What do you do on the days your motivation tank is drained to empty, or when you just can’t get excited about doing anything. On some of these days I do think actually doing next to nothing is okay. Maybe you needed the rest to recharge your batteries. But having too many days like that isn’t going to get you anywhere in life. So, when you lack motivation, and you do need some, what should you do?
- Goals – The whole purpose of a goal is to motivate you to take action in life. Whether you achieve the goal or not is unimportant. It is taking action and discovering more about yourself, or growing into more of yourself that is important. If the short-term objective isn’t motivating enough, can you connect the task or activity into a larger goal to find some motivation.
- Consequences – How do you get a donkey to move. Either offer it a carrot or hit it with a stick. If you do not find the carrot (the goal) enticing enough then think about the consequences of not achieving it. This sense of away from motivation can sometimes be stronger than towards motivation. There are drawbacks to this though. If you only move away from something, you may end up away from it, but you might still not be where you wanted to go. Also, if you only move away from, once you are away from the thing that you wanted to move away from, your motivation to continue to move away from it declines. Use weight loss as an example. If you are at a weight you are unhappy with you may feel strong motivation to make dietary and exercise lifestyle changes to lose that weight. Once you have made some progress, maintaining these lifestyle changes can seem harder, and your grip on them can loosen to the point that your weight starts to go up again. If you do use away from motivation, switch it into towards once you are moving in the right direction. So, keep your ‘towards’ weight loss or body shape target clearly in your mind to maintain your progress.
- Will Power – Sometimes you just have to use a bit of brute mental will and get yourself off the couch doing something. In my experience once you get going, it always feels better than sitting around doing nothing wondering about what you should do.
- Help Someone else – This may fall into the, just do something category, but helping someone else to do something when you aren’t motivated to do anything for yourself is a good way to get some momentum going for you too.
- Find out what you need to do – Sometimes our lack of activity is down to the fact that we just don’t know what to do. If this is the case, then find out what to do. Sounds easy, and sometimes it is, and on other occasions a long journey is required to find out what you need to do. But if you have at least set off on that journey of discovery, then you are still moving in the right direction. But remember, knowing what to do and doing it are not the same thing.
- Find pleasure in the mundane – Sometimes in life we have to do things that aren’t particularly enjoyable. Providing that the thing does fit into a bigger goal then you will just have to do it. See if you can find a way of making a game out of it, or some other way to make it more enjoyable. Maybe put music on, or an audio book, or a podcast whilst you do the task. Or find something else interesting about it. I don’t like cleaning, but I like a clean house. I can see the benefit in cleaning, but I still don’t like it, so when I do it, I listen to an audio book at the same time.
The best thing to do in life is to act on things which excite you or that you are passionate about, and to do that all the time. But even in the process of doing that sometimes we are faced with an empty tank of motivation. Embrace this situation too, so that you can find a way out of it. Remember wherever you are in life now is where you are meant to be. Do not invalidate where you are, because this unattractive stepping stone is on the path to where you want to go, and without it you won’t get there.
“The most effective way to do it, is to do it.” Amelia Earhart
