Staying motivated when home alone is not always easy. This throwback photo is the real deal! I literally started building my dream from my kitchen. And look how happy I am in this photo! I think working there gave me extra motivation to work hard to get out of there. I can attest to so many of the things that my brilliant friend, Rachael Bermingham has to share with us today. Aside from being an 8-time bestselling author and speaker, she is well known for building businesses from scratch into phenomenal success stories. She is also is a Mom to 3 beautiful boys including twins. Her wisdom comes from experience!
Staying Motivated & Focused While Building your DREAM Business from your Kitchen Bench
Rachael Bermingham © 2013 Bestselling author of Savvy – Ingredients for Success
Ok, you have this whopping big dream to build a highly successful business from home to epic proportions?
You’re on your own, probably trying to build it and grow it while raising beautiful children, maintaining a healthy relationship with a partner, oh and of course there’s also your friends and family that need your attention too! Right?
While there may be times that you’ve thought ‘This is all too hard’, ‘I’m not coping’, ‘I don’t think I can do this anymore’, ‘It’s not working!!!’, don’t lose faith. As a person who has built many businesses from home during the past 20 + years – it isn’t easy all the time (if it was, EVERYONE would be doing it) BUT you can definitely make it smooth sailing for a greater portion than it is challenging with some simple strategies along the way.
The first thing to do – especially if you’re overwhelmed is de-clutter! I know this may sound weird, but if your world is in chaos – this helps so significantly you’ll be stunned! Now when I say de-clutter, I mean your space (in your home and office) and among the people you are spending the most amount of time with. Harsh? Well not really, this is your life, your time, your wealth, happiness and health at stake – surely it’s worth making a few changes so that things become easier – right?
So start with your home (normally the easiest), go room by room (2 a week) until you’re finished, then your office then move onto people who are not adding to your happiness in some way – if they are making you feel less than you really are or terrible about yourself then move them out of your life or at least minimize the time you spend with them. By de-cluttering you’ll feel a breathe of fresh space come into your world – and this is AWESOME because you will have room for new, exciting and positive things and people to move in to it!
Next on the list is to ensure you have a clear plan of where you are going. The best way to do this is to ask yourself ‘Where do I want to be this time next year?’. What work will you be doing, what income are you receiving, what is your health like, how many hours are you putting into your business, how HAPPY are you??!! The more questions you ask to clarify where you will be in 12 months the better – you need to be SUPER clear.
Then all your decisions can be made relevant to your direction and where you WILL be. Plus because you’ll have more focus you will get there much faster! Yay! We love that!
I know there will be times that you will procrastinate – that’s normal – but staying in that frozen or stagnated space is not. If you’re procrastinating on something because you don’t like doing it but it needs to be done – outsource it, if you can’t outsource it schedule it in to do first thing in the morning so it’s done and dusted early so you can enjoy the rest of your day. If you’re procrastinating due to fear – ask for help, get a mentor to move you through this and help pull you along and through it (IF you can’t do it yourself). I have many mentors for various things I want to learn and they’re brilliant. It saves me loads of time and money on mistakes they’ve made but I don’t need to. Ensure you get a mentor who has done what you want to do – never get a mentor who hasn’t walked the path that you’re on.
Set up little mini prompts throughout the day to help you focus on where you’re going. I am also a BIG fan of quotes and have at least 3 inspirational, motivational and thought provoking quotes on my Facebook page daily to keep my head in my game and also to help me keep positive because as a solo Mom to 3 little busy boys running my own global business from home – it gets crazy! So you need to consume your head with all things that will help you move forward.
And lastly – don’t entertain wasted time – make sure you use your 24 hours wisely. Don’t do Facebook or take personal calls during ‘work’ time. Leave these activities until your lunch break, morning tea, or when you have some down time. I even quit out of my emails so I’m not distracting by seeing them all flood in while I’m writing a book or article. Be ruthless with your time – you can’t get it back!
Rachael Bermingham is a solo Mom to 3 little beautiful boys including twins 2 1/2 years old. Aside from being an 8 time bestselling author and speaker, she is well known for building businesses from nothing into phenomenal success stories. For more information about Rachael go to her website www.RachaelBermingham.com