Creating and running a successful business will demand just about everything from you. You’ll have to manage your time well, juggle a ton of commitments, be creative, innovative, aware of the competition and so on.
It’ll feel like you’re constantly putting out fires in order to keep things going. During the process, you’ll discover that very often, when obstacles rear their ugly heads and the possibility of failure looms over the horizon, you’ll need to have a strong resolve and a bulletproof mindset.
Running a successful business is not for the faint of heart or mind. The average person reading this may wonder, “But am I born with a strong mindset or do I build one?”
As with most things, it depends. Some people are naturally more determined and competitive than others. But everyone can train themselves to have grit and determination.

1. Be aware of your goals and your why
Always be aware of why you started a business. What did you want?
Freedom? Bragging rights? Enough money to enjoy the trappings of wealth? To give your children a life you never had?
There are no right or wrong answers. The only answer is the one that resonates with you. Your ‘why’ is the ultimate defining factor when it comes to strengthening your mind.
There are stories of moms who have fought off tigers or lifted extremely heavy objects when they needed to save a loved one. In normal situations, they’d have never achieved these feats of impossibility.
But when their ‘why’ was urgent, they developed Herculean strength and got the job done. When you have clarity and know what you’re working/fighting for, you’ll be able to dig deep and keep going. The sacrifices will be easier when the promise is clear.
Know your why and be aware of your goals – and your mindset will automatically become stronger.

2. Build momentum
Start off your day doing the most important tasks first. Eliminate distractions and aim for maximum productivity. Avoid procrastination at all cost. It will make you lose belief in yourself and your mission.
Breaking out of inertia is one of the hardest things to do. So, once you gain momentum, you must keep going every single day. A rolling stone gathers no moss.
One of the keys to having a stronger mindset is knowing that you’re doing the best you can. If you’re slacking off here and there and not giving it your all, when the going gets tough, you may feel a twinge of guilt and blame yourself for not giving your best effort.
However, if you’re on point every single day, you’ll know that you’re capable and it doesn’t matter what setback comes your way – you’ll overcome it through sheer persistence and willpower.

3. Watch your habits
We all have positive and negative habits. Write down all the habits which are helping you. Then write down the habits which are hurting you.
Next up, try and eliminate one negative habit at a time. Like Warren Buffet said, “Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they’re too heavy to be broken.”
By eliminating the negative habits, you’ll reduce the chances of you sabotaging yourself. For example, if you have the habit of scrolling on social media when you should be working on your business, you’ll be distracting yourself and wasting time.
Get rid of this negative habit and you’ll have more energy and time to focus on your business. There’s also the mental edge that you’ll get knowing that you’ve eliminated a bad habit. This edge you get is EVERYTHING when it comes to strengthening your mindset.
The knowledge that you are in control and can overcome challenges is what gives you the courage and determination to develop a strong mindset forged of Bethlehem steel.
It always comes AFTER and not before. Therein lies the dilemma. You’ll need to work on improving yourself FIRST… and along the way, you’ll develop a strong mindset.
Affirmations, motivational books, gratitude journaling and other techniques can help, but all are limited in efficacy.
To develop a strong mindset, you’ll need to fight several battles with yourself and overcome challenges first… and after that, you’ll develop a battle-hardened mind that can take on any challenge which comes your way. That’s how it works.
“Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. when you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.” ? Arnold Schwarzenegger

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The late Steve Jobs once said, “Learn continuously – there’s always ‘one more thing’ to learn!”
He’s absolutely right. As an entrepreneur, you’ll discover that there’s no end to the learning process. Just when you think you’ve mastered one concept, you’ll realize that within a short while the marketplace has shifted and your knowledge is lagging.
You’ll need to learn new skills and practices, and adapt to stay competitive and on the cutting edge of things in your industry. It’s a never-ending process.
Never ever believe that you’ve learned it all. Always be willing to learn and look at yourself as a student, not an expert – no matter how good you are. When you’re green, you grow. When you’re ripe, you rot. Best to stay green.
It goes without saying that the learning process takes time. Yet, money loves speed. So, in order for you to succeed, it’s best that you learn fast. Technology and innovation move so fast these days that if you don’t learn fast, by the time you learn one thing, it might already be obsolete or less effective.
Let’s see how you can speed up the learning process

* Focus on one thing at a time
It may seem like multi-tasking and learning several different concepts at once will save you time. Nothing could be further from the truth.
When you scatter your efforts over different projects, it’ll take you longer to make headway. Focus on just one skill/subject at a time. You’ll master it faster.

