What’s up with Motivation?

Motivation is an essential ingredient in how we function. It’s a driver in us attending to our daily tasks, achieving our goals and working out problems. It helps us cope with challenges and change old habits. But what if you feel like you lose your mojo?

Losing your mojo can feel like a slap in the face or it can a feel like a slow burn to a point of how did I end up here? And when we get there, it can feel almighty challenging to work out how to find it again. Often when we lose the motivation to continue with something it falls to the wayside. The longer we leave it on the curb the hard it becomes to pick it back up again.

So how do we do the boost?

Set yourself a small goal

Motivation can come in waves-- ebs and flows. If you feel like you have lost that sense of direction one of the best things you can do is set yourself a small goal and make it achievable. Make it one that you know is going to boost your esteem and one that you know you are going to be able to do with minimal change and minimal effort. Because we all have to start somewhere. Achieving a smaller goal means many wins before you decide to tackle a big one. Everyone’s smaller goal is going to exist differently, so only you can really pinpoint your smaller goal but it might be as simple as saying once a week I am going to go for a 10-minute walk. You don’t have to limit yourself to this and if your 10-minute walk turns into 30, that’s ok. But if it’s motivation to go for a walk in the first place start of with the thought process that it is only 10 minutes--- don’t try the whole hog all at once, you aren’t running a marathon on the first day. You can also say something like, I am just going to clean my room for the length of two songs, put on your favourite music and then clean just for 5 minutes and see if you want to keep going after that.

Play the part

This might sound strange, but why not dress up your motivation? It’s like that saying we eat with our eyes. Well take on that role of motivation. Start to breathe it, smell it, taste it, move it. Don’t not be true to yourself but it’s like confidence, sometimes we have to begin to step into a space of confidence in order to become confident. Well, sometimes we have to step into a space of motivation in order to become motivated. It might be that you do a little fist pump as you leave for work, chanting in your head ‘I’ve got this’. Or doing 5-star jumps to hype yourself up before doing a task. This will be unique to everyone, but putting yourself in the shoes of motivation will undeniably help the process.

Re-evaluate a few things

Take a moment to step back and think about some of those bigger things. Don’t feel like you have to tackle them just yet. Hold your horses until you break it down a little. Take a look at what you need to do to get there. Break those bigger goals down into smaller steps. Like a step ladder and give yourself permission to celebrate the little wins along the way. Ask yourself---what do I need to do to make that happen? You can't climb the whole staircase in one go; just focus on the next step.

Challenge yourself

Often, when we feel unmotivated, we will give ourselves a 1000 reasons why we can’t do something. We are talking ourselves out of it before we even started. Challenge these thoughts when they creep in. For every reason that you put forward as to why you can’t do something, come up with a counterstatement. For example: I can’t possibly go for a walk this afternoon it’s too cold-----combat-----Even though it’s cold how about I rug up and go for a shorter walk instead.

You can alter the goal, you can alter the process but in combat mode you are still giving yourself the opportunity to do instead of not to do.

Be Kind

Importantly, be kind to yourself on this journey of rediscovering your motivation. Take the small wins and celebrate them. You might want to share some of your goals with a trusted family member or friend so that you can help yourself top up that feel-good cup of success once in a while. You might want to join forces and share a few goals---shared success is often more powerful.

And if there are times that the motivation falls to the wayside remind yourself that’s ok. Motivation isn’t to be forced, you might just have to take a step back and re-evaluate again because we are ever changing.

If you’re having trouble kickstarting your motivating counselling support can always help you redefine your goals and help you discover what’s important to you. Motivation thrives on what’s most important to you---sometimes we just need a little hand to work that out.