Ideally, as a creative professional, even if you work on a variety of roles, you have one skill that you are particularly focused on and are developing to be known for. The long term success of being known for a particular skill, whether it be website coding, illustration or music production, requires true passion for it.

If you have a focus in your work life on something you are passionate for, that’s excellent. Sometimes we can lose our way over time, and passion for what we do diminishes, or we simply get caught up in other areas of life and just forget about what we were passionate about in the first place.

Since having passion is so important, this post is about re-igniting and cultivating the passion that is already there inside you, so that you can continue to focus on your area with dedication and with great results. This can also be used for those of you who are looking to find their area of focus, which they are passionate about, but haven’t yet.

Here’s how to do this:

1. Write down ten things that are exciting or interesting about your area of work or a potential area of work.

2. Now write down three things that are interesting about each of the points you noted previously. Just keep what you have found in mind.

3. Spend half an hour looking through some good blogs or books that relate to your area of focus, and just drink it all in. Look for things that excite you and get you passionate. Consider printing out some images to inspire you that you can throw into your diary, a scrapbook, or on your wall.

4. Know your role-models. Think about who in the world you really admire and inspire you, perhaps even writing them down. Ideally what they do would relate to your work area, but simply being inspired by people who have achieved can really help boost the passion you have for your own path in life.

5. Read the biography of someone who has experienced success in the area of work you want to boost your passion in.

6. Do a training course in your area of focus or get out a book that will get you to expand on what you know about your skill. Either learn about the foundations of what you do, so that you feel generally more confident, or gain new knowledge to add to what you already know. This will add to your confidence, which will undoubtedly boost the passion you have for what you do.

7. Find somewhere comfortable to sit and get relaxed. Now spend a few minutes visualizing experiencing success in your area of work or achieving a goal related to your work. Think with no limits. Really turn up the vividness of this image, add sound and touch and colour in your mind.

The key thing is to effectively ‘burn’ the thought into your mind, so that you have a strong, positive picture in your mind that will help guide you towards success with passion in your work.

8. Set aside a day or more completely dedicated to creating something amazing for your portfolio. Take some time to plan something that will really add value to your portfolio or your work showcase. This will also give you some practice, stretch your skills, improve your confidence in your work, and allow to work on something that you really enjoy.

9. Talk to people in your industry. This can be through a reach out on Twitter, or in the real world. Go out and meet fellow creatives at social events and gatherings or organize your own. Hearing from others and sharing ideas and feedback is a great way to regain and boost passion.

10. Drop the baggage. Often it is in trying to accomplish too much that we lose passion for one particular area. Make it easier for yourself by committing to working on and developing one single area of your work-life, get good at it, work at it, learn about it and passion and drive will grow.

This doesn’t just apply to creative professionals, but anyone looking to further their careers.

Many people think of networking as something that is manipulative; something that involves engaging with others in an attempt to gain some kind of a strategic advantage for the success of their own careers.

The questions we might ask as we go about networking and marketing our work with a typical networking mentality might be:

.

How can I attract attention to myself?

How can I push my own agenda?

How can I get an edge over my competition?

How can I dominate the marketplace?

How can I manipulate them to work with me?

How can I really impress?

.

Fortunately, the way in which networking has progressed, especially in the digital age, in which everyone’s credibility is glaringly exposed, we no longer rely on deceptive cheesy grins to win over new contacts.

Making a connection with other people is now the way forward. One’s perspective needs to shift from one of scarcity, to one of abundance, respect and care.

The questions asked by the modern marketing action hero include the following:

.

What can I offer other people?

How can I make others feel comfortable?

How can I best express my sincerity and generosity?

How can I help others?

How can I draw out the best in people?

.

The key ingredient in all this is that in order to find real success in both your online and offline promotional efforts of making meaningful connections, you need to make a true connection with other human beings. Asking questions like these will equip you with the tools you need to get started truly connecting.

Get out there, start connecting, and success will follow!

Your thoughts are welcome!

Whether it’s lacking energy and focus, or believing that we are “not good enough” in the face of competitors, our drive to take action in promoting ourselves and the work we do can sometimes take a beating.

Fortunately, there several ways to regain a sense of confidence and purpose, so that self-promotion doesn’t feel like a chore.

I’ve put together a hands on step-by step-approach over at the 99% for getting fired up and getting organized to market yourself in the short-term and the long-term – an essential task that too many of us neglect.

To see the steps, head over to the 99%.

Many of us want to cut down on time spent on wasteful activities, and much has been said about how to reduce procrastination. Despite this, many of us still procrastinate! I think a lot of this has to do with the suggestions to plan what you do, and this is putting us off taking action.

Drawing from my own experiences as a writer and illustrator and the web, I’ve come up with a selection of ways to reduce procrastinating without the need to plan.

1. Take a deep breath and just start

Don’t waste time planning and thinking about it. This is simply another way to avoid actually doing tasks. If you intend to plan, most of what you need is in your mind anyway, so get started and things will tend to fall into place.

2. Expect discomfort and suck it up

Many people put something off because they expect a task to lead to negative emotions, including boredom. Realize that not everything you do will make you feel good, then do it, then feel great when it’s done.

