How To Stay Motivated When You're Your Own Boss

On this week's episode, we're breaking down what it takes to truly stay on top of your sh*t when there's no one bossing you around. We'll dive into different styles of motivation, the importance of liking your work, and when to know to step away.

Meet my new co-host!

  • Listen to Tayler’s guest episode here.

Different types of motivation

  • Intrinsic = involves doing something because it's personally rewarding to you.

  • Extrinsic = involves doing something because you want to earn a reward or avoid punishment.

  • One is not better than the other, they are just different

  • You have to know what motivates you first before you figure out how to stay motivated (do you naturally love the work that comes with running a business/building a brand or do you get more excited about the final product and paycheck)

  • Give yourself something to work towards.

  • Revisit your goals frequently.

  • Work on one task related to your “biggest goal” daily.

The importance of liking your work

  • If you are on the struggle bus all of the time, there is no way you are going to stay motivated over the long term

  • You have to constantly look at the big picture. No one loves every single aspect of their work. But focusing on the elements you don’t like will lead to burnout really quickly.  People are more confident at tasks that are more natural and seem to flow. 

  • People who enjoy their work are more likely to be optimistic, motivated, learn faster, make fewer mistakes, and better business decisions.

Know when to step away from your work

  • Staying motivated=being able to push through the hard shit.

  • You have to not actually live and breathe your work all of the time to have the energy to continually push through.

  • Because, let's face it, being the boss (even if it's just you) means you are always putting out fires.

  • Find ways to disconnect other than just not working - log out of social media for the weekend, turn your phone on DND.

  • Put clear boundaries in place - add work hours to an email signature or use auto-responder during off periods. 

Resources:

Tayler Cusick Hollman