The Wilder Zone

10 Ways to Snap Yourself Out of a Funk

You're feeling less than inspired today. You look at your to-do list and discover you don't feel much like doing any of it.

Some days you wake energetic and raring to go. You tackle one item after another, after another, on your to-do list. Each opportunity to cross something off the list giving you a boost of energy and a sense of being productive, of accomplishing something, of forward momentum.

Then there are days when despite your best efforts, you can't seem to get into that zone. Your energy is dragging, your thoughts are unfocused, your mood less than enthusiastic. It's what one of my closest friends and I call a funk. It's a bad case of the blahs that you can't quite seem to shake. Sometimes it's easy to identify what brought it on, other times it seems to come out of nowhere for no particular reason.

Whether you can identify the source of your funk or not, there are steps you can take to attempt to snap yourself out of it:

1. Let the sunshine in. Living and/or working in a dark cave with all the blinds closed is depressing. Open the blinds or drapes and flood the room with sunlight. If it's warm enough to open the windows to let in some fresh air, even better.

2. Crank up the tunes. Put on some uplifting, energizing tunes. Something with a beat that you can hardly resist moving to and then...

3. Get up and move. Exercise, dance around your living room, wrestle with the dog, go for a walk. Anything that gets your blood pumping.

4. Light a candle or diffuse an essential oil with an uplifting scent. Orange and lemon oils are two of my favorites.

5. Get out of the house. Go for a drive, go to a park, go to your local coffee house, have lunch at your favorite neighborhood cafe. Your funk just might be a bad case of cabin fever.

6.Read something inspiring.  Keep some inspirational reading handy for days like these.

7. Talk to a friend. Preferably one who knows you well and knows just how best to help you...with empathetic words, a good joke or a swift kick in the ass. My girlfriend and I do this for one another with the understanding that we are NOT allowed to be in a funk at the same time.

If you've tried all of the above and are still feeling in a funk...

8. Take a nap or meditate. Either can serve as a way to reboot. Ever wish you could crawl back into bed and start over...sometimes that's just what you need to do.

If upon rising, the funk is still with you...

9. Just DO it! Pick something, anything, on your to-do list and Just DO it.

That's not working either?

10. Take a mental health day and go see a good movie, get a pedicure, enjoy a latte, soak in a bubble bath, read a novel, get a massage ...whatever... the idea is to give yourself a break, to pamper yourself, to renew your energy.

And remember...this too shall pass, and tomorrow is a new day.

Photo originally uploaded by fodt

Simpleology's Blogging Course - Snag it for Free

I'm evaluating a multi-media course on blogging from the folks at Simpleology.  For a while, they're letting you snag it for free if you post about it on your blog.

It covers:

• The best blogging techniques.
• How to get traffic to your blog.
• How to turn your blog into money.

I'll let you know what I think once I've had a chance to check it out. Meanwhile, go grab yours while it's still free.

Must-Read Blog: Sproutwire

You know those moments where you thunk yourself upside the head and wonder, "Why didn't I think of that?!" Well, I had one of those moments when I first saw Sproutwire. Sproutwire is the brilliant brain child of Shane Pearlman & Peter Chester. It's a blog that offers, as they put it, "a daily dose of the best small business articles that the internet has to offer." 

Oh, if only I'd thought of that myself. <g> It's currently in beta but I expect it's going to be very popular and successful. Take a few moments to check it out for yourself, and if you come across, or have written, a great post let Sproutwire know by sending them an email. If they use the article they'll give you a mention and link to your site or blog.

Choose Your Domain Name VERY Carefully

I just happened across a fabulous post titled, "Does Your Domain Name Suck?" by Wendy Piersall on her eMOMS AT HOME blog. I'm still laughing. It's hysterical and will make you wonder what on earth some of these folks could have been thinking when they chose their domain names. If you're in the process of choosing a domain name you've got to read this post. Even if you're not...take a moment to read it anyway. I can't think of a better way to wrap up your Monday than with a good laugh.

Blogging Blunders

If you haven't yet seen the series of short videos Andy Wibbels has created called Top 5 Blogging Blunders you're missing out on some fantastic blogging advice delivered, as always, in the most creative, imaginitive and entertaining way possible. #3 - Loofah Your Blog is my personal favorite, and yes, it's as intriguing as it sounds. See for yourself...

If that's not enough to get you over there to check it out, Andy also placed third in Copyblogger's Copywriting Contest for www.bloggingblunders.com.  Congratulations, Andy!

Business Blogging: To Blog or Not to Blog

My friend and colleague, Peggy Murrah, made some very valid points about blogging in her recent post, Are Blogs for Everyone?

Blogs are not for everyone. The key when determining which marketing strategies to employ is to play to your strengths and passions, rather than to anyone else's idea of what you "should" be doing.

You can tell yourself that you should be blogging, and it is a very powerful medium for developing relationships of trust with your market, but if it's not a strength, if you don't feel drawn to blog, then it simply becomes one more thing to procrastinate doing, and which drains your energy.

Better to put more of your focus on another marketing strategy that you'll actually implement, because when you get right down to it, the most effective marketing strategy is the one you can, and will, implement today.

Blogging can be useful and beneficial to your business, and to your market, even if you don't post every day. Just don't expect it to serve as your primary marketing strategy. If writing isn't your thing, but you're a fabulous speaker, then use speaking as your primary strategy for marketing your business. Blogging can still be a great secondary marketing strategy, and it can still help you to develop relationships of trust. It also becomes much easier to do and to keep up, over time. Like anything new, it can feel uncomfortable at first, but becomes more familiar and more fun as you gain experience.

Whatever you do, don't let it become something you dread, or that you beat yourself up over.

Easy Bake Weblogs

Blogging is the wave of the future for keeping in touch with your market and building relationships of trust with your potential clients, and it's increasingly more reliable than email marketing (which has become hit-or-miss to say the least). If you're working to build your business to ever-growing heights of success, you've simply gotta get a blog.

If just the thought has your eyes glazing over and your head spinning, don't miss the upcoming preview call for Andy Wibbels' Easy Bake Weblogs class. Andy is a gem with quite a natural gift for turning techie geek-speak into easy to understand language for those of us who are less tech-savvy than we'd like.

While I've picked up quite a bit of techie know-how in the past couple of years, I'm still not by anyone's definition tech-savvy.  I couldn't possibly have gotten this blog up without Andy, his fabulous book, Blogwild! A Guide for Small Business Blogging, and his Easy Bake Weblogs course. 

I'll be honest, prior to reading Andy's book and taking his course, the idea of trying to put a blog together intimidated the hell out of me. With the book and course it was simple, and I had a ball doing it. If you've been thinking of getting a blog up his course is a must. (And if you haven't been thinking of getting a blog up you should be, so at the very least have a listen to the preview call.)