It’s time to take command of your motivation for ultimate success in anything you do.
successmystic.com
There are very few people on this planet that are capable of inspiring loyalty and motivation where people would stick with them through anything. The people who have, like Martin Luther King Jr. are commemorated in history books because it is such a rarity. What is it that makes a person like that stand out from everyone else?
It’s the power of why. Martin Luther King Jr. was a man who put his money where his mouth was and he had a profound purpose for the work and activism he did. That was inspiring. It’s why we still talk about him today, and why he has his own holiday.
Nobody is going to buy into what you are doing unless they know why you are doing it. That is the power of why.
And the same is true of you – nobody will buy into what you’re doing if they don’t understand why you’re doing it. You don’t buy into what you’re doing if you don’t understand why, you are doing it.
Defining Why
If someone walks into your office or stands next to your desk to ask what you do and how you do it, you can probably come up with an apt description of both. You are a data entry clerk, so you enter data.
And you might not even have to think that deeply about why you do that job – is it that you are passionate about entering data? Maybe you are, but chances are, you work the job you do because it pays the bills. In a perfect world, we would have a much bigger why in response to why we work the job we do.
Even if you don’t have a big why behind the job you do, you can still have a big why behind the other things you do. In fact, you can deconstruct that initial why into a much deeper meaning that explains your why at a more profound level.
For example, it pays the bills – what bills? The roof over your head, the energy to heat or cool your home, the food that sustains you, the clothes on your back, and the schooling for your children, and that is a much bigger motivation than simply paying the bills. You don’t need to love your job for that to be true.
But if we are being honest, most of us would rather answer more simple questions. It’s more comfortable to think about how you can do your job more efficiently than it is to dig into your why.
But there is value in asking why, and there’s more value the more frequently you ask it. Ask why until you run out of whys to ask. It’s a childlike way of viewing the world – the precocious eight-year-old who asks why after every question you answer.
Why drives you.
It’s a really great way to get a deeper understanding of your life, your actions, and your behaviors.
Let’s define why before we move further – when we talk about the power of why, what exactly are we getting at? Using why to question yourself is an attempt to understand your reason for being.
If you ask why in business, then you’re trying to figure out the purpose of the plan. But in a personal sense, you are trying to tease out your motivation.
Overcoming Assumptions
As humans, we love to think of everything in a cause-and-effect type of way. There is something about our society that has ingrained in us that if we work hard enough, we will be successful. Or if we eat healthily, we will be more healthy than everyone else. That doesn’t factor into the luck of success, and it doesn’t factor into the genetics that contributes to health.
In Buddhism, this is known as the notion causality. If it is, it is because something made it so. When it is hot outside, your dog will shed more and because of that, your furniture is covered in tiny little dog hairs.
If you apply this to business, then there is a chain of causality – there are processes and cultures, and products and services. We look at these steps and believe they must exist for a reason. A bit like a warning label on a product, you think well, someone obviously did this thing and now we all need a warning not to be so idiotic.
The thing is – there isn’t always a good reason. That’s why understanding your why is so important. It’s questioning and analyzing to get beyond the assumptions. And it is key to getting to the root of why you do what you do.
A lot of people want to skip this step because it’s annoying, but it’s the most important part!
Why is this a critical step in life – whether you want to motivate yourself to succeed in life or in business (or a bit of both)?
Whatever you are doing – ask yourself why you are doing it. This is something you can practice regularly throughout the day. And it will be incredibly annoying at the start, but the idea is to get yourself into the habit of asking why.
For example, you decide to leave the house 15 minutes early to stop for coffee on the way to work. Why? You could make coffee at home and put it in a travel mug.
Rather than packing a lunch ahead of time, you choose to grab something from the vending machine. Why?
We make countless small decisions all the time, and we don’t even think twice about them… but if we took a moment to reflect, we would see the number of poor decisions we make.
One of the most jarring parts of constantly asking yourself why you is how often will discover you don’t have any real reason for doing many of the things you do. You are often operating on autopilot. And if you want to motivate yourself to succeed, you need to snap out of that and grab the wheel.
