Do you have the right creative fuel to excel?
If you’ve been eating nothing but junk food for days, your body starts to send you signals. Maybe it’s headaches, stomach aches, skin rashes, or mood swings. Then once you go back to eating lots of fresh fruits and veggies and “clean fuel”, your energy levels even out and you become yourself again.
Some people are more sensitive to junk food than others. If they have a bite of gluten, they feel it. Others can happily scarf down a bag of cookies without feeling it.
And depending on how sensitive your body and business are, the same reactions can happen when your business is running on the wrong kind of fuel.
That’s why we’re talking about how to give yourself clean creative fuel, to get to the next level.
How To Get Clean Creative Fuel
Since your mood impacts your ability to get stuff done and hold the vision for your business, the first thing I recommend to ensure you’re running on clean creative fuel is to look at what negative stuff you can eliminate.
Your environment matters a great deal. If you’re working in a cluttered space, or you have mementos that remind you of bad business deals or fights with people from the past, it’s likely impacting your ability to do great work.
The same is true if you have too much stuff, like overdue paperwork or even unread books that are piling up and clamoring for your attention. Each time you step over this stuff, you’re using a little bit of energy to ignore it and this depletes you.
You might also be absorbing other people’s negativity. If you watch a lot of news stories, these tend to be very depressing and they can sap you of your motivation. When we feel like our efforts are futile because “the world just isn’t headed in the right direction” then we lose our power.
I often feel this way when I consume too much news media, and I start to doubt that I have the ability to make a difference in the world.
But as soon as I’m off mainstream media for awhile, I start to notice all the good that is coming out of my work, the work of my clients and colleagues, and the subtle shifts that are taking place to make it a better place to live.
When you notice that you feel off, sad, or scared, take a look at what caused this feeling. If it was something you watched or read, you can acknowledge it and usually it dissipates quickly.
Similarly, if you have a lot of friends or people in your life that seem to pull you down or aren’t very supportive, it’s time to re-assess how much time you spend with them.
It doesn’t mean that you need to cut people out of your life, but you can reframe how you spend time with them if you feel down every time you see them.
One great way to do that is to do activities with your friends, instead of sitting around and chatting – this works especially well with friends who might not understand your dreams but who you still love dearly. It also works if you have friends with different political or religious views!
Consider going to see a movie, visiting an amusement park, or taking an art class together.
No Need to Be Mary Poppins
All this advice is to ensure that you’re feeding your mind, body, and spirit all the positive good stuff you can. But that doesn’t mean that you need to be Mary Poppins with sunshine and rainbows coming out of your ears.
You’ll still feel a range of human emotions, especially as you continue to grow your business and face new challenges.
The trick is to allow yourself to feel these emotions fully, and know that they are yours and not coming from some outside source.
Embrace your own inner darkness, feel it fully, then you can move onto the rest of your life with much more ease and flow.
Today’s episode explored some touchy topics, like reducing your exposure to the news and hanging out with people who make you feel good instead of bad.
I’d love to hear your personal experience with any of these ways to run on clean creative fuel.
What are you best tips, leave a comment and let me know!
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