laneimageconsulting
I hope all is good in your world. January can be a tricky month, especially in the Northern hemisphere, where the weather tends to be grey and cold. All the lights and decorations have gone away after Christmas, and the shorter nights and warmer weather of Spring seem a long way off.
Despite the grotty weather and feeling ‘meh’, it’s important to start showing up consistently in your business again if you took a break over the holidays because people need to know how you can help them. If you’re not showing up, they won’t see you, and you won’t be top of mind.
If you’re not there telling them what you do, they’ll never understand that they need to buy your services. The people who turn up and put offers out to their audience are the ones who get the business!
But how do you turn up if you’re just not feeling it?
Well, you can keep things simpler than you usually would if you struggle energy-wise at this time of year.
I’ve been struggling with flu for the past couple of weeks and have been exhausted after travelling to Ireland for Christmas with all the family and looking after my elderly parents. So I’ve pared everything back in my business to allow myself time to rest and recover. My non-negotiables are to post on social media everyday, email my subscribers every week and go live in my Facebook group on Friday mornings.
That’s it. Everything else goes on the back burner until I feel more like myself again. If you’re struggling at the moment, write down your three non-negotiables and stick to doing those for now.
Read on for some more tips to help you get out of the January blues:
Eight ways to feel fired up and energised again
1) Show yourself some compassion
We often beat ourselves up when we’re not on top form. We’re mean to ourselves for every perceived fault – if we’re not full of enthusiasm to start the new year, if we haven’t set goals, if we’ve not done our vision board. Stop that already!
You need to give yourself the gift of compassion. The holidays can be a lot. All the rushing around, visiting people, attending parties, buying presents and finishing work before shutdown. Then there are usually family catch-ups over the holidays, children to entertain, elderly parents to look after, travelling, you name it. It all happens over Christmas! It can be exhausting, and we don’t make enough allowances for it. We don’t give ourselves any compassion.
You might need to go easy on yourself for the first few weeks of January to get some rest and recover. If you keep pushing yourself when your mind and body are screaming for some downtime, you’ll end up burnt out and be no use to anyone. Your business will suffer, and so will your personal life.
2) Invest in some support
We try to do too much by ourselves. It’s such a woman thing. We try to take everything on, and doing it by yourself is incredibly wearing. Is there a place in your life where you can invest in some support? It could be a cleaner to help with the housework or a sitter to collect your children from school and feed them dinner. Or maybe you could get some support with your business?
We often have a scarcity mindset when it comes to paying for help. We keep telling ourselves we need to make more money or achieve other milestones before getting support, but often, it’s that additional support which pushes us to the next level.
Have a look at your life and business. Is there something you need support with?
3) Move your body
It’s so important to move our bodies, even in a really gentle way. Having had the flu recently, I’ve not felt like doing my usual long walks, but I’ve still pulled on my wellies and gone for much shorter walks in the woods. Even though it’s just a small amount of exercise, it always gets me out of a rut and helps me feel better.
You don’t need to pay a fortune for a flashy gym membership or buy your own expensive equipment, just head outside and get moving. I guarantee you’ll feel better and you’ll be more motivated.
If you allow your mind to switch off and soak up your surroundings, you’ll also be surprised at the ideas that come up while you’re on the move – content ideas, new ways to work with clients – it’s incredible what the brain can do when you get your body moving!
4) Get more rest
If you had a chaotic Christmas and a hectic start to the new year, schedule some more time to rest. Go back to bed for an hour once the kids are in school. Your mind and body need to recover to be creative for your clients and in your marketing.
Do the same if and when you’re unwell, and don’t feel guilty about it. Just take the rest if you need it. You’ll find that as you get older (like lucky me, I’m definitely in perimenopause now), you need more rest and recovery than you used to. Don’t begrudge yourself.
5) Acknowledge how far you’ve come
Some personality types continually race forward and forget everything they’ve achieved in the last year. So right now, I want you to bring to mind and acknowledge everything you’ve achieved since last January. Some things may only feel small, but once you start adding them up over the year, you’ll see you’ve come on in leaps and bounds!
Remember to appreciate and be grateful for every small step you take on the road to your dreams because you get more of what you focus on.
6) Create a vision board
It doesn’t have to be a spectacular work of art. I got a simple pinboard from Ikea, and over the next couple of weeks, I’ll be cutting pictures out of magazines of things that inspire me and remind me of my goals and where I want to go in life and sticking them on my board.
I highly recommend making your own vision board because it’s a permanent reminder of your goals that you can stick on the wall or set as your desktop wallpaper on your laptop. A vision board pulls you forward and gets you into action. It’s a nice activity to do as a family too. My kids love getting creative and making their own boards gets them thinking about what they want to aim for in life.
7) Get into action
Sometimes we’re just not going to feel motivated, and the only option is to take action anyway. That’s just the way it is. Think about what you love doing in your business and do some of that to get yourself moving. Usually, what happens, once you get into action and get one thing completed, you feel fired up to do more. Your energy rises, and the enthusiasm and motivation return.
I sometimes struggle to motivate myself to post on social media, so I start by designing the graphic in Canva because any time I do anything creative like that, it energises me. I always find that the words for my posts come to me while I’m working on the visual, and then I can get it out into the world without too much struggle.
What small actions can you take to complete things you love doing and get you all fired up again? Look for tasks that energise you, and they’ll work wonders.
8) Simplify things
When you’re feeling low in energy or unwell, pick the top three things you have to do in the day and keep it simple. Today my essential tasks are:
- Write and send this email. ✅
- Email AICI the training plan for the session I’m delivering for them in June.
- Email participants of one of my programs with their homework to prepare for the next session.
Anything I get done over and above this will be brilliant, but I’ll be happy with my day if I get these three things done.
There you have it. My eight top tips to help you find your motivation when you’re just not feeling it. Which do you think is best? Will you give any of them a go?