Even if you are normally a happy, motivated, and generally high-energy person, it’s likely that at some point in your life you are going to find yourself in a rut i.e., a time when you feel listless and unmotivated. You feel burnt out and don’t know what to do with yourself and you don’t feel like doing anything. At that point it is important to regain motivation and work on it otherwise it is a continuous trap that will not allow you to achieve your goals.
Motivation is not something you are born with, it’s not like either you have it or not. It is something that you need to practice. Do what you have to do and you need to do. Motivation starts and ends in mind, simply the state of mind, it’s how you do things. It’s positive thinking that drives ambition and a goal. Thus motivation is the positive outlook while not having motivation is the negative outlook.
Possible reasons why you lose motivation
There can be different possible reasons that can lead to disappointment and less motivation like
- Lack of strong reason that why you are doing this
- Your goal is overwhelming you
- You don’t believe in yourself
- You are simply exhausted
- Fear is holding you back
- Unhealthy lifestyle
- Impatience
- No progress
How to fix low motivation
Try your best to get out of this trap of low motivation and focus on your goal. You can achieve that by following certain practices regularly
- Get out of your bed and out of pajamas
Sometimes just getting out of bed can be a huge struggle for people and everything seems impossible. At that time getting out of bed and out of pajamas is very important and you can accomplish that by setting gentle reminders. You can leave some sticky notes with positive affirmations to keep you motivated.
- Get 8 hours of sleep
This is vital as being sleep deprived can leads to a lot of health problems and conditions like stroke, diabetes, memory loss, etc. Different researches regarding sleeping at least 8 hours are undeniable as you will be more productive and the deep REM sleep also boosts testosterone levels which occur mostly in the night sleep cycle. Adequate testosterone levels are important for motivation as they allow you to stay motivated for longer periods. It also increases your propensity to take risks. Taking risks is life and if you are not taking risks you are guaranteeing failures. So having enough sleep will open you up to a lot more avenues of motivation and success in the long run
- Be in a good shape
The endorphins released by doing physical activity and maintaining shape reduces depression and anxiety. Exercise puts you in a better state of mind so you have to do training and you have to be in a good shape. The more body fat you have, the higher estrogen levels are going to be which means you are going to be more emotional and not rational or logical. If you are determined to get your motivation back, get to the gym, start lifting weights, run, do sports to get an optimal shape
- Find the strong reason why you are doing it
Whatever you want to achieve in your life you have to find the reason for doing it that why you are doing it. It is not something like academic or commercial exercise it is deeply, deeply personal. If you don’t have the reason for doing it you are most likely to lose that passion or motivation soon. A simple idea that will keep you motivated every single day and that idea is real.
- Envision the success if you do it and regret if you don’t do it
Visualization i.e., imagination and thinking whatever you want is very important to remain motivated. It is such a powerful tool that will create motivation from within. Visualize what will be your life if you got to achieve your goal and how you regret it if you don’t struggle for it. Studies show that visualization has positive effects on different aspects of our life including stress relief, immunity, healing. It also boosts your physical activity, your self-esteem, and your determination to achieve goals.
- Plan your week, month, year, and life.
Being motivated is more about habit than emotion in powerful engagement. The scientific study shows that how brains can be programmed to create motivation energy when you do something over and over again, it becomes a habit. For example, you can become programmed to get up and ready to do whatever task is in front of you. It’s like waking up at the same time every day, first you need an alarm but after a week or so you begin to wake up at that time or even earlier, and then finally you don’t have to set an alarm at all. It is because your rhythms have programmed you to wake up at that time; it’s the same way with motivation.
- Break tasks into manageable chunks
It means not chasing the horizon i.e., no matter how quickly you sprint or how long you run, you will never reach the horizon because the horizon is a direction, not a destination. Similarly, goals are medium-term objectives that are just out of someone’s current reach. You will never seem to achieve it makes you less motivated and hopeless thus breaking it down into milestones is such an important part of the journey, it helps you keep track of how far and how quickly you are moving.
- Practice self-compassion
To survive in this high pressured and competitive world, most of us have to become highly adaptable at self-criticism. Excess of self-criticism can lead to a dangerous state which just ushers in depression and underperformance; you might simply lose the will to do anything at all. Thus it is important to practice self-compassion to keep yourself motivated. For this, it is important to turn over your sequence of thoughts that interrupt and correct the flow of your worst self-accusations. Adapt a kindly perspective on your setbacks. The practice of self-compassion increases the motivation to recover from failure and get back on track. Self-compassion leading to self-acceptance improves mental health and changes weakness into motivation. It is important to give yourself credit for the small things you do.
- Stop Procrastinating
The most common distraction is your thoughts. Procrastination is actually about lying to yourself i.e., telling yourself that you have plenty of time to do all the things or keep thinking you will do this and that. Instead of thinking about thousands of things you want to do in a day and letting these thoughts overwhelmed you, divide your project into small manageable milestones. Organize them and start with the easiest one. Make a timetable of how can you tackle this project hour by hour. In this way, you will naturally find yourself coming to finish soon.
- Maintain positive relationships
This strategy i.e., to maintain positive relationships never fails to lift spirits and get out of the ruts that you sometimes find yourself in. This is very important and everyone must be doing it.
- Practice Gratitude
Don’t trust the highs and lows on the way to success. It can be dealt with by writing it down at the end of the day. Write at least 3 things you are grateful for i.e., practice gratitude. It is the best exercise to keep you positive. Sometimes it’s challenging to force you to think optimistically or correctly when it is a dark day. Train your mind to focus on the positive aspects of life.
- Don’t try to please everyone
It is wonderful to be considerate of others but always trying to please people will make you depressed, trapped, and resentful. It happens mostly when you don’t when and how to say no to people. When you are always ready to sacrifice for them, you are often driven by some innate expectation or fear. This fear of being disliked by people makes you lose your self-confidence. It’s normal for human beings to have a strong desire of being liked and accepted. The only way to stop worrying about what people think of us is first to be okay with who you are i.e. first accepting yourself so you don’t feel compelled to seek validation and acceptance from the people around you. Once you got over your insecurities regarding people likening you, you will acknowledge yourself, regain motivation and focus on your goals.
Thus to regain motivation towards your goal you have to identify the reason behind it and then try to fix it as soon as possible otherwise it becomes more difficult day by day. Look at the different aspects and ways to remove you from that depressing situation. You have to make an effort to get back on the right track after a dark phase.