but things are looking like they will pick up.

Still also dont have anything in particular to aim towards or any real driver/goals - feel incredibly lost.

So I'm going to stop worrying about the future and just enjoy myself in the present. Work hard and enjoy life to the full.

[bellypepper01]

Seems like all your goals are met! I think it's time to get into another challenging hobby, or to find another angle to your job. Have you had time to enjoy the fruits of your labor?

[mcknzAlex]

I am planning to take a break from work, maybe it will somehow help me to know what I really want my future to be like. It is normal to take a leave if you feel like everything is falling apart or you are getting tired of what you do.

[LexBrah]

Those asking for updates.

I focused on an area of my business that I had been putting off, but I knew would be successful. Its nice focusing on something slightly different. I've also employed someone to do the boring chit I didnt want to do, so I can focus more time on doing the bits that I do enjoy.

Still bit bummed out with it, but things are looking like they will pick up.

Still also dont have anything in particular to aim towards or any real driver/goals - feel incredibly lost.

So I'm going to stop worrying about the future and just enjoy myself in the present. Work hard and enjoy life to the full.

Update 3 months on..

Definitely found my aim/goals now. I basically wrote down a huge list of things that were stressing me out, things that I wanted but couldnt afford, worked out how much I'd need to achieve my goals and made that the focus.

I also made a massive shift on my business over the last 6 months by incorporating other services/areas into it and focusing on building passive income revenues. So - in the last 6 months, I've added around 4 new income streams, which are all generating passive income - which is great. Before, because of the way I work (B2C) I would have a monthly target to hit then the start of the next month would happen and I'd go back to £0 and start from scratch again. Now its nice, because of how I get paid, each month I get paid by all the passive income streams on the 1st of each month, so im starting from a great base already. It just feels much more motivating.

Also, the new areas of the business that I opened up have allowed me to be way more creative, which is much more mentally stimulating and rewarding. I'm learning lots of new things atm and having a fun time doing so. (particularly video editing and photography, which was a hobby of mine when I was a kid, but I gave up on it because I figured you couldnt make any money from being a photographer/artist). I want to upgrade my whole filming rig to a 4K DSLR camera, with professional lighting setup + drone footage and the new gopro etc.

It was also a case of just a bad self-fulfiling prophecy of chit the last few months. Just a result of a LARGE unexpected tax bill and a few other things - and just basically involved me doing things that were temporarily nice, but long-term damaging. E.g. would eat out at nice restaurants pretty much every other day because it was a nice pick me up - but the reality is I could've had a equally nice meal at home for a fraction of the price - which would have allowed me to have saved up quicker and accomplish my long-term goals substantially quicker..

So now im basically fukking off short term gratification. I've broken down all my goals into monthly goals, and then I have set targets to hit each day and week to ensure that I stay on track. It's not so much (in my experience) about working hard, but its being consistent every single day.

We all know what is good for us and what is bad for us, but a lot of us (me included) do what what want at that moment in time, which isnt always the best option.

So now, I'm just focusing back on self improvement. Cutting out what I know is bad for me. No more wreckless spending. The focus/aim right now is to achieve the long term goals, as I could accomplish everything I want within 2 years from now if I put my head down.

[LexBrah]

Seems like all your goals are met! I think it's time to get into another challenging hobby, or to find another angle to your job. Have you had time to enjoy the fruits of your labor?

Basically this.

I'm just looking through everyones replies in a bit more detail and everyone seems to be saying "take a break from work/burnout etc" - but actually it was the opposite. I had taken too much of a break from work and where everything was super organised, meticiulous before hand - I took my eye off the ball for way too long and everything just became hectic/mismanaged. Like instead of fixing a problem that may have taken me an hour tops to deal with, I put my head in the sand and just focused on making more money to make the problem go away (when it was a life or business admin problem).

Then before I knew it, I had like 30 things that needed doing, it was stressing me out and I was performing badly in other areas.

I think that there is also definitely a "Power of mindset" type of thing, that I cant explain that well. But because I work in B2C services - I think that when I had bad periods at work, I would then get bummed out / unmotivated / depressed, then I would not work as much (because why would I, work was nowherenear as good as it used to be) - then because I wasnt working - I would earn even less than before and it would make me even more unhappy.

Likewise, when work has been going really, really well - then I am super motivated, I dont need to remind myself to work - because I WANT to work nearly all the time, because I know that I'm losing out on so much money if im not online. This develops a spark/mental reaction that makes me really positive, confident, happy - combined with substantially increasing workload - I think my customers can sense the difference and are much more likely to spend more.

What I need to work on now, is to ensure that I keep my work work load / productivity high AF and I turn it into a habbit so that I dont slip out of the routine.
Also need to make sure that I am saving up hard, so that I can accomplish my goals ASAP.
And lastly, make sure that I'm always putting aside ~30-40% or so each month for taxes.

