As a business owner, we all have highs and lows — good days, and not-so-good days. Days we’re fired up and feel unstoppable, and days we feel discouraged and less hopeful.

Having rough days or weeks may be disappointing, but it’s a sign we’re human, and doing hard things outside our comfort zone (which is good!)

“So how can I snap myself out of feeling discouraged, and start making progress again with my motivation and my business?”

On the days you need a boost and a solid reset to your mindset, here are 5 quick steps to get you back on track!

This is for you if:

You’re feeling discouraged or directionless in your business and can’t seem to snap out of it
You’re ready to get back on track and feel motivated again!
You’re short on time and need a shift now, as quickly as possible.

Step 1. Celebrate Your Wins

It’s easy to fixate on how far you have to go, and forget how far you’ve come! But the more you celebrate and focus on your wins, the more wins you’ll experience, and the more motivated you’ll feel on your journey.

Start by listing out as many wins and successes as possible from the past weeks or months. No win is too small to include — small wins add up to huge successes!

You can list just 10 wins, or you can give yourself a challenge of listing 100 wins! I love this exercise because after the first 10-20, you have to really get creative and reflective to identify all the ways you’re progressing.

Step 2. Revisit Your Goals

Rekindle your motivation and inspiration by reconnecting with your most exciting goals… and maybe updating them to reflect how your vision and values have evolved.

Do your goals still light you up and inspire you? Or is your energy pulling you in a new, more exciting direction? It’s okay to adjust your goals as you gather more data and as you evolve in your thinking.

Once you land on goals you feel a little buzzed about, spend some time imagining the day you actually reach your goals. How do you feel? Reconnect with that feeling and name it for yourself: Peaceful, joyful, expansive, powerful, etc.

Step 3. Analyze Your Obstacles

Take an honest look at what’s getting in the way of making progress, so you can see your obstacles clearly. Here’s a simple exercise you can use to take inventory of what’s in your way!

Grab a sheet of paper, draw a line down the middle, and at the top-left write external challenges and on the right, internal challenges.

Write down the external forces that have kept you from making progress (e.g., time constraints, distractions, etc.). Then write down the internal forces that have kept you from making progress (e.g., limiting beliefs, fear of judgement, etc.).

Step 4. Visualize Your Progress

For each obstacle, spend two minutes visualizing yourself surpassing it. Connect with the future where you’re taking action, making progress, and showing up the way you want to for your business!

And then answer these questions…

How do you feel?
What’s your body language like?
What habits do you practice?
How do you talk to yourself?
Which of your strengths are you leaning on?

Step 5. Map Out Your Action Plan

Create a simple roadmap for getting where you want to go. Break your goal down into small milestones that feel achievable in one-week, one-month, or 90-day increments, depending on the size of your goal.

For example, if your goal is to write a short e-book on your area of expertise, your steps might be:

Conduct interviews to understand reader questions (Week 1)
Outline ebook in Google Docs (Week 2)
Draft ebook (Week 3)
Collect feedback from test readers (Weeks 4–5)
Finalize + self-publish book (Week 6)

Don’t get buried in details! Just define your 2-3 immediate next steps, and then the broad strokes of your top priorities and milestones in the weeks and months ahead.

Recap

So there you have it! 5 steps to take when you’re feeling discouraged, to reset your motivation and get back on track with making progress towards your goals:

Celebrate your wins
Reconnect with your goals
Inventory your obstacles
Visualize your progress
Map out your Action Plan

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