There’s a lot of talk, especially at the beginning of a new year, about envisioning and planning for great success. The start of a new year can, absolutely, be an inspiring time for reimagining where you want to be and planning for how to get there… but what if you’re *not* feeling inspired? You’re not feeling excited about defining new goals? What can you do to get your mojo back?
*Resources mentioned during the episode*
The One Step Outside Facebook group– Join us over in the Facebook group to meet like-minded people who are working on reimagining success in their life and business and to get access to direct support and free training sessions from Anna. www.facebook.com/groups/onestepoutside
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Get your motivation back
Transcript:
Hello there and welcome back. Now, although this really is a continuation of the last few weeks when we’ve been talking before Christmas, actually, and after Christmas as well about setting your vision. Last week, we looked at creating your vision board, reviewing your business plans, the year … The year. The week before and so on. So for you, hopefully this is a continuation. For me, I should say that I actually am back now after a bit of a break. So, the past several episodes, in fact, a couple of months worth of content I had prerecorded, I had batched.
So, I’m really excited to be back here with you. Although, perhaps you haven’t noticed a difference. I have been off for a little bit and now I am here with you again. So first of all, really excited to be back live as it were with you recording new material again. So, my sort of personal live message to you is welcome back, really happy to be with you. And I hope you have had a good break and you are feeling excited about the new year. However, if you’re not feeling excited, because let’s face it, the year has had a bit of a sketchy start, let’s say. There’s both good news and bad news in different areas of society and politics and so on. Let’s not get into that.
But the topic for today is, how do you get your mojo back, essentially? How do you get your motivation back when perhaps you’re just not feeling inspired?
So all this talk, which interestingly, this year, I’ve seen a lot of backlash in a way. I’ve taught for many years about resolutions not being very effective. And lots of people now are talking about having this word or theme, which I’ve talked about as well, which I came across many years ago. And a lot of people are, which I think is a good thing saying, “You know what? You don’t need to have that whole new year, new you mantra. It’s the same you. If you’re not feeling it, that’s okay. Give yourself a bit of a break.”
And you know what? It’s just an arbitrary date in the diary anyway, 1st of January, isn’t it? So this isn’t the right start for you. That’s no problem. I remember last year, one of my clients told me, “Look, I’m just not feeling it. I need a bit of a break.” And then she came back and we worked together on hitting the ground running sort of February time, which is absolutely fine. So, a few ideas though, if you do want to get your motivation back. And the first one is absolutely give yourself a break. And when I say give yourself a break, I mean that literally in the sense that yes, maybe you’ve had a bit of a break now with Christmas, with the holidays and so on, but really it’s quite short.
Certainly here in England, we had a pretty stressful time. Our plans were cancelled at the last minute with COVID. Maybe you did travel. Maybe you didn’t. Or maybe you saw family, maybe you didn’t. In any case all around the world now, it’s a bit of a strange situation. Irrespective of whatever’s going on in your own life individually, personally as well. So, maybe take some more time off again. 1st of January is an arbitrary time. Maybe you had decided to come back on the 4th, which was a nice … “Monday, let’s get back into it.” But actually, you haven’t been feeling it. So, that’s okay. Give yourself another week or two, a month, or whatever it takes.
So, take some proper time off. Rest. Remember the bottom, the base layer of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the couple of bottom ranks there is really around taking care of yourself.
Wellbeing is so much at the foundation of everything we do. So, give yourself a break, but also give yourself a bit of a break in the less literal sense of, “Hey, it’s a pretty tough time. Be kind, be compassionate with yourself and don’t be so hard on yourself, essentially.” So, you know what? Don’t push yourself. [inaudible 00:03:12] that kind of tough love is really effective with you.
I was watching the third season of Cobra Kai. And if you’re following that on … It’s on Netflix, I think. And the guy Johnny … In fact, I never watched Karate Kid. This is the follow-up to Karate Kid, if you’re not familiar with this. I never watched Karate Kid back in the day, but I’ve been loving it. And this Johnny Guy who was sort of the bad guy back in the 80s, is still pretty much stuck in the 80s. Although, he’s really lovable, and I think my favourite character now. All this to say that he basically gets this guy who has this poor young lad who has been kicked pretty badly and thinks he’s going to be paralysed and can’t walk, with some pretty tough love, shouting at him saying he’s many words that I can’t say here.
