10 Steps To Getting Your Inspiration Back

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• If you dont have a why, then its definitely
  never too late to create one. Consider these
  things when youre creating a why
• What are your values, and how is this project
  aligned with them? Do you have a reason for
  wanting to do this? It might be that you dont
  have a why, so if you cant think of one, I
  would really consider if the project is even
  right for you, because if youre not feeling
  motivated and there is no reason to do it that
  you can think of, maybe the lack of motivation
  means youre not supposed to be doing it.
• What is doing whatever youre uninspired about
  going to mean for you? What will happen if you
  actually get out of bed and make this happen? You
  can future-pace and see what will happen. Are you
  going to feel proud of yourself? Will you be able
  to make a certain amount of money from it?
• Will it mean feeling like youre capable of
  doing big things, getting projects done that you
  set your mind to? What is the end goal going to
  be? When you have the anchor, the why, its
  really awesome to help you start to get some
  movement created.

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• This is human nature. Were not going to want to
  jump up, even if were doing something we love,
  every single day. Especially if you are creating
  something yourself, its really easy to lose
  interest initially after you get excited about
  something. Theres always that momentum, that
  excitement, when you first get started, but then
  things might either be harder than usual or maybe
  youre coming against some obstacles that you
  hadnt anticipated.
• Perhaps youre not seeing immediate
  gratification you wanted to see. Could be youre
  just tired. So anticipate that in advance, be
  okay with it, and know that very few people are
  excited to get going every single day...no matter
  what they might tell you in their
  personal-development books, if you read those.
• Women, our menstrual cycles have us feeling
  completely different emotionally at different
  times of the month. There are four different
  phases. I recommend an awesome book called Woman
  Code by Alisa Vitti. In it, she talks about how
  different times of the month are going to have us
  feeling predictably different things. There are
  going to be times when we feel really creative,
  energized and focused, more social.

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• Then there are going to be times when we dont
  want to do anything. This is also really big for
  women entrepreneurs because a lot of times we
  might feel like, yes, weve made a decision, we
  want to do it, and then some point later in the
  month, well say, Actually, it doesnt feel
  right anymore. Its not that it doesnt feel
  right its just that were in a different phase
  in our cycle. So just understand, these things
  are going to happen, and account for them.
• Stick with your decision. If youve thoughtfully
  set up a goal and you have your compelling why,
  the best thing you can do is stick with your
  decision. Trust in your initial decision and the
  why to go with it. Just anticipate it.

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• Some things you can do to feed yourself that
  diet of motivation are
• Listen to podcasts like this one. This is meant
  to help you see that people can overcome
  different things and create the kind of life they
  feel proud about. You can search for whatever you
  want to hear about.
• 2. Read motivational books. There are all kinds
  of awesome books out there. Just do a search on
  Kindle, search for feedback youll find all
  kinds of great things. When youre driving or
  exercising, one of the things I love to do in the
  morning is go on the treadmill for 20 minutes and
  listen to audio books or podcasts that motivate
  me. Its such a great way to get the day started,
  to hear about people who have reached their
  dreams. I definitely recommend that.
• 3. Go to Meetup or networking groups with
  growth-oriented people. Surround yourself with
  the types of people who want the same things in
  their lives. Do whatever you need to do to make
  sure your brain is constantly getting infiltrated
  with dreams are possible, things are
  possible, even when there are obstacles, you
  can make this happen.

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• As we talked about, youre not going to feel one
  hundred percent raring to go every day, but tell
  yourself that youre committed to consistency
  anyway, even when youre not in the mood. Even if
  youre creatively flat-lining, you can do
  something to give respect to your project. It
  might even be sending out a little email or
  mapping something out, coming up with some ideas.
  
• Start creating something. Even if its a
  horrific first draft, its still better than
  nothing and it still shows that youre committed
  to what youre doing. I would just do a little
  bit every day to give some momentum to the
  project. Its also going to help you set your
  neural patterns in your brain to show you that
  youre going to do this project even when its
  not comfortable.
• The more you do things when youre not
  comfortable, the more your brain is going to
  start to recognize that you dont stop just
  because you dont feel like doing something.
  Sometimes its just having five minutes of
  courage to see past not wanting to do it, and
  just doing it anyway. It will get easier with
  time.

