How to Fire up Your Business Routine When It Goes AWOL

It happens to the best of us.

You've got a great business routine going. Everything's working fantastically.

Then... 'life happens', and in an instant your routine goes absent without leave. (AWOL as it's known in military circles.)

What you once did easily and effortlessly suddenly feels impossible to accomplish. Rather than being able to cope with your daily activities as you did before, now you feel overwhelmed and debilitated.

Talk about frustrating!

This is exactly what happened to me this past week. Here's what happened and how I got out of it.

No Routine is Infallible

Any routine can be disturbed and it doesn't always have to be something negative that creates the disruption.

It's almost a week since I got back from an 11-day cruise in the South Pacific which I was required to go on for work.

If you read two previous posts of mine you'll know I still managed to work on my Wealthy Affiliate business while away. Just...

But let's be honest...

Try as you might, it's virtually impossible to work at the same pace or to keep to the same routine when absolutely everything is different about your daily life, as is the case when you're on a cruise.

For instance, try writing a blog post when you're just eaten far too much of that wonderfully rich caramel and marshmallow desert at lunch and you'd far rather be snoozing in a hammock in the sun.

Or imagine focusing on finding keywords when your're surrounded by hordes of excited vacationers, sipping exotic cocktails at the pool bar, recounting their scuba diving adventures off some remote palm tree lined island earlier in the day.

Needless to say, my second week was less productive than the first and just as well there wasn't a third week!

When I returned to my usual life this week, I knew there'd be a lot of catching up to do, especially with all the SWAG tasks I didn't get around to doing while away.

I dived in, only to find that somehow my routine which had been so solid two weeks earlier, was now suddenly missing.

Doing anything and everything was one enormous slog.

Quite obviously my mind was still in vacation mode and had no intention of going back to all that hard work again.

The best I could manage for the first day was to stare out the window, and fantasize about a cruise ship appearing out of nowhere, scooping me up and taking me away from my misery.

It's at junctures like this that we humans have a choice to make, either we give up or we find a way to fire up.

I knew that what was happening was just my mind trying to sabotage me. There had to be a way to get back to where I had been before.

Here are three steps I took to fire up my routine again and which you can try next time your routine goes AWOL.

1. Support Yourself

Don't beat yourself up when things appear to fall apart. We are humans, not machines.

We are easily influenced by changes in our lives. Be compassionate towards yourself.

Soothe yourself the same way you would support someone else, the same way you might soothe a child...

Self talk is a great help. I encouraged myself rather than criticize myself for not being where I thought I should be.

"This is temporary. Nothing stays the same. I'll be back to my usual self soon."

"I've done this before so I know I can get back to where I was before."

"Everything's fine, I'm just re-adjusting."

"Everything always works out for me. I'll get back to where I was soon enough."

Don't resist what is. When you do, it simply makes life harder. Accept that a temporary obstacle has arisen which you can take action to dissolve.

Allow yourself the space and time to re-align with what's important to you.

2. Reacquaint Yourself with Your Why

Nothing gets you more inspired than reminding yourself about why you even had a business routine in the first place.

You should have your vision, goals and the reason why you started a business written down. Get this out and read your notes again. Maybe even add to your notes as you do.

If you haven't got these written down, now is the ideal time to do it.

Close your eyes and get in touch with that feeling that got you excited about your business in the first place. Just bask in the feeling until it fills your whole being again.

Reacquaint yourself with your vision for an improved life and why you're doing it.

I did this first thing in the morning and again at the end of the day before I went to sleep. Each time I did, my feeling of excitement became stronger.

3. Start Rebuilding Momentum

When you first create a routine you do so progressively, building habits over a time period, you don't usually go from zero to full throttle.

When your routine has been disturbed and it's no longer working as it was, you have to backtrack for as long as it takes to build the momentum again.

Don't expect yourself to do it all as before and then give up when you can't achieve it.

Start small, with less than you were doing before. Do those activities you can do more easily than others.

These might not be the ones that require your brain to be engaged at an optimal level. Perhaps all you can manage at first is simply interacting with other WA members or reading other blog posts about people's successes and challenges.

The key here is you have to push through the resistance by making it manageable and with each day it will start to feel easier again. You have to take action, even if it's less action than before.

Then take on more of your old routine as you build momentum and before you know it you will have conditioned yourself back to where you were before.

It took me the best part of a week to get back to where I was before but now I know what to do next time this should happen again.

We all have a choice when our routines are disrupted, we can give up or fire up. Hopefully you will choose the latter too.