Have you ever felt like giving up as a Maker?

Maybe you’ve tried to pick up that woodworking or sewing hobby you used to really enjoy, but got distracted and suddenly stopped.

Or perhaps, you had a new idea you wanted to try, but got overwhelmed and discouraged by all the new things that you needed to learn and it stopped you in your tracks.

I get it. I’ve been overwhelmed, discouraged and at the point of giving up many times in my own work. (You can read more about my journey here).

So, if you’ve given up(or been on the verge of giving up) read on. I hope some of  the ideas below, inspire you to keep going.

2 Ways to Motivate Yourself to Start again as a Maker…

In the past few weeks, I’ve struggled to begin the next book in the romance series I’m currently writing. I’m not sure why I’ve struggled exactly.

But, I sense that the root of it has been a lack of motivation.

All of us as Makers face moments — or days or weeks — where we get stuck, face fear or lack motivation.

Today, I want to offer a couple of ideas on how to inspire and motivate yourself to begin again, if you’ve either felt stuck as a Maker or if you’ve felt like giving up completely.

These ideas are what has helped me to push past barriers or hindrances so that I can begin creating again and to finish the next project.

I hope you find inspiration to begin CREATING again…

1.Be Inspired By Other Makers, who despite setbacks and difficulties, kept going.

Maybe you are reading this and you don’t think you can really do this. Perhaps you believe you’re too old to make the art projects you’ve enjoyed creating. Maybe you feel like you’ve had too many failures and you feel like you might as well quit.

If that’s you, I hope these stories from well-known makers encourage you:

• James Dyson, went through 5, 126 prototypes and 16 years of life savings – but the 5, 127th prototype finally worked and today the Dyson Vacuum is one of the top selling vacuums in North America.
• Colonel Sanders was 65 years old and reliant on a $105 a month social security check when he finally setup and incorporated his new business, Kentucky Fried Chicken.

So, despite setbacks, if you are truly passionate about being a maker, keep trying. You never know, when what you create will start to be successful.

2. Imagine and Write down what you want your life to look like in the next year – or next five years.

I needed to do this when I first started writing fiction. I knew from watching other fiction authors, that this writing journey might take a few years before it had the potential to become a full time income.

So I began to imagine what I wanted my life to look like.

Some ideas I wrote down were:

• I wanted location independence(the ability to work from anywhere).
• I wanted to earn my income from projects where I was the one responsible for creative control.
• If my family had a vacation or special event, I could choose to take time off without worrying about loss of income.

The process of learning how to write and self-publish my novels(under a pen name for now) and finding an audience of readers has admittedly taken a lot longer than I originally thought(just ask my hubby… he would agree ;).

However, I’ve been encouraged as I’ve looked back at the past year to realize that I’ve really begun to find my niche in writing. I’m doing what I love and and consistently earning 4 figures a month from my work as a Maker. As part of my process I continue to work hard at bettering my writing craft and to develop greater discipline in my productivity and in different aspects of running a business.

These details do not come naturally to me. I am not an organized person by nature nor have I had experience at managing a business.

What changed for me, was when I imagined and wrote down what I truly wanted my life to look like, I had an aha moment.

I realized that in order for the vision I had for my life to become a reality, I needed to consistently 1)write down my vision and goals everyday and 2)Take small actionable steps towards reaching my goals everyday.

This has truly inspired and motivated me to press through discouraging days or times when I’ve felt overwhelmed by the huge project in front of me.  If I break it down into small steps, suddenly in my mind it seems do-able.

It’s like my mind finally relaxes and says: Okay, now this is figure-out-able. It’s time to begin.

I want to encourage you to Imagine what you want your life to look like in the next year. Expand that and picture what you’d like your life to look like in the next five years.

Now write down what you would like your life to look like in a year or in five years.

Write down your yearly goal and then break that down into actionable steps to take every month and then break that down into smaller goals to what you need to do every week and then every day to reach your goals.

Next, put your goals somewhere where you will see them every single day.

This will not only bring you clarity, but will inspire you to action.

Reminding yourself of your goals everyday will motivate you to begin those creative projects. Soon your imagination will spark new ideas and you’ll push past what was keeping you stuck in the first place.

Next time you’re stuck or on the verge of giving up, listen to stories of other Makers and then imagine what you want your life to be like in a year(or five years) and write down the steps you need to take to get there.

You might be surprised to discover your motivation has returned in full force… and that’s an incredible feeling.

Question: Have you felt like giving up on making your creative projects?  Are there steps you’ve taken that have helped you find motivation to begin again?  Please do comment below, we’d love to hear from you!