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?

Something to look forward to

Today I would like to impart some of the wisdom I've gained from my years as a cubicle-dwelling office drone. I like to think,however, that no matter whether you're a microscopic cog in a vast organisation or working for yourself or something in between, this may be of use to you!

Sometimes life gets you down. I'm not talking about depression, which is another issue altogether. I mean that the daily grind can sometimes wear thin. Positivity is harder, and you tend to focus on negative things. When this happens, it helps to have something to look forward to. 

For myself, I've always found that having some future annual leave booked helps. It gives you a sense of perspective when you're having a bad day. "Oh well," you mumble to yourself, "only X days/weeks until I'm on holidays!"

If holidays are not possible, you could also focus on an event. Like a birthday or even just the weekend if you're planning something interesting or fun. Small things can bring great joy, after all!

This last month I've been solely focused on battling through to this Friday, because I'm going on scrapbooking camp again. Regular readers know that every year my mum, my scrapping buddies and I go out to a place with cabins by a lake and just scrap the whole weekend. It's bliss. And it's a cheap holiday!

It has really helped me get through some tough days at work lately, having this to look forward to. 

What about you? What are you looking forward to soon?

Drive and ambition

I’ve been thinking a bit lately about life goals. It stemmed from a conversation I had with my dad where I joked that I should have been a dentist because they charge like a wounded bull and don’t seem to have to do too much. He expressed his wish once again that I should have been a doctor or a lawyer. I reminded him I would have been bored or miserable doing these (we’ve had this conversation before) and lamented that I never did know what I wanted to be when I grew up.

You see, I’m jealous of people with career ambitions. I never had that burning desire to be a fireman or a ballerina. I did briefly flirt with the idea of being a nurse in kindergarden before I realized you have to deal with people’s bodily fluids all day. However, even now, I don’t know what I want to do in my working life. I’ve fallen into all of the jobs I’ve had and since I’ve been pretty good at them I’ve just toddled along. I don’t want to climb the corporate ladder or give up the cubicle life to make jewelry (“She's Making Jewelry Now") My vintage homewares Etsy shop is more of a hobby than an actual way to make money.

I constantly hear and read about people who knew exactly what they wanted to do with their life when they were young. And others who discover later in life a burning passion and find joy in pursuing something they never even thought of. I want that for myself!

I’m currently reading Arnold Schwarzenegger's autobiography ("Total Recall"), and he is one of those people who knew exactly what he wanted from childhood, and had the drive to achieve it. He writes about how he consciously set himself goals and always worked very hard to achieve them – whether it was success in bodybuilding, business, movies or politics. It’s a pretty amazing read, I recommend the book.

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So now, I guess I just need to get over my jealousy of people who know what they want to do with their lives and find my passion. Meanwhile, I’m taking inspiration from Aussies I follow on social media like Jess Van Den of Epheriell Designs (silversmith extraordinaire) and Peggy Saas from cake crumbs and beach sand (amazing food photographer).

Do you have ambition? Did you always know what you wanted to be when you grew up?

On ambition

I turned 29 last month. There. I said it.
I'm a bit worried, not because I'm getting old(er) but because I thought I would have have achieved more by now. Well, be married with kids or something. Or at least know the direction my life was headed in.
When I was in high school I had a homeroom teacher who made use write down 25 goals at the beginning of the year. The first 5 were short term goals to be achieved by the end of the year. The next 5 were to achieve within the next two years. The next ones within 5 years and so on. Then he told us to write 5 very cool, very fantastic, hearts'-desire goals.
I don’t remember what my Fantastic Goals were (pretty sure there was "own a McLaren F1" in there somewhere though) but I do remember some of my 5-10 year goals clearly. There was Travel the World (tick), Live in London For A Time (cross), Go to Uni and Get a Degree (tick) Get A Well-Paid Career (half tick) and Find the Man of My Dreams (surprising, tick!).
And now that I think about it, that's a pretty good strike rate. So why don't I feel like I've accomplished much? I think it's mainly because I have never had any ambition job-wise. I really, honestly, never had a career in mind when I was growing up. When I left high school, I got such a good OP score everyone expected me to do law or medicine. I balked out of Law at the last minute and did what I had suddenly decided that I wanted to do - Arts (for fun) and Commerce (for practical job-getting). After four years of study, the only things I figured out were a) I hate finance and most forms of commerce; and b) I love Anthropology but not enough to make it a career.
And so I landed by a serious of unfortunate incidents into my current Contact Centre job. Five years later, I feel stagnant, I'm itching to get out and really, really over telecommunications.
But I've got the same damn problem - I don't know what I want to do with my life. I desperately need to find my passion. And pay the mortgage at the same time. I feel adrift, directionless and lacking in ambition. It's so bad I was half-tempted this morning to look at a correspondence course in interior design.
I want to be that woman in That's Life! Who writes in about how she always knew she wanted to be a zookeeper, and now she's caring for giraffes in South Africa or some such. Or the kid who always wanted to be a firefighter, or a doctor and every bit of his education and effort has been bent towards this goal.
I need advice, peoples - how did you figure out your passion? Did you always know what you wanted to do with your life?