The document emphasizes the importance of having a compelling 'why' behind personal projects to maintain motivation and overcome obstacles, particularly for women who may experience fluctuations in energy and creativity due to hormonal cycles. It suggests practical strategies for maintaining energy and focus, such as nutrition, exercise, and creating structured work periods, while also highlighting the value of accountability and inspiring resources. Ultimately, it advocates for working smarter rather than harder, simplifying tasks, and organizing environments to foster creativity and productivity.

3. If you don’t have a “why,” then it’s definitely never too late to create one.
Consider these things when you’re creating a “why”:
1. What are your values, and how is this project aligned with them? Do
you have a reason for wanting to do this? It might be that you don’t have
a “why,” so if you can’t think of one, I would really consider if the project is
even right for you, because if you’re not feeling motivated and there is no
reason to do it that you can think of, maybe the lack of motivation means
you’re not supposed to be doing it.
2. What is doing whatever you’re uninspired about going to mean for
you? What will happen if you actually get out of bed and make this
happen? You can future-pace and see what will happen. Are you going to
feel proud of yourself? Will you be able to make a certain amount of
money from it?
Will it mean feeling like you’re capable of doing big things, getting
projects done that you set your mind to? What is the end goal going to
be? When you have the anchor, the “why,” it’s really awesome to help you
start to get some movement created.

5. This is human nature. We’re not going to want to jump up, even if we’re
doing something we love, every single day. Especially if you are creating
something yourself, it’s really easy to lose interest initially after you get
excited about something. There’s always that momentum, that excitement,
when you first get started, but then things might either be harder than usual
or maybe you’re coming against some obstacles that you hadn’t anticipated.
Perhaps you’re not seeing immediate gratification you wanted to see. Could
be you’re just tired. So anticipate that in advance, be okay with it, and know
that very few people are excited to get going every single day...no matter
what they might tell you in their personal-development books, if you read
those.
Women, our menstrual cycles have us feeling completely different
emotionally at different times of the month. There are four different phases.
I recommend an awesome book called Woman Code by Alisa Vitti. In it,
she talks about how different times of the month are going to have us
feeling predictably different things. There are going to be times when we
feel really creative, energized and focused, more social.

6. Then there are going to be times when we don’t want to do anything. This is
also really big for women entrepreneurs because a lot of times we might feel
like, yes, we’ve made a decision, we want to do it, and then some point later
in the month, we’ll say, “Actually, it doesn’t feel right anymore.” It’s not that
it doesn’t feel right; it’s just that we’re in a different phase in our cycle. So
just understand, these things are going to happen, and account for them.
Stick with your decision. If you’ve thoughtfully set up a goal and you have
your compelling “why,” the best thing you can do is stick with your decision.
Trust in your initial decision and the “why” to go with it. Just anticipate it.

8. Some things you can do to feed yourself that diet of motivation are:
1. Listen to podcasts like this one. This is meant to help you see that people
can overcome different things and create the kind of life they feel proud
about. You can search for whatever you want to hear about.
2. Read motivational books. There are all kinds of awesome books out there.
Just do a search on Kindle, search for feedback; you’ll find all kinds of great
things. When you’re driving or exercising, one of the things I love to do in
the morning is go on the treadmill for 20 minutes and listen to audio books
or podcasts that motivate me. It’s such a great way to get the day started, to
hear about people who have reached their dreams. I definitely recommend
that.
3. Go to Meetup or networking groups with growth-oriented people.
Surround yourself with the types of people who want the same things in
their lives. Do whatever you need to do to make sure your brain is
constantly getting infiltrated with “dreams are possible,” “things are
possible,” “even when there are obstacles, you can make this happen.”

10. As we talked about, you’re not going to feel one hundred percent raring to
go every day, but tell yourself that you’re committed to consistency anyway,
even when you’re not in the mood. Even if you’re creatively flat-lining, you
can do something to give respect to your project. It might even be sending
out a little email or mapping something out, coming up with some ideas.
Start creating something. Even if it’s a horrific first draft, it’s still better than
nothing and it still shows that you’re committed to what you’re doing. I
would just do a little bit every day to give some momentum to the project.
It’s also going to help you set your neural patterns in your brain to show you
that you’re going to do this project even when it’s not comfortable.
The more you do things when you’re not comfortable, the more your brain
is going to start to recognize that you don’t stop just because you don’t feel
like doing something. Sometimes it’s just having five minutes of courage to
see past not wanting to do it, and just doing it anyway. It will get easier with
time.

