Hustle and Flow: Finding Inspiration and Keeping Motivated

One of the downsides to going to conferences is they pump me up with ideas and motivation, but without the self-drive to follow through my best intentions to Do Stuff tend to fall flat. 

I've realised somewhere along the line, I've lost my hustle. Yes, I go through brief periods of inspiration and productive work, creating content and seeking new knowledge. Then good old Lazy Sarah rolls back in and starts questioning the point, preferring to Netflix And Chill. I get thinking perhaps average isn't so bad. That mediocrity has itsmerits. 

Every successful person, every high-flying entrepreneur, every salesman of the year or employee of the month tends to have the same ethic: they're always working hard. They set goals and hustle to get to them. They're insatiably ambitious and they have a drive to achieve that frankly I'm jealous of. 

When I take a frank look at myself, I begin to wonder if I ever actually had any hustle. Life up until entering the workforce was pretty easy, I achieved academic success without much effort but after entering the Real World I quickly learned that unless you're a trust fund kid, not much gets handed to you. 

I have read some commentary lately that some people feel like sites such as Problogger "dupe" folk into believing they can get rich by blogging. I wonder if these armchair experts have ever actually read any articles or attended a blogging event, because all I've learned over the past few years is that success in the blogosphere comes only from a lot of hard work. You have to put in the time to earn the dime, if you will. 

I'm determined to find my hustle. If I never had it after all, perhaps I just need to develop it. Work on saying inspired as motivated - goodness knows there are plenty of bloggers and high achievers to look up to and learn from. 

How do you keep yourself on track with your goals? Do you ever feel like everything is just too much hard work?

Aspirational Overload

I was watching the Lifestyle Channel's "Inside Tatler" last night when I realised that although there is something to be said for aspirational media, it often just makes my heart sink with the realisation that some things are not within my reach.

What I mean is, although I do enjoy a good mag about lovely homes, and often indulge in a short daydream about having All White Everything, I usually have the good sense to realise that it is probably something that I will never achieve personally.

Barring winning the lotto, or suddenly becoming a voracious and ambitious wildly successful entrepreneur, I am never going to have the money required to make some of my lifestyle dreams come true in my lifetime. A reality check brings one up short before you can get too carried away with fantasies about shopping sprees in New York, private jets and live-in domestics.

Pinterest is another great source of life inspiration and while I do find it fun, I usually reach my perfect loungeroom/impeccable street style saturation point within half an hour.

Harsh reality crashes back in as soon as you close the browser window, or shut the magazine. A life where there are always dirty dishes in the sink, somebody has to take out the rubbish and tomorrow you have to go to work but you haven't done the washing so you have to put a load on at 10pm.

I have also learnt to look economically downwards not up all the time. To practise some gratitude for the lovely things I do have that some people don't. A good husband. A house. A job. A car. 

So, thank you, Tatler/Home Beautiful/Marie Claire/Country Style/Rich Kids of Instagram. I'll use your beautiful things as inspiration, with a pinch of aspiration; but I do need to keep my feet on the ground and head out of the clouds.

But it won't stop me keeping a mental file of lovely things I desire - for that day that I do inherit a fortune from a long-lost relative.

Do you love or hate aspirational media? Is it a motivator or a source of frustration for you?