Finding Motivation as an Entrepreneur

It can be difficult to stay motivated as the leader of a small business. Learn research-backed strategies to motivate yourself and achieve your goals!

How to Stay Motivated as an Entrepreneur

Prefer to watch the video instead? Click here!

We've been told our entire lives, even as small children, that we should think positively because it will help us be successful. But we also know intuitively that thinking positively by itself will not make us successful.

We need a solid plan combined with disciplined and consistent action in order to go along with our positive mindset to be successful.

But there is something more that you can do. I'm going to share the science of motivation and a recent technique I've learned that can help us all to be successful in achieving our goals.

As entrepreneurs, we must be the masters of our own organization, mindset and motivation. We must be accountable to ourselves to achieve the goals of our business.

Some days it's just plain hard to be motivated to work on those harder goals.

The Science of Motivation

In the world of psychology, motivation is explained by both an approach and avoid mentality. An "approach motivation" steers us toward a reward. An "avoid motivation" can inhibit our higher-level learning by forcing us to fixate on an immediate response instead of a long-term goal because we're consciously or unconsciously avoiding an obstacle.

Psychologists tell us that this is one of the distinguishing variables between the healthiest and the least healthy among us. Healthy people approach their challenges. Less-than-healthy people avoid them.

What do you do when you face a challenge? Do you approach or avoid the challenge?

People who approach the challenge see it as an opportunity and their energy increases. People who avoid a challenge, have a concoction of stress hormones and their energy is just sucked right out of them.

The reality is when we leave our comfort zone, we feel discomfort for a little bit but when we move through the discomfort, we grow.

Your Entrepreneurial Motivation: Where the Science Ends

When it comes to your work, you want to help people. You want to have an impact in this world.

Perhaps that's part of the motivation that gets you through the day. Let's take this a little further.

We have long heard of the virtues of positive thinking and it is true that optimists are healthier and tend to have mental grit and resilience because they approach challenges with a growth mindset instead of a fixed mindset.

Here's where the science ends though. We're often taught as entrepreneurs that we should take time to envision our future, to fully feel what it would be like to attain a goal or to have our business reach a certain point.

You've all heard the pitch: we close our eyes, we imagine the success that we want to have. Perhaps we want the fame of Amy Porterfield or Marie Forleo or Oprah and the successful businesses and the revenue streams that they have, too. We are told to sit with these thoughts for a minute and imagine what it would feel like to have that level of success, to know that you were able to hire the best performing teams to support you, to know that you have an audience of raving fans who will buy whatever course or experience that you're able to put forth. Some will take this visualization exercise a little further and suggest that we can manifest it, i.e., we can make it happen just by thinking about it.

I've certainly tried manifesting alone, but we all know that we can't manifest much without deliberate and disciplined action to go along with the manifesting and positive thought.

The WOOP Principle Explained

So what can we do? Author Gabrielle Oettingen has been researching positive thinking for 20 years and has found something really interesting.

Fantasizing about something or positive thinking (by itself) does not work because eventually, we're going to hit an obstacle that's going to stop us. Perhaps not surprisingly, most of these obstacles are within us.

Oettingen found that the obstacles that we think most impede us from realizing our deepest wishes can actually hasten their fulfillment.

The approach that works best is:

visualize what we desire
think about the outcome or benefit of that goal or desire
consider what obstacle within us stands in the way of achieving that goal
make a plan in advance of what we're going to do to overcome that obstacle when we face it.

This approach is genius because we already know what we're going to do when we hit the obstacle that we know we're going to hit. We're pre-planning our decision so that there is no decision.

Her plan is called WOOP and it is an acronym for wish, outcome, obstacle and plan. This is how it works.

First, you think of a Wish: what is a wish that is challenging but feasible? Note that in 3 to 6 words.

Next is Outcome: what would be the best outcome of fulfilling your wish? Note that in 3 to 6 words.

Obstacle is the next "O": what is holding you back internally from your goal? What obstacle will you face at some point? Note that in 3 to 6 words.

And then comes the Plan: what can you do to overcome that obstacle when it arises? And note that in 3 to 6 words. When you are creating your plan, you also want to go a step further and say "if x, then y." If I hit this obstacle, I'm going to do this.

So let's review.

W: You first name a wish that is challenging but feasible.

O: You find the very best outcome and you imagine that outcome.

O: You find the main obstacle within us and imagine that obstacle.

P: You make a plan, an if-then plan of how you're going to overcome that obstacle.

When to Use WOOP

You can use WOOP for long-term as well as short-term wishes. You can use WOOP for small and big wishes. According to Gabrielle Oettingen, you can WOOP when you're stressed or when you feel uneasy because WOOP will help you sort things out.

WOOP every day! It's a companion to guide you through everyday life and long-term development.

Here are several resources if you want to learn more and try WOOP.

Gabrielle Oettingen’s book, "Rethinking Positive Thinking: Inside the New Science of Motivation,"
Woopmylife.org website
WOOP app

Do you know what else will work well with WOOP? Our Win the Week! Planner and our Daily Blueprint tool to assist with your daily productivity, habits and mindset. I hope you've enjoyed this post on motivation!

Let me know in the comments below. So what did you think about the concept of WOOP? Will you try it out?

Categories: Focus, Goals, Mindset, Motivation, Productivity