11. Also, taking the consistent actions is going to help you get closer to the
results you wanted, which, of course, is going to inspire you more and get
you more motivated anyway, because you’re going to start to get that
gratification.
Once those results start to show up, you’ll start to go full circle. You’ll get
back to that same spark of passion that you had in the beginning, only this
time you’ll have pride in yourself knowing that you can follow through on
things and will have a really good story to tell.

13. This is a little bit out there, but just listen to me on it because I think it’s
actually really helpful. Do a mental inventory and ask yourself, “Who inspires
me? Who are my heroes?” and learn more about them. If they a have
autobiographies, read them. If they have Facebook pages, visit them. Learn
more about their mindset and how they think. Maybe you can even talk to
them. Send them a message on Facebook or Twitter.
You can also have mental conversations with them. Remember those “What
Would Jesus Do?” bracelets that were really big for a while? You can do the
same thing with the people who inspire you. Ask them in your head, “What
would you do if you hit this snag? What would you do if you were feeling
unmotivated? How would you respond if someone said this to you?”
Whatever the question is, whatever you’re feeling unmotivated about, just
ask them. If that doesn’t feel comfortable, just say, “What Would {Name}
Do?” and you’ll start to get some answers and clarity for yourself. A lot of
times it can be really hard to pull ourselves out of a funk, but when you have
something outside of yourself, it helps you gain that perspective.

15. It may be that you’re just not feeling motivated, but if you find that
this is happening over and over, it might be that you need to set
yourself up for success energy wise. Look at what you can do to
support your body more. For example, are you drinking enough
water? I know, for me, that when I have a lot of water throughout
the day, I am definitely way more energized than when I don’t.
When I feel dehydrated, I feel drained.
There’s an awesome app called Waterlogged. You can track how
much water you drink throughout the day. It’s really simple and a
great way to make sure you’re getting your water in. They say to
drink half of your body weight in ounces. So try to do that. When
you wake up in the morning, have 8-16 ounces of water first thing. I
have my water siting right next to my bed so I wake up and drink it.
It’s a really great way to start getting the water.

16. You also might want to make sure you’re getting enough greens in your
diet. Greens will give you a lot of long-lasting, natural energy. The great
thing about having lots of green vegetables is that it doesn’t give you that
shaky feeling that you may get with sugary things or even fruit sometimes. It
gives you a consistent, sustained energy. Look at where you could add more
greens to your diet. Maybe it’s using the powders to mix into your morning
smoothie. Even making a smoothie could really help.
One thing that helps me with my energy levels (and I recommend it to
everybody) is keeping a food log. The nutritionist I’m working with, Ginny
Johnsen, is amazing. She’s had me keep a food log where I track how I feel
before and after anything that I eat, what my hunger level is on a 1-to-10
before and after anything I eat, and what I’m eating and the situation I’m
eating in.

17. It’s been really helpful for me to track and see what foods make me tired
that I’ve never realized make me tired, what foods make me energized and
happy. I recommend keeping that food log because you’re going to gain a
lot of valuable insight. You’ll be able to start optimizing for feeling at your
peak.
You also might want to consider how much you’re exercising. Sometimes
even just getting up on the morning and doing 20 minutes of exercise, even
just a power walk, can be really great in helping you get your energy back.
These are all things that may seem small, but they add up to help you
become your best self.

19. If right now you’re feeling exhausted and burned out, I want to remind you
not to be busy just because you can be busy. One thing that a lot of people
do is work all the time and use it as a badge of honor. They love to talk
about how busy they are and they love to tell everybody how busy they are.
Tim Ferriss, who is an awesome author, talks about how being busy is really
a form of mental laziness. It’s lazy thinking and indiscriminate action. So it’s
basically just doing a bunch of things that are in front of you instead of
really taking the time to think about, What are my highest-leverage action
steps?
So if you find you’re at the computer constantly or doing the same things,
feeling like a hamster on a wheel, and you’re not making progress, I would
say it’s time to reevaluate what you’re doing and just start to do the things
that have the highest impact for your project, your job, or whatever it is.