3. Turn off the computer

Personally, the computer is my main source of distraction, and I’m sure others feel the same way. When I was writing my book, I wrote it physically in another room, and got so much more done than had the email and Google been flashing away in front of me. It might seem obvious, but avoid distractions like these and you’ll get more done.

4. Be more decisive at dumping things you don’t need

Be quick to remove/throw away email, paper, even desk clutter that you simply don’t need or will distract you. Cut out this hesitation to trash, and you will have more time to do things that matter.

5. Approach large projects in smaller chunks

For large jobs, the only planning you need to do is in deciding to start working on a small step within the wider project and simply doing it. Your plans for projects become taking action with the smaller aspects of it, instead of meticulously preparing the entire thing at once.

6. Quit the self-deception

A lot of us will dream up excuses for not doing things, such as ‘I’ll be in a better mood to do this tomorrow’. Simply be honest with yourself on what needs to be done and be free of irrational thought, and the job in hand will become much clearer.

7. Do the things you don’t want to do first

Get finished what you are dreading or dislike doing before you do anything else work-related in the day. Even committing ten minutes to the task will help you get the ball rolling for the project.

The best way to get unwanted jobs done is to set a timer, say for thirty minutes, that you spend working solely on this task. When the time is up, you can reward yourself with what you prefer doing.

8. Alternate your tasks

If you face a tough or dull task, do something you enjoy before and after it. This will bring a sense of harmony into what you’re doing and has the effect of cancelling the negativity associated with certain tasks.

9. Understand your body clock

I’m sure you’ve all got some sense of what times of the day suit you for working more effectively. Tailor your day, and the times your working energy levels are highest, to the work you do. Don’t feel that because others say one is freshest in the mornings that you should work in the morning. Do what suits you.

10. Rest

Aside from getting regular and appropriate levels of sleep each night, don’t ignore the importance of taking defined breaks away from your work.

Obviously a break will replenish energy and keep you feeling fresh. However, one of the real benefits of taking breaks that I’ve personally found, is in gaining the sensation of starting something every time you return to what you were doing. Knowing that you are starting something, even if it is in the last stages of a project, will bring to your work a renewed sense of enthusiasm.

What do you do to cut down on wasting-time?

For a similar article, see: 6 ways to save time promoting yourself on the internet.

I also hear of a lot of people having difficulty with motivation and productivity because you see a lot of other people’s great work around you, and feel frustrated with the competition. As well as slowing down your own creative productivity, this can threaten your sense of self worth and hamper promotion even further.

We need to tackle what lies at the root of these barriers to confident self promotion, which is self doubt.

I’ll show you six quick ways to overcome self doubt so that you can continue to feel good about yourself, your brand and your work, and ultimately become more productive, particularly when it comes to promoting yourself.

Acknowledge past successes

Write down ten real instances in the past when you doubted yourself, but ended up succeeding. This can be when you felt doubtful about yourself in any kind of situation, be it before a class presentation, meeting someone new, exhibiting your work, or even taking a long journey somewhere. Make these as varied as possible.

Having concrete evidence in writing of times when you succeeded in the face of self doubt will give you real confidence when it comes to dealing with future challenges. This includes feeling confident about developing your work and showcasing it.

Disprove doubtful thoughts

Draw up a simple table of two columns. The left side is headed ‘Doubtful Thought‘ and the right side: ‘Not True Because…‘. Fill the left column with five to ten doubts you currently have about yourself and your creative work. For example you might say you are afraid to start writing a blog because you are not an interesting writer.

You then write a statement in the other column that proves this thought to be wrong, such as: ‘I am an interesting talker, so there’s no reason why I shouldn’t be able to write interestingly’. This will re-align your thoughts and get you thinking rationally.

Keep an event journal

Again, get your notebook out, and at the end of a day write down everything, silly and serious, that you got through without difficulty. This could be in driving into town and back safely or talking to a client on the phone confidently. Then write down everything that didn’t go so well.

Stand back and look at what you achieved and what you didn’t do so well. You will inevitably see that when stacked against each other, you achieved much more than where you didn’t, and this will boost you greatly.

Celebrate daily successes

When you find that a situation in which you doubted yourself turns out to be a success, don’t ignore it. Make sure you acknowledge and celebrate what you have achieved. If you win a client, go out and celebrate, or watch your favourite film. Rewarding yourself for successes, no matter how small, will embed a sense of confidence into you and break up the self doubt within.

Talk to your supporters

If you feel doubtful about something, it’s a good idea to call on other people who see you in a more objective light. Speak to people who can support you, give you some praise and support the work you do. The Internet is a great place to find such people, and you will find more and more supporters through building up relationships with people through being active on social media sites, forums and blogs.

Take action and challenge yourself

There is no better eliminator of self doubt than taking action that disproves your initial self doubt. Always be searching for things that you regard as challenging, but that are obtainable. If you take little steps in doing things that take a bit of courage but are manageable, this is the route to feeling good about what you can achieve.

If you take a step that doesn’t result in success, try something a little less challenging first, before moving up a level again once more. Taking action in this way in everything you do is the route to self confidence and success in self promotion.

Do any of you have any comments or further ideas?