What To Do When You Lack Motivation

You’re not always going to be motivated to achieve your goals.  There will be times when you don’t feel motivated to do much of anything.  But, that’s when you have to recognize what’s causing the lack of motivation.  Perhaps it’s fear, worry, self doubt, procrastination, or any of the other likely suspects.  Or, it could just be that you’re feeling a bit run down and need to take a break so that you can relax and regroup.  Here is what to do when you lack motivation to achieve your goals.

Lack of Motivation

First, acknowledge what’s causing your lack of motivation.  Figure out if it’s fear that’s holding you back from working towards your goals.  Ask yourself if you’re afraid of taking action towards your goals because you’re unsure of the outcome or how it might look if you fail.  Maybe you’re just procrastinating because you don’t want to do the difficult unfun work to achieve your goals.  These tasks may seem tough and boring compared to other activities that are either simpler or more exciting.  You might find yourself procrastinating by cleaning or watching Netflix because those things are easier to do.  Dig deeper into the why behind your lack of motivation.

Recharge

Maybe you’ve been busting your bottom, working towards your goals and you’re feeling burnt out.  Acknowledge how you’re feeling.  Perhaps you’re in need of rest to recharge your batteries.  Use this time to reconnect to your goals and dreams.  If you’re feeling a lack of motivation, remind yourself what you’re working towards.  Take time to day dream, visualize, and journal about what you want to achieve.  This will help you reignite the excitement, passion, and motivation to go after the goals that you’ve set for yourself.

Set A Deadline

Next, set a deadline.  If you are going to take some time to relax for self care, that’s completely acceptable.  But, you’re still going to have to get back to working towards your goals at some point.  Establish a deadline for yourself.  Maybe you take a morning, afternoon, weekend, or day off to rest and recharge with the intention of getting back on track the following day.  Set a deadline with how long you’re going to let this go on for before you kick your butt back into gear.  That deadline might be right now, especially if you’ve been procrastinating.

Take Action

Lastly, choose your next small step.  You might have lost your motivation because you’re unsure what the next step is.  That’s okay.  You don’t have to have the entire path to achieving your goal figured out.  You don’t even have to have the “right” next step picked out either.  You just need to choose the one next thing you can do.  Then, you can figure out if it’s moving you in the right direction to achieve your goals.  If it’s not, at least now you know.  But, at you got yourself back into action.  Action creates clarity to know what you need to do next.  Plus, it motivates you to keep going.  That one small action step is progress and progress builds momentum.  You start to feel good about what you’ve done and you want to keep going.  Pick the one next small action step you can take towards achieving your goals.

Use these four steps to help you get back into action when you’re feeling unmotivated to achieve your goals.  First, recognize what’s causing your lack of motivation.  Maybe that’s fear or you simply feeling drained at the moment.  If you are feeling depleted energy wise, then take time for self care.  Relax, recharge, and use this time to remind yourself what you’re working towards.  Next, set a deadline for when you need to get yourself back into action.  Then, pick one small action that will move you closer to achieving your goals and complete it.  Get yourself back into action because when you do, you’ll be pumped up with motivation to achieve your goals again!