So, be the annoying eight-year-old who can’t stop asking questions, just direct them at yourself to get to the root of some of your behaviors. It’s a lot easier to change behaviors when you recognize that they’re not serving you.
Asking Why
This journey will only be successful if you take it seriously. So, don’t think of it as an exercise in ticking boxes or something to cross off your to-do list.
Ask questions and go deep.
- Why do I exist?
- Why am I doing this?
- Why do I dislike this?
- Why do I like this?
- Why do I make an effort to do this?
- Why should I make an effort to do this?
- Why do I want this?
- Why do I need this?
- What is my why?
These might sound like simple questions on the surface, but when you sit down and answer them you will realize they require a level of critical thinking and introspection that a lot of people are deeply uncomfortable with. But embarking on this journey sincerely will help you develop and lock in your motivation for success.
Why As A Tactic
“Why” has always been a tactical tool in business. The most successful businesses leverage why to great effect, and the businesses that toil and struggle do so because they are too afraid to get comfortable with their why.
You can’t carry out a root cause analysis without asking the question why, so think of it as that type of tactic. You ask why repeatedly until you identify the root problem and when you get there you have a problem to solve or a greater understanding of something in your life.
When you gain this level of clarity, it becomes much easier to build motivation and ride it to success.
When you find your why, you need to embrace it.
Nothing is perfect and nobody is perfect, and it’s really easy to lose sight of your priorities when you get caught up in the chaos of daily life. You get so busy running from appointment to appointment, ensuring your kids are where they need to be, trying to make time for your partner, and hang out with your friends, and seeing your family. It’s exhausting.
Life isn’t a picnic and for all the highs, there are also a lot of lows. You may notice the lows come fast and heavy when you get out of touch with your why. It’s like trying to lead a life completely out of whack with your values – it’s only going to invite misery.
The Circle Of Success
Simon Sinek is the creator of the Golden Circle theory. It’s a model that brands should use to launch campaigns, but it can also be applied to individuals who are looking to make changes. It doesn’t matter whether you are trying to change the world or simply change your life, there is value you can take from the Golden Circle.
The center circle is why, the circle outside of that is how, and the outer circle is what.
What is your what?
That means breaking down your goals and what it is you want to achieve in life. For a company, the what is the product, it’s what they do, the service they offer, the products they provide, their values, and the value proposition.
You might not be a company, but if you can put an objective hat on and sit back and look at your life from the outside and apply that same idea, then you can easily identify the what.
The how is how you plan to go about achieving the what. What is unique about you, your unique selling point?
People and companies do a fairly good job at nailing down the how and the what, the biggest issue for everyone tends to come from the why part of the conversation.
The why is the belief, purpose, or cause that drives the what and the how. Your why is your reason, it’s why you care, and it’s why others should care about what you do.
The easiest circle to articulate is the what circle, so that’s where most people start the development project. While they talk about the what, they start to shape the how. They never get to the why. The problem that so many people make is their conversation revolves entirely around the how and the what without ever touching on the why.
This is why it’s so important for you personally to really think about your why, people can sense inauthenticity from a mile away.
Inside Out
That is why you should start from the inside of the circle and work your way out. Always start with your why and let it guide you. Remember, people buy people, so getting caught up in the what and the how is the quickest way to sink your growth. It doesn’t matter that you’re not selling a product, if it helps, you can think of yourself as the product you are trying to launch to the world.
People seek out like-minded people, they want to spend time around or engage with people who share their beliefs, or at least have things in common. When people about what they do, it may appeal to someone, but it’s something to glance over as they try to get to the why of things.
For example, you sit down for a meal on a first date and one of the earliest questions you might ask is what do you do for a living? And when you find out, depending on their answer, your next question is probably something along the lines of how did you get into that? Or why were you drawn to that field? Oh, you’re a lawyer? That’s awesome, but why? You went into teaching? Why?
Ultimately, what someone does for a living is just a clue, a cookie crumb, on the path to learning what makes them tick. So, learning how to communicate your why, is crucial to building your motivation to keep going for the what and the how.
Whether you’re trying to launch a business or just make yourself a better person when you start with the why you are offering people something to identify with. And in the case of you trying to be a better person, your why is something for you to identify with.
