Thoughts on motivation
Since mid 2018 I have seriously struggled with being motivated to work. After the shit that happened with the people I partnered with back then, I was left super depressed. Both in the traditional emotional sense but also in the physical sense. I was wore the fuck out. I had put in long hours for years on end and had felt like it was all for nothing. From the pissed off Karens that would write nasty emails and shit on us, to the employees that stole design templates from the studio and went off to make cheap copies of our work to the partnership that used my design creativity and industry knowledge to launch their brand and then just dump me off. I felt like all the goodness and love that I put into our work meant nothing. In the end noone really cares. This left me without motivation to continue my work. And I didn't work with JJ for a while. I did other things that paid the bills..
Motivation isn't what gets you to your goals, it's discipline that takes you there
I had been trying to get at the issue all wrong. I don't need to be motivated, anyone can have motivation but do nothing with it. What I need to be working on is my GRIT, my discipline. I thought I would share this because this has shifted my perspective in such a profound and positive way that I hope it does the same for at least one of you.
Love!
Eventually a number of wonderful and persistant clients convinced me to make some items for each of them. Slowly I started to get back into it with leather. At first I thought that it would be a side thing. If someone wants something I would make it for them but I won't put any effort into the brand. Then I started to see the beauty in what we do and how much our work has meant to many of you. That helped bring me around. Now I am back at it, feeling the hope and dreams for the brand. But I still have the lingering lack of motivation to work hard and put in the hours like I used. I know that if I worked more then the business would be in a much better space. I think part of it is, since reopening JJ I have restructured a lot of it and it is efficient like never before. Most US orders arrive within days of being made, our profitability is way up, I am working a fraction of the time. Things are comfortable. But I know that this brand has a future with more. I just can't seem to make myself be motivated work longer hours. I could easily put Neena to bed and then sit down on the computer for another 3 or 4 hours each day. But I don't. I go to sleep instead. So I have been interested in this idea of what motivates us to work. I started reading Grit by Angela Duckworth and I love how she talked about the importance of grit over natural tallent. But what hit me was a comment I read on a post on @garyvee page. @melaniejo.au responded to a question about motivation. I will paraphrase it but she said;
Motivation isn't what gets you to your goals, it's discipline that takes you there
I had been trying to get at the issue all wrong. I don't need to be motivated, anyone can have motivation but do nothing with it. What I need to be working on is my GRIT, my discipline. I thought I would share this because this has shifted my perspective in such a profound and positive way that I hope it does the same for at least one of you.
Love!