Less Than Motivated

Sooooooo…. who else has been feeling less than motivated lately?

Less than motivated to go to work, to read a book, be creative in coming up with new ideas, to finish that online course, to pray or work on your relationship with God, to work out, to eat right or to just do those HVAs that would ultimately lead to the achievement of your goals?

You might currently find yourself in a phase where you’re not as motivated as you’d like to be and you really cannot point out the reason for the lack of motivation. You might just be at a point where you feel like just giving up altogether or just not in the mood to get those goals going. You might not be happy or sad, just “demotivated”. These past couple of weeks, I read one page of a book for like two weeks *crying face*. Needless to say, it was not so encouraging.

LOOL. This picture perfectly described me a couple of weeks ago! For some of you that may not get it (which I know would be very very few), it’s supposed to be the NIKE logo, but then it is not as straight as it should be. LOOOL. And the NIKE motto is “JUST DO IT” but this one is like “….neh…I don’t really wanna just do it”.

We all feel that way sometimes because motivation is not a constant thing, it comes and goes. One minute we could be up, one minute we could be down. And I think it is safe to assume that as long as you’re a human being, this applies to you and the next person and the next person (just in case you were about to compare yourself to someone who always seems to be motivated in what they’re doing or trying to achieve).  So how do we motivate ourselves, to get back on track and just focus on what is important?

I did some research on what we could do when you find yourself feeling “demotivated” because I also found the need to get back on track and “just do it!”. I have tried some of them out and have gotten positive results so I will share briefly…

1. Build Anticipation

So what you want to do to get back to being motivated is to get out of that sorry state of self-pity and feeling like “nehh I don’t really feel like…” or “I don’t really wanna…” or “I’m not in the mood to…”. Like just snap out of it. Decide this moment that you want to snap out of it and just be motivated and when you do, take action! What you also want to do is to build some sort of anticipation of the outcome of the tasks/activities that you do. When you envision the ultimate goal coming to life and becoming a reality, it can cause you to get excited and just be in a great mood anticipating the great things to come.

2. Share your Goals

Some people are of the opinion that you need to be quiet about your goals… “less talking and more action” which is very true to an extent. But then again, it is very important to share your personal goals with close friends or even family (that can motivate you!). You could even reach out to a mentor or a stranger who seems to be on the same path as you are and just connect on that. The benefit of this is that you get not only great accountability and encouragement, but even suggestions or advice on what you can do better to reach the desired goals. Funny enough, I have also found that when you have a dream or even a goal but have a moment where you get nervous and scared, sharing with someone might give you that boost you need to take just the first step. You basically feed off the person’s ginger.

3. Find inspiration!

You need to go back to your why. Why do you have this goal? What do you seek to achieve by doing this or that? It really helps to know the purpose for which you are starting a particular journey so that when you burn out (as we sometimes do), you can find the fire to continue. Read motivational and inspirational books, listen to podcasts, fill your mind with positive and inspiring content and have great inspiring conversations with strangers.

4. Build on small successes

Sometimes its easy to lose motivation when the goal ahead seems too huge or just too much. I’m learning that if you break down the goals into mini-goals and micro-mini goals, then you can achieve almost anything. Remember to take one day at a time and in doing that, take one moment at a time. You could write down your mini goals for the day or for the week and stick on your fridge or wardrobe or mirror of anywhere you have a lot of access to especially when you wake up in the morning so you can be reminded of those goals. Take one at a time and then you find that in doing that, the momentum builds.

5. Stay positive

Always remind yourself to identify the positives and not the negatives that would come out of achieving your goals. Remind yourself of the benefits and not the difficulties. Remind yourself that you are a winner, you can do it and you will do it! Make a decision to get back on track and stay there!

Yesterday, I had a great conversation with someone close to me who said plainly “the easiest way to fail is to start” and I agree. Once you start, there are so many reasons why things may not go the way you might want them to and reasons or none why you may just be “demotivated” to see it through, but stay positive and keep going for what you want! And even though we had a good laugh about it because it was a sort of ironical conclusion, we realised that:

“It is easy to come up with an idea; It is easier to commence the implementation of an idea; It is easiest to fall off the wagon when things get tough or you feel “demotivated” and it is the most easiest (if there’s no phrase like that, permit me) to stay off the wagon”

Snap out of it and get motivated!

Have a great day! x

Photo sources: Dr. Gaveeta Chiba, Charlene Johnson