Self motivation is a challenge for anyone who is self
employed. But it’s a particularly tricky challenge for
those in the creative industries. Why would that be? Well
creative types, quite sensibly and obviously, often become
self employed in order to be able to be creative and
flexible in their work. Not for them the drudgery of a nine
to five office job with a soulless boss!

But when you’re self employed, YOU become the boss. And the
employee. And this dynamic sets up a whole set of inner
relationships and rebellions that need to be handled with
care. Particularly when it comes to managing your
motivation so that you can achieve successful outcomes for
both your business and for yourself.

Assuming that at least part of the reason you’re in
business is because you want to make money, your inner boss
will be need to be in a position to make strategic
decisions, undertake planning activities and dictate hours
of work.

And assuming that you’re creatively self employed because
you want to build muscle, flexibility and creativity in your working life
and don’t want to be dictated to, your inner employee will
need a certain degree of freedom and leeway on the job.

So how is your relationship between your inner boss and
your inner employee?

I asked this question of a coaching client recently who was
having a difficult time running her own creative business
from home. She surprised herself with her reply! She’d
expected to respond that her inner boss was terrorizing her
inner employee and that what she needed was more freedom to
work flexibly so that she could enjoy her working time
more. What she discovered as she pondered the question,
though, was that matters were in fact reversed… her inner
employee was rebelling against her inner boss to such an
extent that she despaired of ever producing any meaningful
output.

To motivate yourself happily and successfully, it’s clearly
important to nurture a supportive relationship between
these two parts of yourself. And that means engaging them
in regular dialogue with each other. Your inner boss needs
to understand what kind of flexibility works best for your
inner employee. And your inner employee needs to understand
what the boss reasonably requires in order to produce
results that both will find satisfactory and rewarding.

Sometimes there’s a degree of delayed gratification
involved for both. Your inner boss, for example, is more
likely to allow your inner employee to take that
luxuriously creative hour for writing in the middle of the
afternoon, if there’s an understanding that the employee
will work, and work far better, in the early evening as a
result. And likewise, your inner employee is more likely to
let your inner boss lay down some plans for future
ambitious projects if there’s an understanding between the
two of them that the plan includes an allowance for
creative travels and time out on completion.

So as you think about your conflicting motivations when it
comes to work, creativity, self employment, money and
flexibility, take a moment to be aware of the different
parts of yourself that have a stake in the process. If you
can involve each part in a way that allows it to have a say
and to negotiate with the other parts, you’re likely to
achieve a much higher overall level of motivation in your
work. And, of course, the corresponding success that comes
along with it.

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Mary McNeil of Create a Space is an experienced,
ICF-certified life coach who works with artists, writers
and musicians, supporting and encouraging them as they make
creative living a practical and sustainable reality. You’ll
find her at http://www.Create-a-Space.co.uk

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