How to get your career mojo back

We all have days where we aren’t quite feeling it. When the creative juices are not flowing, decisions are harder to make and the spark has just gone!  You may be spending your lunchtime scrolling job sites, or staring out the home office, considering re-training to do something a bit more, well, exciting? If you are feeling like this, then it’s time you get your career mojo back.

I am going to assume within this blog that you usually enjoy what you do. That when you talk about your day job or a business, you feel physically lighter; you are happy to spend any free time you have learning more about your sector. In fact, if you won the lottery tomorrow, there is a good chance you would still be doing something related to your day job. But, right now, things do not feel quite right. It’s not that you want to quit, but you know something needs to change, and fast!

Everyone has times in their life when things aren’t quite working out and we are told to “just keep going”. To put our nose to the grindstone and to push through.  We expect this slump after a nice time, a holiday or a break, and often have plans in place to deal with it. Yet what happens when it appears mid-week or mid-month? It is easy to let this chip away at your self-confidence, your motivation and you sense of self, as for so many of us, our work is a massive part of our identity.

So, when this happens, how can you get your career mojo back?

1. Pay attention to what else is going on

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you will know that I don’t believe life and work should be in isolation. However, there are times that we do not notice how other areas of our life is impacting our work. Stress, illness, personal health, relationship issues and  even hormones can eat away at our energy levels and resilience and make work that much harder.
The answer? Pay attention to what your body is telling you!

2. Step away and take a break

Recently I have noticed that my creativity is slipping a little. A great friend of mine, Alison from Innovate Collaborate always jokes that I “sneeze a blog comes out.” Yet, over the past few months, they haven’t come as easily as they have in the past. I realised that one issue was I wasn’t doing enough new things. I wasn’t going to new places or having new conversations. It was not my fault; the pandemic meant that home was safety, but it was impacting my writing. So, I stepped away from the laptop. I watched some news (and this blog appeared). I talked to my eldest (and the idea for this very blog materialised) I listened to a podcast on a walk, and this blog started talking shape. I basically stopped “working” and started letting my brain wander, and I found my writing mojo again. What would happen if you just stepped away and allowed your brain to rest?

3. Be your own cheerleader

In my opinion as a Career Coach, people do not celebrate themselves enough. They don’t sit down and list all the wonderful things they have done, the progress they have made. It’s very easy when you are in a slump to slip into the world of confirmation bias; what you tell yourself if the truth (even if it’s not!). You tell yourself you are in a slump; you can’t do your job and you have lost your passion for it. So, what you notice around you is supporting that very though! A pitch you didn’t win, a blog you can’t write *see point 2* or a process you can’t remember. But what if you tell yourself you LOVE your job? What evidence would you be able to collect to support that? Maybe it’s the great feedback from a client or colleagues (quick, stick it in a brag folder in your inbox NOW), or the rush of pride you feel when you finish a call, or the accomplishment when you fix an issue or make new suggestions. You are reminding yourself at what you are great at, and like magic, that mojo comes flooding back.

So, if this is you right now, and your feel that your career charm is slipping, take these three steps to remind yourself what you are great at, why you are there and what you need to keep yourself physically and mentally energised.

I’d love it if you could join me, and over 500 people looking to create a Career to Enjoy and tell us how you get your career mojo back!

Clara Wilcox is a straight-talking, practical and experienced coach helping clients navigate the tricky waters of returning to work, career changes and professional development. The Balance Collective has a social mission, focused on improving the lives of parents, by working together to build inner confidence and promote a healthy work/life balance. Isn’t it time to create a career to enjoy? Find the latest online workshops here.