If you don’t clearly define and clarify your why, then you will always fall back onto your what. As important as it is to have a what, you won’t get anywhere near your what without the why.
I want to become a lawyer. Why?
I want to run for local office. Why?
I want to get married and have 2.5 children. Why?
I want to lose weight. Why?
I want to join a gym. Why?
I want to declutter my life. Why?
I want to improve myself. Why?
Why do you want any of the things you want? And if you haven’t stopped to consider why you want those things, not only is it possible you won’t reach your goals, but even if you do, you may then realize they weren’t what you wanted at all.
For example, someone who was raised in a traditional environment that revolved around going to church three times a week may hold onto values that suggest they should get married and have children.
A lot of people will do this very young because that’s what you’re supposed to do. But those who are given the chance to explore themselves as adults may realize that they don’t actually want children, they just thought they did because that’s what people do.
Exploring your why gives you the opportunity to interrogate what you think you want.
And for that churchgoer who had time to think explore that why and realized they want children because they love children, and look forward to nurturing new lives, then they will go into the process far more confident than before. And for the ones who realized they didn’t want children, they have avoided a potential landmine.
The point is – whatever you do, you need to develop and lock in your motivation for success, and you cannot do that without first exploring the power of why.
Even people who think about the what, how, and why miss out on – balance.
There is no point in doing all of this work if the three factors don’t align. The what are results, the how are the actions it takes to achieve those results, and the why is your purpose or beliefs that drive the rest.
All of those things have to work in harmony. If there are inconsistencies between the three, how can you expect to maintain your motivation?
So, how do you ensure you have perfect harmony between the what, how, and why?
Finding Harmony
It starts with gaining clarity around the why.
So, sit down with a pen and paper and consider what it is that drives you. Don’t panic too much about the what or the how, at this point, you probably already have a rough idea about your what which is more than enough to really get to the root of your why.
So, work it out and be prepared to own it. Why do you want to do the what? You have to be able to sell your why, whether it’s to yourself or others.
Then comes the discipline of your how.
You have gotten to the root of your why, but now you require the discipline to take your why to the next level. How will you do that? How will your guiding principles and values impact your daily decisions and actions on a regular basis?
Believe it or not, this can be a more difficult prospect than clarifying your why. It’s essentially figuring out how to put your why into action, which can be a challenge depending on what your why is.
You figured out why you do what you do or why you want to do a specific thing, but how will you get there and how are you going to hold yourself accountable? Understanding your how in relation to your why is going to help you establish the motivation you need to hold yourself firm to your cause.
Finally, it’s about the consistency of your what.
You can’t breathe life into your why without nailing down your what. Beyond nailing it done, you have to be consistent. What is what you produce, it’s what you are chasing.
If you’re a company, then the what is your product or service. If it’s easier to think of it in that sense, then you can. You can think of what you offer and how that can aid your journey to the how and the why.
Your what is essentially the only visible part of the process, it’s what people will notice. It’s the tangible results you can see.
Getting Started
The power of why can be a compelling tool in everything that you do. It can play a role in every engagement you have with someone you know, with someone new, and in your own self-talk. People will come along with you much easier when you have a solid why.
It’s the compass for every decision you make from here on out. When you start to pursue something new, the why is what drives it. There are an endless number of unknowns, especially when you start something new.
A lot of people run in headfirst without worrying about that, it’s a type of arrogance that you can’t afford to mess with. Those are the people who say things like it’s obvious what you should do! If you are well acquainted with your why you don’t need to let anyone like that overrun your ideas because you know why that how or what wouldn’t work with your why.
There are a lot of obstacles on your journey to success, and every time you hit one of those bumps, it can derail your motivation. There are also a lot of traps, and those traps can steal your motivation from beneath you.
Those obstacles may be challenges you have to problem solve to overcome or it could be a boundary someone is trying to cross. Likewise, it might be your inability to say no even though you know you should say no. There are so many different things to derail you, but if you stick with your why and let it guide you, nothing will get in your way.
