5 Habits of Entrepreneurs Who Are Always Motivated

Entrepreneur motivation tactics and quotes flood social media, but almost all of them are trash.

By trash, I mean they do nothing to help entrepreneurs get motivated. In many cases, they make entrepreneurs less motivated.

Sadly, most entrepreneurs struggle forever to get motivated.

Even though they are willing to push forward, they cannot summon the power to do it.

However, top entrepreneurs summon the power to push forward thanks to specific habits. There is a fundamental reason why these particular habits supercharge motivation, even when it is hard to find any ounce of willpower.

To help you finally get and stay motivated, I am sharing the five habits of entrepreneurs who are always motivated.

You might have the best ideas in the world, but they mean nothing without action. To take action, summon motivation as if your life depends on it!

Every Entrepreneur Experiences Low Motivation

First, every entrepreneur experiences low motivation from time to time.

Even Bill Gates and Elon Musk have moments when they feel unwilling to press forward.

However, not every entrepreneur handles low motivation the same way.

Most CEOs allow motivation to overcome them, while CEOs like Gates and Musk do not.

The difference in how CEOs handle low motivation is a defining distinction between entrepreneurs who achieve their goals and those who do not.

Many Business Owners Lie About How Motivated They Are

If you use social media to measure CEO motivation, you would believe they are always motivated.

That is not just true for CEOs- go on LinkedIn, and you will see endless motivational quotes shared by people working 9 to 5.

Most people lie about how motivated they are because of FOMO: They believe others are highly motivated and do not want to be the loser who isn’t.

Entrepreneurs Have no Idea How to Motivate Themselves.

Even though entrepreneurs are notoriously active in the self-help podcast and book arena, most do not know how to motivate themselves.

If they did, there would not be so many unmotivated CEOs!

However, this does not mean that most CEOs do not try to get motivated.

Unlike other groups, CEOs try extremely hard to motivate themselves, but most of their efforts do not help.

Self-Help Business Gurus Are Usually No Help

How many social media business gurus do you encounter daily?

If you are like most CEOs, you encounter countless gurus daily.

Almost every guru spills the same advice: Get out there, do the hard work, and motivation will increase!

Once you have encountered one motivation guru, you have seen them all!

Even worse, most of these gurus provide no actionable steps.

I am not slamming motivation gurus; the truth is some of these influencers do have excellent advice!

However, I am saying there is still something missing in the message these gurus are trying to send.

Because again, if these gurus were so great at motivating, there would be significantly fewer unmotivated CEOs out there.

Only 1% of Entrepreneurs Get Themselves Out of Motivational Funks.

Despite countless inspirational quotes on the internet, most CEOs never pull themselves out of the unmotivated funk phase.

As a result, they are:

• Constantly anxious
• Fail to achieve their goals
• Blame themselves for the failures

As I already mentioned, some entrepreneurs successfully pull themselves out of these funks.

While this is not true for the majority, it is for a minority!

The minority of CEOs use one particular factor to pull themselves out of low motivation funk.

Motivating Yourself = Start Good Habits

Developing good habits is the factor that stands between staying in a prolonged funk phase and restoring motivation to levels higher than ever.

Moreover, habits are the motivational factor distinguishing entrepreneurs who stay in a forever funk and those who dig themselves out.

Typically when a CEO experiences low motivation, they follow the pull-yourself-up-by-the bootstraps method: For a couple of days, they double-down reading motivational quotes and listening to podcasts.

However, after a few days, they stop reading the quotes and listening to the podcasts. In a matter of days, they are back to the funk.

Reading motivational quotes is fine, but do not read quotes expecting to supercharge and prolong motivation!

Can that happen? Yes, but it is unlikely.

On the other hand, establishing good habits is the key to supercharging motivation and staying motivated for the long run.

Habits (Literally) Rewire Your Brain

Habits are intense motivational factors because they rewire your brain.

How?

Practicing habits can create new neural pathways in the brain.

When done consistently, a habit creates a pathway that sets off signals from one part of the brain to the other.

The more you practice a habit, the more ingrained the neural pathway becomes.

The phenomenon of adding new pathways is better known as neural plasticity.

That said, once a habit is ingrained as a pathway, it becomes virtually automatic.

Over time, you do not need to think about the habit to act it out. Instead, you will perform it without thought.

Therefore, you can increase and prolong motivation by practicing specific motivation-related habits! 

Instead of reading a motivational quote once or twice, believing it will do you any good, you can literally wire your brain to become more motivated than ever.

Here Is the Key to Habits & Entrepreneurial Motivation

What kind of habits should business owners practice to increase motivation?

Simple, business owners should make getting uncomfortable a habit.

Habits that take you out of your comfort zone will increase your motivation more than any other.

If you do not regularly get uncomfortable, you will not motivate yourself.

Commit to Getting Uncomfortable!

Imagine two wolves are wandering the tundra: Wolf 1 just feasted on an easy meal and is comfortably satisfied. Meanwhile, Wolf 2 has been wandering the tundra for days and hasn’t encountered a single meal. Wolf 2 is feeling extremely uncomfortable with its level of hunger.

Which wolf do you think has more motivation?

Specifically, if both wolves were together and a potential meal suddenly ran in front of them, which wolf do you think would attack it first?

Of course, Wolf 2’s motivation would supercharge and snatch up the meal!

Why?

Because, the wolf is uncomfortable!

That said, being uncomfortable will motivate you immediately.

When you are uncomfortable, you are motivated, unlike any other time.

If you make being uncomfortable a habit, then motivation will supercharge.

Instead of reading another business quote thinking it will do you good, commit to making being uncomfortable a habit.

