We all know how sometimes the last thing we want to do is get up and work on that thing we have been trying to start like exercising daily… Or to keep showing up for something we have been doing for a while, stay motivated long enough to finish that task.
And since what drives us to stay motivated is as individual as each one of us, in this video I am going to show you 3 ways to get out of the rut that you can adapt to your specific situation and style.
3 Effective approaches when feeling not motivated
We will be going from strategy to deal with feeling not motivated enough to get up and start doing something, to the more complex situations when it actually starts affecting the quality of our life.
1. When not motivated to do anything
The first one is to help start taking action when we have been procrastinating for whatever reason…getting started is usually the hardest part and the more we keep shifting it forward, the more unmotivated we get towards that task.
And so the question is how to take that first action step, how to get that swing of motivation going because motivation is actually something that comes from taking action.
Every finished task, no matter how big or small releases dopamine in our brain, which is one of the brain chemicals responsible for feeling ready for action, for feeling motivated. We do something small, and it makes us feel, “Ok, so I did that…. I think I can handle a bit more” and so the momentum keeps building.
There are 2 ways to go about it -
- And the simplest way to help take that first step is to attach something that we enjoy to the task we have to do. For example, if you like music, play some focus music while working on a project. We like doing things that we enjoy, so making the task a bit more fun or a bit less drab can help take that first action to get the ball rolling.
Or, try the 10-minute rule. Set the timer for 10 minutes and start with the option to stop working as soon as the 10 minutes are up. The 10-minute limit makes it feel easy & manageable, and so doesn’t need much effort to begin. Plus, by the end of that time, we usually feel it’s not as bad as we were thinking and could keep doing it a bit longer.
2. When justifying instead of overcoming procrastination
But, it’s always not that straightforward. Sometimes, there’s so much to do that it overwhelms us into inaction, makes us feel tired even before beginning.
Our brain likes to save energy as much as possible and doesn’t like anything complex because thinking & processing uses up a lot of energy. And when we come up against something tough, something that requires a lot of work, we can find very creative ways to justify why we aren’t working on that.
Suggested
Watch this to know how to overcome procrastination every day and get things done
Two ways to get things moving when feeling not motivated enough
First is for the situations when we want to do something, plan on say doing what we have always wanted to do but the time or situation wasn’t right, or know we want to reach a certain goal but just can’t seem to find the time to start working on it. The solution for this is to create a plan on how we want to go about that, chalk out each action step. This makes the goal less vague, we don’t have to think a lot about how we are going to go about it. And broken into milestones or small goals, it also feels less daunting.
The second one is when we know clearly what needs to be done, but there’s so much to do that we kind of feel drained out even before beginning. Make it feel less complex, easier with closer milestones to feel that rush of achievement. Break the action steps into no-brainer kind of chunks…so easy that they don’t demand much thinking or effort. Together, these tasks sound like a bit of work, but individually they sound pretty doable.
For the 3rd approach when feeling not motivated enough to keep showing up because your heart really isn’t in it anymore, Watch the video up top with 2 more techniques.