There’s another big thing that can derail your motivation – and it’s comparison. People call it the thief of joy, and while that is certainly true, it’s also a major thief of motivation. If you spend too much time worrying about what other people are doing, you get caught up trying to mimic it or apply parts of it to your own situation.
And oftentimes, that is in direct opposition to your why. There’s your trouble. If you get caught up in trying to replicate someone else’s success, you are betraying your why and stealing your own motivation.
From here on out, why should be the most common word in your vocabulary.
You will soon realize that there are more complex answers at play than you realize. The people who refuse to ask why and answer are afraid of the answers they will find. They are afraid of what they may uncover – either about themselves or about the world they have crafted around them.
You have to consider why you take certain actions and why you think certain thoughts or behave in certain ways. The only way to motivate yourself consistently and drive yourself to success is by having a deeper understanding of why you do what you do and why you have done the things you have in your past.
Self-reflection and critical thinking are useful tools for anybody. If you aren’t taking time to self-reflect on the day you just had or thinking critically about why you make the decisions you do, you will never grow.
More importantly, you will find it difficult to maintain motivation. Reflection is key to understanding your why and getting to grips with your goals, actions, and decisions.
Tackle Your Why
So, we have covered why you need to get in touch with your why and even provided you with some questions.
How do you put it into action? How do you utilize your why to build motivation?
There are an endless number of ways you can do this, but we have compiled a list for you to get started.
1| Recognition
This will look different, based on what your ultimate goal is. If you are building a business or setting out on a path of entrepreneurship, you will have people to keep happy. And it’s just as important to motivate them as it is to motivate yourself. Regardless, a big part of maintaining motivation and boosting morale is recognition.
People need to be recognized for the hard work they do and the contribution they make, and if this journey is solely about you pushing your way through life to succeed – recognize every little milestone you reach and every win you grab.
2| Goals
Everyone has set a goal that dragged on endlessly to the point where you dropped it once everyone had time to forget all about it. It might have been a goal you weren’t particularly interested in achieving in the first place.
But it could have also been a goal you felt pushed into pursuing because of peer pressure or familial expectations. There might be an endless number of reasons for things to not pan out, but when you dig down to the root it’s because you set a goal that was either too big or not right for you.
So, when you have your why, use it, along with your what and how, to set smart, measurable goals. Every goal you set should push you to achieve, but it has to be measurable. By setting a timeline, you have a plan to follow and points to achieve and keep yourself on the right track.
3| Celebrate
We already touched on the idea of celebrating every achievement when we discussed recognition, but it bears repeating. One of the points in setting smaller, measurable, and achievable goals is the opportunity to celebrate often.
It’s up to you to determine how best to celebrate at which stage, but it should be a level of celebration that is maintainable and will contribute to your motivation levels.
4| Collaboration
Whether you are on a solo journey to success or you are taking a team with you, collaboration is important to your success. If you operate within a team, then you have to delegate and motivate and lean on your team.
If you are on a solo journey, you need to know when to reach out for support, when to bring people in for advice, and who you can lean on in times of trouble. It doesn’t matter what journey you’re on, but teamwork, collaboration, and community count for a lot.
5| Positivity
You can’t be an ever-lasting fount of positivity, but you can build optimism. There is a healthy place to process “negative” emotions. You can’t have happiness without a touch of sadness. It’s about learning how to harness your emotions into positive action. So, being a positive person doesn’t mean wallpapering over the cracks in the walls.
It means being positive that no matter what you can find a solution to repair the cracks in the walls. If you run a business and you remain positive, it will filter down to your employees. Regardless, positivity can play a major role in your success. It will immediately impact your motivation levels, which will increase your productivity.
6| Fuel
How can you remain focused, motivated, and driven when you aren’t taking proper care of yourself? The fuel you use to keep your body going matters just as much as your external means of motivation. If you pour cup of coffee after cup of coffee and eat most meals from a vending machine, you won’t have the energy you need to succeed. Choosing the right fuel is just as important as making time to sit down and enjoy that fuel.
7| Take A Break
Building on the previous point – you need fuel, and you need regular breaks, too. When you struggle to focus and you can’t problem solve even if your life depended on it, then you have no choice but to take a break.
