The other day on a mission for Alpine Rescue Team, while we were standing around waiting with nothing to do (which occasionally happens) another team member came up to me and started talking about his WordPress site he’s been working on for a while. He slowed down posting articles and then stopped altogether because his site needed updates and was getting spammed and he needed more help getting past the details and struggles of just having his site set up properly that he said he just got “stuck in the weeds.”
It’s a good analogy and it’s true.
It happens to all of us and sometimes it’s hard to get unstuck.
Another team member who is new to blogging was stuck in the weeds for a while, but I think she’s happily moving quickly out of the weeds. We worked together to get a good site set up so so she could start posting and getting content up there quickly. I’ve seen it before where someone says “I need my blog to be really cool and perfect and sell a million widgets!”
Then I say “How many widgets do you have right now to sell?”
Then, silence…. (somewhere in the distance, a dog barks (I love that line))
Flowers on a hike near Moab, UT.
There’s potentially a lot to do to set up a new site and while you can get by with the basics when you get started, as you gain traffic, there’s more and more you should be doing to make sure it’s set up properly and can handle traffic and posts and whatever you’re working on. I say this because a lot of times, when you get started blogging, you think it’s going to be one way, and then as you get going on it, it turns into something else. So, we allow it to grow as you do, in the same direction you do.
Then the challenge comes in getting unstuck from the weeds. I think this is more of an issue with general motivation and direction for anything in life and how we’re treating ourselves.
Lately I’ve been working on a long project with some folks overseas that requires me to work late hours – later than I usually do. It makes morning really difficult to get motivated to get stuff done when I’m so tired (and can’t sleep in). For me, tiredness results in lack of motivation and getting “stuck in the weeds.”
Overcoming it is sometimes really simple. And it doesn’t usually involve talking a nap. For me it’s getting outside for a walk or a bike ride to shake the cobwebs, get the heart pumping and build some sweat. I think in many ways I can really relate to Sarah Peck’s article about How She Works from “It Starts with…” As much as I’ve sort of fought it all these years, I really am someone who needs to be outside and moving and finding new inspiration daily which in turn helps me focus more and better when the time comes to focus on anything.
I often take a walk with the dogs to clear up because it’s easiest and quickest. Sometimes it’s a bike ride or most anything that’s away from a screen of sorts. I remember some particularly tough times a bunch of years ago when it seemed like I needed to walk for miles and miles to lose the demons (as a good friend used to describe this sort of situation). But, it did the trick and I’m better for it.
So, whatever you call it, demons, weeds, TV, or whatever causes you to lose focus and motivation, there are ways to get yourself focused and get out of the weeds. And it really helps to gang up on the weeds and knock them down together. That’s what I find is also really helpful to my clients and friends alike – helping them get out of the weeds to be successful.
That’s how the flowers do it…
