Keeping Motivated : A New Kids Entertainer’s Dilemma

Keeping Motivated : A New Kids Entertainer’s Dilemma

In my previous article, I wrote about A Cautionary Tale For New Kids Entertainers. Now let’s discuss keeping motivated as this is a kids entertainer’s dilemma we all face.

Turning a part time business into a full time career is nothing short of hard work. In my case with a family to feed and house, and a lifestyle we are accustomed to. I still need to keep my main day job while I increase my Magic Business to match and exceed its income.  In short this means currently I am working 2 full time jobs …

So between this and spending quality time with my family, it is no wonder that at certain times I feel tired and run down. I lose sight of my goals and find myself spending time doing meaningless tasks that are doing nothing to help grow my business or benefit my future. These are the times when I need a motivation boost.

To become re-motivated, focused and back on track, my first push usually comes from the momentum I have created in my business. When you create momentum it is very hard to stop. Whenever you do try and stop, things race up behind you and push you on again. The greater the momentum the bigger the push is to move you on again.

With the work and momentum I have created so far, if I did put the brakes on right now and stopped doing everything except for what I had already committed to, I would still be accepting bookings for months to come and would still be doing shows in 12 months’ time.

So momentum often gets me working again, but to build a business you need to do more, boundaries need to be pushed and things need to be constantly upgraded and tweaked for improvement. This is where my “To Do List” plays a very important part.

Whenever I have a brainstorm to do something, or realise that I have an area to improve, I add it to my To Do list. This list is my go to when I find myself being unproductive. It works because if I’m completely unmotivated, I can pick anything from it. The tasks are varied and can be anything from practicing a new trick to building a website or looking at something in social media. The only criteria for a task to be on the list, is that it needs to be productive towards growing and improving my business.

In the past before I began using my list, I would often find myself doing things I thought were important, but really were just a way of making me feel busy while achieving nothing.  It should be noted that the “To Do List” is not the same as my “To Do Today List” which is prioritised and needs to be completed every day before going to bed.

Another un-productive property of being tired is negativity. This can be the biggest killer of motivation and inspiration. When this hits I go back to the beginning of my journey and remember how far I have come and how much I have improved as a Children’s Magician.

I look at old photos and videos from early shows and read my testimonials. I relive the good and the bad shows and consider all the things I have achieved and experienced.

Then when I’m feeling better, I go to bed, read a good book and sleep. And while this may sound un-productive in itself, I believe it’s more beneficial than continuing a downward spiral while you wait for the momentum to give you a push or even try and half attempt a task from my To Do list with negative thoughts and no concentration.

I guess the real back line in this is that when I do become tired and unmotivated, it is actually a physical sign to rest, and as strange as it sounds, sometimes having a rest is more productive than trying to push on.

Next time I will be writing about some problems we have faced in my household as we try and keep track of what money is going where and how much I need to make before leaving my job and going pro.