Otherwise, you’re just banging your head against a brick wall until you frustrate yourself beyond comprehension. So, walk away from the desk, stretch your legs, and take a walk, grab a glass of water, and get some fresh air.
8| Healthy Living
It’s difficult to stay motivated and walk the path of success when you don’t take adequate care of yourself. So, you should fuel yourself properly and you should take breaks, but you also need to live a healthy life. If you are sick, you should listen to your body and take a sick day. You won’t get the best of yourself if you aren’t at your best.
And the more you push yourself to perform when you are under the weather, the longer it takes to recover. If you run a business, your employees shouldn’t be terrified to do the same.
First of all, why add stress to their plates when they’re unwell? Secondly, why take the risk of a cold or flu ripping through the office? If everyone is under the weather, nobody will be performing at the level you want them to.
The majority of people won’t take advantage of a policy like this if you recruited the right people in the first place. You can also offer remote working or flexible schedules to avoid attendance issues and productivity dips.
9| Big Picture Thinking
A big part of plan-building is having a view of a much bigger picture. While there are a million milestones within the plan, you can’t get caught up in the minutiae just to lose sight of the bigger picture. You have to understand the big picture, while also being able to get into the detail.
You get a great sense of accomplishment when you complete a task of any size, but it’s even greater when that task forms part of a much bigger task.
10| Transparency
Every friendship you have, every work relationship you build, and every client relationship you nurture is built on a foundation of trust. So, be transparent in your engagements. In doing so, you encourage an environment of trust between you and the people you deal with.
And if you are an employer, it encourages your employees to operate on the same wavelength. So, whatever you’re doing, you will be known for doing it openly and honestly. What better way to operate?
11| Clarity
It’s very difficult to maintain motivation if you don’t have clarity about your objectives and goals. For a lot of people, they start their understanding with transparency and end with clarity. If you don’t have clarity, however, then transparency can’t be as effective, and it won’t be a motivational tool either.
Everyone needs a concise mission to use as a motivational tool, and if you feel confused about your goal, path, or journey, it’s going to be almost impossible to remain motivated to achieve the success you want.
12| Positive Outcomes
It is much easier to achieve the success you want if you envision and visualize it regularly. Athletes, CEOs, musicians, and all types of high performers take time to visualize their success. Whether it’s the race car driver or athlete who walks the track and then visualizes themselves driving or racing it or a ball player who visualizes hitting a home run.
If you already have a clear objective about your goals, then it is much easier to visualize that success.
13| Purpose
The majority of people want to find a purpose. It’s something that we often assume is only true of Millennials or even Gen Z’ers, but it’s true of everyone. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a CEO, a stay-at-home parent, a courtesy clerk, or an accountant.
We all want to fulfill a purpose on this earth, and not everyone is lucky enough to find that in their line of work. That means it’s something you have to pursue intentionally. So, if you’re looking to build success, you have to tease out how what you’re doing contributes to your purpose.
Purpose is crucial to motivation. So, think about the work you do and the purpose behind it. You would be surprised by how much more motivated you will feel when you learn how to recognize the impact you are making in the world – whether it’s on the people in your personal life, on your customers and clients, or on your business.
Purpose is key to creating a resilient, engaged, motivated journey to achieve the success you want.
14| Loosen Up
Setting a routine and establishing a schedule are important parts of the motivational process. When you understand your why, you need action to make it happen. So, those routines and schedules are a big part of that. However, don’t be so rigid in your routine and schedule that you demotivate yourself when things get rough. This is especially true if you work in a team or lead a team.
Everyone operates differently and they need to have ample space to power their own motivation by working in a way that is efficient for them. On an individual level, if you come to a point where your routine or schedule isn’t working for you, then change them.
Sometimes you need to loosen up and shake things up. If the idea of being more flexible is a terrifying prospect, you can plan for it. Giving yourself a cushion in every blocked-out activity can help you avoid running late if you face a delay or something else pops up.
You know how your days tend to unfold, so you know how to best to mitigate those issues. As important as planning is, it’s just as important that you don’t get caught up scheduling every second of your day.
