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I hate to exercise. I really do. I feel good afterward, and I'm definitely getting in better shape because of it, but I hate it. It's a real chore for me. What do my exercise habits have to do with finding motivation in your business? Hang with me for a bit and it will all make sense. It may even be enlightening.

My son is going to be born in late July, and I knew I'd have to be in better shape to chase him around and prevent him from hurting himself. I know this is going to happen because he's my son, and I was a hand full. That's strong motivation to get in shape, right? Sure it is, but that didn't make it easy.

I'd get on the treadmill bound and determined to walk for 30 minutes, and I'd find myself getting bored out of my mind and irritated with the soreness in my muscles 15 minutes into it. Half the time I would just give up, and the other half was so aggravating that I vowed never to do it again. Of course, my motivation was strong, and so I'd try again the next day.

Then my family and I went to the movies to see The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. I had read the Narnia series of books in the past, and the movie rekindled my interest in the series. So I got the full series of unabridged books for my iPod. But I'm a busy guy, and so I didn't have time to listen to them.

Lightbulb! I had 30 minutes a day of mind-numbing boredom to fill, so I started listening to the series while walking on the treadmill. I love the Narnia stories, and I get so wrapped up in listening to them while walking that I stop staring at the timer wishing it would move faster. In fact, now I often find myself not wanting to get off the treadmill because I'm in the middle of a good part! By coupling something I love to do with something I abhor, it made the task much easier to deal with. I'm very happy with the results in my energy level, as well as being able to listen to the stories I enjoy so much.

Let's face it: a successful business is rarely made up of only tasks that we love to do. There's always some real chores that are absolutely necessary. Why not apply the above lesson to your business-related tasks as well?

If you're working on something that you really don't like to do, break it up so you don't have to do it all at once. Put something in between that you love to do as a reward for your doing the dreaded task. That way you'll have something to look forward to. You'll have the needed motivation.

For instance, let's say you love to write articles, but hate to go through the drudgery of submitting them to the article sites. If that's the case, try writing an article and then immediately submitting it to the article sites, knowing that when you're done you can go write another article. If you wait until you have 20 articles written and then have to submit them all at once, the sheer magnitude of the chore will make it unbearable. But one at a time isn't so bad, is it?

Here's a personal example: I love to write code, but I get a lot less joy out of answering support requests. I have a fantastic support person now (Amin Motin), but there are usually some support requests each day that I need to handle personally. I make it a point to answer those tickets first, knowing that when it's done I can reward myself with what I love to do: write code. That gives me the needed incentive.

You probably do this kind of thing all the time in your daily life. It's just a matter of applying that same "reward yourself" principle to your business.

Here's a personal example of how I do this in day-to-day life: I'm not a fan of vegetables. I'm a meat and potatoes kind of guy. But I also want to be healthy. So I always eat my veggies first. When they're out of the way and I can move on to the slab of steak or fried shrimp that I really love and still feel good about having eaten the healthy stuff.

I'd be much less inclined to eat those awful veggies after having already downed all of those delicious, golden brown stuffed shrimp from PappaDeaux's. There's a reason we teach our children to eat their food before dessert! Not only is the food more nutritious, but who wants to eat veggies after a wonderful slice of apple pie?

The same applies to your business. Get the tasks you consider chores out of the way first, that way you can concentrate on the aspects of your business that you love to do. If the dreaded tasks are very time consuming, then break them up into chunks. For instance, if you find writing a chore, but you love the challenge of link building, then create some content when you first start working and then focus on your link building for a while. After you feel great about your link building efforts, go back to writing for a bit.

Failure to get through the drudgery and then reward yourself with the "fun stuff" can result in deadlock. If you do the fun stuff first, then you've already "had your dessert (or fried shrimp!)" so the mere thought of tackling the other tasks is loathsome and you'll find every excuse possible to put it off until later. Take it a little bit at a time, followed by an enjoyable activity, and you'll be amazed at what you've accomplished at the end of the day.

Please post your thoughts in a comment below.

Source: motivation