Steps to Boost Your Creativity When Your Business Hits a Lull
Hitting a creative lull in your business isn't unusual. It can happen in moments of high or low business growth. It can come about as a result of fear of failure or boredom with success. Not feeling the same enthusiasm you once felt for your business can leave you questioning whether to continue on your entrepreneurial journey at all.
Before you pull the plug on your business altogether, there are steps you can take to re-awaken your passion. To go from “meh” to magic in your business, try these three steps to find renewed interest in building your business.
Reflect on your mission and vision.
A lull presents an opportunity to remind yourself why you started your business in the first place. If your company doesn’t already have a clearly defined mission or vision, take time to write these down. If these statements already exist, consider if they still apply. Do these statements still excite you and reflect your true passions? If not, determine how they can be updated or sharpened.
Evaluate and develop new strategies.
Does your day-to-day work align with the mission and vision of your business? If not, try to identify the areas where your work doesn't line up, and develop strategies to address the gaps. A Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats (SWOT) analysis may be helpful to identify where you are thriving and where you are leaving viable opportunities on the table. A SWOT evaluation can also fire up your creativity by leading to new ways of thinking about your business moving forward.
Cultivate habits of creativity.
Start thinking about the daily habits you can implement to keep creativity bubbling in your business at all times. Practices like:
- Ask more questions – Recent research has shown a connection between curiosity and higher levels of creativity. Both "general" curiosity about a wide range of topics and "specific" curiosity about a particular question or problem can enhance creative thinking.
- Learn new things – Developing new skills and hobbies can enhance your creativity by improving your ability to see old problems with a fresh perspective.
- Write down new ideas – Keep a notebook on hand at all times and write down new ideas as they come to you without judgment or editing. This process encourages idea generation and gives you a resource to tap into when you're feeling blocked creatively.
Hitting an enthusiasm lull in your business can be discouraging – even scary. You may wonder whether or not you've got what it takes to stick it out in business for the long haul. But before letting panic set in, remind yourself that feeling unenthusiastic about your business is normal, and there are ways to work yourself back into a place of excitement and joy. Identify the problem, evaluate new solutions and make a habit of allowing creativity to flourish within your business at all times.