Ep 11 - 6 strategies to move forward when you lose your spark

What happens when you feel stuck, unmotivated, or unfulfilled in your business?
 
This can be referred to as "losing your spark." This can happen for a number of reasons and is actually really typical for business owners of all levels - those starting out to those really well-established to those who have scaled to that multi-6 and 7-figure mark.
 
While this is not uncommon, it’s obviously something that you need to address so that you don’t wind up wanting to burn your business to the ground or just continue doing something that isn’t fulfilling you.
 
In episode 11 we’re exploring 6 strategies to move forward when you lose your spark so that you can do things you actually enjoy and things that bring you fulfillment.
 
We talk about:
↠ The difference between burnout and losing your spark
↠ 4 reasons why business owners can lose their spark
↠ How you can start taking steps to shift in a new direction
↠ 6 things you can do to reignite your spark
↠ How these points can be applied to your personal life as well as your business
 
Just know that if you have lost your spark in your business, this is totally normal and it’s totally something that you have the power to control and shift that. Tune in to the full episode to learn more. 

Transcript

Today we’re chatting all about strategies to move forward when you lose your spark. Okay so what do I mean when I say “lose your spark”? In this, I’m alluding to feeling stuck, unmotivated, or unfulfilled in your business. So today we’re not just talking about moving forward and slogging through, no no, we’re talking about ways to move forward doing things you actually enjoy, things that bring you fulfillment, and things you can do to get your spark back, even if that spark looks different than you had in mind or how it previously looked for you in the past.

Now losing your spark can happen for a number of reasons, and is actually really typical for business owners of all levels - those starting out to those really well-established to those who have scaled to that multi-6 and 7-figure mark.

The key here is knowing that it’s not uncommon, but it’s obviously something that you need to address so that you don’t wind up wanting to burn your business to the ground, or just continue doing something that isn’t fulfilling you. 

Now one quick thing I just want to highlight before we dive in is that in this episode, we’re not talking about burnout. There are SO many reasons why business owners burn out, and a lot of those reasons may be similar or overlap with the reasons we’ll go into in this episode. And a lot of these strategies we’re about to talk about can absolutely help you if you are heading towards burnout, but this particular episode is more relating to you not being fulfilled or feeling stuck in your work. So I just want to make sure to highlight the difference. 

So let’s first talk about why this happens, and again by “this” I’m talking about losing your spark or motivation. And let me preface by saying that there is nothing wrong with losing your spark, per se. It oftentimes just means that things have shifted and something is now off. It could be that your priorities have changed, you’ve evolved past the type of work that you’re currently doing, or your overall goals have shifted. It could also mean that you’ve gotten accustomed to the status quo and are ready for a change.

To give you an example of each of these for context:

-Your priorities have changed

If your priorities have changed, this could just mean that the business may be taking a little bit more of a back seat. Typically if you are losing your spark, it’s not because you’re focusing MORE on your business. I know that sounds a little bit ironic, but usually it’s because you were previously focusing a ton on the business, but now that’s needed to shift for one reason or another.

A big, but common example as women growing businesses is a baby. Wanting to start a family or grow a family or just focus more time on family in general. I have a ton of clients who started their business as single women and worked like crazy, then they got married, then they started trying to have a family. And obviously the priorities in their lives changed.

It doesn’t have to be as significant as starting a family though. It could literally just be that other priorities are taking precedent. Maybe it’s summer and you want to be able to spend more time actually enjoying life at the beach rather than sitting on a computer half the day. Maybe you’ve started another venture and want to put the time and energy into setting that up and letting it grow. Maybe you’ve decided to go back to school or get a certification. Maybe you’re planning a trip to Southeast Asia and you want to be able to cut your work time in half for this quarter. 

Whatever it is, the sky is the limit here, but for one reason or another, your priorities have shifted, and that could just be for a season or that could be overall.

It could also be that

-You’ve evolved past the type of work that you’re currently doing

Okay so this one is a big one particularly for service providers, but it can be relevant to anyone. So let’s say you manage social media accounts for clients and you become amazing at what you do. You know how to get the best reach, you can support your clients to get the best conversions, you know what content works and what falls flat, you know what the top trends are and can use those to your clients advantage. You’re top notch at what you do, but you just totally lose your spark for that work. It could be that you’ve evolved past managing and doing done for you and it’s a better fit for you to move into teaching others how to do that. 

