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It happens. For many of us entrepreneurs, our business is built around us. So when we get tired, stressed, overwhelmed, burnt out or lose our mojo, our business suffers. And when that happens, it can impact us in all sorts of negative ways.
So when we do lose our mojo, what can we do to get it back? Here are 3 tips to help you out:
1. Take care of yourself so it doesn’t happen in the first place. Okay, I realize if you’re already suffering from burn out and have lost your mojo this isn’t going to help you much, but for the rest of you (and once you’ve gotten your mojo back) this is where you need to start.
So, when I say take care of yourself, I mean more then eating well and getting enough sleep (although it can certainly mean that). What I mean is you have to do things that “fill the well.” That’s more of a creativity expression — if you don’t do things that feed your creativity and fill the well, the well of creativity will run dry and then you’ll be in a fix. But it’s the same concept for you as an entrepreneur.
Basically two things are going on as an entrepreneur — along with doing all those fun things that use up the well of creativity (or well of passion or whatever makes sense for you) you also end up doing things that aren’t your strengths. So, as an entrepreneur, you actually run the risk of burning out from two different sides — emptying the well and draining yourself from doing tasks you hate. (This is why so many entrepreneurs struggle with losing their mojo and burning out, because they don’t realize this is happening, they try and power through it and then it all blows up in their face.)
So what you need to do is take the time to do things that fill your well and feed your soul, plus try and eliminate the tasks you hate. (Honestly, there WILL come a time where you simply can’t do those tasks anymore and that’s a really bad place to be if you have no back up plan.) At the same time, you should do things that take care of your general health and well being — exercise, eat right, sleep more, go out with friends, read a good book, etc.
If you make a point of taking care of yourself and your needs, you should avoid this whole nasty business in the first place.
2. If you are stuck in burn out and have lost your mojo, be gentle with yourself. Look, you didn’t get here overnight and you’re not going to cure yourself overnight. So take a deep breath and know this is a process and you WILL recover, it just might take a little time. (Maybe more time than you want but it is what it is.) Beating yourself up and berating yourself is just going to make the healing process take that much longer.
3. Put together a plan. Start by taking some time off. Even if it’s a weekend. Or just one day. Try and get away from your office and your computer. If you can take a week off, better yet.
Now, if you only end up taking off a day or a weekend, you may still really not feel like being back when you open the door to your office, but remind yourself you’re being gentle and this is a process. I just want you to break the cycle you’re in and clear your head a bit. What you should do now is figure out what you need to be doing to feed your soul, fill the well AND take care of yourself. If you don’t know what those tasks would be, try a bunch of them out. (“The Artist Way” by Julia Cameron can really help fill the creative well if you want a place to start).
Also, take some time to start delegating those tasks you hate doing. Get them off your to-do list. The faster you can stop doing them, the faster you’re going to start feeling better.
And through it all, keep reminding yourself this is a process and it WILL get better, once you’re filled the well, feel better health-wise and get rid of the tasks that drain you.