* Consistency is key
Spending 15 minutes a day, every single day is better than learning for 2 hours on the weekend. This applies to practice/training your skills and so on. Daily effort will yield better results and you’ll learn faster.

* Break it down
Difficult skills and subjects should be broken down into smaller, more manageable chunks. When you adopt a gradual, systematic approach to learning, you’ll actually learn things faster.
Another point to note is that it’s better to keep your learning sessions short. You may wish to have multiple sessions spread throughout the day. It has been shown that shorter focused sessions are better for retention and you’ll be less tired too.

* Be a teacher
Once you learn a concept, imagine yourself to be a teacher in a classroom. Now explain that concept to your imaginary students. By teaching your invisible students, you’ll actually learn the topic faster.
If it’s a skill, imagine demonstrating it to others and explaining the process. This will help you to focus on the task at hand and sear the process into your mind.

* Focus on what matters
When it comes to learning, you’ll never be short of theory to learn. Just look back on the amount of information you were forced to learn back in school. Most of which you’ll never use now.
Now that you’re an adult, no one can compel you to learn unnecessary trivia. Whatever you learn should serve you in your business. So, learn the important concepts and test them out.
When you have time, you can look at the other information. But during the learning process, focus on the material you need to advance your goals.

* Track your progress
Last but not least, remember to test yourself on what you learn. Keep a journal where you record your progress and ensure that learning is part of your daily routine.
You may want to keep a little calendar in the journal to check off each day whenever you complete your learning session. This will encourage compliance and you’ll be more likely to stay on track.
During the learning process, it’s inevitable to make mistakes and errors. That’s fine. Just remember to make notes in your journal as to what went wrong and what you needed to correct. This will serve as a handy reference later on and you’ll get better at what you’re doing as you correct your mistakes.
Apply the pointers in this article and you’ll speed up the learning process considerably. You can’t avoid learning if you wish to be successful in business. So you might as well get good at it.

“Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere.” – Chinese proverb

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“You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.” ?Marcus Aurelius

Stocism, simply explained, is a philosophy that embraces an attitude of indifference and endurance. In fact, practitioners of stoicism believe in not letting their emotions get the better of them.
While it’s similar to ‘positive thinking’ and other law of attraction type of philosophies, stoicism is more grim. Excessive display of emotion is not encouraged. Being unemotional is the default state of a stoic.
A stoic, generally, does endures pain and hardship without complaining about it… and at the same time, they’re not ecstatic or overtly joyous during times of celebration.
While this philosophy may not be practical when taken to extremes, one cannot deny it’s efficacy when it comes to fostering traits such as discipline, resolve and grit, which are crucial to business success.

1. Your ego is diminished
This is probably one of the biggest benefits of stoicism. Most problems in one’s life tend to stem from one’s ego. If you’re worried about failure because of what others might think, it’s your ego not wanting to ‘look bad’.
Yet, failure is crucial to setting the foundation for success. Stoicism will teach you not to care about the naysayers and to follow the beat of your own drum, no matter where the journey leads – and it often leads to the pinnacles of success.

2. You’re at peace
A stoic person who is not constantly enduring the ups and downs of an emotional roller coaster will be surer of himself or herself. They’ll be less likely to make poor decisions from an emotional standpoint.
Instead of bobbing around like a buoy on a turbulent sea of emotions, you’ll be grounded, aware of the situation from a logical standpoint and take positive measures to overcome any obstacle or problem which rears its ugly head.
Less drama, less fanfare and more peace of mind for you and those around you. This state of being is excellent for running a business.

3. Reduces distractions
Stoicism will keep you focused on what concerns you. You’ll not be distracted by the noise of the world. This will translate to more energy for your business and time savings because you’ll not be expending precious time worrying about world events which you have no control of.
Stoics believe in focusing on what they can control. Usually, you’ll find that there are very few things you have control over.
Your diet, your efforts, your energy, where you spend your time and your habits are a few of the things that you control – and these will make a world of difference in your life.