Now that is obviously also a great decision to help you scale, but oftentimes the shift in instances such as these aren’t even on scalability, the shift is literally because business owners evolve and are ready to up level and/or try something different.

-Your overall goals have shifted

So I’ll use me as an example in this one because I feel like a lot of you listening are going to be able to relate. A couple of years after I had started freelancing, I was close to $40k in debt and just felt like I was drowning. I was super stressed out about owing all of this money and felt like I could never get ahead and my biggest goal was to be debt-free. 

So I busted my ass. I worked on projects that weren’t my favourite things in the world, I sad yes to more work that came my way, and I was really focused on getting out of debt. Not even building my business, my overall goal was to get out of debt, even if that meant long nights and some less than ideal clients, and a lot of hustling. When I got out of debt, my overall goals changed literally overnight.

And there are a ton of things I would tell my past self and a ton of other shifts I made, like shifting from a freelancer to a CEO and increasing my prices so I didn’t have to work all the time and still brought in the same amount of revenue, but baby business owner Rhiannon didn’t know how to do all that. But that’s all besides the point.

Now this one may be an extreme example because sometimes goals can change over time and one day you wake up and realise that what you’re working towards isn’t even what you want anymore. Other times we reach the goal and then it’s like “okay now what?” And where  it’s easy to lose our spark is to just keep on keeping on as if that goalpost hasn’t changed when in fact, it has. And that changes everything. So hang tight for just a couple more minutes and we can dive into how you can move forward when you lose your spark, for whatever reason that may be.

Next, perhaps

-You’ve gotten accustomed to the status quo and are ready for a change

This one is an interesting one because it’s more along the lines of being comfortable. Maybe you’re not being challenged anymore. And it sounds AMAZING that your business has gotten to a certain point that everything just sorta works, but it’s also a bit of a double-edged sword. I know so many clients whose businesses worked like a well-oiled machine, which is the goal, right, but then they got bored.

So it’s finding a balance between tearing something down that works but you’re totally just over and injecting some new things that can help spark that creativity or love for the business again.

So without further ado, here are 6 key strategies that can support you in moving forward when you lose your spark.

Now a cool thing about this topic is that these points can also be applied to your personal life, so if you’re feeling stuck, unmotivated, or unfulfilled personally, you can take these strategies and use them to move forward personally as well.

So here we go.

1. - Face your fears

I find that this one is actually surprising to a lot of clients, because again, losing that spark happens to multi-6 and 7-figure clients as much as it happens to those trying to get to 6-figures. But fear can still be a very real, relevant thing.

If you’re trying to get to 6-figures, the solution for you is usually going to be more along the lines of getting comfortable with fear and diving in head first. What oftentimes gets those scaling to 6-figures stuck is not doing the thing that needs to be done in order to move the business forward, which can make things really frustrating and start to extinguish that light. So typically my advice would be just that - get comfortable with fear and dive in headfirst.

If you’re scaling to multi-6 and 7-figures, this one can be tricky. The fear in these scenarios often pops up in part because things are working. Things have been successful and proven to work. And even though you had to face fear before, now you’re at a much higher level and it can be scary to take risks and do something different even if you’re losing your spark. So in this case my advice would be to lean in. You don’t have to change everything, but you can start taking steps to shift into a new direction. And fear is there to protect us. Acknowledge it, and keep moving forward.

2. - Analyse your daily habits

Habits is a small, but big one. It’s small in the fact that it’s these small, daily actions that add up and lead to significant results over time. It’s big in the fact that if you don’t do these small little actions and cultivate positive habits, then it can feel like you’re constantly stopping and starting and struggling to move the needle forward.

So if you’re struggling with feeling motivated or fulfilled in your work, taking a good, hard look at your daily habits is a great place to start. If there isn’t any structure or you’re reactionary versus being proactive with things, daily habits can help and also help get you unstuck. 

Are you always running around like a chicken with your head cut off and finding it hard to get things in on time for your clients or you’re rushing from call to call to call? Look at your habits.

