Your creative process might be holding you back.

Today we’re gonna talk about inspiration.

Because for a long, long time, I used inspiration as an excuse.

I would wait, and wait, and wait to create content for my own business – saying I needed to be in the right mindset to get certain things done.

Saying I’d prep content on Monday morning….. then when I slept in on Monday I’d think “well I guess I missed my opportunity, oh no” and put it off.

Instead of proactively creating a routine for myself and adjusting as needed – I’d let myself create excuses instead.

Waited until that elusive, mystical “moment of inspiration” and THEN worked on my own website. Or write my own content.

But the reality is, if you want to have a steady stream of clients coming in, SOMEone has to be building your presence. Whether it’s you, an assistant, or a combination of both.

There was a process I used to get out of that mindset, and to start being proactively creative, instead of reactively creative. As in, building the creative component of my own business promotion into my time, instead of only building content as a reaction to some magical lightning bolt from the sky that kicked my ass into gear with its imaginary power.

So I’ve collected a few of my favourite methods from that process, for you to use yourself!

1. Stop believing that you’re limited by your own mindset. This one is the hardest, so I’ve listed it first. I literally used to tell myself that on some days, I wasn’t feeling creative enough to do things like write blog posts, or create graphics. I didn’t really know what constituted “feeling creative enough,” all I knew was I *didn’t* feel whatever it was that day. So I just… wouldn’t. I’d do other things instead, even if that meant getting ahead on client content, and falling behind on my own. If you haven’t picked this up yet: I was creating that limit for myself. What you perceive to be real is real in its consequences – and DAMN was that true in this situation. To get out of this mind-trap, I decided to constantly remind myself that I can write badass blog content whether I’m inspired or not. Then once I was comfortable with that concept, I shifted again, to integrating the belief that I could draw inspiration from ANYthing. And in creating that belief for myself… I made it true. Now, I can sit down with my list of content prompts, and write a new post whenever I add it to my schedule.
2. Fork schedules (remember we live in the good place now?). Well I mean, don’t ENTIRELY fack them, schedules are great if you’re a schedule person. But don’t allow your schedule to be a space of creating excuses for not getting things done. If one task on your list takes longer than you thought, that’s not a reason to skip the next thing. If you sleep late, that’s not a reason to upend your plans for the day. Proactively adjust to the hiccups.
3. Stop ignoring your basic needs. This isn’t a point about self care, this is bigger than that. We cannot, CANNOT expect ourselves to complete tasks efficiently or effectively if we’re exhausted all the time. If our brains are starved of calories. If our souls know we’re not caring for them. Who in the world can cultivate creativity under those constraints? Not me. I can’t. So when I say that sleeping in isn’t an excuse for not getting things done, I don’t mean stay up later to accomplish it. If some things need to get pushed to the next day, so be it. What I mean, is you need to maintain your priority list of tasks to complete, and not continually allow the frog (we’ll get to that in a minute, that one isn’t meant to be replaced with a naughty word) to get pushed to the next day, and the next day. When you address your own needs first, it’s a lot easier to convince yourself that you are indeed a badass who can write blog posts from thin air, whether the inspirational lightning has struck or… not.
4. Structure your to-do list in a way that works with your own patterns. What do you NEED to focus well? Do you get work done more efficiently before, or after lunch? Are you someone who works best in short bursts, or in long, deep-focus sessions? If the answers to these questions are “I don’t know” – then it’s time to figure it out. Track your own patterns. And then leverage them.

Some of these take more time than others to implement – but once you start using them, you’ll be able to build working on your OWN business into your routine, instead of staying perpetually at the end of your to-do list.