4. You believe in work
We live in a world where millions of people have an ‘entitlement mentality’ and believe that the world owes them a living. A stoic person believes that the world owes them nothing.
Instead of screaming at the world to give you what you think you’re owed, the stoic believes in taking massive action and going out to get what’s theirs. This is a winning mindset.

* Resilience
While the masses feel offended and disenchanted because the world is a brutal and unforgiving place, the stoic knows that chaos is the natural order of the world – and their mind is the one place that’s serene, calm and under their control.
Tragedy, pandemics, failures, etc. which threaten to derail most positive people from achieving their goals will have minimal impact on a stoic. The word ‘minimal’ is used because stoics are human too.
It’s normal to feel dejection, anger, depression and unhappiness when one’s best laid plans don’t yield fruit. But the stoic does not let these external events get him/her down.
They accept it, take a deep breath, pick themselves up and keep going with grim determination, because they know that success is around the corner.
The stoic will quietly work on his/her business and take the wins and losses as they come… and he/she will do so without whining or crying or jumping for joy. This is the formula for winning at anything in life.
You may wish to study the concepts of stoicism and apply them to your life and business. You’ll be amazed at how much better you feel, and how your business improves when your mind and emotions are under your full control.

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“Your future is found in your daily routine. Successful people do daily what others do occasionally!” – Paula White

Take a moment and look at your day. How was it? Was it similar to the day before… and the day before that?
Did you do anything differently? Do you know where your time went or did you just wing it throughout the day?
If you wish to be successful in business and in life, your daily routine is the key indicator of whether you’re on the right track or not. So many people wish to be successful and have big goals, but they change nothing in their daily routine.
They expect results by magic. It doesn’t work that way.
There’s a famous quote by Aristotle – “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
What you repeatedly do is your daily routine.
If you’re overweight, you’re probably eating too much daily. If you feel lethargic, you might not be exercising daily. If your finances are abysmal, you might be overspending daily.

* What’s your daily routine like?
You must go through your daily routine with a fine-toothed comb. Ideally, during the first week, you should keep a journal where you write down whatever it is you do every single hour.
Yes, you’ll track your activity by the hour. Over a week, you can see where you’re wasting time and where you’re being focused. You’ll also discover that you’re a creature of habit. We all are.
Ask yourself if your habits are helping you or hurting you. If you’re binge watching Netflix shows late into the night and not getting enough sleep… is that habit hurting you?
Of course, it is. You’ll need to limit yourself to an hour of TV a day. Or maybe watch no TV from Monday to Thursday. You’ll have to decide for yourself what goes into your daily routine.

* What will you do to help yourself?
You have big goals? Excellent. Now what will you do daily to bring your goals to fruition?
If you wish to publish a book on the Kindle marketplace, you know you need to write the book first. When will you write it? What time will you sit down to write? How long will you write for? Do you have a word count to meet?
If you decide to start writing from 8 am to 10 am every morning, now you have a routine! That’s fantastic. If you stick to it and write 2,000 words a day, in 30 days, you’d have written 60,000 words.
Guess what? That’s the length of a novel.
Now do you see how having a daily routine that’s in alignment with your goals will get you to where you want to go?

* Benefits of a daily routine
The example above is simple. You may decide to walk for 30 minutes every day (from 10 am to 10.30 am) after you finish writing. Now you’re getting daily exercise. That will reap rewards over time.
If you have a day job, you’ll need to factor in your commute, hours at work, how much free time you have and so on. Then do the best you can with what you have.
One of the benefits of a daily routine is that it wakes you up to the fact that your time is limited. You’ll be more productive and less inclined to waste time on irrelevant activities.
A daily routine will reduce anxiety and keep you on track. You’ll be focused and less likely to procrastinate. When you repeat the same routine every day, each activity will become a habit.
Now, compliance with your daily routine will be easier. Tasks that you used to detest will become more bearable and you’ll be faster at what you do.
Plan your day well and create a routine that fits in with your lifestyle. Initially, try not to do too much too soon or it will be a rude shock for you. You’ll want to gradually ease into your routine. As you get accustomed to it, you can challenge yourself to do more.
Last but not least, do not look at a daily routine as something which curbs your freedom. In fact, the opposite holds true. With a good daily routine, you’ll get more work done in a shorter time because of increased productivity and no time lags in between tasks.
So you’ll be spending less time working and have more free time while still progressing steadily towards your goals. This is a win-win situation. Create a routine today and stick to it. You’ll be stunned at how fast you progress and achieve success.

