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July 21, 2019

Side Hustle Sanity: Be Present To Spark Creativity

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Side Hustle Sanity: Be Present To Spark Creativity

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Welcome to part two of my Side Hustle Sanity blog series! Each week I’m focusing on different things to help you with being an entrepreneur while balancing life. Missed the first installment? Check out all about not trying to do it all here: Don’t Boil the Ocean!

Being a mom – hell being a woman – is already hard work but add in taking on your own business and you easily have a recipe for becoming overwhelmed.  Still, it’s super important to overcome this hurdle because if you are not taking care of yourself there’s no way you can take care of your side hustle. I mean, the point is to make your side hustle your main hustle, right? Then, you need to be in the proper headspace to work and simply get things done. And even if you don’t have a creative bone in you, being an entrepreneur you’ve got to get creative to differentiate yourself from all the competition.

Being a mom – hell being a woman – is already hard work but add in taking on your own business and you easily have a recipe for becoming overwhelmed.  Still, it’s super important to overcome this hurdle because if you are not taking care of yourself there’s no way you can take care of your side hustle. I mean, the point is to make your side hustle your main hustle, right? Then, you need to be in the proper headspace to work and simply get things done. And even if you don’t have a creative bone in you, being an entrepreneur you’ve got to get creative to differentiate yourself from all the competition.

Be present spark creativity side hustle sanity lifebymj

Cut the distractions.

To promote both taking care of you first, it’s important to practice mindfulness and being present, whether in your work or with your family and friends. We all know how easy it is to become distracted with your mind being in one place while you’re doing another thing.  Typically I have to force myself to not look at my phone, watch TV, or think about other things while sitting down to have dinner with my family or while working on the computer. I literally have to tell myself, I only have so many hours in a day so I need to make these moments count by being fully focused. That way I can give my all in those moments and not feel guilty later.

By being present in your business as well as when you spend time with your loved ones you are allowing yourself to recharge, recenter and refocus. As an entrepreneur you are naturally a mutli-facted person or just used to wearing many hats. Sometimes you’ve got to wear one hat at a time as each deserve your full attention and time in their rightful moments.

Practice makes perfect.

Now, believe me, I can’t just tell myself that today I need to be mindful and present and right away it’ll happen. It truly is a constant effort.

If you are looking to help train your mind to be more present, sometimes starting small can yield big results.  Start off by being mindful of everyday activities such as breathing, hearing, walking, running, touching.  Explore your senses. Next, extend this conciseness to your everyday routines, whether it be doing laundry, washing dishes, working on your business, or eating dinner.  You then may start to notice those distracters – a text message or Instagram notification – that pull you away from these moments. But by practicing being present you will be able to continue or at least begin to return back to your focus sooner.

For more help with practicing, check out this short and simple video:

2 Exercises to Help You Stay Present | A New Earth | Oprah Winfrey Network

We’re constantly reminiscing about the past or worrying about the future, making it difficult to exist in the now, spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle says. The present moment is where we find true happiness. Watch as Eckhart introduces two exercises that will help you slow down and embrace the power of now.

Find Ways to Spark Creativity.

Now when you start becoming more present in your daily life and the many hats you wear, you’ll notice your approach to work will feel different. You may even recognize and appreciate when you begin to daydream as it can be a sign that you are so caught up in a moment it is invigorating your creative side.

Still, it’s easy to get in a creative rut. Sometimes we are so encompassed with the day to day craziness of our lives.  Balancing family, your personal needs, as well as maybe traditional 9 to 5 job while starting a business can be difficult, with finding free time or even the energy to just dream can sometimes feel like a luxury. 

But to stay ahead in this business game, it is super important to find things that spark inspiration and creativity. These simple sparks can lead to innovations or even dramatic changes within your business.  And however you create that spark, as entrepreneurs we must nurture and prioritize creativity as it can become a source of inspiration, motivation, as well as a means to set ourselves apart within our businesses and services.

Change your lens to find spark creativity.

When you are low on time, you have to get creative to get your creative juices flowing. Start optimizing your creativity along with your small available time by looking at your everyday and shifting your perspective from the routine. Essentially, navigate thru your day to day from a whole different lens.

I personally do this by being in tune and present in the most random things: reading a book, news article, or blog post, watching documentaries, talking to my parents or my girlfriends, or even dreaming about our future with my husband.  Hell, it even happens while watching cartoons with Lucky. I feel like being around younger energy pushes me to be imaginative.

Many may feel like their day to day lives are without any creative sparks but by making an effort to be present in a moment – not thinking about something else while in a conversation, or scrolling away on your phone – allows your mind to be laser-focused. When this happens, your mind can hone in on these moments, you will find simple things that ignite you. It may not happen right away. There’s been many times that random moments seem “whatever” at the time, but later that simple moment may push you down an inspiring rabbit hole.

This happened for me when I finally got the courage to develop my “For Da Gram” e-course. Originally, people kept coming to me asking, how as I doing this whole social media-influencer thing. I would answer their questions and go about my business. Then, while in conversation about it, someone suggested I write an ebook or do a course. I initially brushed it off. Then someone else said it. It kept coming up, like routine. I eventually sat down one day and thought, why does this keep coming up? and from there, I went down the rabbit hole. You can see that initially I brushed off the idea of this course. It didn’t spark anything for me because honestly, I wasn’t really present in the conversation. It felt routine. But then, I finally “listened”.

Had I not been present in that “simple moment” I wouldn’t have even been up for the ride of inspiration, which is taking my business and brand in a whole new exciting direction.

Lucky provides me all sorts of inspiration, whether taking a selfie with me or even simply playing with a little red ball.

I constantly attempt to find different things to grasp inspiration something from, even if it’s something I think I may not like. But by honing in on those moments, i.e. being super present and focused, I allow these experiences and moments typically hang in my mind as a creative cue of what I’d like to do within my business.  In all, these experiences help me curate the type of products and services I want provide to my customers.

Now the questions leads to, “What can I do to get my creative juices flowing?” And honestly, it’s anything! 

  • Take a dance class or have a dance party at home with your family.  
  • Draw or color with a child. 
  • Go outside for a walk. 
  • Listen to a genre of music you don’t usually listen to or an old school favorite.
  • Talk to a teenager and learn about the latest social media trends.
  • Try cooking a new recipe.  
  • Need a calming activity?  Try meditating.  

By seeing, doing, or even listening to something outside of your routine, it will spark your mind to work in other places it typically doesn’t use.  In essence, you’re giving your brain a work out.  

Learn to clear your mind to allow creativity by completing this meditation:

Meditation for Creativity – How to Meditate for Beginners – BEXLIFE

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