Part 1: Staying Motivated When You Feel Like Giving Up–Self Care Edition

Right now, we’re all tired. We’re all feeling a bit sluggish, confused, and hesitant. We could all use some help to stay motivated.

Perhaps you have kids in school–online–maybe in school–preparing to be online.

Perhaps you have family and friends who have polarizing views on the heavy topics of today. 

Perhaps you have bills that are causing massive anxiety and fear in your daily life.

Life is very weird right now, so your business is probably in a weird place too. 

Perhaps you’re a brick and mortar who had to shift, but you’re still not in a great place. 

Perhaps you’re an online business who has maintained business or even been busier than before. 

Perhaps you’re an entrepreneur who had plans to rebrand, and you’re questioning your decision. 

You’re questioning everything, wondering if you should just throw in the towel and give up. There is a time to give up, but you’re probably weighed down with the world–like the rest of the world. 

In this 2-part series, we will look at strategies to stay motivated even when you feel like giving up. In this first part, we will focus on self care: what you can do to physically motivate yourself. In the second part, we will focus on business care: what you can do to motivate yourself, your team, and your clients. 

Strategy 1: Practice mindful breathing

This strategy may sound like something you do regularly, but it’s not. Take your breathing a step beyond what you do daily with mindful breathing. Mindful breathing is essentially focusing on and controlling your breathing. It involves inhaling and exhaling.

What is the benefit?

There are many benefits to mindful breathing. First, it helps calm your nerves even if you didn’t know you had issues. Second, it helps you focus. Oftentimes, we get off track on our focus, so mindful breathing helps us focus on (and control) one thing we have the power to focus on and control. By isolating our breaths, we can focus on our bodies, our minds, and our mind-body connection. 

How do I get started?

To get started, you only need 5 minutes a day. Mindful breathing is a simple concept, but it’s nice to have help when you get started. There are a ton of videos and apps out there to help you practice mindful breathing. Stop, Breathe, and Think is a wonderful resource to help you get started especially if you have kids (who should totally get involved in these techniques by the way). Another source is UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center where they include a lot of research on why mindful breathing is beneficial and practice activities. 

Strategy 2: Take a break

This strategy, too, might sound like something that you do regularly, but we’re talking about more than one type of break. First, take a break from working. We also need to take a break from technology. Finally, we need to take a break from our home office. This is a great tip to help you stay motivated!

What is the benefit?

When we work from home, we tend to spend more time working than if we were in an office. To avoid fatigue, we need to take short and long breaks from our work. We’ve all seen the concept of Zoom fatigue, but that exhaustion translates online; it’s just more prevalent with those in online meeting platforms. Too often, we work from our desks, scrolling through social media on our breaks. That isn’t effective. Your break needs to be a break from all technology, including phones, tablets, and television. There are so many benefits from taking a break from technology, but among them are deeper sleep, stronger connectedness, and increased productivity and communication. We also need to take a break from our home offices. Whatever space you use for dedicated work should be separate from your other activities as much as possible. Getting out of your office has proven benefits to your productivity and focus. 

How do I get started?

We need to give ourselves more breaks when working online. Many people swear by the Pomodoro Technique in which you choose a task, set a 25 minute timer, dedicate 25 minutes to the task, stop when the timer goes off, and take a (5 minute) break. For every 4 Pomodoro processes, you take a longer (15-20 minute) break. Your break doesn’t have to be as highly organized as your work day, but you get the idea. For every 25-30 minutes of solid work, take a 5 minute break. For every 2-2 ½ hours, take a 20 minute break. The more important part of taking breaks is what you do during that break. I suggest something similar to the following structure:

This simple method will help you refocus. Of course, if you have kids at home, those breaks and tasks might look a little different. If you do have them at home, have your kids follow the pattern with you. A sure fire way to stay motivated!

Strategy 3: Create social connections

This strategy is all about the active connection instead of the passive connection. One of the biggest issues most of us have right now is not connecting with others. We passively connect by checking out social media accounts for others. Instead, we need to actively connect with others. You can socially connect with your family, neighbors, colleagues, or even friends and family who are miles away. 

What is the benefit?

Social connection is good for our health and important in maintaining a healthy lifestyle; however, right now, we are all practicing social distancing when in public to stay physically healthy. So how do we create social connections while maintaining social distancing and working from home? It might be easier than you think.

How do I get started?

To get started, recognize what an active connection is. An active connection takes place in real time. That doesn’t mean that it has to be face-to-face, but it’s not delayed like social media and even video meetings. Instead, try some old school connectivity.

Talk on the phone. I’ve had more phone conversations in the past year than I had in the past 5 years combined. Hearing someone’s voice creates an active connection.

Meet for silliness. This means practicing appropriate social distancing, of course, but set a time for everyone in the house to meet in the same room to have a Nerf fight. Or schedule a meeting with your neighbors to have everyone meet in their front yards to have a quick dance party. Be as safe as possible, but try to actively connect with different groups of people. 

All these methods can help you stay motivated

Strategy 4: Go outside

I love being outdoors. I miss being outdoors. If you live in an urban area, this method may be a bit more difficult, but it’s so incredibly important for us to go outside and just be. 

What is the benefit?

Just simply being outside is proven to reduce stress and anxiety, to improve our memory, creativity, focus, and productivity, and to create a more positive mindset. Ideally, we should be outside (being–not doing) for 120 minutes per week, which is less than 18 minutes per day.

How do I get started?

Consider using the chart above to time out your outdoor adventure. You can take your dog for a walk, jog around the block yourself, or check on a garden, but research suggests being outside instead of doing something. Instead, try to sit outside, watch your kids play for recess, or practice mindful breathing. If you live in an urban area or an apartment, find a balcony, sidewalk, or stoop. 

There are countless strategies to help you stay motivated when you feel like giving up, but it’s most important to take care of yourself. If you don’t take care of yourself, you, your health, your family, and your business are bound to suffer.