Lost your va va voom?

Ep. 73: Struggling to stay motivated? Try this 👇

Happy Friday!

Keeping this short today because it’s my brother’s second postponed Covid wedding this weekend and a last-minute trip to John Lewis beckons (not least because I accidentally dyed my hair purple, but that’s a business metaphor for another day).

My business motto might be “just in case” – but for everything else it’s “just in time” 😅

So, 3 things to share:

1. Got a solo episode for you today (see Spotify link below). If you’ve been experiencing an end-of-summer dip in productivity, you might enjoy these 7 tips to help you ride out the motivation rollercoaster. What are your fave tactics to keep pushing through when your energy starts to flag?

2. There’s still time to enter the giveaway for a free copy of Gill Andrews’ book, Making Your Website Work. To enter, just listen to this episode with Gill on the dos and don’ts of freelancer websites, and share your biggest takeaway on this LinkedIn post before noon on 31 Aug. We’ll be drawing the winners’ names in a LinkedIn Live next Wednesday.

3. There’s also still time to get your ticket for Magazine Street, which takes place in Edinburgh on 29 September. This is a brand new conference organised by the International Magazine Centre to celebrate the world of magazine publishing. Freelancers are a huge part of the magazine community, so I’m excited that 15 Minute Freelancer will be one of the event sponsors. I’ll be recording a couple of episodes at the event so if you’re there, come and say hi!

Today’s episode: Struggling to stay motivated? Try this 👇

Growing your freelance business takes time and effort, so you can't be rowing hard all the time. It’s completely normal for motivation to ebb and flow.

Sometimes you just want to sail ⛵️

But why does our motivation dip when we’re doing work we love? How do we know when to “sail” and when to “row”? Could “picnic mode” help us master motivation? How do we know when it might be time to quit 👀

Yes, this is basically 14 minutes and 53 seconds of analogies about staying motivated and using the undulations in motivation to our advantage.

I’d love to know which of the 7 strategies for staying motivated works best for you (number 2 is my favourite).

Listen here »

🧠 Insight: One idea that stayed with me after I recorded this was the need to enjoy the process. If I ever experience dips in motivation, it tends to be when I’ve achieved a goal. I’m left wondering “what next”? There’s a moment of enjoying the achievement, but then you realise there’s a whole load more work to do. The levels never run out. There’s always another challenge or opportunity, which is exciting and rewarding – but also tiring sometimes. We’re lucky to be able to decide how we approach this. The key is figuring out how to enjoy the process. What works for you?

➡️ 15 Minute Action: You can’t rely on willpower alone: let’s set some incentives! Spend a few minutes reflecting on your goals for the next month, and plan a reward day. Could be a day off, a massage, a fancy dinner, whatever floats your boat. It’s much easier to power through when you’ve got something to look forward to.

That’s all for today. Until next time, happy freelancing!

Louise xx