You’re going along just fine–in fact, you may be buzzing and bustling with creativity and motivation and, suddenly, something happens (or something doesn’t happen) and you feel your momentum start to gasp and chug, soon you’re having trouble just getting the simplest things accomplished. While we may want to find a steady place of productivity in our home businesses, there are those times when we are definitely apt to lose momentum.
I tend to enter a state a panic when I feel myself drastically lose momentum. I am well aware that this probably isn’t the best way to go about reacting to such a state as it tends to make things much worse. I panic, then I start to fuss about what might happen if I can no longer come up with ideas or stay functional, and the next thing I know–instead of feeling confident and efficient, I’m feeling precarious and overwhelmed.
I find that I have to remind myself that things aren’t necessarily linear–even in a business situation. Motivation and momentum wax and wane. If I take full advantage of the really creative, productive times then I have a little cushion when the momentum slows down. While I may still feel that familiar sense of panic, the fact is I can afford a little slow-down. I think it also helps to have some activities or ways of “jump-starting” myself when I do feel the loss of momentum. If it is something that is within my control–sometimes, the loss of momentum may come from a customer or client or there may be external factors that affect your work flow that you have absolutely no control over. In this case, finding a way to keep yourself going, and doing things that rejuvenate your momentum and replace the work flow may be the most important way to channel your time and energy.
Business is cyclical, just like other aspects of life and sometimes our momentum just slips. We just have to try to remain motivated and inspired, even if we have to turn our focus to other things for a while, while get our momentum juiced up again.
See Also: When Things Don’t Work and Coping With Temporary Setbacks