Think back to when you first started your service business. Remember how excited you were at the opportunity to be your own boss? Remember when you dreamed of making enough money to provide your family with a comfortable life? Remember how you imagined working side-by-side with a superstar team to serve your market? Remember how you attacked every day with drive, passion, energy and determination? It was as if you were 18 years old all over again.

Now here’s the reality-check question: How are you doing today?

After a few years of owning a service business, many owners start to develop a nagging feeling that something isn’t right in their business, even if they don’t know what it is. They feel something could (and should) be better.

They start showing up to their office every day feeling overwhelmed, with dread gnawing at them. They’re tired of the constant “hamster wheel” of doing the same things over and over again. They’re frustrated at vendors, employees and customers. They’re worried that their business is just one bad online review from losing work. They might be making a good income, but they’re just barely staying ahead of their expenses.

This is the norm in the service business … but it doesn’t have to be that way. Service business owners do not have to endure this frustrating toil. There’s another way, a better way, to run a business. There’s a way to run your business that reignites the passion and energy you once possessed.

I’m not talking about a gimmicky trick or strategy, even though that’s what “the gurus” will promise you. Instead, it all starts inside you with this mindset change: Stop thinking of yourself as an owner and start thinking of yourself as a “CEO Warrior.”

In ancient times, the warrior-leaders were fearless action-takers whose victories on the battlefield became legendary, earning them the respect and awe of others.

Today, those same warrior-leaders are no longer leading other warriors into a real fight. Rather, modern-day CEO Warriors lead their teams into a different type of battle — a battle against mediocrity in the highly competitive battlefield of service-based businesses.

Today’s business warriors are bold, determined and fearless action-takers who “fight” relentlessly and, against all odds, grow their businesses to a higher level. In doing so, they earn the respect and admiration of a team of warriors who willingly follow them.

While most service business owners may struggle and stumble and move forward in their business, warrior-leaders burst onto the scene each day with energy and passion. They blaze a trail that inspires their teams and challenges everyone to keep up. Would you rather be an owner or a CEO Warrior?

Five warrior qualities

If you’re showing up to work with a feeling of boredom, frustration or even depression, here are the qualities to kick-start your brain and elevate you to become a modern-day business warrior:

1. Boldness of vision.You destroy mediocrity in your business and desire more for your business. You show up every day with a powerful vision for your company — a vision you’re excited about and a vision so compelling that your team gets excited about it, too.

2. Decisiveness.You don’t put things on the backburner. Rather, you realize the importance of making quick, smart decisions, because you know that you’ll never have 100% of the information. So you make the best decision with what you have right now. You trust your instincts and, over time, your instincts will become honed and will serve you well.

3. Action-taking.You take relentless action, always pushing forward. While others are sitting back to relax, you keep pushing forward. You realize the importance of action and momentum and the effect it will have on you, your business, your team and the future of your company.

4. Relentless pursuit of vision.Inspired by the vision you’ve created for your company, you build a business around that vision, measuring activities at all levels and for all team members to ensure that every action taken contributes to your over-arching vision. You relentlessly pursue your vision, even though it takes work, because the promise of that vision itself is what drives you forward.

5. Confidence.You’re confident that your vision and your actions are the right ones. You trust that you and your team are working at the highest level possible so everyone moves forward. You don’t second-guess yourself — you believe you’re making the best choices possible for your situation.

When your actions, behaviors, decisions and thoughts contain all these qualities, you will blaze a path toward success. Collectively, these qualities push you higher, accelerating you beyond the mediocre “average” that many service businesses fall into, and transform you into a CEO Warrior.