Motivation Empty, Please Refill

What do you do when you have no motivation? Like 0. Don’t know what to do, or you know what to do but you just can’t seem to make yourself do it. I’m here, right now, basically live tweeting as I go- I have ZERO motivation today to write a blog. I have a million other things going on in my head, I messed up scheduling my clients today and I feel bad about it, and this blog- although I love to write it weekly- is the least of my concerns but I feel like I need to do it. I can’t figure out a topic, I want it to be good, and I want to get it done. So here we go. Today I’m writing about what I do when I have no motivation.

First off, I think it’s important to figure out why you aren’t feeling motivated. Today, I couldn’t come up with a good topic and frankly I’m little overwhelmed in life right now. When I am overwhelmed I have a tendency to withdraw, and then executive function disorder creeps in and it seems all I can do is think about what needs to be done but I’m frozen and all I can do is stare at my to do list or out a window until literal hours have past and nothing is done. Maybe you don’t have motivation for many of the same reasons. Maybe it’s because you just don’t want to, see the value in what you’re doing, or because you’re just simply tired. Whatever your reason may be, sometimes we can’t just go take a nap- we actually have to get something done. So make the call: do you need to rest and you can do it later (and be honest here do you need  to rest or are you just wanting to rest to put things off) or do you actually need to figure out how to get things done today. If your answer is the first, then enjoy your nap. If your answer is the second follow me…

My mother’s guide to getting the to-do list done is “do whatever you’re not looking forward to first, then the rest of the day is easier.” Thanks Mom, sounds great in theory, but if it’s something I don’t want to do and I’m already not feeling doing ANYTHING then that just isn’t happening. Instead, I try to find small bits I can accomplish. Just get the ball rolling. Once I have checked a few things off of my list then usually that motivates me to continue to the larger things. Even with this blog today- just deciding to do something by writing about this topic has now gotten the ball rolling and I’m typing away. It feels better than to just sit here and dread things, all the while doing nothing and I know I’ll hate myself for that later on. Just do something. Anything. Clean a dish. Decide to get dressed for a workout- even as a professional I can tell you sometimes I just don’t feel like exercising. However, if I can make myself get dressed to do it then I can convince myself because I’m already dressed, and then I’ll jump on the treadmill and decide I’m just going to take it easy; eventually that gets the blood flowing enough to really actually accomplish something. It just takes a start.

And that’s with anything in life- starting your own business, a new hobby, a new lifestyle. Start small. I have often said “think of life like an apple- if you try to eat it all at once you’ll choke. Instead, we take bites and that makes the apple digestible.” How can you make your tasks digestible? Give yourself a little reward maybe? Or even just keep in mind the end goal and how good it’ll feel when you’ve accomplished things and you can say “I’m glad I did that!” Think of how good it feels to sit in a nice clean home next time you don’t feel like cleaning your home. Try to put a positive thought along with the dread. Start small. Starting a business- start small: get help from local agencies, make plans, execute plans. A hobby? You don’t jump right into impressionist painting. Buy a cheap set of acrylics to practice. Make to do lists, make plans and goals, and then achieve them. You don’t have to achieve them all at once- just start.

And that’s really the whole of it here- just start whatever you want to accomplish. If it’s something as simple as cleaning your home or writing a blog, if you have no motivation to exercise or in your career, if you need something new in your life…all you have to do is start. Once it gets going you’ll feel better and it’ll likely inspire you to keep going. Keep going, fail, go some more, fail some more, and you’ll find and lose motivation along the way. But you just have to start. Is this one of my best blog posts? Nope, sure isn’t. But I wrote one today, when I had no motivation or inspiration to do so, and that’s more than anyone today who didn’t write a blog. And I can feel good about that, and I now feel inspired to reheat this cold cup of coffee, and actually attack the rest of the day. I just had to do something to get started.