Ever felt unmotivated and simply not in the mood to do anything?
Yeah, me too. Even though I’m always motivated and all ready to take action on my goals, I have times when I feel disconnected with my inner muse. No matter whether you are Seth Godin or Robert Kiyosaki, all of us have our own down times where we don’t feel like doing anything. It happens. Our productivity plummets to an all-time personal low as we drag our feet around on things we should be doing. It can be frustrating.
When left unchecked, this lack of motivation can get out of hand. Rather than let your productivity yo-yo based on your mood, you should learn to get in control of the situation and counteract with self-motivation strategies. Below are my 9 strategies to deal with situations of low motivation, and they have been proven to work wonders for myself, my readers and my clients.
1.Design your vision
One of the biggest reasons why we are not motivated is because we are not connected with our vision. Specifically, the vision of what we are trying to achieve. What are you working so hard for every day? What do you want to get out of this? What is your dream outcome? What are your end goals? What will excite and spur you to move forward?
While I’m busy writing and growing my blog, The Personal Excellence Blog, every day, I never lose sight of my end vision. My vision is to have a reader base of millions, travel around the world to speak to people, launch my books and touch the lives of people everywhere. I may not be there yet, but I know I’ll reach there as long as I keep working hard. For example, after 1.5 years, The Personal Excellence Blog is now read by over 100,000 readers a month and I’m an established personal excellence coach and speaker in my country (Singapore). Even just typing about this now is making me feel very inspired by what’s ahead. With a big vision, it spurs me to create endlessly, rather than settle
for status quo.
2.Get clear on the ‘WHY’
Lack of motivation can come from losing sight of the “WHY” – why we do the things we do. We are so busy with work and managing different areas of our life that every day turns into a routine of activities. It becomes a race to get as much done, without consciously evaluating why we are doing all these things.
Why do you live? Why do you do the things you do? Why do you slough away at work? What is it for? What do you want to get out of it? These are all important questions to ask ourselves, and important questions to have answers to. If you don’t have the answers, perhaps it’s time to seek them out.
Discovering my life purpose in 2006 has given me endless drive in life. I discovered my passion in helping others to achieve excellence and live their best life. This realization has led me to make bold life decisions, such as quitting my regular, well paying job 2 years ago to pursue my passion in personal development. Since then, I have started The Personal Excellence Blog, coached hundreds to achieve excellence in their lives and started The School of Personal Excellence (my training school). This “WHY” drives me every day to reach greater heights and accomplish more.
3.Have deadlines
Your goals should come with deadlines so that you will be spurred into action. After all, by Parkinson’s Law, work takes as long as the amount of time we give to it. Not setting a date can cause us to slack off and dwindle on the task. If we set deadlines, we will be triggered to get things done by that date. Specifically when do you want to achieve this? What is your cut-off date?