Having a long-term mindset when starting a membership site is crucial because, without it, you could easily fall out of love with your membership further down the line.

You’ve got to eat, sleep and breath your membership (metaphorically speaking).

In other words, you need to be super passionate about your membership topic because, like I always say, a membership is like a marathon.

It’s long-term and requires a big commitment on your part if you want it to become a steady source of income or even your full-time job.

Having genuine interest, passion and enthusiasm for your topic are vital. You’re going to be talking about this topic to lots of people for many years.

So, how can you tell if your membership is something that you’re still going to be passionate about in years to come?

First, I suggest you take this easy acid test:

The Acid Test

To find out if you can really run your membership for years to come, you’ve got to take a moment and do the acid test.

This is when you think one, five or ten years down the line and imagine that all you did every single day was talk about this topic, create content for it, answer questions about it and so on.

Does that sound like heaven or hell?

Your gut instinct should be more than enough to tell you whether you have long-term and sustainable interest in your topic.

However, what if you find yourself a few years down the line and that original enthusiasm and passion you had for your membership has begun to diminish?

Is it time to call it a day and give up?

Or, is there a way that you can fall back in love with your membership?

Let’s find out:

Identify the cause of the problem

If you want to rebuild your original love for your membership, you’ve first got to think long and hard about what the actual problem is.

Your membership, begging to be loved!

Do you have a general feeling of dissatisfaction or lack of interest?

Or, can you pinpoint the root of the problem?

Perhaps you love 90% of your membership but hate the 10% that requires you to create lots of content.

Or, perhaps keeping up with community questions is getting you down.

Whatever it is, you’ve got to identify the root cause of the problem and try to tackle that problem.

Could you outsource tasks to someone else?

Think about how you can take the problem that’s keeping you from being genuinely excited about running a membership and make it a non-issue.

Focus on the things in your membership that you do enjoy.

This will help you to regain that original passion and enthusiasm that got your membership off the ground in the first place.

Break free from your routine

In some cases, there may not be a specific problem or reason for your lack of interest in your membership.

You might be feeling a general loss of enthusiasm and unable to pinpoint exactly why.

If you can relate to this, I suggest doing something different.

Break your routine and try something new in your membership to help spark that passion for your topic.

You could try something like a live training session, an intriguing Q&A where you can talk to your members or you can run a fun challenge.

The lack of enthusiasm could be because you’re tired of following the same routine.

Shaking up your routine could be all you need to relight the fire of passion you have for your membership.

Try other activities

Rekindling your love for your membership could be as easy as trying other activities that fuel your interest in the topic.

When you have been the owner and community leader of your membership for so long, your relationship with the subject area changes.

Change it up by introducing new ways that you can engage with your subject matter.

Take some classes, meet up with some peers or attend a conference or event.

Get out and do something that allows you to reengage with the subject of your membership.

You might even go to a conference overseas and the act of traveling and discovering new places along the way can really help ignite your passion for the topic all over again.

Try to reconnect with the world you operate in on a daily basis, but in a completely different context.

Reconnecting with the reasons why you fell in love with your membership topic in the beginning, is one of the best ways to get the creative juices flowing and spark your passion once again.

Take a break

Are you feeling overworked, stressed or burned out?

If so, your lack of interest in your membership could simply be because you need a break.

News flash, it’s okay to step away from your membership every once in a while.

Taking a break is good for you.

Everyone needs a break sometimes and the beauty of owning a membership is the fact that you don’t need to be present 24/7.

You can take a break and still serve your members.

Disconnecting from the responsibilities of running a membership can free up some of your mental bandwidth, giving you some much-needed rest and time off.

During this time, it’s good to do other things that you’re passionate about.

If you love fishing, grab your fishing pole and head out fishing for the day. If you love chilling at home playing video games by all means, do that!

That's what we do!

“Relaxing”

Do whatever it is that helps you to switch off and relax.

You’ve earned it.

Create a happy folder

Whenever you’re feeling down, stressed or you simply regret getting out of bed this morning, you can look inside your happy folder.

A happy folder is exactly what it sounds like.

It’s basically a digital folder on your desktop filled with things that are guaranteed to put a smile on your face.

It could have lots of screenshots of positive reviews or testimonials, nice emails, accomplishments, membership milestones worth remembering and so on.

The point is to have somewhere that you can go that can help elevate your mood and reaffirm why it's worth persevering through the tougher times.

It’s great if you can fill the folder with all of the positives associated with your membership.

Doing this will help remind you why you fell in love with your membership and will help you to get those feelings back.

Spend time with your members

Spending time with your members in person, if possible, can make a huge difference in your mood and how you perceive your membership.

If you’re always ‘in your membership’ it can be easy to feel disconnected from it, especially if you don’t take the time to get to know your actual members.

If you can, organize a real-life meetup where you can get together with some of your members, have a bite to eat and talk about the topic that you all love so much.

Sometimes, connecting with people from your membership is all it takes to reinvigorate your initial passion and enthusiasm.

When you’re surrounded by people who are genuinely passionate about the topic of your membership, some of that passion and excitement is bound to rub off on you.

If you can’t meet up with members physically, a virtual meetup is the second best option.

A virtual hangout session that’s casual and chatty can be a great way to get to know your members and socialize with them in a comfortable setting.

Reaffirm your interest in your membership!

If you’ve lost enthusiasm for your membership, you need to try to reaffirm your initial passion and interest in the topic.

This means actively trying to reengage yourself with the topic and reaffirming why you started in the first place.

What was your motivation?

Who did you want to help?

What was the difference that you wanted to make?

Asking yourself questions like this can really help you to see the big picture and the reason why your membership even exists.

Hopefully, answering questions like this will help motivate you to continue with your membership… sometimes all you need is a gentle kick up the backside to reignite your enthusiasm and interest.