'Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and celebrate the journey!' - Fitzhugh Milan

OK so you have very clear goals for your business, you know why you want to achieve them and you know how you're going to do it. That's wonderful!

But maybe you've been travelling the road that leads there for a while now (or even still trying to find the right road) and you're feeling a little jaded, tired and low on motivation for those everyday tasks and challenges - those potholes in your road. Maybe you're beginning to think there are too many potholes. And maybe if you think about it for a minute now you'll realise that you are focussing on those potholes, all the obstacles that you've got to get round, over or through before you can continue on your journey. And if those challenges are comprised of tasks you really don't enjoy doing then your motivation to do or solve them can drop through the floor.
We can all think like this sometimes. And yes, it's happened to me too. When I was writing and designing my website it got to the stage where it seemed that everything I tried resulted in me hitting my head against a brick wall. Nothing seemed to work. Time was passing rapidly by and my website still was not up and working. It reached the stage where I was so completely wrapped up in trying to make it to the end of the road (getting the website published) that I could no longer see the wood for the trees and sometimes if there were an obvious solution to something right under my nose - I'd miss it. I was sure of my goal (which included writing and designing it myself), and my reasons for getting there but I kept running into seemingly un-passable potholes. The word seemingly is important there!

I wasn't enjoying the journey, quite the opposite in fact. I was starting to get stressed, de-motivated and downright fed up! It was time to 'walk my talk' (ok I should have been doing that already but I'm only human and we all slip up occasionally!).

Whenever I have clients in this situation the first thing I encourage them to do is to change their point of focus. Switch from concentrating on how much you really don't want to complete tasks or solve problems and focus instead on the goal, the end of the road. Remind yourself why you want to get there, what it's going to do for you and your business when you do get there. In other words see past the immediate potholes to what it will do for you and your business when you've got past them, how proud and fulfilled you will feel having achieved that and how much further forward your business will be.

Imagine yourself at the end of the road looking back. Knowing how much you've grown as a person, in experience and knowledge. You'll know that should you come across similar potholes on the next road you'll traverse them easily, wonder what all the fuss was about the first time and they'll look a lot smaller than they did before! So small in fact that you might not even notice them!

Concentrate on why you're doing all this and your motivation to complete the tasks and navigate the obstacles will start to rise.
The next important thing to do is to use someone as a sounding board. My clients of course have me to act in this capacity. When I was getting nowhere with my website I used my husband to bounce ideas off, raise my motivation levels and give me a well aimed kick up the backside when I needed it! Ask yourself:

• Who would be the best person to talk to about this?
• What could they do for me?
• When am I going to talk to them?

Now start to enjoy the journey! Ask yourself (write down your answers):

• What would it take/needs to happen for me to enjoy this journey?
• What would be the benefits of taking a short break from concentrating on this goal right now?
• How could I make the time to take that well earned and much needed break and still be content with my progress?

Your goal is important, I appreciate that, but so is enjoying the journey. So allow yourself to take the odd detour. If you're currently in Southampton and your goal is to get to Edinburgh, take off the blinkers that are making you concentrate purely on moving further north for a moment. Allow yourself a day's sightseeing in London, a long weekend in the Yorkshire dales or even leave the goal road altogether for a while and treat yourself to a week in Ireland. As long as you come back to your road at the point where you left it and at a time which ensures that you are still content with your progress, then go for it. You can only benefit. Ask yourself (write down your answers):

• Is there another idea/goal/side of my business that I would like to spend some time on, which would be beneficial and which I would really enjoy - but I'm not currently allowing myself to veer from the road which leads to my main goal in order to do it?

• What needs to happen for me to allow myself to spend time on something else?

• How could I make the time to do it and still be content with my progress towards my main goal?

• What am I going to do?

• When am I going to do it?

• When will I return to traveling along the road that leads to my main goal?

Always remember - enjoying the journey is just as important as reaching the destination. After all we spend much more time on the road than we do arriving!

Author's Bio: 

Emma Wortt is a qualified Professional Coach and NLP Practitioner. She runs her business Em-powering U to coach and support those who have started or who want to start their own small business. Em 'em-powers' her clients to breakthrough psychological barriers that are holding them back, and to discover and maintain the motivation; belief; confidence; time; effective goal setting, organization, communication and presentation skills that will enable them to take their business or business idea from where it is now to where they want it to be. You can find out more at http://www.em-powering-u.co.uk