When you start an online business, everyone tells you to follow your passion. In some ways, that’s good advice, especially if you’re blogging as part of your online business model. If you’re not passionate about your topic, you’re not going to be able to churn out fresh content on it for very long.

The mistake people make, is assuming passion is a constant. It’s not. Passion ebbs and flows. There are very few people who feel constantly passionate about anything, least of all their online business. So sometimes you have to work at maintaining your passion. And sometimes you have to push on with your online business when you’re feeling far from passionate about it. Here are a few tricks to use when passion is waning.

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Change Things Up

Every successful business has innovated its way to success. It’s not possible to succeed while keeping the same business model all the way through.

Being willing to make changes in your business has two main advantages. First, it can deliver a positive return on investment and bring more traffic to your site, more subscribers to your list and more revenue to your bank account.

Second, it will actually stimulate your passion. If your enthusiasm for your business is low, don’t abandon your business. Simply add other things you are passionate about to the mix. You can get creative with how you expand your business, branching into new topics, new strategies or adding new streams of income.

Focus on the big picture

You started the business for a reason. And that reason was the fulfillment of a specific desire, most likely a financial or lifestyle related desire. Maybe you wanted more money, more freedom, or the ability to work from anywhere in the world.

Keep focusing on this vision and it can get you through the tough times when passion levels are low. Review your goals regularly and constantly visualize where you want to end up in the future.

Every business involves some time spent working on basic mundane tasks. Don’t focus on the tasks, focus on the big picture.  If you’re a vision board sort of person, build a visual picture of where you want to be. If you’re more of a words person, you might want to write a mission statement. Just remember to keep focused on where you’re headed when the day-to-day stuff gets hard.

Outsource, automate, and relax

One of the main reasons that online business owners lose their passion is that they get bogged down in day-to-day repetitive tasks and busywork. There’s an easy way to deal with this. Outsource and automate what you don’t love doing, so you can focus on the tasks you do get fired up about.

Use freelancers and automation tools to do the boring tasks for you, from email marketing to social media posting. This means that you are free to focus on the aspects of your business that you are really passionate about.

Consider that other people might be passionate about the things that you hate, and are willing to do them for a reasonable price. Streamline, automate, and systemise your business first, then outsource anything that you still don’t want to do.

You should also remember to take frequent rest and vacations. We all go through periods when we’re working way too hard on our businesses, and eventually we hit a burn out situation, where we don’t feel passionate about anything. Everybody needs rest, and you’ll often find you go back to your desk with renewed enthusiasm, new ideas, and a fresh burst of passion.

A few books I love about finding and maintaining passion:

Find Your Why: A Practical Guide for Discovering Purpose for You and Your Team

The Passion Test: The Effortless Path to Discovering Your Life Purpose

Finding Your Own North Star: Claiming the Life You Were Meant to Live

The Art of Work: A Proven Path to Discovering What You Were Meant to Do

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