“A daily routine built on good habits and disciplines separates the most successful among us from everyone else. The routine is exceptionally powerful.” – Darren Hardy

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Your habits will make or break you. This is especially true if you’re an entrepreneur who’s trying to build a thriving business. Unlike working for someone else where you can ‘slack off’ every now and then and still not suffer, you don’t have such a luxury when you work for yourself.
Everything is on you and if you don’t have the right habits, failure is inevitable. Like author Jack Canfield says, “Your habits will determine your future.”
One of the best ways to instil a few beneficial habits in your life will be to use habit stacking.

* What is habit stacking?
Habit stacking is a strategy where you group a few habits together into a routine. Every single day, you’ll go through this routine without fail. Over time, not only will the routine become second nature to you, but you’d have ingrained the positive habits into your daily life.

* Why it matters?
When habits are stacked into a routine, you’ll not need to constantly think of each habit as an individual task that has to be completed on its own. It’s more difficult to treat each habit as an isolated event and aim to complete it regularly.
A habit stacking routine will increase your compliance. Let’s look at an example.
Imagine that you’re trying to cultivate 5 new habits that you aren’t accustomed to. Most books will tell you not to work on more than 2 or 3 habits at once because it’s difficult to spread your efforts, but with habit stacking, you’ll just be completing a routine that has it all.
In this example, the 5 habits shall be:
1. Reading for 15 minutes a day
2. Meditate for 5 minutes a day
3. Drinking more water daily
4. Practice 10 minutes of yoga daily
5. Gratitude journaling for 10 minutes daily
Now, if you were to haphazardly work on each habit whenever you felt like it, you’d inevitably miss 1 or 2 habits every now and then. But here’s what happens with a habit stacking routine…
You wake up in the morning and once you’re done brushing your teeth, you do your yoga practice for 10 minutes. After that, you’ll drink a liter of water. The next step will be to meditate for 5 minutes.
When you’re done meditating, you’ll take out your gratitude journal and write down 3 things that you’re grateful for. When that’s completed, you’ll read for 15 minutes.
By the time you’ve completed this routine, it might have taken you about 30 minutes or so. During these 30 minutes, you’ve completed ALL 5 habits that you’re trying to cultivate. Do this daily for 2 months and these habits will be a part of you.
This is much easier than trying to fit in each habit whenever time permits.

* How to do it effectively
When creating a habit stacking routine, it should feel natural and sequential. For example, if your goal is to exercise daily… and you have another goal of increasing your flexibility, you may wish to follow up each exercise session with a 15-minute stretching routine.
Now you have a short habit stacking routine. Thinking of hydrating more often? Add the habit of drinking a liter of water at the end of each session. Now you have a little routine that incorporates all 3 habits.
Alternatively, if you wish to instil a habit where you stop using digital devices 2 hours before bed, you may decide to meditate, stretch, read, gratitude journal, spend time with your family, or add in a few other habits to occupy time that you normally spend in front of the screen.
The goal of habit stacking is to make things easier for you. So don’t do too much too soon. Have a logical flow when it comes to stacking the habits.
You may wish to set a fixed time limit for each habit. In this way, you’ll not go overboard. Consistency is more important than quantity in the beginning.
So, your habit stacking routine may be anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour and should allow you to accomplish the daily habit tasks without much ado.

