How to Get Motivated?

It's a Work-Life balance problem. You might have to learn how to prioritize. And yes, you did the right thing by outsourcing some job.

another point - Exercise! A good workout will boost your energy and mood. Have some time for yourself and do what you like to do or what you have always dreamed to. Those small things can give you relief and you will stay motivated.

You could always check out Fiverr. I write articles for people and I'm sure there are plenty of others who post on forums and comments. Otherwise, sometimes you just have to break down and do it, and worry more about the long term than the short term.

Hay Guys, I have to agree that sometimes "Motivation" can be a problem on my end to. But I guess its something everyone may have to deal with at some time or another...

actually using the word 'energized" was probably not a good idea as I actually have plenty of energy, just not a lot of motivation or what I mean I find it boring. I'm sort of motivated but I just get on the web and think "ah I better do some work" and then I end up just browsing my favorite sites or whatever instead of doing articles or making links etc. I also agree that physical exercise it important too.

If some task is just completely too boring for you,
and it leads you down a path of wasted time and
inactivity, then do your best to outsource that task.
If you do have the energy, then something productive
must engage your interest. Start there...

Every Internet Marketer has every day tasks to do that are pretty boring.The answer to your question is only one...

Outsourcing!There are thousands of people out there that want to do all the hard work for you pretty cheap actually!Fiverr - Elance - Guru - Easyoutsource are places with full of people that do backlinks,graphics,programming,article writing etc

So outsourcing will leave you with all your spare time to spend it in Internet Marketing tasks you enjoy!

Cheers

Dimitris

I outsource most of my work so that i can do more of the marketing and business purpose. But everyday i will set my goals/daily tasks and at the end of the day i will make sure it is completed.

I drink hot coffee every 2-3 hours, i don't know maybe its a habit now. Somehow drinking coffee can get me motivated. lol

Pay all your bills for next month tomorrow .. buy enough food for two weeks ... go give the rest of your money to the homeless.

You now have 3 weeks before you starve and at the b est 3 months of a roof over your head.

Should be motivated by then.

All jokes aside ... you have to treat this like a job and be the biggest pain in a$$ boss imaginable

Troy

How to get motivated?

Outsource some more!!!!

Phil, only do what YOU can do. If you can hire someone to do tasks like getting links, do it.

It's a complete and utter waste of time to do things that you can pay others to do for you.

Regarding motivation, that's simple.

Write down the answer to this question: what do I really want?

Answer that question...

You should only be doing tasks which lead you directly to what you want, not performing mindless time-filling activities.

You said you spend time each day: "trying to work on websites, adding links, posting on forums, blogging etc but often it's hard to feel energized especially since I lost most of my income while back with Google shuffling."

The operative word here is "trying".

"Trying" suggests that you no longer know why you're doing what you're doing.

So answer the question. Discover what you really want. Then go all-out to get it. You'll be motivated. :-)

Angela

Hey philiptrav I can sympathise with your current situation and the feelings of things not seeming to go anywhere. Unfortunately with a career like internet marketing at times everything can seem pretty 'up in the air' and if you do not have a proper business plan or indeed a plan of action things can seem at best haphazard and at worst just plain chaotic.

I think from the tone of your post its time to take a step back. Your bordering on being disillusioned and thats not a way to run a business or to make money. Instead I would suggest you take a few days of 'personal development time' to really re-focus on your main goals.

You need to ask yourself a few important questions like: What are you doing online? Is what your doing a business or a hobby? What are your goals? What is your motivation? Do you have the skills to see a project through to completion? Do you need help?

Only when you sit down and answer these questions (and trust me there will be many more questions that will come to you as you go through this exercise) you will form a clearer idea of your true goals and motivation for doing IM. Once you do this, your task becomes much easier. You then would need to figure out how to go about it, whether that means getting more advice, searching out a coach who can help, outsourcing the work you do not enjoy to focus on what is important or indeed simply changing your line of business to re-focus on what makes you happy.

In the end you have to do something that makes you want to continue. At times we may not enjoy what we do but that is not a reason to quit. Your motivation should be your own goals, seeing yourself succeed (and success is subjective so you need to define what success is for you not anyone else) and boosting your own standard of living and lifestyle (again according to your own specification of what this is). Once you have an inkling of what really motivates you then you will find yourself supercharged to take on the tasks ahead, the road is indeed long and even a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step as Lao-tzu would say!

You know after a long cycle of being motivated and then getting demotivated, I like to take a break from it all and come back fresh. Not saying that you may have reached that point but you may want to give it a try.

I feel the same way towards my other blogs. I lack passion and focus. Maybe you should need some VAs to do the tedious jobs for you like article writing, forum posting, back linking, etc. That way, you could just manage your website easily and you don't get to do the boring stuff.

I think we all feel the way you do at times. Especially if you have been working from home for a long time. There are a lot of distractions to get in the way of being productive.

However, setting a task list for the day and putting value on those tasks makes it easier to see where you money is coming from regularly. Then prioritize the tasks that make you the most. Do the things you hate first and outsource the rest.

Putting out quality work means you have to be enjoying what you are doing. But it also means sometimes you have to be the SOB that Troy mentioned and do the Nike thing.

Just Do It!

David

Affiguy has an excellent point about exercise. That's how I begin the day, and when I sit down to work, I'm energized and ready to take on heavy loads.

Outsourcing will save you tons of aggravation and time. You have to learn to delegate the smaller, more mundane tasks to be outsourced. This will free up your time to optimize your monetization strategy and this will make you more money and money is the ultimate motivator.

Learn to spot trends ahead of time. this will maximize your profits if you're one of the first ones in the door. I visit barnes&noble monthly to brush up on latest news and trends.

Create realistic goals and be patient enough to watch them materialize.

The best way to stay motivated is to have a purpose. Working for money does not motivate in a long run. You need to work on something that's bigger than yourself.

When you feel down, ignore any type of work, because the results you'll get out of it are going to be poor. When you feel tired, exhausted or simply in a negative mood. Turn to a piece of music that's going to recharge your emotional system. I use to sing some of my favorite songs on YouTube with lyrics ... sometimes it gets weird :-)

Sometimes we have to perform tedious tasks to accomplish what we want to do. Unless your WHY is strong enough we sometimes choose those tasks that give us more joy. I hope you understand what I mean when I speak of your WHY.

Your why is the reason why you do it. It will help you to power through those tedious tasks. it will keep you working late into the night when you have to get up for work in a few hours.

A vision board will help with this. If you are unfamiliar with the concept It is like the science fair projects from school. You take a construction board and place upon it images of those things you desire. Napolean hill said that desire is the beginning of all achievement. Having these images will help to motivate you to continue.
As you begin to make money you will begin to reward yourself with those things that youve placed upon your board.

Well if I find it hard to get energy/ motivation to do something I bring out the coffe maker.

You can try outsourcing the things you do not like doing,

And only working on the things you like doing.

Hope this Helps.