15| Security
Whatever your why, whatever your plan, whatever you do – you need to feel safe enough and sure of yourself to get the job done. In Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, security comes after water and food. That doesn’t just mean a safe roof over your head, it means a feeling of safety in general. So, wherever you are operating, you should feel comfortable enough to be your full self.
It can be incredibly difficult to maintain motivation if you feel the need to mask parts of yourself when you’re out in the world. For example, people will hide their emotions rather than learn to regulate them.
There’s a difference between biting your tongue in a meeting and addressing an issue in private afterward, and constantly putting your feelings aside to let someone take cheap shots at you. Sometimes, you’re the only one who can create the sense of security you need to maintain motivation, and part of that might be establishing strong boundaries.
16| Mindfulness
Everyone needs to take breaks and it’s important that you slow down and enjoy the scenery, especially when you are working towards a major goal. A lot of people refuse to take breaks because they don’t want to break focus or lose their train of thought. Sometimes it’s hard to regain that level of focus when you pick back up again.
That’s why it’s important to plan breaks and create blocks of work so you reach a natural end or pause before a break. By doing this, you give yourself the space and time to take a break. While you take that break, you can focus on mindfulness. Whether you do a bit of yoga, deep breathing, or meditation is up to you, but these are ideal for both de-stressing and maintaining motivation.
Unfortunately, stress is a standard part of most days, but you have to be proactive to keep it at acute stress levels, otherwise, you run the risk of slipping into chronic stress. So, embrace mindfulness.
17| Change The Scenery
It is called cabin fever for a reason, and sometimes being surrounded by the same people in the same place all the time can be frustrating. A small change in scenery might be just enough to help you shift your motivation.
Look at your own environment and consider how it impacts your motivation as is. Look at letting more natural light in, think about bringing in some easy-to-care-for indoor plants, and add some splashes of color, and new textures.
Creating a more pleasant environment is a helpful way to boost your morale. Alternatively, you can go work offsite, go sit outdoors, or really, change things up however you want.
18| Make Time For Fun
You should always find time for fun and silliness, and while work is work, that doesn’t mean you can’t inject playtime to lighten things up from time to time. It’s up to you how you do this but take steps to make sure your days don’t feel like a slog.
19| Finish On A Power Pose
This will probably feel silly the first time you do it. It might even feel silly the second and third time you give it a go – but the benefits are worth it. You can learn a lot about someone based on their body language, and your posture is no different – it tells people a lot about your motivation levels.
If someone walks into a room with their shoulders hunched and their head down, it’s pretty easy to tell they’re not feeling at their best. But you can inspire yourself to motivation with a classic power pose.
A great power pose can help you boost your mood, which is going to have a positive impact on your confidence levels, work rate, and how you interact with the people around you as well. What does your current posture tell you about your motivation levels? Are you ready for anything? Or could you use more pep in your step?
20| Consistent Rewards
It’s an important enough point that it bears repeating – rewarding yourself or your employees for the hard work they put in is a great way to maintain motivation. There are plenty of different ways you can go about this. If you are looking to reward yourself, then nobody knows you better than you.
So, what would keep you going?
If you have a team to motivate, annual bonuses are a routine reward, but there are other ways to reward and motivate your team. And waiting to do so once a year isn’t going to do a sufficient job. Look at small, consistent rewards you can use to motivate your team. You can also tailor those rewards to each member of your team to get the most out of them.
21| Professional Guidance
If you have been struggling with motivation for a long time and you recognize it as a persistent issue that is impacting your life in bigger ways, you may want to speak to a mental health professional.
Sometimes talking to an external party is useful in recognizing certain truths about yourself and your situation. They can also provide you with expert advice when it comes to identifying underlying issues and provide you with the strategies you need to overcome them.
Dealing With A Lack Of Motivation
Motivation can be powerful, and it’s a force that can drive your why forward. You can utilize it to lock in your motivation and achieve ultimate success in anything you choose to put your hand to. So, you know how to build motivation.
But isn’t that more difficult when you’re demotivated? It’s much harder to climb a hill from the very bottom with broken gear than it is from the middle with everything you need. That’s the reality of life – you might make it halfway up that hill and slide back to the bottom repeatedly before you ever reach the crest. So, how do you deal with a complete lack of motivation?