* Tracking your compliance
It would be a good idea to keep a journal and record down your compliance rate. For example, if you have 5 habits to work on and you complete all on Monday, you’d have a 100% compliance rate.
If you neglect the entire routine, you’d have a 0% compliance rate. If you only completed 4 out of the 5 habits, you’d have an 80% compliance rate.
Generally, if you have a smooth routine, you’ll have a 100% compliance rate, provided you start on it.
If you notice that you’re constantly neglecting one or two habits or you’re not working on the habit stack, you may need to alter the routine or move it to another time of the day and see if it improves your compliance rate.
It’s all a matter of trial and error. Once you get it right, you’ll breeze through it daily and master the habits in no time.
The importance of your daily habits cannot be overstated. So, practice habit stacking and develop positive habits that will help you live a rewarding life.

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Grit is a character trait that reveals itself when one is faced with challenges, obstacles, etc. and he/she perseveres with steely resolve. It’s almost a stoic type of heroism that keeps you going despite all odds.
Grit is what you see in a Rocky movie when he keeps standing up despite getting beaten and knocked down repeatedly.
When Greg Louganis hit his head on the springboard during the 1988 Olympics diving preliminary rounds and injured himself, he did not quit. Instead, he pressed on and won the Olympic gold. This is grit.
In order to succeed in business, you’ll need grit. Anyone can decide on a goal. Anyone can come up with an idea or start a project. But to go from conception to completion will require grit.
The good news is that grit can be developed. While some people are naturally born with such a trait, most of us can learn how to stay true to ourselves and fight for what we want.
Like they say, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.”
Here are a few ways to muster up that grit…

* Know your why
If you hate starting over, then you should not quit. When the situation you’re in seems to be wearing you down, it’s important to know why you started.
In business, there will be times when sales may slow down to a crawl. Or maybe a marketing campaign does not work. Or you took a financial hit because you misjudged a situation.
All these setbacks are merely set ups for a comeback. But if you let these situations get the better of you and quit, that will be the end of it. You won’t progress further and your goals will never materialize.
So, spend time rewriting your goals and know why you’re doing what you’re doing and you’ll develop the grit to persevere.

* Practice
Grit is like a muscle. The more you train it, the stronger it gets. The more obstacles and struggle you overcome, the more grit you’ll have.
You’ll have more confidence that arises from the knowledge that you’ve overcome previous difficulties and will have no problems steamrolling over the current obstacles in your way.

* Do what scares you
Set bigger goals. Take on more daunting challenges. The more adversity you overcome the more determined you’ll become. The toughest steel is forged in the hottest fires.

* Pushing yourself daily
When you’re on a quest to achieve a goal, there will be a plethora of tasks you’ll need to complete. You’ll often find that you tend to want to shirk the most important tasks.
This is your mind trying to protect you from ‘hard work’. It’s a form of self-preservation. This is why millions of people procrastinate and don’t do what they need to. Their minds don’t want them to be outside the comfort zone.
Make it a point to complete your most important tasks of the day first. By stepping outside your comfort zone on a daily basis, you’ll develop a stronger resolve and more grit.
After a certain point, you’ll have more self-discipline and will be unstoppable.

* Kaizen
Kaizen is a Japanese practice of continuously seeking improvements regardless of how small the improvement is. It could be a 0.1% improvement daily, but that’s fine too. It’ll all add up over time.
You’ll be raising your standards and asking more of yourself. You’re ‘sharpening your sword’ daily. A few months from now, these daily improvements will transform your life for the better.

* Staying the course
Finally, grit might mean just NOT quitting no matter how tough it gets. There may be times when success in business may come down to you withstanding the constant onslaught of obstacles that life throws at you.
When you can’t withstand and you’re tired of fighting, then just stand. Sometimes doing nothing and just staying calm is all you need to do – instead of quitting.
When you collect yourself, you can summon the courage and fortitude to keep going. That’s what grit is all about.
Just take one step after another gingerly no matter how steep or precarious the slope may be. Progress may be slow… but it’s still progress. That’s how you do it.

“True grit is making a decision and standing by it, doing what must be done. No moral man can have peace of mind if he leaves undone what he knows he should have done.” – John Wayne

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One’s self-esteem and success in business may seem like 2 unrelated topics. Yet, in reality, they’re more deeply connected than most people realize. Succeeding in business when you have a low sense of self-esteem can be a daunting and formidable challenge.
You may doubt yourself and your capabilities. You may have an inferiority complex and feel like you’re not worthy of success. You might be shy to sell or put yourself out there in the marketplace because you fear being judged.
A low self-esteem will trip you up and hold you down… and the worst part of it all will be that you’re sabotaging yourself and you can’t help it. Or can you?
The good news is that a low self-esteem can be fixed. It won’t be easy and it’ll take time, but it can be done if you approach it proactively.

