You got into your business because you loved it. Wild horses couldn’t drag you away from your desk.

But now, you have to drag yourself to work.

What happened?

Life happened. Good days and bad days. Successes and setbacks. Triumphs and tribulations (that’s a great word… never get to use it enough…).

And from all the ups and downs, something insidious starts happening: you lose sight of what you’re really about. Conclusions about what’s happening to you start crusting over the truth of what you’re really doing.

• You think you’re in the coaching game, but you’re really playing a much deeper game than just coaching.
• You think you’re a marketing consultant, but your soul has its focus on something more radical.
• Or you think you’re a healer, but you’ve got a different gift to give to people than just their health.

After a while, you’re not able to see the forest for the trees.

That’s when you know you’ve gotten crusty.

Where’d the spark go?

When the crust builds up, it’s easy to lose your internal sense of direction. Oh, you may still have a strategic plan, goals, and benchmarks, but you’re floundering trying to achieve them. Rather than showing up in the way you used to, full of passion and verve, you feel that your spark has been lost. Your “get-up-and-go” got up and went.

And so now what happens?

You try to get motivated about a project, but when that project hits a snag, your motivation tanks again.

If your motivation comes from an inner passion, from something more fundamental than a particular project, then it becomes sustainable, no matter what you run into or how your projects complete themselves.

Then, your passion can flow through the project, but the project isn’t the source of it.

How do you find that inner passion?

The Sufis would call this concept asceticism. But the word “asceticism” conjures up images of burlap-wearing, shoeless mendicants — and that’s not where I’m going with this.

The principal idea behind asceticism isn’t about forsaking the objects of the world, but rather, it’s about not looking to the world for one’s sustenance.

The founder of my particular spiritual lineage was known for both his asceticism, and his penchant for wearing fine clothes.

How was that possible?

Because he wasn’t looking to the world for identity. He didn’t need to acquire worldly objects to feel sufficed; his sufficiency came from his spiritual connection. He was tapped into the spiritual truth that he had what he needed, no matter the outer circumstances.

And since his heart was free of those worldly attachments, he was free to wear fine clothing as a sign of respect and gratitude toward the Divine, from whom all his abundance flowed.

If you truly understand this concept, the issue of finding motivation in your work will forever be solved.

Rather than look to your next project, or your next client, or the definitions that society proscribes for what success “should” look like, your heart needs to draw its motivation from within; from your values, your knowledge of your own being, and from your Divine connection.

Rather than get “pumped up” about seeing results in your work projects, reflect on what truly brings you joy, aside from any context.

Is it fulfillment of potential? Is it the peace that comes when pain is eased? Is it having a hand in the production of something beautiful? These speak to a quest for excellence, and a desire to live as fully as you possibly can.

These are ambitions of the soul, not fleeting desires of the ego. And as such, they have the power to ignite your passions eternally, rather than wax and wane with the coming of a particular project, client, or situation.

Tap into your inner passions for what you do, and you’ll never be lacking in motivation again.