Unstuck – How I Shift My Energy – A guest post by Leah Collins
Well, it happens to the best of us.
You are working on a project that requires your creativity, and suddenly no ideas are coming to mind. You end up staring at the blank screen for hours on end.
I’ve been there, so I know how frustrating that can be.
I am a marketing strategist, and I have often felt stuck finding marketing ideas. Unfortunately, and I guess it happens to many people, the inspiration flame dwindles just when you need it the most – an important meeting or a big deadline around the corner. At such times, there is no time to waste. You must pick yourself up and find that inspiration.
Thankfully, I have found a few tricks that work for me, which I will share with you at The Marketing Sage as a guest blogger.
Taking a walk
My first step whenever I feel stuck is to take a break from the project for a few minutes.
Sometimes it is enough to clear my head, but sometimes it doesn’t work. This was when I decided to take a more extended break and take a walk. A simple walk around the block does wonders for my inspiration.
I believe that inspiration is everywhere. It does come when I take a walk to find inspiration and motivation. But I do the extra task of trying to see it in things and people that I encounter during the trek.
How people relate and communicate, the traffic, the noises in the neighborhood, the kids playing, and more have sparked the inspiration for the best marketing ideas I’ve come up with in the past.
I stop thinking, swim in silence, and the truth comes to me.” Albert Einstein
Connecting with other people
Different people have different perspectives about things.
You don’t know what you can learn from random conversations with other people. When I feel stuck, I have a few people I call and connect with over the phone, or we meet up. Moreover, my go-to place to find intelligent people is in coworking spaces or office spaces I can rent. I live in Los Angeles, so I pop in one of my favorite office spaces in Los Angeles whenever I want to work on my own, and when I feel like connecting with other people, I go for shared office spaces.
One of the best things about shared office spaces is that they bring together people from different professionals and industries. These are people who hold meaningful conversations that can be inspiring and motivating.
“The fastest way to change your state is not with your mind, it’s with your body,” he says. “When you do that, you’ll get out of the funk in two minutes. But if you sit here and try to think yourself out of it, people get circular thoughts.” Tony Robbins
Changing my location
Working in the same environment, staring at the same pictures and people can make it hard to develop a new thought pattern.
Sometimes all you need is to work from somewhere else, and the ideas flow. Changing location gives the mind a mental break from the usual and allows it to perceive things differently, inspiring new thoughts and ideas. I have realized that working from a coworking space a few times a week does this for me.
Other times, I pick up my laptop and head to my favorite coffee shop or library. Sometimes I move to the balcony when working from home, and the magic happens.
Doing something different
When inspiration isn’t coming, sometimes insisting on doing the project does more harm than good.
You can end up more frustrated, inhibiting your efforts to find further inspiration. It might seem counter-productive, but leaving the project and focusing on a different task works for me. But I ensure that the mission is something I’m passionate about.
Sometimes I tend to my kitchen garden, others I bake a cake, others I try a new recipe and the like. Most of the time, the creativity I apply in such tasks is enough to spark the inspiration I need to create fantastic marketing ideas.
“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” Wayne Dyer
Looking at my vision board
Living or working without a vision is like traveling on a foreign road without a map.
You are bound to get lost and confused along the way. On the other hand, having a vision illuminates the path and shows you where you need to go. Having a vision board has been my success mantra for a long time. Whenever I get stuck, going back to it and looking at what I aspire to in life and career has been all the jumpstarting I need to get out of the rut.
Inspiration Through Change
Sometimes inspiration is hard to come by. But inspiration can be found anywhere.
Whenever I feel stuck in my marketing projects, moving away from my desk to work from a different location, going for a walk, or switching tasks works for me. Sometimes I need to connect with other people to see things differently. Other times, I was looking at my vision board does the trick.
How do you get unstuck?
This is a guest post by Leah Collins, She is a marketing strategist, and has found several tactics to help her get unstuck.
You can set up a time to chat with me about your marketing challenges using my calendar. Email me jeffslater@themarketingsage.com Call me. 919 720 0995. The conversation is free, and we can explore if working together makes sense. Watch a short video about working with me.
Photo by Fernando Jorge on Unsplash
