Put Fire In Your Belly Stop staring out the window, flipping channels or checking out E! Online. Here's how to get-and stay-motivated.

Some babies seem to come out of the womb with fire in theirbellies while others are phlegmatic from the get-go. So ifyou're looking for ways to fire up, I suppose the best adviceis, "Choose the right parents."

But what if you're not naturally driven? I reviewed mycareer-counseling notes on more than 1,400 clients to find thestrategies that have worked best at lighting a fire under theseprocrastinating, unproductive small-business owners. There's noone size-fits-all cure. Looking back, it's clear that eachprocrastinator needs a personalized combination of one or morestrategies. Here's a smorgasboard to choose from:

Find Your Passion
What's your hot button?

• Seeing your numbers grow? I encouraged one retail store ownerto chart his profits every day. That motivated him to make theextra efforts he knew he needed to make.

• Picturing what your earnings could buy you-a house, a collegeeducation, a boat? I had a client put pictures of his dream housewhere he'd see them every day: on his cash register, on therefrigerator, on his Day-Timer.

• Helping society? A massage therapist found more motivation tomarket herself by thinking of herself as a Mother Teresa, helpingthe ill, tired and stressed-out. I reminded her that her giftedhands might do more to save the world than the efforts of manyhigher-status professionals.

• Adrenaline? Some people are motivated by it. I encourage themto play mental games with themselves to encourage an adrenalinerush. For example, I tell them to give themselves 30 minutes to dosomething that should take 40, and if they do it, then rewardthemselves. Sometimes the adrenaline rush is a reward in itself.I've even encouraged some adrenaline-junkie clients to takedirect aim at an inferior competitor and try to do everythingethically possible to win over his customers and put him out ofbusiness.

Team Up

• Find a partner. Some people who would otherwise goof offperform better when they know they're responsible to someoneelse. It's especially helpful if your partner has fire in hisor her belly-that makes your torpor even more embarrassing.

• Work in an office with others. Sometimes seeing others inaction motivates you to follow suit. Don't know anyone whoneeds an officemate? Look up "Executive Suites" in yourYellow Pages, or check the Web site of the National BusinessIncubation Association.

• Join or form a support group. Weight Watchers works, in part,because of the peer pressure that comes from the weekly weigh-ins.Similarly, some small-business owners gain fire in their bellies byjoining a businessperson's support group. Check with yourChamber of Commerce, or start your own by placing an ad in a localbusiness periodical. Or find a loving taskmaster-someone to yell atyou daily, "Get off your lazy butt!" With some people,that actually works better than anything else.

Tweak Your Business
Buy a suit off-the-rack, and it will probably look just OK. But toreally look terrific, you should get it tailored to fit you. Samewith your business. Here are some examples:

• Maximize the use of your best skills. David is a terrific Website designer but a lousy salesperson. At my urging, he hired asalesperson so he could spend more time using his best skills. Heended up generating much more than the cost of thesalesperson.

• More often than you might think, you can integrate your hobbyinto your job. For example, a jewelry store owner's hobby isplaying the violin. When he isn't waiting on a customer, heplays. Not only does that pass the time, it attracts customers. Aninterior decorator's hobby is photography. She decorates heroffice's walls with before-and-after pictures of her projects.My hobby is playing the piano. At the end of sessions, ifappropriate, I offer to play the piano for my clients. They usuallylove it, and, ham that I am, so do I.

Get More Skilled
The more competent you feel, the better feedback you'll get,and in turn, the more you'll stoke those embers in your belly.Often smarter than a long back-to-school stint is to attend what Icall You U: Find live and e-mentors, watch peers work, take shortworkshops, or read your professional association's publicationsand other practical articles.

Know How to Handle the ToughMoments
One of the fastest ways to extinguish fire in your belly is to hita tough-to-solve problem. When you bump up against a hurdle, thesestrategies may help you leap it:

• The one-second task. When faced with a task'senormity, it's tempting to procrastinate. Cure: Think of thenext one-second task you need to do-open a book, pick up the phone,sort your faxes, whatever. Often, doing that one-second task isenough to distract you from procrastinating and get you rollingagain.

• The one-minute struggle. When you reach a tough problem,struggle for no more than one minute. Chances are you won'tsolve it. But after one minute, you can decide to get help, plan tocome back to it later when you can view it with fresh eyes, ordecide you can get the job done without solving that problem.

Make It Fun
Your attitude can make work more pleasurable. For example, everytime you make a phone call, decide to make it enjoyable, evenplayful. That not only makes your work more fun, it makes you moreeffective. When I'm counseling a client, I make a point ofoccasionally interjecting a little silliness just for the heck ofit. When I started to do this, I was afraid clients would view mydalliances as a waste of time and even as unprofessional, butI've found they really like them. Indeed, many clients use myfirst joke as their cue to play around a bit during sessions.

Get Tough
In the United States, we avoid calling people "lazy," atleast to their faces. We can call them procrastinators or fearful,but "lazy" is seen as too much of a putdown. But theunvarnished truth is that some people are lazy. Some of my lazyclients have been helped by my "tough love" lecture:

People who always find excuses for not doing what they shouldare losers. Yes, losers. They fail at work and usually in theirrelationships. And you're well on the path toward becoming apermanent loser.

The good news is that there's still time to change--ifyou're willing to face the fact that right now you are a loser,and all the introspection, self-pity and therapy in the worldwon't take the place of just doing it. Work before play, noexcuses, no working on peripheral, easier tasks when there arecentral ones waiting. Every time you reach the moment of truth-whenyou're deciding whether to work or goof off-you're taking astep toward being a winner or a loser. It's your call.

Dr. Marty Nemko hosts Work with Marty Nemko on a NationalPublic Radio affiliate in San Francisco. His column appears on thefront page of the employment section of the Sunday Los AngelesTimes and San Francisco Examiner/Chronicle. His latestbook is Cool Careers for Dummies. He's anOakland, California small business and career consultant andspeaker. He can be reached at mnemko@well.com.