I am sitting here in my office, conscious that the June newsletter needs to be published and I am stuck to come up with some ideas for relevant articles this month.

Just before I started writing this article I had to stop myself picking up my coat and heading down to the bank to run some errands. I was using this run to the bank as an excuse not to start writing this article and one of my biggest blocks was the lack of motivation.

I am just back from a fabulous weekend break away with the family. Trying to get back into work mode is proving a little challenging. Here are 4 ideas that I use on myself that work for me when I need to motivate myself to do something. They are in no particular order and are very much dependent on the situation. Some of them can be used together or in isolation.

1. Create a reward: Instead of heading off to the bank as an excuse for not writing this article, I have instead decided that my "reward" for writing this article will be a leisurely stroll into town for some lunch and to go to the bank.
2. Set a deadline: A task will fill the time you give it. If you give yourself 2 days to complete a job, it will take 2 days, if you give yourself 20minutes, it will take 20 minutes. It is 11:30 now and I am committing myself to completing this article by 12noon. I need to get it done by then as I have a client coming at 1230 and I need to prepare for that meeting. I started thinking about this article early last week and because I didn't set myself a deadline, here I am 8 days later still not having it completed.
3. Focus: When we are faced with a difficult or new challenge, we are very good at coming up with lists of reasons or "excuses" why we shouldn't follow through. Very often this is all done subconsciously without us even being aware of our thoughts. In my case today I heard myself saying - Leave it until later when I am back in work mode more, I had a long drive yesterday so haven't the energy to take on this today, one more day won't make any difference, no one will notice if the newsletter is late etc, etc.... As long as I ALLOW myself to stay focused on these thoughts, I will not follow through and things just don't get done.  Today what I have done instead is to CONSCIOUSLY focus on (a) what I will gain from getting this article written and (b) what I will loose by NOT writing this article. On the positive side, what I have come up with here is a sense of accomplishment in completing a task I have been putting off, the opportunity to articulate my views to other people, the opportunity to contribute to other people and to make a positive difference to them. Things I will loose out on by not writing this article are all the opposites to the positives above plus, a feeling that I am not being true to my word, a sense that I am letting my newsletter readers down, having unfinished business hanging over me which I find is a major energy drain.
4. Chunk it down: How do you eat an elephant - one mouthful at a time. I sometimes loose motivation when I I am faced with what I perceive to be a mamouth task or complex project. I know I am in this mode when I ask myself "Where do I start?". The way I get myself motivated to follow through here is to break the task down into more manageable parts and then just focus on getting the first piece of the task done. Once the first piece is completed, move onto the second then the third etc, etc, until the complete task is done. In my experience, I have found that the actual complexity of difficulty of tasks turns out to more straightforward than I had initially thought. I have also found that once I get started on a task, that in itself creates it's own momentum and allows me to follow through.

It is now 12noon and I need to wrap up this article. I sincerely hope you can take something useful from what I have written and I would love to hear from you if you have any specific ways that you motivate yourself. As a small business owner myself I am always open to learning new ways to improve.

Fergal O'Connor is a Business Coach working in partnership with his Business and Corporate clients providing a supportive, confidential, challenging and non-judgemental environment to make their ambitions and dreams a reality. Fergal also facilitates a range of Coaching and Management training programs, Team facilitation workshops and is available for public speaking engagements. Fergal can be contacted at Synergy Coaching Services, Tel: (061) 467287, email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it web www.synergycoaching.ie