How to Stay Motivated when you're in a Creative Rut

You ever scroll all the way down someone's profile to the first ever photo they've posted? Isn't it crazy to see how people grow throughout their journey? How they started from one place and over time, moved to another level in their life? It takes time to build yourself up to the person you want to be. The journey to success can be fun but also very challenging.

And then there is you. You're watching everyone else succeed while you continue to take baby steps towards accomplishing your goals. I completely understand. There have been plenty of times when I wasn't feeling it and it seemed like my career was at a stand still. As an entrepreneur, it's easy to lose motivation. But the key is to stay focused on your overall purpose and to find ways to cope with your

To help, I've managed to pull together a few things that I do and what I've seen done to help you keep your eyes on the prize!

1. Set personal goals

Whether you write it down, or type it up, you should have a list of short term and long term goals that you plan to accomplish throughout your journey. So when you're not really feeling it, you can look at your goals and remind yourself why you've decided to be an entrepreneur in the first place.

Some of my goals are to:

- Have full control over my salary

- Be a full-time entrepreneur by the age of 25

- Move to L.A

- Purchase my own home by the age of 26

- Host annual seminars/workshops for aspiring stylists

(I'm just putting these out into the universe so y'all know it's real.)

When you write your goals down and speak of them to others, they are destined to happen. If you aren't writing down your goals, add it to your daily routine in 2018.

2. Look into others success stories

As I mentioned earlier, I'm sure you've seen others making power moves within their industry. Use their story as a source of motivation. Allow their success to inspire you and drive you to work even harder towards your goals. You could even reach out to them about collaborating on a project (if it makes sense with your brand) and grab some tips and tricks from them to use in your business.

A few success stories to start with:

" The Bomb Life " by Claire Sulmers

" Black Privilege " by Charlamagne Tha God (This was my Christmas gift to myself. I heard it was A1)

" Girl Boss " by Sophia Amouroso (Haven't read yet but I heard great reviews)

" Leave your Mark " by Aliza Licht

These are the perfect stories of a real journey to success that will leave you wanting to work even harder.

3. Maintain a healthy routine aka SELF CARE

It's easy to stress over the situations that we go through on a daily basis as entrepreneurs, but it's our job to learn how to deal with them. Our mind and body are always on the go and we forget to take the time out to be nice to ourselves. "Me time" is essential.

I just recently learned this the hard way. As much as I wanted to be productive, I just couldn't find the energy in me to do so. Nothing on my to-do list was getting done and I was nowhere near focused. I ended up taking a long break and decided to clean my room. It helped me to take my mind off things and re-boot.

4. Set reminders

Holding yourself accountable is an important part of being an entrepreneur. Setting hard deadlines for yourself and making sure to complete your daily tasks in time will help to improve your time management skills and in the end improve your business. I understand that there is never enough time to complete everything on your list so you have to pace yourself. Only allowing yourself a certain amount of time to complete each task will help you to use your time wisely.

Try giving yourself maybe 30 minutes to an hour to focus on just one task at hand. Set a timer for each increment of time so you know when to switch to the next task. I'm a great multitask er but I'm always more productive when I let my brain just focus on one thing at a time.

5. Engage in motivational activities

When you're lacking motivation, you have to get it from somewhere or someone else. Listening to podcasts, live interviews or watching documentaries are just a few ways to keep your charged up.

Here are some of my favorite podcasts/ers:

" Don't Keep Your Day Job" by Cathy Heller

" Switch, Pivot" or Quit " by Ahyiana Angel

" The Goal Digger podcast" by Jenna Kutcher

" Table Talk with Tottie " By Natasha Weston

6. GET SOME SLEEP

This is self explanatory. Our bodies can not thrive without sleep.

I was never one of people to stay up all night working on my business. My bed time on late nights is 2am. With out the proper amount of sleep, I personally can't function properly.

7. Have an accountability partner

It's always good to have someone to check in on you and your accomplishments. Just like those hard deadlines I talked about earlier, your accountability partner would be the one to hold you to those deadlines. I suggest choosing someone who is working in the same field as you. They are the ones that keep you on track and make sure you don't derail.

8. Celebrate your wins

No matter how big or small, you should reward yourself every once in awhile. You work hard everyday so you deserve to treat yourself.

Now, don't go overboard. But maybe make it a habit of rewarding yourself once of month with something that you love. It could be anything; a new pair of shoes, a facial of even a day of rest.

It can be hard to see other people in the world doing exactly what you want to do in life. Watching them live out your exact dreams via social media while you struggle to reach success isn't fun. But rather than being envious, put forth that energy into working even harder towards the life you want to live. If you find this hard to do on your own, pray about it. It works.

Photographer: Shawn Atueyi (@satueyi)