#020 - Your focus is keeping you stuck

#020 - Your focus is keeping you stuck

Feeling stuck comes with building a freelance business. Learn what keeps us stuck and how taking a detour can help rebuild momentum.

Do you ever just feel stuck?

It’s that feeling like you’re not making progress.

For me, it can feel like I’ve stalled or that I’m going in circles.

I’ve heard a lot of freelancers share they’re feeling stuck as January comes to a close.

They had big goals for a fast start in 2024, and yet January has seemed to fly by.

This time of year we see lots of advice around remaining focused on our goals, “just keep going”, and building habits.

Spoiler alert: that’s NOT this newsletter.

Today, we unpack the 'state of stall' and how to get unstuck - not by working harder, but by taking a detour.

Read time: 5 minutes

Part 1: The State of Stall

I found myself in a state of stall this week.

I’m not depressed or burned out. In fact, I’m full of energy and drive.

And yet, I was waking up feeling ‘blah’ and without a plan of attack or motivation.

I was stalled across the board, from how to attack projects, identify next steps, calendarize social content, and even plan this newsletter.

Like many people, I’ve often thought that perseverance, more focus, more planning, and more structure were the antidotes to being stuck.

I want to take control and pull myself out of my stall by my bootstraps.

But the harder I looked at the jobs to be done, the more stuck I felt.

As someone who thrives on the feeling of making progress, the stagnation was getting under my skin.

I was growing irritated and becoming resentful of the projects. My lack of motivation was spreading to other activities that usually give me energy, like working out and walking my dogs.

But then, on Thursday, I realized what I needed: time in the golf simulator.

It wasn’t that I needed to play golf; it was that I needed to work on something other than work.

So, I spent 60 minutes Thursday night working on some swing mechanics and made progress on getting my swing path coming from the inside.

I left feeling accomplished and energized.

The progress and confidence on the simulator translated into motivation and confidence in tackling a few of the stalled projects.

After another productive golf simulator therapy session on Friday evening, I again came home ready to tackle a few more things where I was stalled.

I wasn’t stuck anymore.

Part 2: Languishing & Detours

This morning as I turned the pages on Adam Alter’s latest book, ‘Hidden Potential’, it all started to make sense.

Adam Alter describes this feeling of being stuck as ‘languishing’.

Languishing, Alter says, is a “sense of stagnation and emptiness”.

He goes on to discuss how beyond feeling stuck, languishing has been shown to keep us stuck.

The answer to getting unstuck isn’t perseverance or staying the course.

It’s taking a detour.

Research has shown that progress made on hobbies and side hustles boosts confidence and motivation at work (provided that the hobby is unrelated to your work).

Progress doesn’t always come in a straight line.

Sometimes a diversion or detour is an important milestone on the freelance journey.

When we feel stuck acquiring new clients, working through a challenging project, or mapping out a new offering, consider a deliberate diversion or detour.

Now I’m seeing “detours” in the patterns and paths of the successful, driven freelancers, entrepreneurs, and leaders I know:

• 🚴 The PR freelancer who is passionate about cycling

• 🎨 The brand freelancer who experiments with acrylic on canvas

• ☕ The digital publishing entrepreneur, who is designing a special cup for the Caffè corretto

• 🏄 The tech CEO who carves out time to surf and workout on the beach in the morning

• ⛷️ The SaaS entrepreneur who goes heli-skiing with other founders

As freelancers, consultants, and independent contractors, we place a lot of pressure on ourselves to serve clients, find new business, and do great work.

When we get stuck, our instinctive response is often to put our heads down and ‘just try harder.'

But as I came to realize this week, sometimes our intense focus is what can keep us stuck.

The lesson for me is to pursue motion somewhere - anywhere - as a source of fuel.

I’m not suggesting focus isn’t important. It is.

But so too is the momentum that comes from accumulating small, seemingly insignificant wins (even if they come on the golf simulator 🏌)

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Enjoy your detours this week!

-Jeff

Freelance Marketing Alliance

p.s. Hey! I'm really trying to grow the subscriber base so that we can introduce some more tools, resources, and support for freelancers. Would you consider sending this to 2 other freelancers or consultants? Thanks!

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