The Motivation Myth and What You Really Need

The motivation industry is big business. 

There are Facebook pages, Instagram accounts, and mindset coaches generating an easy six figures and beyond by doling out a daily dose of motivation designed to give you the kick in the pants you need to meet your goals.

In entrepreneurial circles, it’s often said that a person’s mindset is more crucial to her success than her actual business skills.

So, is it true?

Can filling your head with daily doses of feel-good quotes from successful famous people be the real key to finally getting that business you’ve spent so much time thinking about off the ground?

If only it were so easy.

In the network marketing industry and many other sales companies, there’s a heavy reliance on external motivation to recruit people and convince them they can and should go sell the company’s product.

And if you’ve ever been to one of these live events, or even a group call, you’ve probably left feeling on fire and unstoppable.

Only to be quickly brought back down to Earth when you’re sitting alone in front of your computer wondering where you’ll even find one customer.

The fact is, despite how true all those quotes are, and how good those pep talks make you feel, external motivation will never give you what you need to be successful.

And the reason is that it’s impossible to act consistently in a way that’s inconsistent with how we see ourselves.

You may be able to fake it every now and then, and take a few steps forward after a dose of external motivation gives you some temporary fuel.

But success really does come from within, so powering through another motivational book your coach or mentor recommended will never get you doing the consistent work it takes to meet your goals.

What you really need is internal, or self-motivation. 

Self-motivation is an ongoing process, a never-ending journey, but focusing on it will get you to your destinations, rather then just pushing you a few steps down the path.

Three Keys to Self-Motivation

Self-motivation can be a pretty complex topic, as evidenced by the fact that it’s the single subject of entire books, but there are three big keys that will give you what you need to get the internal motivation you need to start checking off those goals.

1. Know Your Why

It’s essential that you know why you’re working towards your goal. This applies to any goal, but we’ll use your goal of having a successful work from home business.

There are going to be days when you just feel like taking the kids to the park and forgetting about your business.

There are going to be days when you have to deal with an unreasonable customer, or technical difficulty on your website, and you’ll wonder whether this is all really worth it.

Especially on those days of challenge, you need to be able to hang on to your why to pull you through the adversity.

Make sure you write down your why. 

Just take a blank sheet of paper in a notebook that you keep in an easily accessible spot and write down every reason that comes to mind as to why you want to build a successful business.

Make yourself spend at least 15 minutes thinking of reasons and writing them down.

Any reason that’s your reason is a good reason.

Whether it’s just for the peace of mind the financial cushion provides your family, or so you can knock those international trips to swim with the sharks and  meditate on Mount Fuji off your bucket list, when you’ve written down all your whys, you can use them to spark you into action or keep you going when roadblocks appear.

2. Control Your Self-Talk

While other people’s doubts about what you’re doing can be disheartening, the words that are your biggest enemy will be your own.

As kids, we believe we can do anything.

But society and life experiences slowly turn that belief around and by the time we’re adults at least 75% of our self-talk is negative.

And you probably don’t even realize you’re doing it.

So start by paying attention to the thoughts going through your head (mental self-talk is the deadliest of all), and the words coming out of your mouth.

Truth is not a defense to any negative self-talk. 

Even if there is currently some truth to it, you’ll be amazed at how quickly you can get some organization going on when you quit saying, “I’m so disorganized.”

And if you keep telling yourself, “I’m bad at technical things, I’ll never have a good website,” it’s going to be very hard for you to ever have a good website.

Speaking of those motivational quotes by famous people, Henry Ford said, “Whether you think you can, or think you can’t — you’re right.”

And experience shows us that Henry was in fact, right.

The first step to meeting any goal is telling yourself you can do it.

You may not even believe it at first, but your subconscious hears it and she does believe it, so she'll get to work helping you make it happen.

3. Become Your Best Self

This is one of those things that you’ll never check off your to-do list, because it’s a life-long process.

Why?

Because as a human being, you have unlimited potential.

So the fact that you’re never “done” with this one is a good thing.

There will never be a day when you can say, “I’m the best me I can ever be.”

While it’s important to know that as you are reading this, you are enough, it’s also crucial to your success to know at the same time that there’s so much more potential inside you just waiting for you to let it out.

Always have goals surrounding not what you want to have, but who you want to be.

Those goals can involve habits you want to develop, contributions you want to make to the world, examples you want to set for your children and/or other adults.

Once you become engaged in the process of becoming a better you, you’ll find the physical actions you need to take to build a bigger business fall in place much easier and with less resistance.

Need Help?

While ultimately it’s impossible to outsource your motivation, it will always be an inside job, it is crucial that you place yourself in the right environment to fuel your self-motivation.

Especially when it comes to building your business, you’ll meet with a lot of resistance from family and friends who encourage you to “go get a real job” because having your own business is risky and unreliable.

Trying to maintain the self-motivation to work towards your goals day after day when you’re going it alone is like riding a bike uphill.

When you place yourself in an environment that is encouraging and adds a layer of external motivation, it will feel like someone came along in a pickup truck, told you to throw your bike in the back, and offered you a ride up the hill.

When you join the team here at Kids Party Characters, we have our pickup waiting for you.

So whether you’re a new entrepreneur who’s having doubts about taking the plunge, or a struggling business owner who needs support and a proven system, take a look at the opportunity owner Cheryl Jacobs has created for you with membership to KidsPartyCharacters.com.

Membership is designed to give you the advantage of starting out with all the tools in place for growing a successful business, which cuts down on the time and number of failures you have to go through to get it right.

You’ll get an exclusive territory in which to book parties, the right to use our more than 200 costumes, and access to our acting coach and casting director.

You’ll also get mentorship and training from Cheryl herself, as well as the Kids Party Characters team, including a step-by-step course on how to get started.

Go here to schedule a friendly chat with Cheryl today to get all your questions answered and discover whether this is the business opportunity that’s been calling you.

And be sure to join us on Facebook to receive our best tips for growing a six figure business, as well as updates on all the magic Kids Party Characters brings to children’s parties.