S3 E6: What if you fall out of love with your business?
Episode Notes:
Have you ever fallen out of love with your business?
It sounds dramatic, but this happened to me.
And while you may not be able to relate quite to that extent, I have a feeling you have probably at some point in your business experienced the feeling of being in some kind of rut or slump.
It happens - but does it mean we have to scrap everything and start completely over again? Not always.
In this episode, I'm sharing my experience with losing the passion for my business, and my tips for if this happens to you too.
Links mentioned in this episode:
Read the transcript
Have you ever fallen out of love with your business?
It sounds dramatic, but this happened to me. And while you may not be able to relate quite to that extent, I have a feeling you have probably at some point in your business experienced the feeling of being in some kind of rut or slump.
It happens - but does it mean we have to scrap everything and start completely over again? Not always.
In this episode, I'm sharing my experience with losing the passion for my business, and my tips for if this happens to you too.
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Welcome to season 3, episode 6 of The Freelance Fix! This is really random but before I start I just have to share the fact I've just eaten possibly the tastiest fruit and nut bar I've ever had... it's the peanut butter choc chip bar from Larabar, which I think you can pick up in Sainsburys in the UK; it says on the packet it literally just contains 2 dates, 10 peanuts and a handful of chocolate chips and oh my god - it's incredible.
Sorry - a real tangent but an important one, I feel. It's important to keep your energy up while podcast recording!
Anyway today I wanted to talk about a topic that I think gets left out of a lot of business conversations that you see online and on Instagram these days.
Everyone's always sharing inspirational quotes and talking about hustling, and being the best you can be, and how to get super productive etc - OR they're talking about burnout, which happens when you work yourself too hard and become overwhelmed and seems to be something that is getting a lot of conversations happening online at the moment. Which is GREAT! And is definitely something I want to talk about here on the podcast some other time.
But what about when you simply lose the passion and motivation that drives you to run your business.
What if you're not powering on and smashing your goals, but you're also not completely burnt out and exhausted from the work either. You're just somewhere in between, and you just feel kind of 'meh' about your business.
This is the feeling that doesn't get talked about much because I guess it can feel kind of embarrassing to admit that something you've worked hard for up until this point, and something you may have built in the face of adversity and negative comments, no longer lights you up and inspires you.
And it might not happen suddenly or overnight - it can happen over a long period of time and take a while to realise what’s happening. It might not be as obvious as when people burnout and they get symptoms of stress and exhaustion.
Falling out of love with your business might just look like a lot of procrastination. It might look like stagnation. Or it might just not look like anything, if you just keep trucking along doing what you’re doing without having time to look at the bigger picture.
For me, it looked like all of the above. Back in 2017 I had some major changes in my personal life; going through a break up of a 9 year relationship, and trying to sell a house, all while in the middle of a court case with our delightful neighbours at the time. It was a tough year or so, and it definitely had a big effect on my business.
Some people when big things like these happen in their personal life, might find themselves throwing themself into their work and focusing on that to keep them distracted and moving forward, but I was finding the opposite.
I’d been avoiding work for a few months in 2017, and throughout the first part of 2018 I just felt like I had NO focus and no motivation. This obviously had a negative impact on my clients AND on my finances. I was finding it hard to market and promote my business - (of course I was - how could I expect other people to connect with my brand if I couldn’t even connect with it!!) - and so I didn’t have much new work coming in either. Seeing the results of all this in my bank account was really the wake up call that something needed to change.
Due to all the changes in my life over the previous 12 months, at least I’d had some pretty good practice with re-evaluating things and making big decisions, because I instinctively know I needed to take a step back and reflect over my business and how I was REALLY feeling about it.
Now this might be way more dramatic than what other people will experience when losing passion for their business. For some people, it’s simply a feeling of being in a slump.
But regardless of how you’re struggling, I know that the immediate reaction to this realisation can be that you feel you need to scrap what you’re doing and start something totally new. It’s our natural solution to the initial freak-out.
But that’s a pretty extreme solution, and it might not be necessary.
There are a few things that really helped me get back on track and fall back in love with my business. Or to ‘get those butterflies back’ if you like - if you’ve been watching Love is Blind on Netflix recently I hope you get that reference!!
The first thing is to talk it out with someone close to you. Whether it’s family or a best friend; you just need someone who will listen and support you; they don’t necessarily have to have all the answers.
For me it was my partner Alex, who I had a massive heart to heart with about it towards the end of 2018. It felt amazing to get things off my chest and to feel supported, and I of course also confided in my best friend and business buddy, Olivia, who helped me figure out some of the more practical steps too.
I can’t stress enough the importance of a great support network, and making close friends with other freelancers who get it as well. But you can also work through things yourself by journalling through what’s holding you back.
Another thing that really helped was doing something totally different for a while. Some of you know I have a personal blog about Cornwall, and I ended up focusing a lot on this over that period. At the time I probably would have admitted that it was procrastination, but looking back I know that doing something creative that was totally different to my business really helped me feel refreshed - and actually ended up making me miss working on my business!
While mine happened to be online based as well, I also think doing something practical or outside the online world is incredibly helpful too, as it really takes you away into a different headspace and means you can take a cleaner break.
Something that I was always bang on about too that was exactly what I needed at the time, was sitting down with Olivia at the end of 2018 and setting our goals for 2019 and planning out our year. We talked about our overall vision for our lives, which really helped me get back to my PURPOSE. There is nothing more helpful for getting your motivation back that getting fully clear on your ‘why’ again. Why did you start this business in the first place? Why do you do what you do?
Having a focused action plan for the next 12 months meant that I was no longer just floating around wondering where my business was going. I had things to get excited about and look forward to.
If you haven’t already worked through your goal setting for your business, this year I actually created a full workbook that is free to download and work through. I talked about this more in my ‘Goal Setting and Planning for 2020’ podcast episode back in December, but you can also go to www.byrosanna.co.uk/2020plan - all one word - to find out more and download that.
Anyway, aside from these tips, all I can say is that you really need to take time and be kind to yourself when you feel this lack of excitement and motivation around your business. If you have patience, and you’re able to take a break, or scale back, or give yourself space to work things out, it IS possible to get your passion back and come back to your business with an even stronger fire under you for what you do.
If you ever want to chat through anything in these podcast episodes, do give me a message on Instagram - it’s @by.rosanna. And remember this season I am running a giveaway so that anyone who leaves a written review of The Freelance Fix, either on Spotify or the Apple Podcasts app, will be entered to win a couple of my desk pads - so remember to leave a review with your name, and message me on Instagram once you’ve done it!
Thanks so much for listening and have a great rest of the week!
