Getting Your Mojo Back

Sometimes you just lose your way a bit with your business.  Maybe a bit of boredom sets in or perhaps life deals you one of those detours we talked about the other day.  But sometimes you just aren’t firing on all cylinders for whatever reason.

It happens to all of us and I’ve been going through a bit of a patch of that myself for the last couple months actually.  I trace it back to when we moved house in June – I got distracted by the move.  The effort required to move both physically and mentally was pretty high, then you factor in working full time atop that and it’s easy to see how it started.

The day we were formally moving to the new place I got a call asking me to take on a leadership role in the project I’m working on in Brisbane.  That involved travelling up there two days a week for an extended period of time.  It was an important project and so I committed to taking that on.  I’ve now been doing that two day per week trek for the last eleven weeks.

The first few weeks weren’t too bad, but I’d say the last four weeks have been hard.  It’s a culmination of increased workload outside that one project and the travel schedule.  On the day I go to Brisbane it’s a 4:30am start, get to the office in Brisbane by 9am and I usually don’t get to sleep for a variety of reason until about midnight that night.  Then I’m up early the next morning for a full day at the office before catching a 6pm flight back to Sydney, getting me home around 9pm.  That’s tiring after awhile.

I’m not playing the “woe is me” card here.  Not at all.  I’m enjoying the projects I’m working on in Brisbane, I’ve come to quite like the city and I get to catch up with friends when I’m there which is good fun as well.

With all of that said, I came to the realization last weekend though that with respect to my own business stuff, I’d gotten off track.  All of the plans I’d made for those businesses and projects had fallen by the wayside and progress was not being made.  I was allowing “bright shiny objects”, new projects that sound like great ideas, distract me and cloud my thinking.

Simply put, I’d lost my mojo.

Just coming to the realization was cathartic.  Without being dramatic, it’s a bit humbling.

And from there, the journey of recovery commences – I’m focused on getting my mojo back.

I’m sure this tale resonates with many of you because I think it happens to all of us, but for those of us building out our businesses on the side, we have a much greater chance of falling victim to this.

The only thing you can do though is pick yourself up, dust yourself off and get back to doing what you need to do to drive your business or project forward.

I shelved all of the distractions, everything that wasn’t core to my plan has been set aside for now.  I’ve spent some time planning my strategy for the rest of the year and I have a bit more to do over the weekend.  Within the next few weeks, my trips to Brisbane will be coming to an end and life should get back to normal, so when that happens I’ll have the energy and headspace to get stuck back in full throttle.

The one thing I would say is that it’s important to remember that this kind of thing happens from time to time.  We get distracted and we lose sight of our goals.  You can’t beat yourself up over it, you just have to stop, put a plan together and get back to work.

Leave a Comment