* Start a success journal
The first step you’ll need to take is to become aware of just how much you’ve won in life. No one is a loser their whole life. Dig deep and ask yourself when you’ve won at anything.
Have there ever been times when you accomplished a goal? A time when you proved the naysayers wrong? What compliments have you received from others which made you feel good?
Write it all down in your journal. What you’re doing now is creating a ‘feel good bank’ that you can withdraw from when you’re feeling down and discouraged. When you know what you’ve succeeded at before, you’ll know that future success is possible.

* Stop judging
This is one of the worst types of attitudes to have and yet, it’s so prevalent in society. We judge others harshly, and we judge ourselves even more stringently. This judgmental attitude we constantly carry with us adds an astringent flavor to our world view.
It makes us discontented, unhappy, aggressive and self-righteous. If you want to improve your self-esteem, stop judging.
Instead work on improving yourself and your situation. Let others do their thing. Not everything requires an opinion or a response from you, especially when it’s negative and disempowering.

* Be kind to yourself
Engage in self-care every now and then. If you’re working too hard, take a break for a day. Pressure may turn coal into diamonds, but it also it to dust.
It’s been noted that people in highly competitive societies tend to develop a low self-esteem over time. They’re so busy comparing themselves with others that they feel like losers when they don’t fare well against the competition.
True success means finding your own path and being the best you that you can be. If you do that, you’ll be the epitome of success and a legend in your own right. Truly successful people are only focused on beating their personal bests.
Stop comparing your skills, possessions, etc. with what others have. Be kind to yourself and know that you’re doing your best.

* Practice mindfulness
Initially, when you’re trying to raise your self-esteem, you may slip into old patterns of negative thoughts and a detrimental state of mind. Immediately say, “Stop!” out loud.
This will transform your state. It may seem to be a weird practice but it works. Stopping yourself mid-thought will stop you from indulging in negativity for too long.
Now you may wish to say a few affirmations to bolster your belief in yourself. Over time, you’ll become more positive and have more faith in your abilities.

* Bury the past
Past mistakes, regrets, the time that you wasted, the negative behavior you displayed and all your previous flaws should be buried.
We’re all human and you deserve a second chance. So, cast your baggage and burden aside and take a deep breath. You’re not your past. You can do better.
Now have faith and do better. Remember the Lao Tzu quote, “When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.”
In conclusion, it’s important to remember that you can do whatever you set your mind to and you deserve nothing but the best. Forget past mistakes and limitations.
Believe in yourself and work on achieving small goals. The more you achieve, the better your self-esteem will be. Success will serve as a reference point for you to draw faith from.
Then it’s just a matter of going from one win to the next without any loss of optimism, no matter what challenge presents itself. That’s how you raise your self-esteem… and it can be done. Do it today.

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“The merit in action lies in finishing it to the end.” – Genghis Khan

Starting hard and fast is easy. Anyone can do that. The eagerness and enthusiasm that brews and bubbles over during the goal-setting stage is fun and exciting. The promise of achieving your goals will motivate you to get started.
But after that, within a few weeks, the fun will turn into a grind… which becomes dull and dreary once the initial burst of motivation fades into nothingness.
That’s why most people can start fast, but very few will finish strong. The majority will quit… and 2 very detrimental outcomes will present themselves.
Firstly, once you quit, it’s over. You’ll not achieve the goal that you badly wanted. It’s not going to happen by accident.
Secondly, you’ll be doing yourself a disservice. Every time you make a promise to yourself and you fail to keep that promise, you subconsciously lose respect for yourself.
You can only respect yourself when you see a goal through to completion. You must finish what you start. Here’s how you go about doing it…

* Be clear about what you want
Your time and energy are finite. You can’t do it all and have it all. You need to streamline things and narrow your goals down to the ones that mean the most to you.
Now you’ll be able to focus all your efforts on a couple of goals that matter rather than dispersing your efforts wantonly and seeing no results.

