What Does Your Lack of Motivation Mean?
A lack of motivation can often seem to be caused by laziness or procrastination at first glance, but looks can often be deceiving!
If you’re struggling to stay motivated about working on your goals or any other endeavor, a little introspection can be just the thing you need to provide clarity and insight about what’s really happening beneath the surface.
Grab a sheet of paper and a pen, and answer the questions below:
1) Am I afraid of failing?
Fear of failure is an all-too-common reason why people lose motivation. If this is one of the reasons you’re holding back, you’ll likely be able to come up with clear ideas why you feel so afraid. For example, you may write, “I’m afraid of embarrassing myself in front of my family and friends,” or “I’m afraid I’ll be really disappointed in myself if I don’t make this happen.” Whatever comes to mind, write it down and then really think about whether it would be so terrible to experience – or if it would be much worse to not try at all.
2) Do I really believe in my own ability to persevere until I make it?
Likewise, you may be feeling uncertain about your ability to overcome obstacles and challenges, which is slightly different than a fear of failure. For example, you may have a certain measure of confidence in your skills and abilities but doubt that you have the determination and fortitude to achieve the full outcome you desire.
3) Have I grown bored with the goals that once meant so much to me?
This is an excellent question to ask because sometimes you’re not aware that your priorities and preferences have changed, and you can gain a lot of clarity by understanding what you REALLY want. If you do find that you’ve lost interest in your initial goals, you simply need to come up with some new and exciting goals that will spark your eagerness to move forward again.
4) Am I afraid of what it might mean if I succeed?
Another common fear is the fear of success. A fear of success is more about fearing the baggage that often comes along with success. You may feel nervous about taking on extra responsibility, feel overwhelmed by the increased attention your success would bring, or you might even be worried that you’ll never be able to “top” this level of success in the future. The only way to work through these fears is to discredit them. When you break them down and really examine them, you usually find that they’re groundless or irrational, which helps you to move past them.
5) What would make me feel more motivated about this goal or activity?
Sometimes you can’t find any clear reason for feeling unmotivated, but asking this question can often help you feel more in control of your own willingness to take action. Not only do you realize that you’re not powerless against a lack of motivation, you may come up with creative ideas that could inspire your sense of enthusiasm again.
Welcome back!
Motivation And The Power of Momentum
Have you ever hesitated to take action and gotten stuck in a rut of inertia?
Most often when this happens, you’re waiting for some internal or external clue that tells you it’s okay to move forward. You’re waiting until you feel more confident, or until obstacles dissolve and your goals are easier to achieve.
The problem is, the longer you stay inactive, the harder it is to begin moving forward. So you wait; and wait; and wait some more!
The truth is – it will never get easier to move forward. Every moment that you hold back you are settling deeper into your comfort zones, and pushing out of them will be even more uncomfortable when you finally do it.
However, you’ll be pleased to learn about a little thing called MOMENTUM.
You see, when most people procrastinate and avoid taking action, they do so because it seems exceedingly difficult to move forward – and they mistakenly believe that it will ALWAYS be that difficult. Have you ever had the same perception?
What you need to know is this: the longer you work on taking consistent action toward your goals, you will build momentum and it will get easier and easier as you go along.
Eventually the actions you take will seem almost effortless. You’ll begin to enjoy your activities because you’ll feel more empowered and confident about taking action. Not to mention, all of the effort you’ve put in will be reaping great results by that time!
Are you ready to climb out of your rut of inertia today? If so, here is a simple 3 step process to help you begin taking action – and keep taking it!
1) Commit to the actions first. When many people set goals, they commit to achieving the end result, but they rarely commit to taking the actions that will get them there. Take a few minutes to jot down the specific action steps that will get you to your goal, and then make a solemn commitment to take them every day.
2) Baby steps, baby steps! Did you know that small, consistent steps toward a goal are often more effective than large, sporadic actions? Even tiny actions will begin to build momentum and bring you great results! Make it your sole mission to move forward consistently, despite feelings of fear, obstacles that pop up, or anything else that threatens to erode your confidence. Keep moving forward no matter what.
3) Don’t focus on results yet. Many a goal has been abandoned because people take an action, wait to see what the results are, and quit when they don’t see the results they expected. Don’t get so dependent upon the results that you allow them to determine your NEXT actions.
