Running a business is not worth it if you do not have a passion for it.
There is no point in putting yourself through the challenges of entrepreneurship without having a passion for business.
Sadly, many entrepreneurs deep in the game feel passion slipping away.
It is not that these entrepreneurs do not like running their company and want out of the game.
Instead, something inside makes them feel distant from their business and unmotivated to keep going.
I am sharing why you are losing your passion for business and how to get it back.
Without passion, you will:
- Feel purposelessness
- Feel anxious in and out of business
- Fail to hit your goals
There is no point in putting yourself through the trials and tribulations without having passion!
Not only that, but your business will not survive, and you will feel in the hole unless you have passion.
Most Entrepreneurs Lose Passion at One Point or Another
Are you feeling your passion for business slipping away?
If so, you are not alone.
Most entrepreneurs lose passion for their business at one point or another in their careers.
However, few ever talk about it!
Losing passion for business is one of the best-kept and dirtiest secrets of the business world.
Many Entrepreneurs and Most Social Media Gurus Lie
Does this shock you?
Is it shocking that most entrepreneurs feel passion lagging at one point or another in their careers?
If so, you are probably shocked because:
First, many entrepreneurs struggle with passion on a daily basis. Most feel shame because of this.
Because they feel shame over not having passion, they will not tell you how they really feel.
Second, you would think every entrepreneur lives a perfect life if you only looked to business gurus as models.
If gurus flaunted the realities of being an entrepreneur, almost nobody would start a business.
Why?
Because the truth about being an entrepreneur is it is hard AF!
Furthermore, it is not shocking if you are shocked about the reality of losing passion for business.
Many Entrepreneurs Never Renew Their Passion
The worst part is that many entrepreneurs who lose passion at one point or another never get it back.
Even though it is totally possible to renew passion, they cannot seem to do it.
As a result, they spend the rest of their career teeter-tottering on the verge of feeling passionless and completely mad.
Again, it is not worth being an entrepreneur if you are not passionate about your business!
I am not saying to quit your business if you are not spewing passion rainbows all day.
Instead, I mean the challenges of being a business owner are so high that they are not worth facing unless you have passion.
How Does Passion Affect Business?
Passion for business affects everything you do in business.
Additionally, passion for business affects your life outside of business.
If you are passionate about your business, you will likely live passionately as a whole.
On the other hand, you will likely live an unpassionate and painful life if you are running a business without passion.
Contrary to popular belief, you cannot entirely box out your business life from your personal life! They are one and the same.
When I Say Passion, I DO NOT Mean Emotions (Important!)
When I use the word passion, I am NOT referring to a feeling or emotion.
Passion for business is not the same as a passion for your spouse or other loved ones.
When I use the word passion, I am referring to your purpose.
By your purpose, I mean the reason you are undertaking the entrepreneurial journey.
Every CEO starts a business in the first place to make a particular impact on the world.
No matter how big or small the impact, it is their purpose.
That said, the emotional kind of passion comes from pursuing your purpose.
You start to feel intense love and drive when following your purpose; it does not work the other way around.
Furthermore, losing passion for business is about losing your purpose.
When you lose your purpose, you start to feel:
- Lost
- Unmotivated
- Insecure
What is the point of running a business if this is how you feel?
Entrepreneurs Without Passion Never Survive
Again, having a passion for your business is about aligning with your purpose.
Aligning with your purpose creates the positive feelings associated with the emotional kind of passion.
That said, entrepreneurs who fall out of alignment with their purpose never survive.
I am not saying they go bankrupt and live on the street.
Instead, I am saying CEOs who fall out of alignment with their purpose:
- Feel unpassionate (the emotional kind of passion)
- Lose motivation
- Seldom manifest their business vision or achieve goals
Running a business is 99.99% climbing and .001% reaching the summit; you will never survive the mountains without a purpose for climbing in the first place.
The person who loves climbing has higher odds of reaching the summit than the person who loves the view from the top but hates climbing.
Passion = purpose.
Entrepreneurs with a purpose feel great and are willing to do what it takes to reach the summit.
Here Is Why You Are Losing Passion for Business
Go back to the time when you first started your business.
Think about how you used to dream about making an impact on the world.
Relive the feeling you felt when dreaming about your company.
Doesn’t it feel good?
It makes you wonder how you lost passion in the first place.
That said, you are losing passion for business for one of these reasons:
- Overplanning
- Under-planning
- Getting lost in the weeds
- Losing any semblance of fun
- Bad habits
Many CEOs lose passion for a combination of these reasons.
Furthermore, here is why you are falling into a passion-less pit.
You Are Overplanning
First, overplanning is one of the most common causes of losing passion.
When you overplan, you do not have room to dream.
Specifically, you do not have room to update your plans according to the inspiration you get from dreaming about your business.
The most common place entrepreneurs overplan is the overall business plans: They put together exceedingly detailed plans that do not have any flexibility.
While having a plan is essential, there MUST be wiggle room in them for when inspiration from dreaming hits.
If inspiration hits but there is no wiggle room, you start feeling like a cog in the machine.
Moreover, you will feel like your business is running you instead of running it according to your purpose.
Overplanning → no room for dreaming → no place to change plans according to inspiration → lose passion.
You Are Not Planning Enough
Another one of the most common causes of losing passion is not planning enough.
When I say not planning enough, I mean not planning all the way to the end.