* How much resources will you need?
Next, you’ll need to ask yourself what is required of you. Thinking of starting a new business?
How much capital will you need? How much time can you spend on your business daily? If you have a day job, will you have the energy to work on your business once you get home? Or should you wake up earlier and spend time on your side hustle before work?
You need to answer these questions first and be prepared for what will be required of you. In this way, it will not be a rude shock when you discover the amount of effort you need to expend.

* Pace yourself
Initially, you should go slow. If all you can spend is an hour a day on your side business, an hour will do. Try not to overdo things by sleeping less or resorting to other harsh measures.
If you make it too difficult, you’ll be unable to sustain your efforts at this level. You’ll experience burnout or feel like you’ve failed yourself when you dread the work and procrastinate.
Success is a marathon and not a sprint.

* Do the needful
One of the best philosophies you can adopt is to ‘do what matters when it matters’. That will mean focusing on the most important tasks and not procrastinating. This is especially important when you have a limited amount of time to work on your goals each day. Every minute matters.

* Excellence is better than perfection
Do the best job you can, but don’t expect perfection. In fact, perfectionism sets the stage for procrastination. Avoid it at all cost.
If you constantly expect things to be perfect, you’ll be setting yourself up for disappointment. We’re all human and fallible. There will be days when you’re not as productive as you should have been. Or days when you slipped up.
Being a perfectionist will make you think that you’ve failed. The disappointment in yourself may make you quit. If you were aiming for excellence, you’d realize that one or two small slip-ups here and there is not the end of the world.
Adopt the Japanese concept of ‘kaizen’ where you strive to make small improvements daily. That’s all you need to do. Over time, your efforts will snowball and you’ll be much more successful.

* Track your progress
If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll not end up anywhere. Track your progress and hold yourself accountable daily, weekly and monthly.
Success in business does not happen by accident. It’s a process. When you embark on a journey to achieve a goal, always be ready to stay the course until completion – however long it takes.
If the goal is something you still hold dear, then you must persist. Once you’ve paid the price the goal demands of you (with time, effort and sacrifice) – you’ll achieve success and can finally rest. Until the next goal.

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“You can find inspiration from others but determination is solely your responsibility.” – Dodinsky

Even the most enthusiastic and determined individual who seems unassailable most of the time will encounter instances when they doubt themselves. They may feel lost and demotivated.
This is normal because we’re all human.
Achieving success for most worthy goals will require time, prolonged effort and lots of faith. Since the journey will be long, it can get tiring to keep up the effort and motivation required to continue on the journey.
When you feel like your strength is ebbing and you’re losing faith, it’s important that you dig deep within yourself and find the motivation to keep going.

* Gratitude journaling
An attitude of gratitude can make you feel positive and give you hope. It’s impossible to be depressed, unhappy and angry when you’re feeling grateful.
Keep a gratitude journal and write down all the things you’re grateful for. More importantly, write down how far you’ve come in your journey. As a species, humans tend to never be satisfied and we keep moving the goalpost.
For example, when you just started your business, earning 5k a month may have been your goal. But once you reached it, 10k may have been your new goal.
Currently, you may be earning 25k a month and living well, but you feel like a failure because others are making 100k a month and you need to get there ASAP.
Listen… be grateful for how far you’ve come. It’s great to progress and want to keep winning, but one must stop to smell the roses every now and then appreciate what they’ve earned.
Then, keep going forward. When you know you’ve won so much, you’ll know you can win more.

* Vision board
Have a cork board or a white board in your house/office and stick pictures of whatever it is you want in life. Attach quotes, images, etc. that inspire and move you.
Look at the board daily so that you’re reminded of what it is you’re working for. When the reward is clear, you’ll gladly pay the price no matter how long it takes.
* Rewrite your goals
Writing your goals down is an excellent practice. However, once may not be enough. It’s easy to forget your goals when you’re in the trenches fighting for success. When bogged down by the daily tasks and the mundane list of things you need to get through, the weight of it all can take a toll on your enthusiasm.
At times like these, rewriting your goals will rekindle the fire within you to keep going. You MUST encourage yourself. If you let the fire within you die out, you’ll quit.