The key to overcoming this issue is understanding what is causing it, which allows you to come up with practical solutions.
1| Burnout
Stress is your body’s natural response when faced with a challenging or uncertain situation. It can spur you on to hit a deadline, but when stress becomes a chronic issue it can contribute to serious anxiety, fatigue, and depression. Allowed to fester, this can quickly turn into a burnout situation.
Burnout can occur in any area of your life, whether it’s work, home life, a personal relationship, or even with family. It’s the state of exhaustion, whether mental, physical, or emotional, that is caused by excessive, prolonged stress.
When you reach the burnout stage, there is no quick answer to finding motivation. It requires a complete rest and reset before you can get back to that point.
2| Overwhelm
Overwhelm may feel similar to burnout, and it’s true that overwhelm could lead to burnout, but there are some slight differences. Overwhelm can be triggered by poor support, personal issues, and a heavy workload.
So, it causes a feeling of overwhelm where someone doesn’t feel able to cope with the demands expected of them. Their workload is too great for their emotional and physical capabilities. Unlike burnout, overwhelm can be a more temporary state. Regardless, it can leave someone feeling hopeless, which makes motivation difficult to spark.
3| Boredom
This might be slightly surprising, but boredom can be a major reason for a lack of motivation. Boredom can be a powerful force, for good or bad. Allowing children to get bored and find ways to entertain themselves is good, it gives them an outlet for their creativity.
However, for adults who get bored, that boredom isn’t a brief moment, it’s a rut. It’s when someone feels stuck in a project, job, career, or routine and they feel like there’s no way out. How could anyone maintain a healthy level of motivation in such a position?
One of the most effective ways to avoid boredom is to have hobbies and activities you enjoy, they get you out of boredom, pull you out of routine, and keep you from slipping into a rut. And if you do find yourself in a rut, look for ways to shake it off as quickly as possible.
4| No Clear Goals
This shouldn’t come as a surprise – how can you motivate yourself to succeed if you don’t have a clear or specific goal to chase? Setting clear goals and revisiting those goals regularly is key to finding and maintaining motivation. There is no point to dig up the power of why if you don’t plan to use it.
What A Lack Of Motivation Looks Like
Learning to recognize an issue with your motivation levels is a good place to start, when you build your self-awareness around motivation, you can tackle it head-on.
- Rather than getting started on a project, you find new and interesting ways to procrastinate.
- You have trouble starting new projects or tasks.
- You struggle to maintain your motivation once the newness of a project or task wears off.
- There is a noticeable increase in negative self-talk.
- You’re struggling with self-doubt.
- You have a general lack of enthusiasm and energy.
- You have a general disinterest in the activities you have always enjoyed.
- You miss work more often than usual or you are often late.
Build Motivation With Goals
You have the keys to build the motivation you need, but before we part, we should touch on how to set smart goals to chase your power of why and make things happen for yourself. It will help you manage your time more efficiently, and it is easier to stay motivated when you have clear goals to focus on.
So, with your why in hand and the knowledge of what it takes to get there, you can put it into an official goal and create an action plan that will get you where you want to be.
Whether you set out on this journey to benefit your professional life or your personal one, it’s always a good idea to set goals in both avenues of your life. Likewise, you should have short-term goals, as well as long-term goals. In a lot of cases, those short-term goals will be milestone events that shift you closer to achieving a long-term goal.
If you set a personal goal to go to the gym three days a week, committing to that goal and following through is going to benefit the rest of your goals as well. It will help build willpower, you will stay motivated, and you will feel better overall as well.
Regular exercise can be energizing so it’s beneficial in every area of your life. Whatever goals you set, they should always align with your values and your values and your why should also align. If you ever feel like something is off or it doesn’t feel quite right, go back to your why and your values and make sure everything is in alignment.
When it comes to setting personal goals, these can be financial, mental, spiritual, physical, or emotional. They can cover a range of topics, from more exercise to paying off debts to learning a new language or an instrument or even working on self-reflection. If you want to improve, your life will benefit from setting and achieving goals regularly.