Is it challenging? Yes, but it is the simple solution producing the results you need.

You Have Overcome Discomfort Before!

If you believe getting uncomfortable is too hard for you, remind yourself you have done it before.

You were uncomfortable when you started your own business and became your own boss.

The uncertainty of being a first-time new entrepreneur was discomforting.

However, you pushed through, and your new business survived!

That said, you have done this before. You do not need to be uncomfortable with being uncomfortable because you have overcome it before.

5 Habits of Successful Entrepreneurs Who Are Always Motivated

Here are five habits of entrepreneurs who are always motivated.

Each habit helps make you uncomfortable. Discomfort = motivational fuel!

Because they are always motivated, these entrepreneurs run many of the most successful businesses in the world.

Entrepreneur motivation lives in discomfort- make discomfort a habit to motivate yourself and achieve what you are capable of achieving.

1. Consistently Pushing the Vision Bar Higher

Entrepreneurship is about bringing a vision to life.

For example, Elon Musk’s vision with Tesla was to move the world into sustainable energy through cars.

While other CEOs have modest visions, the best entrepreneurs do not hold back!

Even if the vision initially seems out of reach, they do not undercut it.

That said, motivated CEOs consistently raise their vision bar higher and higher.

Instead of setting a vision and sticking to it, they are constantly raising the bar.

As a result, they get more and more uncomfortable over time.

Once they close in on manifesting the initial business vision, they move the bar higher to stay out of their comfort zone.

Many argue that Musk manifested his business vision through Tesla. However, Musk did not stop at Tesla- In 2016, 13 years after the founding of Tesla, Musk set an even higher vision bar with the founding of Neuralink.

Furthermore, make consistently pushing your vision higher a habit. It does not matter if it feels out of reach right now. What matters is that it makes you uncomfortable!

2. Great Entrepreneurs Stay Quiet About Their Goals

Second, motivated entrepreneurs set business goals. Each achieved goal brings them closer to manifesting their business vision.

However, great entrepreneurs stay quiet about their goals.

Instead of going online to reveal their goals to the world, they stay quiet about them.

As a result, their goals are more authentic to them.

Because they are more authentic, CEOs are more likely to achieve them.

Rather than talking about their goals and visions, great CEOs internally reflect on them.

For example, CEOs do what I like to call a brain dump.

Better known as journaling, a brain dump is when a CEO dumps all their thoughts and goals into a journal.

When the thoughts are on paper instead of swirling around in their head, the CEO has a better opportunity to analyze them.

Because they analyze them, they have a better shot of devising strategic plans to achieve the goals.

Make it a habit of doing a daily brain dump!

3. They Refresh Their Environment

Does sitting in your office chair all day make you feel uninspired?

If so, you are not imagining it! 

Being in the same environment daily increases the odds of getting into a low-motivation funk.

Motivated entrepreneurs consistently expose themselves to new environments.

Think of it like this- When a person travels to a new country for the first time, they often return home with renewed motivation. 

They often dish out their newfound perspectives on life on social media.

These people are experiencing the phenomena that comes from changing environments.

While exposing themselves to an unfamiliar environment was discomforting, it helped renew their motivation.

Not enough time to travel to a new destination every week?

No problem.

Changes in environment as simple as walking through a new park are enough.

Make it a habit to get into new environments every week.

Get out of your ultra-cozy swivel chair and go check out new environments.

4. Reminding Themselves of What They Are Working For

Entrepreneurship is not as easy as most social media gurus make it out.

Is entrepreneurship simple? Yes, but it is challenging.

Almost no entrepreneur takes on the challenge of entrepreneurship without a compelling reason for doing so.

For example, many CEOs start their businesses because they were broke or to make an impact on a desperate community.

The discomfort of running your own business is almost too challenging to face unless you have a strong reason for doing so.

However, once a CEO gets the wheels turning, they often lose sight of why they initially started. They get pulled into a comforting web in which they do not think about why they started in the first place.

To prevent getting too comfortable while re-igniting motivation, motivated CEOs consistently remind themselves why they are doing this.

Reminding themselves of the initial discomfort they felt before starting their business is enough to make them feel uncomfortable again. As a result, the motivation fire lights up again!

From now on, spend a few minutes each day reflecting on why you are doing this.

The thought of what first motivated you is enough to motivate you again!

5. Successful People Always Set Aside Downtime

Finally, motivated CEOs ALWAYS set aside downtime.

By downtime, I am not talking about time to watch TV or scroll through your phone!

I am talking about REAL downtimes, such as sitting on a park bench enjoying the view.

At first, downtime seems like the least discomforting thing you can do.

However, ask yourself how often you have downtime and immediately pick up your phone out of the discomfort of doing nothing.

Discomfort through doing absolutely nothing allows you the opportunity to be bored. When you are bored, your mind looks inside itself.

While inside itself, the mind has the opportunity to get creative unlike ever before! Those moments of creativity are where motivation lives.

Adults are significantly less motivated than kids because kids have more downtime than adults. Thanks to downtime, their imaginations run wild and motivation burns.

Sometimes the most discomforting thing you can do is nothing.

Set aside at least ten minutes of downtime each day. The discomfort of doing nothing will take your motivation from zero to one hundred in less time than reading another motivational social media post.

Final Thoughts on How Entrepreneurs Get Motivated

Until you make getting uncomfortable a habit, you will not get motivated.

Go ahead and read more motivational quotes, but they will mean nothing unless you pair them with the correct habits.

Many more motivated entrepreneurs would exist if those quotes were so effective.

That said, motivation is on the other side of discomfort; it is yours if you commit to being uncomfortable.