LOSS OF MOTIVATION – A HUGE CHALLENGE

Motivation is the basis for creativity and productivity. It is the key to moving forward and feeling involved, powerful, and purposeful. Motivation and enthusiasm manifest as desire and interest, and as a driving force that pushes us to take action and pursue our goals.

But what happens when we run out of this main ingredient? Everyone has felt a decline in motivation at certain points in their life. The stillness and uncertainty brought by the coronavirus pandemic, lockdown, and social distancing are certain triggers for demotivation for many. Retirement from 9 to 5 jobs is another risk junction for many as they do not know how they can be useful without their jobs!

The reasons for lack of motivation may be different for different people and it is important to get to that reason in order to figure out how to get through it. Procrastination, laziness, indifference and passivity that usually set in cause unhappiness, weakness and lack of satisfaction. Returning to being enthusiastic, motivated and active can bring a sense of joy, strength and power. Instead of suffering, feeling uncomfortable and passive, it would be much better to produce enough motivation to take action and do things.

So let us try and analyze why we lose our motivation and fall in the vicious trap of laziness, unhappiness and depression

Are we clear about our goals?

Our lack of motivation could stem from not being completely at peace with the goals wee set for ourselves. Every person has an Essential Self and a Social Self. The Essential Self is the part of us that is spontaneous, playful, and creative, the part that knows what really is important to us. The Social self, on the other hand, is the part of us that is acutely aware of the rules of society and is keeping us safe by making us follow those rules in order to be accepted by our peers. Sometimes we set our goals based purely on what our Social Self and attempt things that might make others feel impressed or proud of us. This is usually not what we really want and so our Essential self is not motivated to go all the way! So, we cannot afford to set wrong goals for the wrong reasons.

Do we know why we want to do it?

Do you know why you want to achieve your goals and your targets? Make sure your reasons are strong and emotional. When we’re not sure what exactly we want to create or achieve and why then our future is vague and getting motivated is nearly impossible. Think about it, why do people stop smoking? Most of the time, people stop smoking because they have a strong reason, if they continue to smoke, they may suffer serious health problem and might lose their love ones.

Do we have a plan?

A goal without a plan is just a wish. Now that you are clear about your goal and know why you want it, how do you aim to achieve it? What is that plan? A plan gives us a sense of familiarity with the task in hand. Humans like familiarity, we resist the unknown, so if we don’t know what it is that we want and why, we end up staying in our current, familiar situation. This may lead to a feeling of stagnation and a lack of motivation and procrastination. So once we know our goal, we need a plan to achieve it.

Visualise the success

This is a great motivator. It works and only if we are willing to work on it. Visualization has been a very powerful tool that available to us and it is free of charge. We can think and imagine whatever we want, wherever and whenever you wish to. When we think of a slicing a juicy lemon why do we start salivating? This is because our mind cannot differentiate between what is real and what is not. This is what makes visualization such a powerful tool. Think about it, if your dream is to drive a Mercedes Benz, imagine the vivid picture of you driving. Imagine the model you want, the colour, the feels when you sit in, the smell of leather, feel the steering and hear sound of the engine roaring. Do you think your mind will eventually make it real one day? You bet. Now that your imagination is fired so will be your motivation to work towards it.

Lack of challenge

If you are a habitual winner, winning every battle and have never tasted defeat then chances are you are playing in the junior league and soon you will lose motivation. Challenge is an essential ingredient in motivation and self-realization. We humans are ever-evolving creatures, at any age. We need challenges in order to master new skills. It’s important to remember there is a sweet spot to a being challenged - too great a challenge may create a fear barrier that will kill your motivation. And at the same time if the challenge is too easily conquered, we quickly get bored and lose our motivation again. It is then again time to review our goals. Lack of challenge is actually a signal to us that we are on a path that isn’t beneficial for us anymore. It is keeping us in our comfort zone, doing only familiar things and not experiencing anything new……..how can that be motivating!

Create an environment

Surround yourself with a circle of genius. If friends and co-workers around you are ambitious and all fired up it will be hard for you not to be motivated. You will tend to become the people you are around with. If you are always surrounded by successful people who talk about their growth and learning, you will learn and join the conversation as well. On the other hand, if you are surrounded by negative people who always gossip and talk about other people, you will feel negative and have no motivation to work like them. Choose your company well and stay motivated to prosper.

Remember, a small goal is better than no goal at all and all goals should be time bound. You don’t have to turn your whole life around. If it is something that is important to you, and adds purpose to your life it’ll reignite your motivation.

Use agents of motivation

To me this means friends and family but to others it may mean very different things. Read a book, listen to music or watch something inspiring can definitely put you back on a faster gear. These can be your motivation spark plugs. Authors and orators have made fortunes writing and lecturing about how you can motivate yourself and I will not doubt their usefulness either.

Take a break

Hijacking your motivation is a way for your mind to tell you that it’s important that you take a break and spend some time with other people. So just taking a break can be a great agent of motivation. Go out in the garden or spend some time with your friends or relatives. It can even be a phone or video call. You’ll be surprised at how much this break can motivate you once you go back to work. A break clears a clouded mind and brings in a new freshness of ideas which can in turn be a great motivator!

Avoid a burnout

If you’re feeling tired all the time, you have lost your energy for socializing and the idea of taking a nap sounds more appealing than anything else you’re usually interested in - these might be signs that you have pushed yourself too hard for too long and are you may be burned out. Being an ambitious and active person is great, but chasing too many dreams and trying to get too much done can be exhausting, disheartening and beyond the limit of what is sustainable. This is the genesis of burnout. Learn to allocate your time sustainably. Your energy is limited, so it is important that you dedicate it to the things that you truly care about.

Dream Big, Start Small, and Act Now

This is a very powerful principle and it works every time. When you dream, you have to dream big so that your dream can inspire you. However, when you start, you have to start small because you want to make it into a habit so that you will automatically take action consistently every day. And don’t procrastinate, start now!

Motivation is one of the keys that will push you into taking action and keep you moving each day. If you do not have motivation, you will tend to procrastinate on the things that are supposed to get done. Eventually, you will put things off and totally give up