I think that the problems I had were a combination of bad timing, bad luck - but also as a result of me not being OCD enough. If I had been as assertive as I used to be with business, then I wouldve realised that I was having a bad period long before it happened and wouldve been able to adjust course. But I spent a good 9-12 months or so thinking it was down to things outside of my control, bad luck, bad timing, the dogs fault for being too needy, familys fault for being too demanding with time etc.

Real talk though, I've been smoking green a lot over the last probably 18 months. As like 3-5 Js a day. Started off pretty fine/chilled. Was fun. I've always been a really deep/philosophical thinker, so I felt it helped me connect deeper into that. It also made me feel incredibly content with everything. If I was bored, it would make life interesting. If I was upset/sad, it would make me happy and reassure me (hippy vibes, like "hey man, youve got everything you need to be happy. just do you, be happy. do what you wanna do" - which really didnt help with work). But although it isnt actually that expensive in itself (£200-400/month) its all the extra chit that you do as a result of being high that made it expensive (e.g. eating out at restaurants almost everyday, thinking it was a good idea) - cheating on my diet etc. My diet was fuked, because some days were SO low (like 1000 calories from just being busy/distracted) and other days like 5000 calories and I'd wake up in the morning all bloated, with a headache and a really bad stomach ache and just feel sluggish/slow.

I dont think that neccessarily the side effects are too bad of it, but it just made me feel real comfortable with "settling". I think if youre striving for excellence, or for something thats above 'average' then it makes it near impossible to get to - or atleast, at best, it makes it like 50% harder - so everything is twice as long, twice as difficult etc.. And now I'm just thinking, why would I make things so much harder for myself? If I binned it off for good, then I save money buying it, I save (loads!) of money buying food/eating out and I will definitely work longer/harder because I've got more time to dedicate to it. I feel like its just a period that i've completed/done now.

Goals moving forwards are:

Lifestyle/Gym:
* Workout 5 days a week consistently
* Low sugars / avoid all chit foods and cheat days. I just bloat up, look/feel terrible after. Natural foods are the way forwards imo.
* Keep water intake high
* Keep cardio high / make sure im sweating at least once a day (so much better for my skin/hair/mental health etc..)
* No smoking.

Work:
* Use an App/recording software to make sure that I'm working X hours per day and its efficient. The biggest problem I had was with time efficiency. I was making such poor use of my time, which was really fukin me up. Like with my work, I could spend 5-6 hours on something completely useless - or I could spend 30minutes or something really useful. Its like food, a calorie isnt just a calorie. Time spent working , isnt time spent working if its not making you money in the short/long run..


I mean, i could go into more details about work - but without being specific, its hard to keep it all short / interesting..

I'd probably like to have kids within the next 5 years and I dont want to be working (out of choice at least) when that happens. Seems achievable.

I'll try and update this thread next month and let you know how im getting on with everything.

[pill414]

As soon as I'm getting paid, that's enough motivation for me.

[exclusiivity]

Looks like you're looking for the meaning of life, not just work/working out motivation. Start there.

[LexBrah]

Looks like you're looking for the meaning of life, not just work/working out motivation. Start there.

Yeah, I feel like I've found it now.

Had a super toxic last 9 months really. Although its all only started to unravel last month. Hopefully it will all be sorted within the next 1-2 months.

The goal for now is to pay off remaining mortgage debt + stick a few hundred K in the bank and invest from there.

My new plan means I'm going to probably have to work my absolute butt off for the first 3 months of 2020, but then it should set me up in a really sweet position.

Also, I think if I work really hard, within 3 months I will see the direct benefits from that - so that should be enough motivation to continue sticking at it.


I've toned back my outgoings to around 50% of what they were before. I still think that I should be able to cut back a further £500/month though and am working towards this (although it will be hard with Christmas)

And physique. Im sitting around 10% atm, I'm going to try and diet down to 8% and stay around there over the Christmas period - because worst case scenario that would mean I wont get fatter.
Then the plan is to take gym/diet seriously (which is something I probably have actually never done consistently) and train 5 days a week without fail.

Basically I was getting ****ed up because my accountant was making problems with my business left, right and centre - which meant I was massively overpaying taxes. Which meant I was stressed out, because I was working hard - but everything was disappearing. So I started seeking immediate gratification more and eating out more frequently / chilling out more - which meant I was spending more and being wreckless with savings - and I was also not helping my diet at all either.

So by cutting out smoking green, having a budget in mind, making myself so god damn busy with productive/money making stuff (Gym+Work), then I will have less time to get distracted, less time to overthink things, less time to spend on things.


so goals for 2020

*Double existing networth
*Work my ass off for first 3 months (I've got more specific business related goals)
* Take diet/training seriously for the first time ever. Train without fail 5 days a week, maybe even abs at home at weekend too.
* Monitor my spending and stick to a budget.