* Listen/read motivational material
Read motivational books. Or watch movies such as, “The Pursuit of Happyness” or “The Legend of Bagger Vance” or whatever movies that people find inspiring.
Or you may decide to watch videos of Les Brown, Jim Rohn, Tony Robbins or other self-help gurus. Do what helps you get fired up.
Like Zig Ziglar said, “People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.”

* Set small milestones
Sometimes you may need small wins to keep going. If all you’re focused on is a big goal, it’ll take you a while to get there. But if you break down that big goal into smaller milestones, you can reward yourself each time you hit a milestone.
This will give you the drive and desire to keep going because you know you’re winning. For example, if your goal is to generate 10k a month in your online publishing business, you may wish to aim for 2.5k first.
Then 5k… 7.5k… and finally 10k. By breaking down the big goal into smaller bite-sized goals, you’ll be able to not only track your progress better, but you’ll see that you’re improving and be disinclined to throw in the towel because it’s taking too long to reach the big goal.

* Take a short break
Sometimes you may need a 3-7 day break just to de-stress and clear your head. After all, music is the space between the notes. Take the break and come back rejuvenated and ready to work.

* Massive action
For some people, ramping up their efforts and doing more than they thought possible will help to inspire them more. It may seem strange, but monotony can set in when you’ve been doing the same thing for a while.
By challenging yourself, you’ll feel like you’re getting more done and capable of faster success. If you can handle it and you enjoy the challenge, go for it.
At the end of the day. you need to remember that if you don’t inspire yourself, no one will do it for you… and if there’s a fire within you, no one will need to light one under you. You only lose when you quit.
So encourage yourself and keep going.

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“The secret of your future is hidden in your daily routine.” – Mike Murdock.

‘Winning the morning’ is a phrase that seems to have skyrocketed in popularity over the past few years. Everyone and their neighbor is proclaiming the benefits of having a morning routine and sticking to it daily.
You’re supposed to wake up at the crack of dawn, 5 am or earlier preferably. Then engage in meditation, gratitude journaling, visualization, ice baths and a myriad of other activities that supposedly help you to progress in life.
There have been several books written on this topic and most are good, but the concept itself is misleading at times.

* Are you even a morning person?
No two people are alike. Some prefer to wake up early in the morning and work in silence. These folks struggle to stay up late at night.
At the other end of the spectrum are people who struggle to wake up early, but have no problems working through the night like a desk-bound Batman.
So, how do you have a morning routine if your eyes are heavy as lead in the morning?
Simple. You don’t.
There’s absolutely no need to wake early and struggle through the day groggily just because others are doing it. What matters is what you do with the time you have when you’re awake.
Ultimately, your productivity is what matters.

* What are your commitments?
If you have kids that need to be in school at a certain time or you’re a caregiver to an aging parent with needs, you might have a ton of chores to do in the morning.
It’ll be impossible to have a fixed morning routine because your day is unpredictable. You can’t possibly wake up 2 hours earlier just to have a morning routine because you may have a day job and it’ll be too tiring.
In cases like these, you’ll need to find a routine that works well for your situation. It may not be in the morning, but as long as it helps you do what you need to, you’re on the right track.

* Your day job is an obstacle
If you’re trying to build a side business online, but you’re working as a nurse or in an on-call type of occupation, your schedule may be chaotic. So, having a morning routine to win is not even a possibility here because of your work commitments.
That’s fine. You don’t need a morning routine.

* Doing what you can with the time you have
Ultimately, what you need to do is have a list of tasks that you need to complete daily to win the day. Your focus should be on winning the day and not the morning.
If you can win the morning, that’s fine. But if you can’t, it’s not a deal breaker. You can still achieve great success in your endavors as long as you do the needful.
Study your daily activities and routine. Find blocks of time within the routine where you can get work done. Then be as productive as you can during these times.
A routine has to work for you. That’s the cardinal rule. Keep iterating until you know exactly how to be productive during the time you have and how you can achieve your goals based on your current commitments.
Once you figure that out, you can win at any time of the day.

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