Planning to the end means creating business plans that culminate in the manifestation of your grand business vision.
Sometimes entrepreneurs do not plan to the end because they are not confident they will achieve the final desired outcome.
They see the difference between where they are now and where they want to be in the future and tremor.
Because of this, they underplan their business plans.
As a result, they do not feel inspired, and passion begins fading.
Instead of waking up every day and being inspired by their grand vision, all they see is the short term.
Not planning enough → no inspiration → lose passion.
You must plan all the way to the end to keep the passion alive!
Getting Lost in the Tall Weeds
You do not need me to tell you that business is challenging AF.
There will always be more things to do than you have time for, and many of those things will be beyond your expertise.
Many entrepreneurs get lost in the weeds because running a business is so hard.
By lost in the weeds, I mean they get overwhelmed by the day-to-day challenges that they lose sight of the big picture.
How can you have passion when you cannot see it because the weeds are so high?
In short- passion fades when you get lost in the weeds. Instead of seeing your passion, all you see are problems.
Losing Any Semblance of Fun
Believe it or not, running a business should feel fun!
No, it will not feel fun all the time. But you should generally enjoy the process of running your business.
Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs have anything but fun.
Why?
Because they think they are not supposed to have fun.
They think they are supposed to be in grind mode 24/7.
As a result, they put their head down every day and block out any possibility of laughing at themselves or having joy in the process.
I am not saying you need to spew fun rainbows every day.
However, I am saying that failing to approach your business without a touch of light-heartedness is a set-up for losing passion.
Bad Habits
Finally, having bad habits is a set-up for losing passion.
Running a business is stressful. When you experience stress, your body responds by activating habits.
Your body responds with habits to save energy; habits take virtually no energy to activate, while conscious thinking takes significant energy.
Your brain activates habits, whether they are good or bad.
Do you think something good happens when your brain activates bad habit patterns?
Of course, nothing good happens when your body automatically activates crummy habits!
Therefore, you want to make sure most of your habits are good ones.
Activating terrible habits, such as acting on emotions before thinking, increases the stress hormone cortisol.
High cortisol takes your focus away from passion and puts it into bad feelings, like anger and sadness.
Stressful business situation → activates bad habits → increases cortisol → you lose sight of your passion
How to Renew Passion and Motivation for Business
You DO NOT need to go the rest of your life working hard but now knowing why you are doing it.
You CAN restore your passion for business!
Even more, you can have more passion today for your business than you had in the past.
If you do not feel passion for business, you might as well return to the glorious nine-to-five grind.
It is time to start having a passion for your business again, but this time, even more than when you first jumped into the game.
Plan All the Way to the End, But Leave Gaps for Inspiration
First, plan all the way to the end while leaving gaps for inspiration.
I mean, rewrite your business plans so they:
- Culminate in achieving your grand business vision; and
- Have space for inspiration
First, I do not care how insane your vision is.
I do not care if your vision is solving world hunger or creating zero-calorie cupcakes!
You must plan to the end!
Second, leave gaps in your business plans for when you want to change them according to inspiration.
How many gaps are enough?
I suggest thinking of your business plans like a blueprint for a house: There is a clear outline to create the house, but there is plenty of room to change the design details.
Strike a balance with planning so passion stays lit.
Delegate Everything Possible
Next, delegate everything you possibly can to get out of the weeds.
If your desk has piles of things to do, delegate every item unrelated to sales.
Why sales?
Because, sales is central to growing your business.
Growing your business makes you feel the passion.
The more work you delegate, the more time you have to focus on sales and business growth.
The more time you have to focus on growth, the more you will feel passionate about business again.
Start Having More Fun By Winning More
From now on, stop being so intense and start having more fun!
Start feeling passion again by getting your head out of the dumps and enjoying running your business.
Want to know what is really fun?
Winning! Winning is more fun than fun is fun.
Therefore, start having more fun today by winning more.
How can you win on a daily basis?
You can have wins every day if you set and accomplish daily goals.
Anybody who knows how fun it is to look at their daily goal sheet and see everything crossed out knows what I mean!
I suggest setting three to five goals every morning and not finishing your day until completing each.
Also, increase the difficulty of your goals every two to three weeks.
Smashing goals is not fun unless they require you to break a little sweat.
Work Hard and Take Harder Breaks
Finally, work hard but take harder breaks.
Set aside at least 30 minutes Monday through Friday and at least one solid hour on the weekends to chill.
But Brian, I do not have 30 minutes daily to take a break!
If you do not have 30 minutes in your schedule to break, take something off your schedule to make room for it. Taking breaks is that important!
Taking solid breaks gives your brain time to wander. AKA, it gives your brain time to daydream.
Daydreaming is about as productive as it gets!
It helps form new connections in your brain to solve current problems while coming up with inspiration for new ideas.
You are totally wrong if you think dreaming is unproductive. In fact, it is probably more productive than working at your desk.
Give yourself the space to dream again. It is perhaps the most powerful thing you can do to ignite passion.
Final Thoughts on Getting Back Passion for Your Business
You do not need to stumble through your days without feeling any purpose; you can and must reignite that fire if you want success and fulfillment!
There is no point in running your business if you are not passionate about it.
Business trials are not worth it unless you are passionate about your business and the game.
How much longer will you put yourself through misery and set yourself up for failure before making a change?
