Get Rid of Your Lack of Motivation Once and for All
How do you motivate yourself? Some ways to motivate yourself are by realizing that motivation is optional, believing that if you get going you are more likely to get motivated, and open up your mind. Suit up and show up for life and keep a positive attitude; to increase your self motivation remind yourself, the next time you feel unmotivated, that it doesn’t matter that you aren’t feeling like doing it, get up and do the next right thing, and find three positive things about whatever it is that you are working on and use them for motivation.
Have you ever been in a job interview, and had the interviewer ask you if you were “self-motivated?” Have you ever wanted to answer with something like, “Who else, exactly, would be motivating me?”
Most of us do things every day like go to work, for ourselves or someone else, and do the work in front of us to do, whether we want to or not. Before that we got out of bed, got dressed, ate breakfast, took a shower, brushed our teeth.
All of those things take motivation, and if you’re not self-motivated, who’s motivating you? I know a freelance writer who tells people, “If I don’t work, I don’t eat, and I really, really like to eat.”
So it’s not a question of whether you’re self-motivated. Of course you are, when you’re motivated at all.
The question is, how do you motivate yourself? How do you get going on that project when you just can’t seem to “get motivated”?
1. Realize that motivation is entirely optional. You do not necessarily have to “feel like” getting up and taking a shower. No one always does. You just have to be committed to do it, whether you want to, whether you feel like it, or not. Just do it, as the slogan goes.
2. Believe that if you get going, you are more likely to get motivated than if you stand around waiting for the motivation. Action often brings motivation; sloth often brings more sloth.
3. Open your mind. If you get up and get going and are waiting on motivation to come from action, there is something else you can do. You can have as completely positive an attitude as possible. I know it may be hard at times, but I can promise you that if you feel good about what you’re doing, if you can find even just one good thing about what you’re working on and how you’re doing it, you will get motivated more quickly than using any other technique.
The great thing about these techniques is that you can use this three-step sequence over and over. Remember you don’t have to “feel like it.” Get up and do it anyway. Suit up and show up for life. Try to keep a positive attitude. Find one thing to praise or feel good about.
If you just follow this plan, you’ll be very pleasantly surprised by the change in your “motivation level.” Not only will you get the things done that you need to get done, but you’ll get them done more easily and with less effort, and have time to do other things you’d rather be doing, that you can get motivated about more easily.
We’re all self-motivated; some of us just know more about how to motivate ourselves.
How can you increase your (self) motivation?
- The next time you feel unmotivated, remind yourself that doesn’t matter.
- Get up and do the next right thing.
- Find three positive things about the task you’re working on, and use them to motivate yourself.
Thanks to Coaching 4 Lesbians for including this post in the Carnival of Healing, to Widow’s Quest for featuring this in the Carnival of Positive Thinking, to Atlantic Canada’s Small Business Blog for inclusion in the Carnival of Small Business Issues, to Working at Home on the Internet for including this in the Working at Home Blog Carnival, and to Positive and Successful Lifestyle Tips for featuring this in the Carnival of Inspiration and Motivation.
I am such a fan of the “Just Do It” school of motivation.
Get a job. Just do it.
Pay bills. Just do it.
Call your momma. Just do it.
We do plenty of crap already that we don’t like.
Hayden,
Agreed. “Suit up and show up” is a great motto to live by, and Nike’s “Just Do It’ covers it all.
[...] B. Bohl presents Get Rid of Your Lack of Motivation Once and for All posted at Slow Down Fast Today!, saying, “Have you ever been in a job interview, and had the [...]
[...] B. Bohl presents Get Rid of Your Lack of Motivation Once and for All posted at Slow Down Fast Today!, saying, “Have you ever been in a job interview, and had the [...]
Wonderful post. Viewing the results in your “minds eye” let’s you get going easier. And if it’s just the wish of getting over with.
[...] B. Bohl presents Get Rid of Your Lack of Motivation Once and for All posted at Slow Down Fast Today!, saying, “Have you ever been in a job interview, and had the [...]
A lot of times, people don’t do something because they are afraid of something—success, failure, whatever. My motto is “Be afraid and do it anyway.” Soon the fear doesn’t look so big.
Widows suffer from lack of motivation. If you find yourself in the position of having to work after your husband dies, then I guess you have to get out there. That is more like a survival technique. It is possible to become robot like, perhapss that is best, but to jump up and down and become excited when your world has fallen apart is unrealistic. Doctors have you on a time-line for mouring, so do your friends and realtives. If you don’t recover by their schedule you are tagged abnormal and ‘need to seek help.’ the only thng wrong with you is that your spouse/mate is dead and is not coming back. If they came back in full health, you would be fine; that is the truth of it. Frankly, its not normal and is out of touch with reality for people to expect you to act in a normal fashion and smile as thought nothing has happened. That is becaseu people in general, if they give a damn, most don’t, are intolerant of you because you make them feel uncomfortable, so its really all about them once more, and not you and in your darkest moment. One might inquire, so when is it going to be about me? The world would answer, ‘Never.’ You have to take control. This will probably be the first time in a long time you do not have an agenda. Take the time you need , regardless of how long it takes, regardless of what other people think. This is the time in your life to do the minnimum, don’t volunteer to do do things you don’t want to do. You need time to do nothing. Go to work if it is essential to your survival, to pay bills, etc., but you are not required to be the ‘Star’ of the company. Collect your pay-check and go home, or wander after work, whatever makes you feel even slightly better. You may not preceive it as feeling better, but not having someone telling you what you ’should be doing’ in order to feel better is actually the solution in part. You have heard the exprssin, ‘just veg,’ as in vegitate? Well maybe that is what you should. You have suffered a deep injury that is as serious in many instances as a physical assault. Maybe there will be a time when you feel better, maybe not. You could feel awful for the rest of your life. Everyone is different. Think of work like going to the toilet; we all have to do it, but don’t obscess on it unless you are wired up in a hospital room and cannot do it on your own. Body functions for the most part are not inspirational or romantic or fulfilling, but are neessary. We have little or no choice about them. We are who we are. Don’t let others tell you its been so long now, you should be over mourning for your husband/wife. Truth is, you may never be over it, depending on your relationship with your spouse. C’est la Vive.