Stay positive and motivated in difficult times

One challenge clients often ask me about is how to stay motivated – for instance, when their business or career is hectically busy, and they feel like a hamster in a wheel with no time to enjoy the journey… or when they’ve experienced a personal setback… or when it’s just a really grey, cloudy and wintery day, again.

One thing I’ve found helpful is to have a strong sense of purpose that I can return to when I'm feeling upset, daunted or demotivated.

One of my business mentors, Peter Thomson, once told me a story that is the source of my inspiration in my business.

It was about a farmer who farmed in a region where there was a terrible drought.

The earth had become parched, dry and infertile. The farmer was in despair. His family was suffering.

Reluctantly, the farmer decided the only thing he could do was to sell his land and go and find work in the city. As you can imagine, he had to sell the land very cheaply.

Five years later, the farmer’s curiosity got the better of him, and he returned to his former land to find out what had happened since he had been away.

He was amazed to see that the buyer had become a very wealthy man. The buyer's family enjoyed an abundant life.

When the farmer asked the buyer how he had made his fortune, the buyer said, ‘I knew I couldn't farm the land during that terrible drought, so I paid a land developing company to survey and explore the potential of my land, and they found diamonds hidden under the earth!’

If only the farmer had known!

I thought, that’s what I want to do… help people find the hidden diamonds in their lives so that they can recognise opportunities, strengths and possibilities they may not have noticed before. That’s what inspires me to get up in the mornings and gives me a strong sense of purpose that motivates me in the face of difficult times.

What gives you a sense of purpose or inspiration and, when you reconnect with it, helps you feel more motivated?

How could you share that sense of purpose with your colleagues, clients, family or friends so that they better understand what matters to you and what you're working towards?