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• Also, taking the consistent actions is going to
  help you get closer to the results you wanted,
  which, of course, is going to inspire you more
  and get you more motivated anyway, because youre
  going to start to get that gratification.
• Once those results start to show up, youll
  start to go full circle. Youll get back to that
  same spark of passion that you had in the
  beginning, only this time youll have pride in
  yourself knowing that you can follow through on
  things and will have a really good story to tell.

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• This is a little bit out there, but just listen
  to me on it because I think its actually really
  helpful. Do a mental inventory and ask yourself,
  Who inspires me? Who are my heroes? and learn
  more about them. If they a have autobiographies,
  read them. If they have Facebook pages, visit
  them. Learn more about their mindset and how they
  think. Maybe you can even talk to them. Send them
  a message on Facebook or Twitter.
• You can also have mental conversations with
  them. Remember those What Would Jesus Do?
  bracelets that were really big for a while? You
  can do the same thing with the people who inspire
  you. Ask them in your head, What would you do if
  you hit this snag? What would you do if you were
  feeling unmotivated? How would you respond if
  someone said this to you?
• Whatever the question is, whatever youre
  feeling unmotivated about, just ask them. If that
  doesnt feel comfortable, just say, What Would
  Name Do? and youll start to get some answers
  and clarity for yourself. A lot of times it can
  be really hard to pull ourselves out of a funk,
  but when you have something outside of yourself,
  it helps you gain that perspective.

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• It may be that youre just not feeling
  motivated, but if you find that this is happening
  over and over, it might be that you need to set
  yourself up for success energy wise. Look at what
  you can do to support your body more. For
  example, are you drinking enough water? I know,
  for me, that when I have a lot of water
  throughout the day, I am definitely way more
  energized than when I dont. When I feel
  dehydrated, I feel drained.
• Theres an awesome app called Waterlogged. You
  can track how much water you drink throughout the
  day. Its really simple and a great way to make
  sure youre getting your water in. They say to
  drink half of your body weight in ounces. So try
  to do that. When you wake up in the morning, have
  8-16 ounces of water first thing. I have my water
  siting right next to my bed so I wake up and
  drink it. Its a really great way to start
  getting the water.

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• You also might want to make sure youre getting
  enough greens in your diet. Greens will give you
  a lot of long-lasting, natural energy. The great
  thing about having lots of green vegetables is
  that it doesnt give you that shaky feeling that
  you may get with sugary things or even fruit
  sometimes. It gives you a consistent, sustained
  energy. Look at where you could add more greens
  to your diet. Maybe its using the powders to mix
  into your morning smoothie. Even making a
  smoothie could really help.
• One thing that helps me with my energy levels
  (and I recommend it to everybody) is keeping a
  food log. The nutritionist Im working with,
  Ginny Johnsen, is amazing. Shes had me keep a
  food log where I track how I feel before and
  after anything that I eat, what my hunger level
  is on a 1-to-10 before and after anything I eat,
  and what Im eating and the situation Im eating
  in.

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• Its been really helpful for me to track and see
  what foods make me tired that Ive never realized
  make me tired, what foods make me energized and
  happy. I recommend keeping that food log because
  youre going to gain a lot of valuable insight.
  Youll be able to start optimizing for feeling at
  your peak.
• You also might want to consider how much youre
  exercising. Sometimes even just getting up on the
  morning and doing 20 minutes of exercise, even
  just a power walk, can be really great in helping
  you get your energy back. These are all things
  that may seem small, but they add up to help you
  become your best self.

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• If right now youre feeling exhausted and burned
  out, I want to remind you not to be busy just
  because you can be busy. One thing that a lot of
  people do is work all the time and use it as a
  badge of honor. They love to talk about how busy
  they are and they love to tell everybody how busy
  they are.
• Tim Ferriss, who is an awesome author, talks
  about how being busy is really a form of mental
  laziness. Its lazy thinking and indiscriminate
  action. So its basically just doing a bunch of
  things that are in front of you instead of really
  taking the time to think about, What are my
  highest-leverage action steps?
• So if you find youre at the computer constantly
  or doing the same things, feeling like a hamster
  on a wheel, and youre not making progress, I
  would say its time to reevaluate what youre
  doing and just start to do the things that have
  the highest impact for your project, your job, or
  whatever it is.

