Your Motivation Down? Here are 12 Things to Do to Stay Motivated

You know it’s not easy. It takes effort to wake up each day and decide to do something meaningful. But now you feel like you have hit a wall, and you don’t have the motivation to do anything.

All you want to do is sleep on the couch and watch a comedy or silly videos all day. 

Worse yet, the feeling that you are supposed to be productive gnaws at you, leaving you with guilty feelings. You are bombarded with social media posts about success stories from neighbors and friends which doesn’t help solve the situation either.

What even nails you down further is the uncertainty around the global health crisis that has massively affected today’s way we live.

So what do successful entrepreneurs, athletes, and captains of industries do each day to stay motivated? We offer you some practical hacks to get you started. Keep reading! 

1. Be Kind to Yourself

We all have our bad days. Being down for a day or two shouldn’t make you be so hard on yourself. It’s not the end of life.

You should be the kindest person to yourself when hurting or struggling with low energy levels. Tell yourself tomorrow will be better than today.

If you are a go-getter, you are likely to see yourself as not a good fit for success, but that shouldn’t be the case. What you want to avoid is judging or putting yourself down. 

2. Replenish Yourself

If you have no motivation, you are depleted and what you need is to replenish yourself. Instead of looking at what you haven’t done or what you need to be doing, use the opportunity to refuel.

You will need to work not only on your mind but your spirit and body as well. How are you taking care of your nutrition needs lately? Are you exercising and sleeping well enough?

What books or videos are you interacting with recently? How you feel determines how you do anything.

3. Trust the Process

You have always been told to focus on your goals. No wonder you are always looking at the results, forgetting to enjoy the process.

Of course, the process won’t always be rosy. There will be the typical ups and downs making you sulk some days, but you need to cherish every step of the way.

During the down days, take a break to replenish and capacity-build yourself. 

4. Take Inspired Action

Low energy levels with idleness are what I would call the quickest route to inaction and stagnation. Even when you feel there isn’t much you can do, you can choose to take inspired action.

You want to focus on simple tasks that don’t require much energy to accomplish. This helps kill the inaction and the anxiety that arises as a result of your inactivity.

To make this easy for you, break down your goals into simple, actionable tasks and identify the three most important tasks you want to accomplish.

Doing away with the tasks and ticking them off gives you the impression you are making some progress. 

5. Practice Positivity

Practicing positivity means doing the things that will put you in a positive attitude toward life. Here are some positivity techniques you could practice to set you off on a good path.

Practicing positivity will help you see the possibilities that lie ahead instead of focusing on what’s not working.

Sometimes escaping from the heat of the moment with a movie or your favorite TV show is what you may need to bring back your motivation. 

6. Cut off Negative Influencers

A lack of motivation requires that you give some thought to your inner self. Listening or spending time with negative influencers pulls you down the gutter further.

This is the time to disengage from every voice around you and interact with your thoughts to understand what’s best for you.

Avoid negative people who want to put you down instead of helping you come out of your inertia state. 

7. Employ Burn the Boat Technique

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you would rather swim or sink? If that’s so, that was a motivation to spur you to action.

Sometimes, a little trouble around is the antidote to your inactivity. However, no one wishes trouble for anyone; it’s just that life has no guarantees, and you have to face this reality often.

How are you going to sleep on your couch watching a movie, yet you barely afforded dinner last night, and your house rent is in 3 months’ arrears?

Hernán Cortés was a Spanish conquistador and explorer who lived in the 16th century. At one point, he and his men moved onto an island only to find a group of five hundred other men who didn’t want them there.

Hernán ordered his men to burn down their boats. That tells you one thing: Hernán made the island conquest a matter of life and death. It was either they take over the island or die on the battlefield.

Of course, this isn’t a pleasant situation to find yourself in, but it’s for your good. More insights are in the video below. 

8. Choose Purpose over Pleasure

Sometimes the child in you wants to play and pleasure all the time, but that’s not how life works. There has to be some sacrifice that precedes the glory.

And sometimes, the only thing you have left to wake you up from your inertia is your purpose. Purpose transcends every other thing in your life because it’s what you would rather die for than living.

Purpose transcends every other thing in your life because it’s what you would rather die for living.

Murunga Kiniale

If you have been living on autopilot or simply being a copycat, that will not work for long because the true you will get restless.

What you want to do is take a step back and have a lesser focus on your purpose. Start thinking about what value or how better the world will be when you fulfill your purpose.

It’s never about the fame or the status, and sometimes you need to ask the people who have been there already. They will tell you that’s not the answer. 

9. Have some Boundaries

Are you the type of guy who says yes to everything? You’re always the guy who wants things to work out for you and everybody around you.

That’s a good disposition but not the best thing for you. You are accustomed to saying yes to this request or that without giving yourself enough time to process your feelings around the things you say yes to.

You’re now in full action mode, but your emotional state is wanting. This is a recipe for potential burnout and a lack of motivation. Sure, this can be a common trend at the workplace sometimes.

A common sign of burnout is finding no joy in the things you used to find pleasure doing them. You need to find time to recuperate by having some boundaries that give you self-time.

Sometimes saying no or a polite decline is the best answer. Guarding your energy and having that feeling of control is what keeps you going. 

10. Connect with your Goals

It’s good you want to be a space explorer like Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos, but does that connect with your big why? Part of the reason you lack the motivation to do anything is failing to have a personal connection with what you want to become.

Maybe you want to be a doctor to make your parents and society happy. But have you thought about whether this is something you like?

Do you find meaning in it? If not, you could be setting yourself up for demotivation in the future. Waking up daily to a job you find no sense of fulfillment is not the best way to live life.

Whatever goals you make, seek to ensure they connect with you at a personal level. 

11. Do Something that Gives you a Sense of Value

If you have no motivation to do anything, maybe a good starting point would be to attempt doing something that gives you some sense of value.

If drawing or singing is what makes you feel great and a valuable contributor, by all means, do it.

Gradually, you’re moving away from your state of inertia to action. Do your thing to get the motivation to do other things in life. 

12. Stop the Pessimism

Have you heard someone say,’ I feel like I’m not going to make it.’ If everybody was to act or respond based on how they feel, I don’t think there would have been much to celebrate in the world.

You are your own greatest cheerleader, and how you speak about yourself matters. You also need to look into the future with optimism instead of seeing things not working in your favor.

We find ourselves immobilized because we refuse to believe in ourselves and have the confidence that we can do something worthwhile with our lives.

I know the point on feelings seem to contradict point 2, but you can’t leave life entirely based on your feelings. 

Wrap Up

That’s the magical list we got for you today to spur you to some tangible action. We hope it helps kill your lack of motivation and keep you going to achieve your goals.

If you found the post helpful, please share and tag a friend. I would also be happy to answer your questions in the comments section below.