The world of business management is much the same. Sometimes it becomes more interesting to do. The more interesting it becomes the harder you try to make it happen better. The harder you try the more you discover how truly hard the game of successful business management becomes. In golf, you discover how important every single joint and muscle movement becomes in how the club eventually meets the ball. You discover how many multiple ways you can mess up a simple shot. There are a lot of moving parts that need perfect control at every move to be able to hit the ball correctly and get it to go where you want it to go. Successful business management is much the same.
The more a business leader works to become better at producing improved profits, the harder it seems to be to make that happen. The business leader soon discovers how important every little detail about how they lead their business model becomes crucially vital in the eventual production of the outcomes they desire. It seems like every little thing matters. Even the tiny little details seem to interfere with how good the outcome arrives. The game of business leadership soon proves how difficult it really is to consistently produce a profitable pattern of wins. It is a lot like golfing. It is not as easy as it looks.
One of the things that occurs as a business leader becomes more involved in the game of business is that they pour everything they do into the improvement of their efforts. Business leaders become consumed about business. They look like a serious golfer. Serious golfers become consumed about the game of golf. Every golf magazine is examined to find better tips on how to score better. Every little detail about how to properly improve the putting game is reviewed, studied, tried and practiced. Every little detail about how to deliver a longer drive consistently is treated the same. Lessons, shelter magazines on 'how to become a better golfer' and more playing time become like an obsession to a serious golfer. They begin to eat, sleep and drink the golfing game. Business leaders become cut from the same kind of cloth. They become consumed about the details of the business game. Hence, as the title of this blog suggests...24/7.
That brings up another very important topic. How does a business leader stay motivated at working to improve what they so badly want to do? What is the long term trick? How does a business leader remain motivated enough to become properly consumed about doing what is ultimately necessary to do? What is the trick?
There was a time when I decided to play a little bit more golf in my life. I started to read some improvement magazines and I started to do some practice swinging in my own yard. I made a run at working to improve my golf game. Unfortunately, that effort lasted for only about three months. I soon fell back to my old routine ways of playing golf just once in awhile. I did not continue the work to improve the details that it took to score a better score. I fell back to where I once was playing...poorly...and for fun. I lost my motivation early on.
I meet many business owners who perform their business leadership much the same. They are not as motivated about doing well as they should be. Instead, they seem to be doing their business leadership as if they want to play that game for fun instead of a stronger effort to seriousness of improvement efforts. They lose their motivation to improve the game they are playing. They become less motivated to work on the things they know so little about doing. They quit working to find what areas need improving. Their motivation falls off.
Why did I lose interest in improving my golfing game? Why was my motivation running so low? What was the trick for me to develop a better pattern for working on my skills and golfing scores? How could I become more motivated to do that kind of work?
Could the answer of those questions be resting somewhere around the idea of desire? How does desire figure in to the idea of improving motivation? How are those two concepts linked together? What level of desire do you have as a business leader? What motivates you to want to learn more about how to produce better results? How do you find the motivation to go to blogs, books, magazine articles, websites and business seminars to improve how your business performance grows? What is your trick to keep motivated for doing these things?
I know a lot of good golfers. Some of them work hard on playing the game a lot. They have a mind set that is strongly in place to take every advantage of any time slot to go play the game of golf. They are obsessed about doing that game. Some of them work a lot on learning more about how to improve their swing. All of them keep track of the scores they make. The ones who work to improve what they want to do are the same ones who diligently monitor how their scores end up at the end of day. What seems to be their motivational trick? How do they do the things they do and stay motivated enough to make certain those things are a constant part of their life of golf? Staying motivated, what's the trick?
One thing I know for sure, those who are the most motivated about improving their skills on a particular subject are usually the same ones who will do the best work to improve the most. They are the ones with the most motivation. This much I know.
The golfers who approach the game like I approach it are the ones who do not score as well as they might desire. They are also the ones who take the game less seriously. They are not as motivated to improve how they play. They do not seem to care about the final scores that are less than good. They are not as motivated to improve their swing. I am one of those golfers. Instead of working to seriously improve my swing, I work to find fun in the game of getting out. I transfer my lack of motivation for improvement to the idea that I prefer to get away once in awhile and go out to golf. It fills up a different need that I want to serve. I play golf as a release to provide some new recreation in my busy work schedule. My motivation is different than that of the ones who play to improve their game.
Staying motivated, therefore, may not necessarily be the question. In fact, I am still very motivated to play golf once in awhile. I recently purchased a new, nice set of golf clubs. I went out twice with those clubs since I purchased them. There was a slight improvement in how I scored. At least now I can look good when I score badly. That helps me to keep myself motivated on playing the game just once in awhile. I now have an investment laying on my mind. My old beat up used golf clubs no longer keep me from playing more often.
I wonder how many business leaders practice this same kind of mental process in their business leadership? How many business leaders spend more money on some capital improvements that helps them remain motivated about doing what they need to do? How many business leaders work to add spice to their motivational levels? How many business leaders try out new tricks to keep them motivated to perform better stuff? How do they do what they do? What motivates them to achieve more?
If you have not worked on how to discover where your motivation rests, maybe it is time to examine where that truly is. Maybe you need to discover more about what motivates you to play the business game you play. Maybe it is time in your career to examine how you do what you do. There are as many tricks to the game of motivation as there are books to write about how its done. Most of us do the work of motivation much like I approach the game of golf. We do it as we play it. We add our spin to how we want to play and hope for the best results to coincidentally occur. We are not as properly motivated as we might need to be. In the end, our scores reveal where our motivations rest.
If your scores in business are not ending up where they should actually be, maybe you should examine how to properly measure where your motivational efforts lie. Maybe you should examine the golf ball and its lie before you take another shot. Maybe the motivation needs to receive some serious corrections. Maybe the desire to improve the quality of work can be changed to become a more serious part of your motivational trail? Maybe the scores should be better kept and better respected? Maybe the time has come for you to take the game of golf more seriously. Maybe the motivation needs to become altered.
Find the trick to improve how you play. Re-direct where your current thoughts are headed. Your business model deserves to win more often. Help it find how to win more often. Change the way you manage how you find your motivation to move. Next time, maybe we will discuss the formula to make that happen more clearly. I have a couple of interesting perspectives on motivation.
Until next time...
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