This can go further into talking about routines and diving into being intentional with where you put your focus and even looking at your boundaries, all of which I’d absolutely recommend you do, but to start - what are your daily habits? If you’re finding that you have a few habits that aren’t supporting you, start taking steps to change those. You’d be amazed at how much these can actually help you start to feel inspired again.

3. - Up-level your environment

This one is such an overlooked solution, but it is so so powerful and can help to shift things really quickly.

De-clutter your space. De-clutter your files. De-clutter your life. Some of these are easier said than done and some of them take longer than others, but you’d be amazed at how things can shift energetically when you get rid of shit that isn’t serving you. 

An up-level in your environment doesn’t mean that you need to find a new apartment or go sign up for a cool coworking space or do something drastic. If you have a shoebox apartment right now and you can’t afford something else, that’s okay - clean things up and go get a plant. The thing here is our environment is SO important and we don’t always even realise it. 

Up-leveling your environment can also be a little bit more in depth by analysing who you are surrounding yourself with - who is in closest proximity to you. Who is constantly in your orbit? Are they helping keep your environment a pleasant one? If the answer is not a resounding yes, more often times than not anyway, no one is perfect, then go take a good hard look at your circle and start to work on making the necessary changes if needed.

4. - Let go of what’s not working 

This one I say with a small caveat. Let go of what’s not working to an extent. If you are totally over your entire business, I’m not recommending you just close the doors, burn it all down, and start from scratch. I’d also like to clarify when I say not working, I don’t mean a launch that flopped or a program that has been slower to sell than usual.

This is more about alignment and fulfillment. If there is a program that you’re just not aligned to anymore, it’s okay to let it go. If there’s an offer in your offer suite that doesn’t support you in where you’re going, it’s okay to let it go. 

Some of these things may need to be done in small waves or with little shifts. For example, if there’s a container that you’re currently running that you are just no longer wanting to do, it’s probably going to make the most sense to not open the doors for another round and phase it off rather than just quit it cold turkey in the middle of the program - please understand I am not suggesting you pull the plug in the middle of a container. 

But this is more about making those shifts and tweaks and setting yourself up to move forward in a positive way so that you’re not feeling forced to just carry on with something that has run its course and you no longer enjoy. Now that may mean literally just making small tweaks. Or it may mean sunsetting things. Or it may even mean setting a timeline to phase it off if that’s your current breadwinning offer. But you have total permission to let things go and this can be such a game changer for helping you reignite that lost spark.

5. - Figure out what you truly want

If your goals and priorities don’t align with what you truly want, you need to first get clear on what, specifically, it is that you actually want now and moving forward. We talked earlier about both priorities and goals shifting and how that’s not a bad thing at all. It’s just part of life. But what you don’t want is to keep working towards something that isn’t even what you desire anymore or isn’t in your best interest long-term. 

Get clear on your bigger plan and reconnect with your why. Why did you start your business? Has that changed over the years? If so, how? How is your business supporting you in this next phase of life?

Oftentimes we get so caught up in chasing what other people want or what our old version of success looked like, and then it’s no wonder why we’re unhappy and unfulfilled. So take a look in the mirror, figure out what it is that you truly want, and then you can take tangible steps in your business to support whatever that is.

If you have no idea where to start with this, I’d recommend answering those previous questions, journaling, filling in a goal planner, or creating a vision board to help gain clarity.

6. - Fall in love with the process 

Everything - and I mean everything - comes with its own set of challenges, and there are always going to be tradeoffs. But if you don’t enjoy the actual process, then it’s going to feel hard to keep moving forward and feel inspired and aligned. So if you have lost your spark because you truly are not enjoying what you’re doing, I’d encourage you to start looking at things that you do actually enjoy. 

Again, there are rough patches and challenges with whatever path you choose, but if you enjoy 90% of the work, it outweighs all the other crap. If you only enjoy 10% of the work, it can feel like you’re constantly pushing a boulder uphill. So we really want to shift that. 

I’d love to hear which strategy you’re most excited about trying to help you reignite your spark. And again, just know that this is totally normal and it’s totally something that you have the power to control and shift.