Why you've lost inspiration and what to do about it

At some point in your career, you will hit the dreaded "road block".

For some of you, maybe you're there right now. This is for you.

It's safe to say that when we are at this place of feeling completely uninspired by our career, often times we want to just bail.

Quit.

Leave it all behind and start something new.

Thoughts like "I can't do this", "I'm bored out of my damn mind", "I'm not cut out for this", or "Why bother" begin to creep in.

I feel you, I've been there before, more than once and today I want to dissect what causes us to get to that point in the first place, and what we can do to move past it and thrive in our careers.

So..how did we get here? I mean, it wasn't that long ago when we were excited about our career, the future looked bright and limitless, passion and creativity were flowing effortlessly and things were gooooood.

What happened between then and now?

Well, a few things happened...and a few things that should have happened to find and maintain inspiration, didn't happen.

What happened? Here are a few things you may relate to:

1. You are likely overworked and overwhelmed. I mean, working 10 hours a day, 5 days a week churning and burning through clients gets exhausting. Exhaustion is by-product of overwhelm and this can be a recipe for disaster and can be a root cause of lost inspiration.

2. You're bored. Doing the same thing day in and day out...will drive anyone straight to boredom. If you haven't had any new exciting clients in your chair, if you've been using the same colors and same formulas and same foiling techniques and the same products and the same EV-E-RY-THING...you're bored out of your damn mind. Repetition, stagnation and boredom work against us. We are CREATIVES at heart and if we don't give ourselves the opportunity to exercise our creative muscles, we get BORED. Some of us, quicker than others 🤪. Boredom, for creatives, is a recipe for disaster.

3. You've lost your passion...your WHY. Think back to when you enrolled in cosmetology school...what was your why? The reason for even getting into this industry in the first place. Are you jaded? Have you forgotten you why? Have you elaborated and expanded your why...or are you just stuck in a rut and not excited anymore? I'm going to offer some perspective here, because usually when we lose our "passion" is typically when the thoughts of "quitting" get really loud. Here's the truth...you passion, your WHY...it's still in you...it's not LOST. Think of it this way...

Simply put, inspiration..excitement...passion...these are not something that we innately HAVE, it's something that we must cultivate and then WORK to maintain.

Please read that again and let it marinade.

WE. MUST. CULTIVATE.

So what can we do to cultivate this magic? Earlier I was writing about how we go here in the first place and I mentioned that there were things that we did and things that we didn't do to find and maintain inspiration is what got us to this place of uninspired. Let's talk about what we can begin incorporating to help get us out of this rut, cultivate our inspiration, remember our WHY and get to thriving!

1. Create SPACE. Earlier, I referenced a point that some of us are so over-worked and overwhelmed that there is zero space for any creativity, inspiration or even reflection. We are so caught up in the hustle and bustle of our business and our personal lives that we leave no space to just BE. Quite moments, intentionally carved out from our busy schedules to really focus on the big picture. This could look like taking a day off with no phone, no social media, no interruptions. This could also look like giving yourself 5 minutes between clients to just breathe and rest. Some of you need to book out a lunch break too, btw.

2. Bust up the boredom. Sometimes we get in a rut with our clients doing the same things over and over again. Same formulas, same placements, same techniques and that leads to boredom. How to bust through that boredom? DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT! Find a client that you can experiment on. Get yourself a few mannequin heads and play. Watch some videos, take some classes, learn some new things and TRY them out. PLAY. CREATE. HAVE FUN. Guaranteed, doing something new and different will bust up that boredom real quick.

3. FIND YOUR WHY..AGAIN. I say again because often times our WHY can shift and look different the longer we're in this industry. Sometimes, we're not even clear on our WHY. Our why is directly tied to our purpose and passion and it's the golden ticket to pull us out of our ruts. If your WHY isn't clear, you'll just be drifting in this industry. Take some time and ask yourself why you're doing this. Why am I in this industry? What do I love about what I do? What are my goals? Short term? Long term? What's the long term play for me? Once you do some digging, you'll find that you why IS what will pull you out.

4. EDUCATION. Listen, i'll say this until my face turns blue. Education is KEY for every single one of us. Stay educated. Take as many classes as you can! This is an investment into your career and can possibly surprise you on how much you'll change from education. There is so much education out there from color theory to placement to formulation to business development. Most people offer online education as well...there is literally no excuse on why you can't take some classes. TRUST me when I tell you, it will make all the difference for you!

With all of this being said, I hope you take some time for yourself to really dig around...do the work and cultivate your excitement, your passion, your purpose, your why. There is no reason why YOU can't thrive in this industry!

Cheers!

-Araz