Unless you are Mrs. Beaver, you probably have days where it’s hard to look at your to-do list.

Today I realized that I have been in that slump for the past few weeks. I hadn’t felt motivated. I wanted to reach out, but I couldn’t get the work done. I know I am not the only person on the planet who ever feels this way, but I often feel like I struggle the hardest to get out of it.

Yesterday, an idea struck me like lightning. I called people, made contacts, sent text messages, and mind mapped it. I was suddenly riding upright in a saddle I’d been staring at for nearly a month. From this experience, I learned some valuable lessons:

1. Get Excited About What You Are Doing

I had been making cold calls, publishing advertisements, and beating the sidewalk for months on end. I was tired, exhausted, and out of ideas. I realized yesterday that I needed to find a new perspective of things to get excited about. Make new contacts, generate new ideas, find someone else to convey my enthusiasm to.  What can you do to make the same task seem alive again?

2. Convert your Enthusiam

I did not get excited about cold calls yesterday. I got excited about something unrelated. What I did was turn my momentum from that project into momentum for the tasks I had been neglected (alas, I still have yet to reconcile my books for the past 2 months).

3. Make the to-do list again

I know you probably have 6 of them laying around if you are anything like me. Write it again with your new enthusiasm. Make notes, jot ideas, make action plans. With your new lease on life, a lot more ideas will flow than did with the previous stagnation.

Reflecting back on these, I realize they are pretty common sense. However, it’s hard to remember them when you feel bogged down and out of sorts.

Take a glance at your to-do list. What stubbornly still lacks a triumphant slash across it? Try these tips, and let me know how good it feels to cross it off!