How to stay motivated through the uncertainties in life? The answer lies in knowing whether you are truly motivated to do something or simply excited about it. Because the answer can tell you beforehand whether you will actually get the results you want or end up losing steam midway. But before getting into that, we need to make sure we have the right foundation for this to be truly effective.
3 Strategies for how to stay motivated when life gets hard
1. Before you begin
How do some people handle all the uncertainties, all the ups and downs managing to achieve what they set out to get? That’s because they anchor their motivation to the result that they want instead of to the things that they would rather avoid.
We can be motivated either by moving away from something or moving towards something. Like,
- if you are exercising to amp up your health and have the kind of energy you need for that vacation planned for later this year, that’s approach motivation, moving towards something.
- But, if we are exercising to stop gaining weight, then that’s avoidance or push motivation, moving away from something. “If I don’t exercise, I am going to gain weight.”
Strategy – Check your compass
What – To stay motivated through all the uncertainties, setbacks, and hurdles begin with one question,
“how does doing this fit in, even in a small way, with what I want in my life?”
Why – Because when we anchor our motivation to a bigger picture that’s closer to our heart, our desire for that, pulls us through all the changes, hurdles, or setbacks along the way.
When we remove fear from what’s motivating us, it helps us feel more in control of our decision to show up. A motivation compass pointing towards ‘wanting’ always works longer than the one pointing to ‘avoidance’.
2. Build automatic top-ups
It’s important to know the difference between simply feeling excited and being truly motivated. We can feel really excited about something, but until and unless it speaks to our interests, preferences, and instincts we can’t feel truly motivated to see it through.
The brain structure that manages motivation is shaped by our genes and the experiences we have had over time. Which essentially means that the best way how to stay motivated is to make sure that whatever we do
- holds meaning for us, and
we get positive feedback like seeing progress or some kind of reward.
But if things keep working exactly as we were expecting them to, they start to feel less and less exciting, right? That’s because the neural activity triggered in the dopamine system starts to drop.
But if we begin right, then feeling demotivated, unexcited, or bored simply signal that the batteries need to be topped up. If you have your intrinsic motivation in place, uncertainties and challenges can actually add to your motivation instead of hurting it because they help keep things fresh.
Strategy – Build automatic top-ups
- Distance –
Whenever problems or hurdles crop up that seem just too big to be dealt with, use second position of perceptual repositioning to distance yourself from the problem because our emotions have a way of blowing things out of proportion. Think, what would you advise your best friend if they came to you for advice on this same thing?
- Milestones – Now, with that advice in mind, create an action plan. But instead of one single stop at the end, build milestones along the way… smaller chunks of tasks so that anticipating success becomes easier. The motivation to act needs at least some expectation of success because dopamine is released when we ‘anticipate’ success.
Now, this strategy is for when challenges and hurdles hurt our motivation. But what when the doubt and resistance comes from within? What about when burnout, self-doubt, or a lack of progress causes motivation slump?
3. How to stay motivated? Have the tools ready
There are a lot of things out of our control that can affect our energy and our willingness to keep showing up. They can create periods of uncertainty where we doubt what’s possible for us, what we can do, and how correct are our decisions. Like, how someone reacted or what someone said can affect what we think of our ability in a totally different area of our life.
Why this happens –
Our brain’s main task is survival. And so, if something feels stressful, it tries to keep us away from all such situations by whatever means necessary, even if they are in a different context.
The different neural pathways like dopamine and serotonin pathways create powerful associations between what we do and how it made us feel physically and emotionally. And that then drives our behavior.
And even though we can’t control what anyone else says or does, or what’s breaking out in the world, we can keep some tools handy to stop our mood deciding whether we do what needs to be done or sit scrolling on the phone.
Strategy – Handy tools to get back on track
To know one of the quickest ways to start seeing value again… get motivated to start showing up, watch the video up top.
Hope you found this useful.
