By Vivek Patel
Like most people, some mornings an entrepreneur too can wake up and feel lethargic and less than enthusiastic about working. It is not necessarily apathy or laziness. Sometimes it is a feeling of a nagging helplessness, when everything seems futile.
Entrepreneurs typically feel more satisfied and fulfilled than people working for someone else and studies indicate that money is the key factor here — the more the better. But recent research into economics and psychology are suggesting that there are other crucial emotional needs, which if left unaddressed can end up making entrepreneurs feel miserable on the job, affecting their productivity and the office environment as a whole.
Here are three tips for staying positive and productive at work, every day.
1. Express Gratitude
Perhaps this is the easiest ways to stay positive and motivated. Being thankful and expressing it often releases any negativity that you are currently holding onto. Gratitude helps you connect with the feeling of love instantly and in the process it helps you overcome fear and other negative emotions.
The best way to start your day is by giving thanks for everything you have currently. Do it every morning and follow it religiously. Express gratitude for at least 10 things upon waking up. You can write in down, speak out loud or silently in your head; the goal is to keep it detailed. Besides, the feeling should come from your heart. This means, you must be truly grateful for the thing. Also, keep your eyes closed so that you don’t lose focus while doing it. This simple routine will transform your entire day in no time.
[easy-tweet tweet=”The best way to start your day is by giving thanks for everything you have.” user=”vivekrpatel” hashtags=”gratitude”]
A young, dynamic startup entrepreneur of a social media agency, who at one point of his career struggled to stay positive at work, said that expressing gratitude the first thing in the morning has transformed not just his entire day, but his entire life. He also maintained a “Thank Bank” in his email folder to store all positive comments, supportive messages, and thoughtful feedback that he received from friends and clients. He read them often and every morning expressed gratitude for the same, no matter how hard it was getting in the early days of his startup.
This is in fact a great idea to stay positive and motivated, especially on really hard days. Reading these notes will remind you of all the people who believe in you and whatever you are building – just the kind of motivation you need to forge ahead.
2. Forgive Others as Well as Yourself
According to a survey conducted by TalentSmart, almost 90 percent of top performers are high in emotional intelligence. While self-control is usually said to be the hallmark of emotional intelligence, it can also have a negative impact, should you fail to control yourself. This often leads to intense disgust and self-hatred – emotions that are likely to result in over-indulging in offensive behavior.
But it is critical to understand that you might slip up once in a while. Just like you need to forgive others for your peace of mind, forgive yourself too and move on. Observe how a mistake makes you feel but never wallow in it. Rather focus on how to improve yourself. Also, never allow failure to erode your self-confidence or stop you from taking risks. As an entrepreneur you need to take risks to achieve success. Your focus should therefore be on rising in the face of failure. And to do so, you have first forgive yourself and everyone else.
3. Stop Seeking Perfection
Most entrepreneurs have high expectations from themselves. They want to be perfect in everything they do. Take a step back and think why you started the businesses in the first place. The most obvious answer is to chase your dream of professional freedom. But chances are, you also wanted to ditch the idea of bureaucracy and that boss who wanted perfection in everything.
Perfection is not your target; seeking it will only demotivate you further. In fact, true perfection doesn’t even exist. Whatever you are doing, somebody is probably doing better and there must be others exceeding their levels as well. So how can you define perfection?
We are, by our very nature, fallible. So why reduce your effort and end up with a sense of failure by making perfection your goal? To break this negative perfection cycle replace it with contentment. Being good enough at what you do is good enough.
[easy-tweet tweet=”Why make perfection your goal? Being good enough at what you do is good enough.” user=”vivekrpatel” hashtags=”smallbiz”]
While many entrepreneur shy away from accepting it, it is perfectly understandable that you may not feel energized to pursue work all the time. But instead of lamenting over things you cannot control, focus on things that can fixate the issues you’re currently facing. Remember that there will be some darker moments in life, but one optimistic outlook on life can help you overcome any situation, almost always.