Professionally speaking, goal-setting can relate to your existing career and/or the career change you desire. For example, you may want to focus on soft skills for a promotion or to put yourself in pole position to change careers.
Or you may feel there are hard skills that could benefit you more. Whether you want to motivate your team to grow your business or you want to drop everything to start something brand new, you need to set achievable goals and an action plan that will get you there.
As you set your goals, you should carefully consider what you would like your ideal life to look like, both at work and at home. How do you see yourself with your family, friends, and in your job? That’s an important part of the equation as well.
Setting Smart Goals
Whatever the goal – be sure you are specific in the wording, ensure it is something you can measure, it has to be achievable, it needs to be relevant, and you need to have a clear timeline to follow. That’s five boxes to tick for every goal you set and missing just one can derail your motivation and make success impossible.
Without a timeline, you will fall prey to procrastination. If you’re not specific enough, you can use ambiguity to make excuses. If you can’t measure it, you can’t motivate yourself to keep going, and if it isn’t achievable and relevant to your journey, what’s the point?
So, think about where you are now in relation to your why and your want, and think about how you can achieve your desires why, and want.
- What things need to change?
- What will it take to change it?
- What steps are necessary to get to where you want to be?
You have to consider that at every stage of this process. You also have to consider your priorities and values at every stage of the goal-setting process because this is where people often go wrong. Everything needs to align.
Always write your goals down, whether you do it the old-fashioned way with a pen and paper or you create a color-coded spreadsheet. Having it all clearly outlined is an excellent way to keep yourself motivated.
You should be able to easily access them daily so you can keep yourself on track. In addition to building an action plan, you can jot the goals down on a post-it, directly on the bathroom mirror, on a napkin, or on the fridge. The more prominent they are, the easier it is to maintain motivation. Written goals offer a tangible map so you know exactly where you are going, and more importantly, you know precisely how to get there.
As you get started, you might want to revisit your goals every day. As you get into the swing of things, you can probably pull back to just once a week. But you should still have a daily period of reflection to look at what you accomplished, what went well, and what you can do better next time. It’s a beneficial experience, whether you’re actively chasing a goal or not.
It’s also a really great way to build the momentum of motivation because it’s your opportunity to look at your day and see everything you achieved. We always do more than we realize, but it’s easy to lose track of in the chaos and frustration of daily life.
This process will take time, so be prepared to hold yourself accountable. While external motivation might help you achieve short-term goals, it’s intrinsic motivation that will keep you going to reach your longer-term goals.
Every step you take in the direction of your goal is worth celebrating, it’s worth congratulating yourself. That is why measurable goals are important, that’s why timeframes are key, and it’s why short-term goals are just as important as long-term goals.
If accountability is something you have historically struggled with, find a mentor or accountability partner who can help you stay on task. Remember, a big part of accountability is creating a schedule and sticking to it. That means you need to review your goals regularly to create an accurate priority list for each day.
Remember, one of the most essential steps to achieving your goals and maintaining your motivation is taking good care of yourself. You can’t strive for anything if you aren’t creating healthy habits.
Chasing goals can be stressful, even when you have all of your ducks in a row. So, give yourself the space to take regular breaks, give your body the nutritious food it needs, allow yourself the sleep you need, hydrate well, and look after yourself while you take this journey. Don’t buy into the nonsense that those successful people are selling online – you don’t have to work 16-hour days to succeed. You don’t have to run your body into the ground to make a quick buck.
In doing so, you will only make it more difficult to achieve what you want. And there is no excuse for not making time for rest and recreation, part of creating a schedule to stick to should include scheduling R&R.
There is no better time to start setting goals than now, you have already done a tremendous amount of work to get to this point. Now you just need to find the right direction to aim your motivation because success is out there waiting for you to grab on tight.
Getting enough sleep will help you maintain a healthy emotional state, which is one of the most important aspects of managing stress and keeping your overall motivation levels high.
Final Thoughts
Your why is the fuel that keeps you going. Your why is the compass for every decision you make from here on out. Your why is your purpose. When you start to pursue something new, the why is what drives it.
Your why is what commands your motivation. And ultimately your why is the path to succeeding.
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