Tips For When You're In A Creative Funk

Tips For When You’re In A Creative Funk

Does a creative funk have you down? We all go through phases of feeling stuck creatively. They are frustrating and stressful to say the least! Look no further- we at Kahootie Co. are sharing our favorite tips for the next time you’re in a creative funk:

 Relax yourself- Take a break! Engage in an activity that puts you physically and mentally at ease. Go on a walk, listen to music, go shopping, watch your favorite TV show, etc. Allow yourself to relax and focus on taking care of you. 

Gather inspiration- If you’re in a creative funk, look to the people, blogs, social media channels, etc. that inspire your own work. Save photos and writing that get your creative juices flowing and excite you to create content and projects of your own. 

Set time aside to play around- Without only focusing on having to meet a deadline, set time aside for yourself to play around with your ideas.  If you’re working on a vision board mix photos and content around to see what fits best next to each other. Play around with different color schemes, patterns, lettering, etc. Don’t put the pressure on yourself to crank out a project by a certain date and time. Give yourself time to create and have fun with it. 

Talk with a mentor or friend- Reach out to someone that supports you and inspires you. Share your creative block with them and listen to whatever advice they give you. Leaning on someone you trust and look up to might be just what you need to get back to doing what you love! 

4 Things To Have On Your Vision Board

Our previous blog post shared tips on starting your own vision board. Continuing in the spirit of goal setting and achieving our dreams, we want to share four things you include on your vision board:

1. Color: We all love our neutrals. Even if it’s minimal, incorporate color in to your vision board. A pop of your favorite color here and there! Life isn’t just black and white- chances are your goals aren’t either! Adding color will liven up your vision board and make it more bright and fun.

2. Numerous ideas: If you’ve found a kitchen island or bedroom décor that you’re in love with:continue to look for similar content. Don’t set yourself on one kitchen from a magazine or one room design from Pinterest. You might surprise yourself the further you explore for inspiration!

3. Quotes: Include a motivational or inspirational quote or two on your vision board. Make sure whatever you choose fits the color scheme and aesthetic of your board. When looking over your board these motivational quotes will remind you of the excitement behind your goals and dreams and continue to make you feel inspired!

4. An envelope: Running out of room on your vision board? Pin an envelope on the bottom corner of your vision board if possible. Here you can store inspiration that doesn’t fit on your board or keep inspiration you want to add to your board at a later time in an organized place.

TIPS ON CREATING A VISION BOARD

We’re all about setting goals here at Kahootie Co. We shared our tips to achieving your goals earlier in the year. We’re so excited to share a technique to help you goal set and achieve your dreams: vision boards. Vision boards bring your goals and dreams to life with collages of photos and pictures that represent what you have in mind for the future. Here are our tips to creating your own vision board: 

1. Decide on a goal: Choose the goal that is on the top of your priority or to-do list. Create individual vision boards for goals and dreams. This will allow you to organize your dreams and goals and focus on each individually. 
2. Look for inspiration everywhere: Save photos to your phone from your favorite Instagram feeds and Pinterest channels. Clip photos from your favorite magazines. In addition to your favorites, explore other sources to look for inspiration for your vision board. Explore Pinterest for new channels and use the Instagram ‘Explore’ page for new users to follow. Keep a pair of scissors handy to clip out inspiration from magazines. Use a pouch to keep photos organized together. 
3. Pick a scheme: Whether this is a color scheme or seasonal scheme, arrange your vision board with an arrangement in mind. Choose your favorite colors or an aesthetic look that you feel helps tie your vision board together. Creating a visually appealing vision board will be fun to create and fun to look at!
4. Take your time: Every vision board will have its own timeline. It doesn’t have to be an overnight project! Don’t rush looking for inspiration and photos for your board. When you’re happy with the inspiration you have collected, don’t jump to immediately gluing down your photos and pictures. Take time placing the inspiration you have collected around, switching out photos to see what looks best side-by-side. Do your best work with accomplishing your goal in mind!
5. Display your vision board somewhere important: You’ve put lots of time and effort in to your vision board. You’re excited about the steps you’ve taken to goal set. Exhibit your vision board somewhere you’ll see it daily. You may choose to showcase it somewhere in a public space of your home or workspace. This will allow you to create conversation with others about it. You should be excited about and proud of your work. Display it as such!

FIND YOUR PURPOSE

I truly believe that success in life is not tied to WHAT you do but WHY you do what you do.  When I started this company I truly needed a better way to stay organized.  With a full time job and three small children, I was constantly searching for ways to stay organized and achieve my goals.  After realizing I probably spent a little to much time thinking of my laundry list of to-do's versus just doing them, I began to create tools and products that would help me stay focused, on task and achieve success.   As our company grows and we launch new products we are now more than ever asking ourself WHY we are doing what we are doing.  

It seems like generation says to the next that they have it so much harder than we did.  My grandparents said it to my parents, my parents said it to me and now I find myself telling my kids.  But seriously, we're not alone with the struggle to keep it organized.  Today we have so many distractions that make it hard to stay focused as well as so much pressure to be successful.  We are beyond excited to announce that we have a new College Brand Ambassador program, consisting of 10 rockstar ambassadors from 10 difference schools all across the country.  Our purpose with this program is that we can inspire students to get organized, set priorities, and create balance while achieving their goals.  Kennedy and I have had so much fun building this program from the ground up and are beyond excited to truly make and impact and help others!  Oh ya, and we also have some new stylish tools that will make it simple and easy to do so.  

Stay tune....exciting things to come in 2018!

ACHIEVING GOALS IN 2018

We want to make 2018 the best year yet, accomplishing all of the goals we set for ourselves at the beginning of this New Year. Resolutions and goals are fun to set, and just like any other goal you have for yourself no matter what day or time of the year, they can be hard to follow through on. We’re determined to follow through on all of the goals we set this year! We’ve come up with the best ways to goal set and achieve your goals in 2018:

1. Write down your goals. This is so important! You can literally write something in to existence. Writing your goals down on paper brings to life your future dreams from just thoughts in your head, to plans of action. 
2. Create daily, weekly, monthly, etc. checklists for yourself to gradually achieve these goals. Almost no goal will happen over night. Creating steps for yourself along the way will make your goal that much more easily to achieve. A few steps a day are a lot more doable than overwhelming yourself with tons of work in a short amount of time. It’ll be so rewarding to look back weekly or monthly at all you have accomplished and keep you motivated to follow through to the end!
3. Find someone to talk with to keep you accountable. This can be optional-You don’t need someone to walk you through following through on your goals, but it is nice to have someone to lean on and know is supporting you along the way. Whether it’s a spouse, parent, friend, coworker, etc. having someone to talk with about your progress will keep you motivated on following through on the goals you set for yourself. 
4. Reflect on the good and the bad and decide how you can further grow from both. Nothing is perfect- it shouldn’t scare you that you will hit bumps in the road in achieving your goals. Take everything as a lesson and learn as much as you can from it. If something worked, what about it worked and how can you incorporate it into the future steps of achieving your goals? If something did not work, what did you learn from this bump in the road and what can be done better next time?