When you’re feeling uninspired

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This week on the How You Pictured It podcast I’m sharing seven strategies to help get you out of that funk. Mostly, because I’ve been in one recently myself! Here are some of the things I do to start making progress again and get inspired and motivated in my photography business.  Enjoy this photographer inspiration!

1. Rest. Sometimes I really just need to do nothing, or catch up on This is Us.

2. Change your scenery. This week I went out to the backyard to work for a bit and that simple movement got my juices flowing a bit.

3. Fill your cup. Treat yourself to something like a long bath or a trip through the Dutch Bros.

4. Delight your senses. Browse through Pinterest for great works of art. Stroll through a museum, library or bookstore. Put on a great podcast or playlist and pop in your headphones. (This is my current favorite on Spotify)

5. Learn something new. Typically, I find something that’s totally unrelated to the thing I need to be doing, but sometimes it’s good to find a new skill in the area you are working too! Just stretching your brain in a different way will help the inspiration come.

6. Put a limit in place. Need to post to social? Give yourself 10 minutes to see how many posts you can schedule. Feeling bored with your images? Don’t let your aperture get above 2.8 or decide you’ll only shoot with a certain lens for a whole session. Limits help us find ways to push ourselves.

7. Brain dump. Get out a piece of paper and just start writing. Sometimes we have so many ideas in our head competing for attention we can’t hear any of them. Spilling out all of your thoughts on paper gives them all space to breathe and you can then hone in on what actually needs your attention.

I’d love to hear what’s working for you too! Tell me how you get your photographer inspiration. DM or tag me in your stories @dearkatebrandstrategy

About Kate Hejde

Kate Hejde is the host and creator of How You Pictured It Podcast and Dear Kate Brand Strategy. She helps photographers create a profitable business that fits into their lives. With over 10 years of experience running her own photography business, while raising three kids, Kate believes that business is not one size fits all and that you define your own success.  Kate teaches through her podcast as well as through courses, group coaching, and 1:1 mentoring. 

Check out Kate Online: Website | Instagram | Tiktok | Pinterest

FULL TRANSCRIPT: 

[00:00:00] Do you ever get to that point where you’re just totally overwhelmed and you have so many things that you want to do. 

But you don’t know where to start or where to go, and you’re just feeling uninspired and you don’t want to do anything. 

That happened to me last week, which is why there was no episode for the podcast. Between an aging dog and a kid with a sore tooth, we had a lot of emergency appointments and I just felt totally spent and unable to do anything, but I knew I still needed to put one foot in front of the other and keep making progress, even if it’s just baby steps. 

So I’ve come up with this list for you, of things to do when you’re feeling uninspired or. When you just don’t want to do anything. Number one is rest. Sometimes that’s really all you can do. Just take a break, take a timeout and do nothing. And that’s totally okay. I think we get into this mindset of everything [00:01:00] is hustle, hustle, hustle, 

and we don’t leave ourselves any room to just be quiet and listen to what’s next. Sometimes. There is just a need for you to just chill out step back and let nothing happen for a little while. And that’s okay. Watch TV, hang out and do nothing. Play on your phone. Watch Tik, TOK, whatever it is just rest and relax. And. 

Let the quiet come over you and get the, what should I be doings out of your head? And that sometimes can spark some inspiration for you. Something will show up and tell you this is your next step. 

Number two is to change your scenery. 

I don’t know about you, but I tend to always work in the same two places. I’m either at my desk, in my office, or I am on my laptop in my bed. And sometimes just moving where you’re working can help you. Think of new ideas, think of new things, put a new spin on things in your [00:02:00] brain. This week, I moved out to my backyard to work for a little bit. The weather is beautiful here in Colorado. Right now. 

We’ve had some really gorgeous days. My hammock is set up and I just sat in my hammock with my notebook. My favorite drink and hung out and wrote notes for myself of what to do next. 

Just moving to the backyard and sitting in the sunshine helped get those juices flowing a little bit.

Number three is to fill your cup, treat yourself to something like a long bath, or actually fill your cup with some coffee through the drive-through. My personal favorite is Dutch brothers, iced, Americano, sugar-free chocolate and cream, but do something that’s a little out of the ordinary or special for you that will kind of spark your passion for things. 

Again. 

Taking a nice warm bath can help me so much just to like, feel in my body again, get back into my brain. And kind of sort out what I’ve been thinking [00:03:00] and feeling and get me moving with more motivation and inspiration. 

