It’s inevitable. No matter what line of work you’re in or how much you love it. No matter how good you are at what you do. Sooner or later, you’re going to get into a funk.
It happens to everyone. The best authors experience seasons where they hate writing and are lucky to have one good sentence in a hundred pages. The most passionate musicians have days where they don’t even want to pick up their instrument.
While funks are unavoidable, we don’t have to resign ourselves to them. From my own experience, I have identified four responses we can take to combat being victims to these times of low inspiration.
A natural tendency is to think that your funk is permanent. It’s a sign of a major change in performance or motivation that will never correct itself. It’s not. Don’t mistake momentary moods for permanent paradigm shifts. Your funk is only a small part of your story. Just turn the page and start your next chapter.
1. Don’t extrapolate your future based on your funk.
A natural tendency is to think that your funk is permanent. It’s a sign of a major change in performance or motivation that will never correct itself. It’s not. Don’t mistake momentary moods for permanent paradigm shifts. Your funk is only a small part of your story. Just turn the page and start your next chapter.
2. Give yourself the advice you’d give someone else.
Many times, we know just what to say to other people when they’re in their own funks.
Go outside for a while. Escape from the prison of your own mind and emotions and do something nice for someone else.
And these things worked for them. That’s because they work for everybody. Including you.
3. Don’t justify your funk.
Trying to find the source of your funk won’t make you feel any better about how you’re feeling. In fact, it will only lead you to wallow in self-pity, which does nothing but create a cycle of funks, which only leads to more self-pity and even deeper funks. If you let the same stories of funk repeat themselves, your overall story will never progress.
4. Work, don’t worry.
I’ve been saying this for a long time now—stop wasting time wondering whether or not your normal level of motivation will ever return. Work harder than ever, whether you feel like it or not. You can get back the motivation you didn’t have while working. You can’t get back the work you missed out on while you were waiting to feel motivated to do it.
If you’re in a funk right now, stay faithful to the work God has given you today. And praise Him the second your motivation catches up.
