Some time ago I came back from 2 days in Boston, home for the weekend, then a week in Phoenix that ended with me bringing a cold home that caused me to lose my voice and stay in bed for a week.
As I got better and started back to work and I realized how low my energy was and that it would likely take some days to re-build up to my regular amount of energy.
But I was also low on something else and it was difficult to figure out what at first. I was tired which was reasonable but not just physically tired. I was tired in that way of not feeling the fire in the belly that keeps one pushing forward in life toward their goals.
When you work for yourself you have to be very self-motivating and I am lucky that when I am with a client coaching I am so interested and driven to serve that the fire in my belly is fully ignited, no self-motivation needed.
But it is all the other stuff that has to be done that a fire in the belly motivating you to keep moving forward is necessary because a lot of the necessary work to keep a business running is tedious, or at least tedious to me. That work is doable because you see how it enables the whole. If I do the tedious, I get the opportunity to do what lights me up – to serve and to learn.
The vision, your big WHYs, is how the tedious stuff gets done. It provides the energy.
So I realized that I wasn’t tired so much as I was disconnected to my big WHYs that help me move through the drudgery work so I can do the soul fulfilling work.
That connection to our purpose is really important for people who are affected by ADHD and people who are simply overwhelmed in their lives. Without being connected to our big WHYs it is hard to stay self-motivated for the unexciting parts of our work.
This is why I push my clients to do work of intrinsic interest to them. The more they care about what they do the more likely it is they will have an easier time getting the work done, even the tedious stuff.
To get re-inspired and connect with some of my big WHYs, some mornings I sit down and think about my clients and what I could do for them. Then I think back to clients I have helped who no longer need my services, their successes really help remind me the WHY I am doing this in terms of my need to make a difference by helping people affected by ADHD move forward in their lives. People have helped me to great benefit and now it is my turn to help others.
In addition, I think about my personal big WHYs and re-connect with them also. What is important is I write all this down. By doing that, I am re-committing with the result of my becoming more connected to my professional and personal big WHYs again. This stokes the fire in my belly once again and back to work I go.
Take time to re-connect with your big WHYs, write them down to force yourself to interact with them. This will help you get re-motivated in what you want to be doing or it might show you that what you are doing is not feeding your soul. Everyone must have at least one thing in their life that stirs the fire in their belly. It is what keeps you going.