It's normal for everyone to lose motivation sometimes, even the people who always seem so motivated. Sometimes we experience burnout, a feeling of impending doom, or depression, which causes us to lose the enthusiasm we once had. Fortunately, it's possible to find motivation, even if you've temporarily lost it. Right now, as you deal with lost enthusiasm, you might think it's unlikely or impossible because you don't feel like doing anything. We've all been there. So you're not alone in the sentiment. In this article, we'll explore what motivation is and how to find motivation when you'd rather do nothing.
What Is Motivation?
Motivation is the drive to fulfill your goals and needs.
The goals and needs don't need to be elaborate, like winning a Nobel Prize or becoming a millionaire. A goal can be as simple as wanting to feed your family, move out, or create a new habit.
Various factors influence our motivation. For instance, many people are motivated by rewards and punishment. If you know you'll get praised or recognized; you might take action that leads to the pleasure of being rewarded. Or you might take an action that prevents you from experiencing a punishment as that would cause pain.
Importance of Motivation
Motivation plays a vital role in our lives. The following are some reasons why it's crucial we need to stay motivated:
1. To Prioritize Your Life
When you're motivated, you're able to set priorities in life. After realizing what goals you want to achieve, you're able to take action to build your life your way. Motivation enables you to set timelines to achieve what you want out of life. It helps you stay committed to seeing your goals accomplished as it's what drives you into building out the life you dream about.
2. Helps You Overcome Fear
Motivation helps you fight against your fears. Many of us fear failure, which can stop us from taking a step in the right direction. Motivation reduces fright as you see beyond what could hold you back. It's what pushes you towards being able to see the bigger picture.
3. Allows You to Overcome Adversity
Motivation helps you push through setbacks and enables you to overcome adversity. Before you achieve success, you'll go through challenges and face obstacles. The setbacks can make you doubt your abilities to achieve your dream. However, when you're motivated, you're able to get up and have the courage to try again even after failing. That's because you're so focused on the result that you forget to notice the things trying to block your path towards it.
4. It Inspires Others
You inspire others with your motivation. When you're motivated, you'll be surprised by how many people become encouraged to pursue their dreams too. It's a positive trait that makes others want to get things done in their own lives. Your positivity, enthusiasm, and hard work rub off on others to elevate their morale and spirit.
5. It Boosts Self-Confidence
Motivation increases self-confidence. Once you learn how to find motivation to achieve all your goals, you develop a sense of confidence, overcoming low self-esteem. Success comes from the steps you take every day while working towards your goals. You achieve a feeling of accomplishment after you push through your struggles and fears. As you build confidence, starting new projects doesn't become a struggle anymore.
6. Inch Closer to Your Goals
Motivation helps you aim towards your goal. When you know how to find motivation, you'll always have the desire to grow in your life. Since it brings you closer to achieving your goal, you have the will to make any change that gets you the life you dream of. Sometimes, just having a plan and some energy to execute it is enough to lead you towards the path of success and happiness
7. Meet Like-Minded People
Like-minded people tend to stick closer together. It'll help you attract your tribe. Motivated people tend to hang out with others just as gung-ho as them. Even if your motivation is low right now by staying around someone highly motivated, you'll likely begin redeveloping that lost spark. Hence, you're able to find motivation to achieve your own goals.
How to Find Motivation
When it comes to finding motivation, an essential step is to figure out what's been demotivating you in the first place. By asking what's wrong with me, you will learn what it is that's keeping you from moving forward. Hence, you'll be able to know the precise tools and strategies to keep you driven for years to come. Here are some tips on how to find motivation.
1. Get excited about your goals
You might think this is obvious, but most people don't consider pumping themselves up. If you want to get out of that dark place where you lack motivation, then you should try to be more excited about the goals you've set. You could even set new goals that are more aligned with who you want to be.
You might be wondering how to get excited about something when your morale and energy levels are low. The first step is to get inspiration from other people, surround yourself with people who have achieved their goals or are committed to working towards them. Watch shows like Star Trek, which are based on an optimistic future to inspire creativity. Listen to positive songs about how things in life could be to renew your sense of purpose.
Share your goals with someone who has always supported your ambition. Ask them for advice on how to find motivation to achieve this big lofty goal you have to send you in the right direction.