I won’t say it on the podcast and so on.
So, if that is you, then by all means, shout at yourself and give yourself a hard time. I personally don’t go for that kind of military 80s, whatever you want to call it, tough love. I think a bit of tough love, sure, but not that sort of shouting at you and calling you names and so on. So, be kind and compassionate to yourself is the main message here. Give yourself a break. Take some more time off if needed and give yourself a bit of an easy time. Ease into things. Don’t worry. Your business is not going to collapse, your career is not going to end now if you give yourself a few more days, weeks, even months.
Now, the second thing is a bit more sort of proactive, I suppose, which is to find the fun.
So, don’t get caught up. Don’t allow yourself to be dragged down by the things you feel you should be doing. I have such a long list now of things I feel I can … And it’s things I want to do, things I feel like I should do. I am intentional about them and so on. But it’s just impossible, let’s face it, to do all of them. So, trying to see, “Okay, out of all these things you feel you should do, where is the fun? Where is your energy right now?” Go with your energy, because you’re going to get some really quick wins there. You’re going to feel energised.
You’re going to find the motivation from getting on with those things, rather than dragging yourself down even further, by doing the things that you feel that you should do. So, look for the fun. Follow your curiosity is another way we’ve phrased this in the past. Really look for, “Hey, I’m really feeling this right now.” Well, by all means, give that a go. See how that goes. And don’t, again, let yourself get dragged down by feeling like, “Oh, I really should be tweaking this, or doing that, or managing this, or whatever it is.” So, put aside the [inaudible 00:05:30] for a while, it’s always a good thing to do and really look for the fun, because that’s the way you’re going to get your motivation back. Do the things that you’re already motivated to do. And then I’m sure that will spread and snowball and so on.
Now another one is to look for inspiration.
So, if you really don’t know, if you really don’t feel any kind of motivation right now, you can’t find the fun. Nothing feels exciting. Then try to open up your eyes and look out into the world. Literally be external, but you can also be internal, by the way. Maybe you can do some introspection, reflection, meditation on looking for the fun. So, in looking for the inspiration, that’s one way. Or look externally. Go out into nature. Pick up the phone, talk to someone you haven’t talked to in a while, but you know they always have really great ideas, or maybe someone inspires. See what they’re up to. Having some role models in your life is really powerful.
Maybe listen to a podcast. And obviously, you’re listening to me now since you’re listening to this, these words, so that’s exciting. Hopefully, this is helping you to get your mojo back as well. And maybe find some other podcasts to get into, go back and listen to old episodes of my podcast and see what clicks with you. Read a book on … Audiobook or physical, paperback, Kindle, whatever is your jam. What else can you do? Buy a bunch of magazines. I bought a load to do my vision board a few weeks ago. And just sort of seeing maybe travel could be quite inspiring at this stage. I’m certainly missing international travel and even national travel, to be honest. And so, magazines, books, podcasts, and films. Even, who knows where you can get your inspiration from?
So, talk to people, go out there, watch things, listen to things, read things. And also, if you’re up to it, if you’re feeling it, then go inwards as well and look for inspiration inside yourself as well. The next one is, join a community. This is a bit more external again. Find like-minded people who are doing things, who are maybe either feeling down, and that’s the case … I think there’s so much camaraderie now this time of year anyway, but certainly now and in the entrepreneurial community, but definitely now with the whole COVID and the political situation and so on, everyone’s sort of coming together, or a lot of people at least are coming together in a very positive way.
Other people are feeling it too. Homeschooling is such a big thing at the moment for many people here in England. Suddenly, the schools have been closed again, or haven’t reopened and there are lots of parents who are entrepreneurs or having to work from home now suddenly with the kids with no childcare. Knowing that there are other people out there who are feeling the same is so powerful. So, look for those groups. The Facebook group, of course you have my one step outside group. I can recommend others, so just message me as well on any social channel and I can give you some tips, especially some groups if you are a parent perhaps struggling with that at the moment and so on.
