— Feel as if you’re lacking in motivation? Here’s what you do:

Start working as if there were three of you.

Seriously. So much of this creative life is about inertia. Sit around too long letting a “slump” call the shots, you’ll start living too much in your own head and just make it worse.

Talk about a recipe for killing your drive.

So forget all that.

Whether you’re in the “mood” or not, kick yourself into action and GET BUSY. Even if that simply means binging on tutorials while taking notes, or dreaming up projects in your journal, or goofing around in Photoshop throwing various images and elements together to see what comes of it.

In every instance I’ve seen of high creative output, the real motivation comes from SUSTAINED EFFORT.

Think about it … Intense periods of creative work almost always lead to increased passion. While sitting around feeling uninspired just leads to more sitting around feeling uninspired.

Ultimately, you can’t just wait for inspiration to “strike.” (What if it doesn’t?!) No. You’re in control here. Inspired or not, just get busy.

I don’t know of anything that can more predictably fire up motivation than simply deciding to work your fanny off for an entire weekend or for even a couple hours a night for a full week.

We’re talking about building MOMENTUM. That’s what’s going to light the spark.

So pretend there were three of you, and go throw yourself into some mischief!

– Sebastian

PS: The images featured here seemed perfect for this post. They’re by the talented and ever-prolific LouAnn Goodrich of our AWAKE Group.

PPS: If you’re reading this post and just feeling more frustrated than ever, you might want to fire off an email to me telling me how I just don’t understand your circumstances, that what you’re dealing with is somehow different, etc. But before you do so, I hope you’ll first pause and just consider TRYING a few days of serious, immersive work anyhow. Or if you’re too “crazy busy” for that, maybe pick a week or two and just try to immerse yourself in your creative work whenever you DO find a little free time. Just to see if it helps. Remember: more often than not, the only thing standing between where you are and where you want to be is the STORY you’re telling yourself about why you “can’t” do it. What if you set the story aside, just for a few days? As a coach of mine once put it to me: “Obviously you can’t do it. But what if you did it anyhow?”