Have you ever woken up one morning and suddenly getting out of bed has seemed like the hardest part of your day?
The spark of energy and joy you felt about going to work or working on your business seems to have been completely snuffed, leaving you tired, and often uncertain about what you are doing.
You might keep trudging along like this for a while but you have a sense that you are heading for burn out.
I get it, I’ve been there and in my experience this is a place where nothing seems to ignite that spark in you anymore.
That’s why I wanted to write this post today if you are feeling like this. I hope this reaches you before you consider throwing in the towel. If I’m being honest with you, I’ve done that and, I can promise you the grass is not greener and if anything, you’re likely get a small bump in feels for a while but then the spark dims again
I want to share with you that there is absolutely a way that you can reignite passion in your career and life and continue to pursue your goals from a place of inspiration and flow rather than obsessive grinding and desperation.
Because whether you are looking to climb the corporate ladder, or build your own empire, innovation and growth don’t stem from desperation and exhaustion.
There is another way.
A better way.
Let’s have a look at some ways you can bring passion and inspiration back into your life.
1. Play to your strengths
Far too often we focus on only our weaknesses. Whether we are just viewing ourselves negatively or constantly striving for improvement, in fact we have a ‘negative-default-bias’ in our brains of about 5:1 for the bad stuff to the good… When we get stuck focusing on our weaknesses and only doing the things we need to improve at is exhausting, and we never feel like we are doing things that we are talented at.
In fact, Gallup (home of the Clifton Strengths profile) say that a strengths is only a strength if you are good at it AND it’s energising to you. It’s truly exhausting if we don’t play to our strengths. We never reach that place of flow in our day where time flies and things feel easy. We never give our brains or our bodies a chance to rest in the day if we are constantly stressed about whether what we are doing is good enough.
Playing to our strengths feels rewarding, and in a work environment you should have a team around you that allows you to delegate the things that you are still working on so that you can shine by doing the things that only you can do.
So what is the first step we need to take to make this part of our everyday life? Identify your strengths. Spend some time sitting with yourself and really figure out what activities each day happen easily, which ones feel emotionally fulfilling to do, we ones feel energising and how you can incorporate more of those things into each day.
2. Look For Consistency
Consistency is key. You’ve probably heard this in many different areas, but it’s also key to avoiding burnout or stress in our jobs.
If you are a business owner you might be used to the soaring highs of when business is doing well, the nail-biting and sleepless nights when things suddenly come to a grinding halt, and I’m sure all of us, regardless of our roles at work, understand the waiting place. The place where it feels like something should be happening, you are putting in all the work, and it’s not showing any results.
This is the pattern we want to avoid. And the easiest way to avoid the ups, downs, and stagnation is consistency. Showing up as your best each day and adopting a mindset that understands that your best is going to look different each day.
But the thing to keep in mind here is not letting sudden spurts of inspiration derail you (or the ‘shiny shiny’ as my partner calls me out on) and send you into over-delivery, and overwork, similarly not letting one bad day derail larger plans or projects.
“Drop by drop is the water pot filled. Likewise, the wise man, gathering it little by little, fills himself with good.”
Is a quote from Buddha that sums up this mindset perfectly. While society tempts us to rush towards success and lose sight of ourselves along the way, the true way to sustainable growth, better leadership, and greater passion in our lives is to enjoy each part of the process and that means learning to enjoy showing up consistently.
As I say to my Luminous Leaders consistency becomes easiest when you have a clear plan that outlines exactly how you need to be showing up to achieve your goals. So the first step you need to take here is to have a guided approach to your goals that takes you through a step by step plan to achieve them.
3. Rest Fully
In a world that rewards a 24/7 hustle mentality it can be hard to remind ourselves that rest is a necessary part of the growth process. I’m living and breathing this at the moment as I recover from covid. The easiest way to avoid burnout is to make sure that when you are resting you are fully enjoying your rest.
This means, devices off, no offering to jump on the zoom meeting just because it feels easier to say yes than it does to say no.
It means prioritising your sleep instead of doom scrolling on social media or getting sucked into a Netflix binge. And it also means prioritising a morning and evening ritual that means you can show up as your best everyday like we mentioned above.
Without proper rest, the things we enjoy start feeling heavy, and the passion, the innovation, it all starts falling by the wayside as we struggle to simply make it through the day.
Even though it seems like the simplest idea, it’s often the one that we let slip first. Taking your rest just as seriously as you take your work is necessary to keep you performing at your best, allow you to be a reliable leader, and positively impact all of the people in your orbit. I recently shared the system I use to plan out my rest breaks across the year.
Thankfully, all of these tips connect together so that once you start working on one piece the others start to fall into place if you are aware of the right process to get there.
Reigniting your passion and stepping into leadership isn’t a process that happens overnight, and I can guarantee that despite your best efforts there will still be nights where you don’t get enough sleep, or days when inspiration feels just a little out of reach. But that’s why we start finding joy in the process, in realising where there is room in our day for joy or how we can make tomorrow a day where inspiration does strike.
Which one of these tips did you need to hear the most today?