Number four is delight your senses. So sometimes you just need to immerse yourself into something. Beautiful. In creative to get your own creativity going. I find things like going to a museum or simpler is looking through Pinterest at great works of art. Or listening to an audio book or a podcast or your favorite playlist can really help you. 

Get moving again and see, and feel the beauty that’s around you and help you to bring that out and create again. 

Personally, I don’t like to look at photography when I’m trying to spark ideas for photography

I do not search Pinterest for family poses. I will search for artwork with movement 

Or Renaissance paintings of families, something that can get my brain in a different place. Let me see movement. Let me see light and look at things in a different way that I can then apply to [00:04:00] photography. When I’m looking at Pinterest for strictly photography poses, I feel like I get just caught in that like cookie cutter 

copying mode 

and that’s not super helpful for creating something new and exciting. 

Number five is to learn something new. When I’m saying, learn something new. I usually am meaning something outside of photography, outside of what I typically am doing. And that could be, it could be something like learn a new way to send emails or learn a new way. To market or something like that. 

Learn a new genre of photography. But really I prefer to just break out of those things altogether and learn something fun. Learn a new hobby. Find something that sparks, curiosity and follow that curiosity. 

I tend to start a new hobby all of the time, but one of my favorites is watercolor because I can see the light and it kind of lends to photography as well. I think. And [00:05:00] how you interpret things. So try learning something new, again, following that curiosity and seeing what’s interesting to you when you find what’s interesting to you in another. 

genre it helps bring your excitement and passion back to the thing that you actually need to be doing to make money which is photography. 

Number six is to put a limit in place. 

 So this sounds like the opposite of what you should do, but really it is so helpful to break your brain out of that same old pattern and give you some kind of disruption to your thinking. For example, if I need to post a social media. I get really overwhelmed with choosing the perfect image, one image that I’m going to share and writing the perfect caption for it. 

What I’m going to do instead is say, okay, I need to come up with the five images that I’m going to post this week. I have 10 minutes to do it by putting that time limit on it. I get less precious about what I’m choosing and I get the job done faster. And then when I [00:06:00] have those five images chosen, it’s a lot easier to feel inspired about what to write and what to say in my caption and get it all scheduled out. 

With photography. If you’re feeling uninspired in your artwork. You can put a limit, like say you’re not going to shoot over a 1.8 aperture, or you’re going to keep your shutter speed at one over one 60 for a session, just to see what happens. Maybe you don’t do that with a client, but go out and shoot and put some kind of limit in place. So you could even just limit which lens you’re going to use. 

And it can be for a longer time than one session you could say, okay, all of this week, I’m only shooting with my 35 millimeter or all this week. I’m only shooting with my 85 millimeter, something to kind of just change the way your brain is moving. And get you to try new things that will help you get excited by putting a new limit on it will help you push through other limits that you’ve [00:07:00] put on yourself. Unintentionally. And then the last number seven is to do a brain dump. Get out some paper or, you know, type if that’s your thing and just start writing, put all of the ideas that are in your head out on paper. Sometimes they’re in your head and they’re just competing and you can’t see clearly through all of the things that are happening in your brain. If you should do this thing or that thing, or what’s next. 

And you have too many ideas and you can’t figure out which one is the right one. Write it down. 

Having that list will be so helpful to you to clearly see which one is the key thing to do next. And then you’ve made room in your brain by putting the other ones down on paper and saving them for later, I have lists upon lists. And brain dumps everywhere. For podcast ideas for things that I want to teach things that I want to do, uh, shoot ideas. And by putting them [00:08:00] out somewhere in the world, it takes them out of my brain and gives me more space for other things. 

And for getting the job done. So it opens me up for that motivation and helps me to kind of get out of that funk. 

 Like I said in the beginning of this episode, all of these are strategies that I do use. I especially used them last week when we had such a rough week and. I am excited to be back podcasting again this week, I am going to be putting together more episodes and trying to get some things prerecorded. So I don’t hit that spot again, where I just don’t have the time or the mental energy to put out an episode on time. I really hate not having an episode to put out. 

So I will be working on that. If you are enjoying the, how you pictured it podcast, I would absolutely love a review in either apple podcasts or in Spotify. Those things really do help. My podcasts get seen. You can also share it with a friend or share it to your social media. Just tag me at dear Kate [00:09:00] brand strategy. 

And I would be so grateful. If you have any questions for me, just DME, I’m always available and I cannot wait to talk to you again next week. Have a great day.