3 Tips for Staying Inspired!

It’s late January and the winter freeze has me stuck inside. Further, I’ve lost sight of the reasons I made those New Year’s goals in the first place. My motivation is waning already! Are those hurdles really that important? Yes, yes they are! So how do I refocus and reenergize myself?

Psychology Today and Forbes Magazine gives us three tips for staying motivated: take action, do something small, and work with others. For me this means:Take Action – Sitting at your desk and raking the sand around in your Zen garden doesn’t generate ideas. Make a start on a project, move around, get your blood flowing, organize your desk, or write down a plan. Don’t stay stuck.Doing something small counts – The action doesn’t have to be finishing a big project. Checking off the small things on a list is still achieving part of the end goal.Work with others – Get help from people with other skills, talk about the project, brain storm with colleagues, forming a group of people with similar goals. Staying inspired is much easier as a group than going it alone.
​Life Hacker gives us these daily tips: first, stay healthy – hydrate, exercise, get a good night’s rest; second, organize your day – make a top three list of tasks, use the 50/10 rule, work for 50 minutes and take a 10 for a break (wow, I do that without knowing it), use 10 minutes at the end of your day for reflection and self-evaluation; third, keep learning – read, browse tutorials, brain storm ideas; fourth, stay positive – write down ten things you are grateful for (excellent idea), clean your desk, and set time aside for fun!

I’ll start my gratitude list right now: 1) I finished a rush project for a client on time! 2) My other client projects are finished for the week. 3) I get to volunteer at my kid’s school today. 4) I have four leads for goal projects. 5) My credit card organized my 2015 business expenses for me. 6) I have half of one of my tasks complete and know who to call for help with the other half. 7) I cooked last night so pizza is okay for tonight. 8) I came up with two new plot elements for the story I’m working on. 9) I have time in my day for a walk. 10) One of two blog posts for the week is finished (okay that was lame). 11) I got over fifty new likes on my Facebook page this week. 12) I have two author events this weekend (go to Facebook for the links-I’ll be up late on Friday the 29th!).

Wow, I floundered in the middle of that list there. I’m not sure about you but I already have my top three list for the day done. They include finishing up projects that aren’t the most fun, taxes, for one. But once I have those things checked off the list they won’t be floating in the back of my mind taking up energy for the fun stuff. For all those waiting for book 3, don’t worry, it’s ready to go to the editor!

All the best,
Tricia
 
Taken in part from http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/12-tips-staying-inspired-and-productive.html, http://www.forbes.com/sites/augustturak/2011/09/09/3-keys-to-getting-and-staying-inspired/#78877579139d, and https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/high-octane-women/201201/three-strategies-get-and-stay-inspired.
 
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