March has been an exhilarating yet very weird month for me. I was traveling for nearly two weeks, I had lots of events going on and projects in my business were taking off. All of this was great and exciting stuff, but for some reason I was feeling totally unmotivated.
Feeling unmotivated happens at times, especially when we’re working pretty hard to make our freelancing dreams come true. Here are some tips for getting out of the funk and back to work.
Notice the patterns.
One thing that has helped me tremendously when I’m feeling unmotivated in my business is to notice when this feeling starts to creep in. For example, last week I kept waking up not wanting to do much of anything so I started to question why I was feeling that way.
I quickly realized that I was feeling low energy because I’d had a lot of meetings over the last couple of days. As much as I love coaching and collaborating with people, I start feeling drained once I exceed a certain number of phone calls.
I also noticed this feeling starts to creep in when I haven’t really been working on my own creative pursuits. While I get to create for a living, there’s definitely a difference between creating for clients and creating for yourself.
By being aware of the patterns I can stop the feeling of being unmotivated before it even happens. I do this by making sure I’m getting what I need along the way instead of waiting until I feel burned out.
Take a break.
When I start to feel unmotivated it’s a surefire sign that I need a break. The other day I actually took a random half-day and spent two hours in a local park. When I got back, I felt much better and rejuvinated.
Taking a break when you’re feeling unmotivated sounds like the most unproductive thing a person can do when they staring at deadlines in the face. However, you must consider the alternative. The alternative looks like pushing through feeling unmotivated and risking creating shoddy work.
Work on your own stuff.
Since I began to notice that when I start feeling unmotivated it’s often times because I haven’t worked on my own creative pursuits, I blocked out an entire day to work on content for my own brand.
Again, this seems counterintuitive to some, but it helps get the creative juices flowing again. Besides, if I have a nagging feeling that I must do something for my own brand I’ve learned that I need to roll with it or the creative tension will drive me nuts.
Final Thoughts
We all end up feeling unmotivated every once in a while and it’s totally okay. Just make sure to notice why you start to feel this way and take the necessary measures to get yourself out of the funk.