When you're excited about doing something, it's easy to accomplish it even faster than you anticipated. Therefore, you'll be able to carry that energy towards working on your goals to keep pushing on.
A quick way to get excited about your goals is to daydream about it. Imagine yourself five years from now after you've done all that upfront work and are now in a period where success is yours. Use that imagination to excite you into taking that first big step towards a wonderful journey.
2. Write down your goals
If you write down your goals on a piece of paper and keep that paper in your wallet or jacket pocket, slowly but surely, you'll take action towards it since it's a constant reminder.
Sometimes you need a reminder of what's driving you to get out of bed every day. Your goals are what gives your life purpose. So, if your goal is superficial, like 'get super rich' with no positive outcome for what you'll do with all that money anyway, you won't actually take action on it.
Most people who find motivation daily have big goals that inspire them. It can be as simple as do a good deed a day every day for the rest of my life or help eliminate poverty in the world. But it has to be personal to you, not just what sounds like a nice concept but doesn't motivate you at all.
World peace is a nice goal, but if that isn't driving you out of bed in the morning, it's not the right goal for you. What's been your biggest life challenge? Aim to make that a problem you aim to solve for yourself and others. At least, it could be your starting point to help you learn how to find motivation.
3. Works towards one goal at a time
We've all made the bad mistake of doing too many things at once to achieve a goal, only to move further away from doing so. If you do too much, you'll find yourself not having the motivation to go on because all your energy drains quickly. You won't maintain focus and energy when working on your goals if you're trying to work on more than one or two goals at once.
Focus and energy are vital aspects when you're trying to accomplish the prize your eyes zero in on. If you ask successful people, they'll tell you that it's laser focus that brings you closer to success. You have to be patient, pick out one goal, and then work towards it until you accomplish it. Once you achieve one of your goals, you can transition to the next one.
By sticking with one goal, you don't overwhelm yourself, which allows you to ease into your motivation. It prevents you from getting distracted from your primary focus.
4. Create anticipation
Build up some anticipation in your mind before starting the hard work for your dream. You can watch videos that inspire you, chat with an expert who shares advice or read blog posts to help you learn the foundation. If you have a goal to achieve, excite yourself before getting started. By hyping yourself up before starting, you'll have more energy to bring into it when you take that first step.
Create a timeline and set a date for when you'll start working towards your big dream. Whether you make the move today or set it out for a month from now, pick a date that you'll take action. Set a reminder or mark the date on your calendar.
Now you can start building anticipation for that date. You can consider it to be the most important day in your life. After all, this is the day your life changed in a positive direction. This is the day you put yourself first. Having a set date gives you time to work on a good plan that'll increase the possibility of you achieving your goal. By not starting immediately, you build anticipation, and it increases the amount of focus you put into achieving your goal.
5. Don't be afraid to get support
Just like the saying goes, if you walk alone, you go fast, but if you want to go far, you'll need to walk with someone else. This saying shows how hard it is to accomplish things without collaborating with others. It's essential to get the help of your close friends and family when you're trying to find the motivation to achieve a goal. Your friends and family provide you with the moral and emotional support to keep you encouraged during the highs and lows of your journey. For example, if your goal is to quit smoking, you join a support group with people dealing with the same problem and with a person guiding you through to the end goal. Getting to hear of how others with similar challenges have struggled and how they're coping with it will help you tremendously. Support is vital for everyone who's trying to achieve something, be it big or small.
You can also try getting support by following along to this guided meditation for motivation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGpgDfeDl8Q
How to Find Motivation When You Start Losing It
At some point, you might feel like you're losing motivation. You can do a couple of things to solve this.
First, take a break and then get back to working towards your goals.
Check and see if the timeline you have set to achieve your goals is realistic.
Remember why you started and continue moving forward.
Find inspiration from sources that have achieved the goal you're working towards.
Ask for a pep talk from a friend, family member, or coach to help you re-spark the motivation you've lost.
Conclusion
In your journey to find motivation, know that it won't all come at once in an epiphany-like moment. Instead, it's like a muscle that needs to be worked on constantly. It's essential to stay motivated when you're trying to accomplish something you value. However, sometimes it can be a challenge to find motivation, and we find ourselves in a slump. Nevertheless, using what you learned in this article, you can relearn how to find motivation depending on your goal.
