Recovering Motivation

Practically everyone you talk to these days is struggling to varying degrees. Lives have been thrown into chaos, and there is a tremendous amount of confusion as old routines are drastically and often suddenly altered. Worse still, most of us feel like we have no control over the way our lives are going. This can make it very difficult to keep your motivation going. As time goes on, not only does your motivation take a hit, but you start to feel bad about the lack of forward motion. Eventually it gets more difficult to get ANYTHING done, much less the stuff that really matters. However, while you can’t change the situation, you can change the way you react to it. Even with our present situation and the all the associated weirdness, there are still things you can do to recover your motivation and get moving again. The situation is far from hopeless, and it’s entirely possible that these times constitute the best opportunity you’ve ever had for real person growth, provided that you can get going again. There’s also a danger here. A lot of conversations about motivation assume that you are going to achieve some sort of productivity nirvana. That’s unlikely to happen in the present circumstances (or if we are honest, in ANY circumstances you are likely to encounter). Lots of discussions by motivational gurus will proceed as if nothing bad is going on. That’s not a realistic assessment of most people’s situations at most times. Rather, a decent approach to repairing your motivation consists of accepting reality as it is and then doing what you can with it, instead of pretending that you have total control over your situation. Things don’t always work out perfectly. And it’s completely normal to periodically feel a loss of motivation. Given the current strains on society, it’s not only normal, but expected. However, if you have big goals, you probably don’t want to to wallow in misery until things get better. Part of taking charge of your own life is figuring how to correct your own motivation so that you can keep moving forward. It may not be perfect, but much of life isn’t. Episode Breakdown Remember the beginning At some point, you may have made a decision to do whatever you are doing right now. Try to remember how that felt and why you were motivated at that point. Are those motivations still valid and reasonable? Alternatively, you may not have explicitly decided on your current situation. Thinking back may help you realize it. This could easily be the reason you feel demotivated to continue. Regardless, one of the most important keys to recovering your motivation is to remember what previously motivated you and to evaluate whether that reason for motivation still applies. If it doesn’t you either need to find something else to motivate you, or you need to re-evaluate whether you want to continue what you are doing. Look for changes and adjust to them. You may also be feeling a lack of motivation because circumstances have changed. Take some time to figure out what has changed recently, and whether that change means that your goals have a different possible outcome. You might also find that changed circumstances mean that your current project is even important and valuable than you thought. This can help you recover motivation. It may also be trivial to simply adjust to changes. For instance, if you schedule suddenly changed, you might find that changing your sleep schedule to match it makes sense (if the project is important enough). Get moving on easy tasks instead of critical ones. Sometimes motivation needs a bit of a kickstart, or easy win. Odds are good that if you’re stuck, you’re probably not stuck on the easiest or most pleasant thing on the list. While this can be difficult to justify to management,