Find like-minded groups, work with a coach, find someone to really partner with and help you find that energy. Maybe ask some powerful questions to resolve, what is it? What’s going on right now? What is holding you back? Are there some beliefs? Is there some mindset stuff going on? And how can we really uncover what that fun, that inspiration is and help you moving towards or clarifying, defining new goals? So, look for communities online. Offline’s a bit tricky now, but still whatever works for you in terms of chatting to people, having those conversations, knowing that other people are going through the same difficult things, but also succeeding in finding their motivation and doing inspiring things. And again, that can be really exciting too to see, “Hey, they’re doing this. I’d like to do that too.”
And finally, 5th tip is to do something, anything. I’ve said this many times before, but it’s worth repeating again and again. Action begets action.
There’s no point to just sitting on the sofa, “Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba,” and just waiting for motivation to hit and then I’ll get up and do something. No, motivation comes when you get up and do something. So, an example I’ve always given in the past is tidying. If I just sit here going, “Oh, I wish I had the energy to go through my drawers and de-clutter and so on.” Probably never going to find that motivation. However, if I go, “Okay, you know what? I’ll just try this little drawer.” Same with exercise. Of course, “Hey, I’ll just do 10 minutes of running.”
As soon as you start, you’re like, “I’m really enjoying this. Maybe it wasn’t as bad as I thought. And hey, now that I’m here, I might as well do a bit more tidying, or do another drawer, or I’ll go for another five minutes of running.”
Right? So action begets action.
And doing something, calling someone up, emailing, downloading a book, listening to something. It doesn’t have to be drastic or dramatic. Maybe researching a course. I had a course that I started last year that unfortunately I had to sort of take a step … I chose to, let’s say. And I take ownership for this, to take a step back from now. Now I thought, “Okay, little step.” I just go on and see, “Okay, how much do I have left? Is it manageable?” Do I just go, “Hey, let’s put this to one side or do I keep kind of putting myself together and trying to move forwards?”
Which is, I think what I’m going to be doing now. So, a little step you can give yourself, but just do something, anything to me forwards. So again, give yourself a break, literally and metaphorically in the sense of take a break, take some more time off if needed. As much needed as you want or need. And take a break in the sense of, “Hey, give yourself a break.”
Really, don’t be so hard on yourself.
Find the fun, look for the fun and follow the things that are really exciting you, if anything.
If nothing, then look for the inspiration, both externally outside of the world, in other people, reading, watching, talking to people and so on. And joining a community, finding like-minded people, people who are out there either struggling through the same issues as you and/or already out there. They’ve already overcome this issue that you have. And there are, again, coaches out there. We can help you do that as well. We have that experience and we’ve helped other people do that too.
And finally, take action. Any action, do something. And I’m sure you’re going to find some little spark at some point. And that’s going to take you off in unexpected directions. So hopefully that’s helped. Again, the main message really is be kind to yourself, be compassionate. Don’t worry about all this stuff that’s going on. In fact, if needed, if you want, to take another step back, do a bit of digital detox, stop listening to podcasts and looking at the social media feed and so on. Give yourself a literal break from the world as well, if that’s what you need. But if you’re ready to go, then hopefully this has given you a few ideas to get that spark back as well. Thanks so much for listening again. I’m excited to be back with you and I will see you again next week. Bye for now.
If you’re ready to start to reimagine what success could look like for you, here are some of the ways in which Anna can support you:
Get private mentoring for your business – Partnering with a business coach can help you see those blind spots and get both external accountability and expert guidance to take your business to where you want it to be. www.onestepoutside.com/freeconsultation
Get private career coaching – Individual coaching is fully tailored to your specific goals and desires so we can create the programme that works best for you, with the support that you need to move forwards. www.onestepoutside.com/claritycall
Grab a copy of Leaving the Corporate 9 to 5 – After interviewing 50 people who have left the corporate 9 to 5 to forge their own path, Anna has collected their stories in a book that will inspire you with the possibilities that are out there and reassure you that you’re not alone in looking for an alternative. www.leavingthecorporate9to5.com
Join the One Step Outside the 9 to 5 Business Incubator – This is your roadmap to transitioning from a corporate job into setting up a meaningful business that will bring you more freedom, flexibility and fulfilment outside of the corporate 9 to 5. www.onestepoutside.com/9to5
Up-level with The Outsiders Business Accelerator – This is a mastermind for entrepreneurs, freelancers and small business owners who want to create a long-term sustainable brand and business. www.onestepoutside.com/accelerate
