It may be true that success is “one percent inspiration” and “99 percent perspiration,” but it’s that one percent that keeps a budding entrepreneur motivated throughout all the sweating and hard work. Staying inspired through the days, weeks, and even years of nose to the grindstone work can be a challenge. Here are some things you can do to keep your feelings of inspiration strong.
Give yourself time and space to think freely every day. Brainstorming sessions are among the best times to feel inspired, so set aside a part of your day where you can just think freely, without judging whether or not the ideas are good enough. Not only will this keep you fresh and creative, but some of your best ideas may come from these exercises. If you’re pressed for time, you can use your lunch break for this purpose.
Make your environment friendly to inspiration. That can mean different things to different people, so don’t be afraid to get creative. If you need sunlight to be at the top of your game, make sure you’re by a window. If you need plants, beautiful computer backgrounds of Hawaiian waterfalls on your desktops, and soft Zen music playing, then do all that. You can even decorate your workspace with inspirational quotes and sayings. Making small changes like these to your surroundings is a small price to pay to stay full of inspired energy.
Reward yourself as much as you push yourself. The fact is, even putting yourself in this position took a lot of guts and hard work. Be willing to give yourself that light at the end of the tunnel. Natural rewards may not happen as quickly as you’d like, so take the time to create rewards that will work for you. Set clear goals, and when you’ve met them, take yourself out to eat, out to a good movie, or go get a bottle of your favorite wine.
Keep your vision in mind. Ask yourself what it was that inspired you to do this in the first place. Was it a dream of a big house and a happy family? That fancy sports car? Unlimited free time? A vacation home in the Bahamas? Remember what it is that you’re fighting for. Though it may seem silly at first, use visualization tools like “vision boards” filled with magazine cutouts to represent your ideal lifestyle, web browser home pages that take you to a picture of the beach where you want to live, or posters of the sort of mansion you want to own.
Keep roadblocks out of the way. There’s no faster way to kill your inspiration than to feel like you’ve hit a dead end. Stay organized, track your lists of projects, and map out the future of your personal work and your organization’s objectives. If you can do this, you can usually foresee major obstacles before they become inspiration killing disasters.