In other words, focus only on putting one foot in front of the other, even if you’re not yet seeing the results you want. If you quit, you’re guaranteed not to see results – but by persevering, you’ll make things happen eventually.
The Blessings In Motivational Challenges
Have you ever noticed that every challenge also contains a blessing in disguise? If not, you may not have been looking closely enough! It’s true that challenges often seem like inconveniences when they get in the way of something you want.
When you’re working toward goals that are important to you, the last thing you want is to face a big challenge or obstacle because it usually means that your desired outcome will be delayed.
However, if you learn to see challenges in a new light, they can easily become the best things that have ever happened to you.
Below you’ll find 5 questions you should ask whenever you find yourself facing challenges:
1) What Can I Learn From This?
Too often we view challenges as annoyances or personal vendettas, when in fact they may hold a great opportunity to learn and grow! If you start by asking what you can learn from each challenge, you’ll suddenly see them as possibilities that pave the way to greater wisdom and self-mastery.
2) How Can This Strengthen Me?
One major reason why challenges intimidate us is because we don’t feel capable of handling them. We have a limited perception of our own abilities, so we automatically believe that the challenge is bigger than we are. However, if you learn to see challenges as an opportunity to become stronger and more empowered, there’s no way they can hold you back!
3) How Can I Use This to My Advantage?
Most often we see challenges as disadvantages – but is that necessarily true? A challenge can often help you see that there are many possible ways to achieve a goal, and the one you’ve chosen may not necessarily be the best one. Asking this question can often open your mind to alternative routes that may be shorter or otherwise better in some way.
4) How Can I Use This to Help Others?
Though we often believe our goals affect only ourselves, more often we have a huge impact on the people around us too. Not only do other people watch what you do and how you live your life – they often model their own behavior after yours! If you refuse to let challenges intimidate you or slow you down, you just might inspire and motivate others to do the same with their own challenges.
5) What Would Make This a Worthwhile Experience?
Sometimes just being willing to recognize that a challenge may not be such a bad thing can be enough to help you realize all kinds of wonderful benefits from it. This question does a couple of things: first, it helps you feel more empowered because it affirms that you have a choice in how you react to the challenge; and secondly it reminds you that every challenge holds the seeds for unlimited blessings and opportunities.
Motivation As Joy
Have you ever noticed that a lack of motivation leaves you feeling sluggish and uninspired?
One great way to turn that mind-set around is by consciously getting joyful! Joyful about what, exactly? Well, anything will do, but here are a few good ideas to get you started.
Probably one of the best things to get joyful about are the end results you’re trying to create. If you’re working toward your goals and feeling unmotivated about taking action, start by thinking about how good you’ll feel to achieve the goal.
Imagine the feelings of excitement and satisfaction you’ll experience when you can finally shout, “I did it!” It’s important to not just think about these things, but really allow yourself to experience the feelings too!
You can also take it step further and consider how achieving that goal will contribute to your life and the lives of others. What do you stand to gain from it? How will it help others? How do you feel about those benefits? Imagine that you and others are enjoying those benefits right now. How does that make you feel?
Still not feeling the joy?
Time to up the ante. Start focusing on something wonderful you want to happen in your future, even if you’re not working on it yet. Make this “something” really BIG and AMAZING. Something that would change your whole life and make you whoop and holler with joy. Some examples:
Imagine that you won the lottery and you get to call all your friends and relatives to share the good news. Or imagine that you’ve just won your dream home in a contest and you’re going to see it in person for the first time. Or imagine that you met the love of your life and it’s your wedding day!
Whatever you choose to focus on, pretend that it’s happening NOW and allow yourself to get into those feelings of intense excitement and awe. Stay with these images for as long as necessary to pump yourself up with joy.
Once you’re feeling joyful and excited, get moving immediately on your other tasks or goals – the ones you were avoiding a little while ago. Don’t give yourself time to form any more excuses; just do it!
Allow your feelings of joy and enthusiasm to flow into your current activities and keep your motivation strong. You’ll probably find that your energy stays high for a longer period of time and you’ll end up accomplishing more than you would have otherwise. Even better, joy can make any action seem almost effortless – which can be a big help when you’re pursuing goals or facing a difficult task.
Once you get used to using joy as a motivator, you’ll likely come to enjoy the process so much that it will take less and less effort to employ – and you’ll have no trouble at all keeping your motivation consistently strong!
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Self-Help Feeds