20. I would also say to work smarter, not harder. Take some time to think about
what you really need to move ahead on a project. A lot of times people
come up with all these different ideas to get things done, but scale it back
to the most important action steps. Once you identify those, cut all the busy
tasks and focus on those highest-impact things.
After you figure out what the highest-impact activities are, cut your work
hours. You’re going to be amazed to see that when you focus on just what’s
important, you’ll create more results in three hours than you could in 12—
easily. You schedule the hours you want to work, and if you just have
focused action on those things (cut out Facebook and social media too),
you’ll be able to make amazing things happen.
Then when you’re working less hours, it will reduce your burnout, it’s going
to give you time to go live life, which will help stimulate your creativity,
bring back new inspiration and excitement into your life, and will end up
helping you with whatever you’re working on anyway.

21. You also might want to consider outsourcing. I love
www.MyFancyHands.com. You might want to go on Fiverr. There are all
different types of places where you can outsource very inexpensively.
Work in blocks of time. Make sure the time you’re spending on work is
utilized as well as possible. As I mentioned before, if you work three hours
instead of 12 hours, you might be shocked at how much more you can get
done. Within those three hours, there are ways you can set it up where you
maximize even that time. One of the things that’s awesome is to set up
blocks of time to work.
For example, maybe you work 50 minutes and take a 10-minute break.
You’d have 50 minutes of a very concentrated task, get your break, boom,
boom, boom. It might be something like working from 8:00-11:00 a.m...

22. 8:00-8:50 – Write a rough draft of a blog post.
8:50-9:00 – Take a break.
9:00-9:50 – Reach out to 20 potential places you want to guest blog post in.
10:00-10:50 – Answer 20 emails.
10:50-11:00 – Take a break.
If those are your three highest-impact activities for the day, that’s great!
When you have these little blocks of time, you don’t force yourself to keep
working and you have some time to regenerate within the breaks, then it’s
awesome. When you go to www.RachelRofe.com/abcgift, I’m giving away
software that’s normally $97 that you can use to time yourself for each
specific task. Once you have that timeline, you’re not going to be crawling
off onto Facebook.
It’s going to help you focus on getting to your goal. It’s going to help you
make more progress every day, which will make you feel happier and proud
of yourself every night when you go to bed. It also helps with your
inspiration, so it will all come full circle.

24. You know how when you clean a closet, a desktop, or something that had been
messy for way too long, and it feels so good to have it clean? That feeling
extends to everything. Check out your desk. If your desk is messy, even if it’s
your computer desktop or the desk where you actually work, take some time to
clean it. Organize your papers, throw out what you don’t need, and just give
yourself that magical feeling that comes with decluttering.
Once you do that and it’s a nice, clean area, put some things out that inspire you
and make you feel really good. Depending on what inspires you the most,
maybe you’ll put up pictures of your family or people who inspire you, maybe
quotes that motivate you. You could even put up Post-It notes of the goals you
have.
You can also add some beauty to your desk, like a candle that smells really great,
fresh flowers, a new notebook or pen that you really like. If your computer
desktop is full of icons, files and stuff you don’t use anymore, declutter it. When I
had my computer stolen about a year and a half ago, it was one of the best
things that could have happened, because I got rid of all the stuff that was really
taking up psychic energy. I think keeping things as lean as possible is always a
great idea. It keeps you free to take in new things and have more inspiration and
a flow in your life.

26. It can be really hard to go about things by yourself. If you have people
around you who know what your goals are, then it really motivates you to
get more things done. I recommend a podcast I’m doing about tools that I
love. There’s one tool called www.StickK.com, which is a really great goal-setting
tool. There’s the Lift app.
You can also just find a friend or someone in a Facebook group. Tell people
you want to be held accountable. Especially on the days where it would be
much easier to crawl into bed, if you know you’re going to have to tell
somebody that you either did or didn’t get something done, it’s going to
motivate you. Maybe you’re motivated so you don’t look bad, or you just
want to be excited to tell your friend that you’ve gotten things done.
I would set goals every year, then every month. Meet with your
accountability partner(s) once a month, once a week, once a day, or all three,
and share what you’ve gotten done. They can share with you what they’ve
gotten done. If you are working on similar goals, you can brainstorm
solutions to things. It’s all really helpful.

27. You could also just report on Facebook. Even if you don’t have anybody to
mastermind with, you can say on Facebook, “I’m committing to getting this
done by Friday. If I don’t, here’s what’s going to happen.” Then just post and
let people know if you’ve gotten it done. There are lots of ways you can hold
yourself accountable.