Evan Carmichael tells Ty that big wins alone won't sustain motivation. You need to enjoy the daily work itself, not just chase occasional victories. He uses his YouTube channel as an example: the growth metrics and process of creating videos keep him going, not just the big milestones.
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Hey everyone, just a quick video today. I got a question in my mastermind group, in my online mastermind group, and thought I'd make a video response. And it's been a bit of a crazy day, so I'm just recording the response now. Please bear with me. I have a huge headache, and so if I'm a little less energetic than usual, I hope you'll forgive me. So the question is about— this is a member named Ty. His biggest personal obstacle, he said, is being a solo entrepreneur is tiring, and he needs to have big wins to keep his confidence going. The subject of motivation is a really interesting one, I think, and one that every entrepreneur needs help with at some point. And my usual advice is think about your big why, you know, what's the big goal you're trying to accomplish to get you motivated and excited. Think about your little whys, the kind of day-to-day stuff, feedback from clients, feedback from customers, that shows you and proves to yourself that, hey, you're doing important work, and setting up a schedule that, you know, sets you up for success. And if you want to be— if you want to accomplish something great, you have to be surrounded by greatness. And most people don't have greatness in their environment, from their morning routine to the people in their lives, to the media they consume, all of that stuff. That's my usual typical advice for motivation. I think though, in reading this, the vibe I'm getting though is I don't think that's enough. I don't think it's enough. If you are running a business and you are not enjoying what you do, you're not enjoying the process, and instead you're looking for those big wins to get you excited, you know, you can get yourself amped up and motivated to go out and do something in the short term, but that's not sustainable. Like, you can only force yourself to do things that you don't like for a certain amount of time. It's not sustainable. My thinking now is, just answering your question here, is that you got to change up the process. You should enjoy what you're doing. It kind of reminds me of people who have a job. People go to jobs, 90% of America, they go to a job, they hate it, and they're living for the weekends and evenings. You know, they're waiting for their work to end so they can go enjoy the rest of their life. That kind of reminds me of what's happening here. You know, you're not liking the work that you're doing and you're waiting for this big goal to come, and that gets you excited when you hit it, and then you're deflated again. I would look at changing your business around and either— it doesn't have to be as drastic as closing a business and going into something new, but I'd be looking at how can I modify what I'm doing in my business so that I'm enjoying. You should be enjoying the work that you do, and I don't have rose-colored glasses on and say that every day is amazing and every day you're full of energy. And every day, you know, is the best day ever. You're going to have slumps, you're going to have problems, you're going to have days when you doubt yourself. It's all totally normal. But if all you're doing is looking forward to those big goals and you need those big wins to keep you motivated, then something's wrong. Something has to change. You have to enjoy the process. And, you know, you're familiar with my YouTube videos, so if you look at that, for me, I love Wednesdays. Wednesdays when I sit down and do my videos, I love recording the videos. I love helping answer questions. I love seeing the growth, you know. We're going to get over 12,000 new subscribers this month on the YouTube channel. I love that. That's amazing. I'm addicted to the growth, but as much as, you know, that growth fuels me, I'm more excited by the actual work. I like answering the questions. I would do the work even if I wasn't seeing massive growth because it Fills me, like it feels a big part of my heart. And if I was only doing the videos to get the growth and not because I like them, then eventually I would stop because I didn't enjoy it, right? Because it would slowly be tearing pieces away from me. And yay, we hit, you know, another million views on the channel, and that gets you excited for one day and you're excited to make videos, and then the next day I'm, you know, back down. It's not enough. I keep doing them because I enjoy doing them, and if you want to be great and you want to have an impact and you want to build a really successful business, then you need to be doing work that you enjoy doing. And sometimes that changes. You know, maybe what you enjoyed doing years ago when you started the business is different than what you enjoy doing now because you as a person have changed and grown. So you got to enjoy the process. And I'm reminded of a Steve Jobs quote where where he was at Stanford University, and I'm just going to share this clip. Normally I would splice it in, have my editor, but this is all raw stuff, so I'm just going to play it from my computer. I think it's relevant.
For the past 33 years, I've looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself, if today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today? And whenever the answer has been no for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
