I think it’s important to experience the lows of creativity + business, and I don’t agree with those who say entrepreneurs should never sleep. In order to have a sustainable business or creative life you NEED to respect your natural cycles.
As my coach says,
“You want to be the Nordstrom of your industry, not the H&M.”
Slow, steady, solid.
Someone asked me the other day: “How do you stay motivated?”
Answer: I don’t. There are days or weeks that I go without making big moves in my business or art, but when you step back and look at the whole picture, I am still moving forward.
If I stand still for too long without even making a little movement, I stall out. And before I know it, I’m creatively paralyzed.
It’s happened before — when I had a day job and I could go weeks or months without making anything. Just binge watching Netflix, drinking lots of wine, eating ice cream every night. (That was when my livelihood didn’t depend on it.)
If you want to make a living being creative, or if it’s just that important to you that you don’t want to stall out, you’ve gotta get back up one day.
Consuming is easy, making is hard. It can be easy at times, but you’re wrong if you think it should always be. Don’t wait until it feels easy again.
You know when you’re recovering from a cold and you’re so exhausted that you can’t leave the house for a few days? After a while it can be hard to tell the difference between true exhaustion and laziness. If you stay in bed too long, you end up being even more tired than if you’d just get up and shake off the cobwebs.
Take care of you AND have the self awareness to recognize: Are you really tired and needing a rest? Is it time to get back up again? Could you be afraid to start again? Are you just being lazy? There’s no shame. Just do what you gotta do.
Solid. Slow. Steady. You got this.