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• I would also say to work smarter, not harder.
  Take some time to think about what you really
  need to move ahead on a project. A lot of times
  people come up with all these different ideas to
  get things done, but scale it back to the most
  important action steps. Once you identify those,
  cut all the busy tasks and focus on those
  highest-impact things.
• After you figure out what the highest-impact
  activities are, cut your work hours. Youre going
  to be amazed to see that when you focus on just
  whats important, youll create more results in
  three hours than you could in 12easily. You
  schedule the hours you want to work, and if you
  just have focused action on those things (cut out
  Facebook and social media too), youll be able to
  make amazing things happen.
• Then when youre working less hours, it will
  reduce your burnout, its going to give you time
  to go live life, which will help stimulate your
  creativity, bring back new inspiration and
  excitement into your life, and will end up
  helping you with whatever youre working on
  anyway.

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• You also might want to consider outsourcing. I
  love www.MyFancyHands.com. You might want to go
  on Fiverr. There are all different types of
  places where you can outsource very
  inexpensively.
• Work in blocks of time. Make sure the time
  youre spending on work is utilized as well as
  possible. As I mentioned before, if you work
  three hours instead of 12 hours, you might be
  shocked at how much more you can get done. Within
  those three hours, there are ways you can set it
  up where you maximize even that time. One of the
  things thats awesome is to set up blocks of time
  to work.
• For example, maybe you work 50 minutes and take
  a 10-minute break. Youd have 50 minutes of a
  very concentrated task, get your break, boom,
  boom, boom. It might be something like working
  from 800-1100 a.m...

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• 800-850 Write a rough draft of a blog post.
  850-900 Take a break. 900-950 Reach out
  to 20 potential places you want to guest blog
  post in. 1000-1050 Answer 20
  emails.1050-1100 Take a break.
• If those are your three highest-impact
  activities for the day, thats great! When you
  have these little blocks of time, you dont force
  yourself to keep working and you have some time
  to regenerate within the breaks, then its
  awesome. When you go to www.RachelRofe.com/abcgift
  , Im giving away software thats normally 97
  that you can use to time yourself for each
  specific task. Once you have that timeline,
  youre not going to be crawling off onto
  Facebook.
• Its going to help you focus on getting to your
  goal. Its going to help you make more progress
  every day, which will make you feel happier and
  proud of yourself every night when you go to bed.
  It also helps with your inspiration, so it will
  all come full circle.

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• You know how when you clean a closet, a desktop,
  or something that had been messy for way too
  long, and it feels so good to have it clean? That
  feeling extends to everything. Check out your
  desk. If your desk is messy, even if its your
  computer desktop or the desk where you actually
  work, take some time to clean it. Organize your
  papers, throw out what you dont need, and just
  give yourself that magical feeling that comes
  with decluttering.
• Once you do that and its a nice, clean area,
  put some things out that inspire you and make you
  feel really good. Depending on what inspires you
  the most, maybe youll put up pictures of your
  family or people who inspire you, maybe quotes
  that motivate you. You could even put up Post-It
  notes of the goals you have.
• You can also add some beauty to your desk, like
  a candle that smells really great, fresh flowers,
  a new notebook or pen that you really like. If
  your computer desktop is full of icons, files and
  stuff you dont use anymore, declutter it. When I
  had my computer stolen about a year and a half
  ago, it was one of the best things that could
  have happened, because I got rid of all the stuff
  that was really taking up psychic energy. I think
  keeping things as lean as possible is always a
  great idea. It keeps you free to take in new
  things and have more inspiration and a flow in
  your life.

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• It can be really hard to go about things by
  yourself. If you have people around you who know
  what your goals are, then it really motivates you
  to get more things done. I recommend a podcast
  Im doing about tools that I love. Theres one
  tool called www.StickK.com, which is a really
  great goal-setting tool. Theres the Lift app.
• You can also just find a friend or someone in a
  Facebook group. Tell people you want to be held
  accountable. Especially on the days where it
  would be much easier to crawl into bed, if you
  know youre going to have to tell somebody that
  you either did or didnt get something done, its
  going to motivate you. Maybe youre motivated so
  you dont look bad, or you just want to be
  excited to tell your friend that youve gotten
  things done.
• I would set goals every year, then every month.
  Meet with your accountability partner(s) once a
  month, once a week, once a day, or all three, and
  share what youve gotten done. They can share
  with you what theyve gotten done. If you are
  working on similar goals, you can brainstorm
  solutions to things. Its all really helpful.

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• You could also just report on Facebook. Even if
  you dont have anybody to mastermind with, you
  can say on Facebook, Im committing to getting
  this done by Friday. If I dont, heres whats
  going to happen. Then just post and let people
  know if youve gotten it done. There are lots of
  ways you can hold yourself accountable.

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