If you are alive, it is inevitable to have times when you feel unmotivated or lack the desire to complete a task or goal. Honestly, it is both inevitable and normal. We are not going to love, or even like, everything we have to do to make our lives better, yet we still have to work hard to push through and get it done. Therefore, today, we are going to talk about how to encourage and motivate yourself when you simply do not feel like doing anything.
You might have many people in your life who cheer you on or you might be in a season when you feel like you have no one in your corner. It is a blessing to surround yourself with people who can inspire and motivate you; yet, even if you have the loudest and most extensive cheerleading section, you will still have times when you know you need to do something, but you just feel like doing the opposite.
How can you break through that moment and motivate yourself?
Why Am I Even Struggling to Motivate Myself?
This is a great question. Motivation is the condition, desire, or reason for doing something. In some definitions, the word enthusiasm is also used.
And, herein lies the problem: most times we believe we need to feel enthusiastic to be motivated. Therefore, if we feel unenthusiastic about a task, we might begin to struggle with feelings of failure or negative self-talk because we are not bursting with high energy for the task at hand.
There are many other reasons we may struggle with motivation, but the majority of them are likely connected to the following:
- Not having a clear and compelling WHY
- Being driven by your emotions and feelings
- Not having a clear plan
- Overthinking/overcomplicating what motivation is supposed to feel like
We do not have to overcomplicate motivation. It is OK for our experience with motivation to be practical and simple. It can look like the energetic start to a task or the slow, bumpy one. Your motivation can be connected to a huge goal or simply the plan to establish better discipline and positive habits. The real goal is to get to the point where you follow through on whatever task is necessary to reach your goals.
Ways to Encourage and Motivate Yourself
Start with Hope and Belief
First, you must believe there is more to live for and accomplish regardless of your age. I came across a clip on social media where T.D. Jakes talks about the importance of not losing faith even when what we might desire has not happened yet.
He challenged the audience to believe that if it doesn’t happen in your 20s, it can happen in your 30s, and if it doesn’t happen in your 30s, it can happen in your 40s, and so on. I know we hear it all the time, but we have to believe that some goals are still possible, we might just have to find and take a different path than we first expected.
As we get older, we accumulate plenty of life experiences—some good, some bad. Some of those experiences hurt your mindset, your hope, and your belief in your own abilities, and then, with each passing year, it feels like your goals slowly slip out of your reach.
We need a perspective shift here. Yes, there might be things we cannot go back and achieve like living out your dream to be a professional athlete or to be a millionaire by age 40. However, that doesn’t mean you cannot make another dream a reality in all the time you have left.
One huge positive thing that comes with age is life lessons and wisdom, which you can use to accomplish new goals more efficiently. With all that wisdom, it is possible to accelerate growth.
Establish A Compelling Why (or Two)
What is at stake? What do you want to work toward? Why? How will accomplishing this goal change your life for the better? Remember, motivation is the reason or desire behind what you do. You do not have to always feel enthusiastic about each action required to get you to your goal, but you should have an exciting destination that you are working toward. That exciting destination is your WHY.
Recently, I realized that having one compelling why for some goals was not enough to help push me through certain hard days. So, for the places where I am more challenged to stay motivated, I have attached more than one WHY to it. If one does not work for the moment, I try to channel the other one.
Once you have found your WHY, spend some time visualizing success.
Make a Plan and Set Clear Goals
It is much easier to stick to a goal when you have a plan.
When you figure out what you are trying to work toward, identify what tasks you need to complete to move closer to that goal. Then, break the larger goal down into smaller tasks and determine how you will spend time doing those tasks. Weirdly, sometimes motivation comes from being able to cross something off the to-do list.
When you check off one of the tasks, give yourself a little pat on the back. Remember, this is about progress and not perfection.
Surround Yourself With Inspiration
Fill your environment, time, and even your social media timeline, with things and people that inspire you to be better and who make you feel good about yourself. These people and images should make you want to take action not send you down the rabbit hole of despair. I like to read, listen to, and follow people who bring me either positivity, perspective, or understanding of how to navigate some of the hurdles I am experiencing in life.
Another group of people or activities I like to keep around me are the ones that make me smile and/or laugh consistently. They say if you look good, you will feel good, Well, I also believe that is the same for motivation: if you feel good, you will also do good. Find the people, routines, and things that make you feel positive and optimistic.
Talk Yourself Into It
We are really good about talking ourselves out of certain things. Then why can’t we also reverse that and talk ourselves into something?
To encourage or motivate yourself, sometimes you might have to talk to yourself–whether in your head or out loud.
Usually, if someone says they talk to themselves, our internal insanity radar activates. It probably activates more when they tell you that they see people or things that don’t exist (I like to call this visualization and faith). Both of these can easily land you on the weirdo list. However, pursuing bold dreams might require you to be your own cheerleader and talk positively to yourself. Frankly, when you have a vision for your life, pumping yourself up and speaking positive thoughts becomes essential to survival.
Speaking POSITIVELY to yourself is critical to success, and I would argue also therapeutic and powerful.
Give Yourself A Chance
At some point, you are going to decide to fight for yourself —your goals, dreams, and life. If you keep going, someday things will click and you will start to see the results of your hard work. You will only get to that moment if you continue believing and fighting for the things you want in life.
Take some time to check in with yourself today:
- Is there anything in your life that you have given up pursuing because you lost faith and hope in yourself?
- What would it look like to start taking more action toward that goal?
- How can you apply the suggestions in this post?
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