Have you been in a bit of a slump lately? Not feeling as passionate as you used to about your goals and projects?
Don’t worry about it.
The best of us have periods where we’re not feeling motivated. It’s part of life, and it’s definitely part of any learning process!
If you’re feeling burned out, the good news is that you can recapture that feeling of excitement and start feeling motivated again by making some simple changes and re-evaluating your mindset.
If you feel like you’ve lost your spark and are wondering how to regain motivation, follow these steps and start feeling ready for life again!
Seek Success At The Speed Of Balance
Often, a lack of motivation comes from trying to do too much.
Ever since the “Marshmallow Test” regained popularity thanks to TED, a lot has been written about the value of deferred gratification.
In case you’re not familiar with the concept, it refers to a series of experiments by Walter Mischel in the 1960s in which children were instructed not to eat a marshmallow. If they didn’t, they’d get two marshmallows – yet a lot of children were unable to resist.
Recently, this phenomenon has been revived and used as an example to argue that the most intelligent and successful people focus on deferred gratification, whilst the least successful always sell out their future happiness for what they want right now.
This is always assumed to be a bad decision.
Well, I disagree.
I mean, of course you don’t want to forget the goal. But unfortunately, motivation has a dark side. When you’re focused on a long-term goal, it’s easy to decide to compromise your short-term wellbeing in order to meet it.
With this as your guiding philosophy, it’s easy to fall into bad habits that only make things worse – all because you want to get more done. Overloading on caffeine, poor eating habits, going to bed later and later… Sound familiar?
Instead of exhausting yourself in the pursuit of your goals, prioritize balance over the speed of your progress and you’ll be much happier.
More has been written about how rest is all part of work because of how it increases productivity, and this is a positive thing. But more importantly, rest and wellbeing are awesome for you, for their own reasons, regardless of your output. Embrace it.
Don’t lose sight of your goals, but remember: slow and steady wins the race. If you don’t want to arrive exhausted, take time for yourself along the way.
Make SMART Goals
Imagine you want to save money for an important event. What would be the best way to make this happen?
The most logical thing would be to make a budget recording what you want to achieve and the actions you need to take to get there (in this case, maybe buying cheaper products, walking instead of taking the bus, and so on).
Your goals are no different. What is measured is managed, so you need to create effective goals which give you a clear path from A to B.
One tried-and-tested way of finding motivation is to use the SMART method. This means your goals should be:
- Specific – be as precise as possible about the why, when, where, how and what you want to achieve
- Measurable – figure out exactly how you will know that you’ve achieved your goals
- Attainable – before diving in, consider whether the costs (in time, money, energy and other commitments) of attaining the goal are acceptable to you
- Relevant – does this goal actually suit your personality and passion, or is it just something others are telling you that you should want?
- Timely – this means setting deadlines!
So now you know the method, how do you put this into practice?
Try Bullet Journaling
Writing things down can be a hugely powerful motivational tool. Bullet journaling has exploded in the last few years, and it’s easy to see why: it’s creative, it’s fun and it forces you to engage with your goals on a daily basis.
If you’re not sure where to start, it’s easy!
Just buy any notebook (make sure to choose one you feel visually drawn to – this is a long-term commitment, so you should like how it looks) and start writing down your goals. Get creative and make charts of anything you want to track.
Set aside 15 minutes each day to keep on top of it. If you’re the kind of person who starts journaling with great intentions but forgets to keep up with it, then make sure you don’t ever put the book away in a drawer!
Keep it where you have to interact with it, even if this means putting it on top of your coffee machine, in your make-up drawer, or in the laundry basket.
Sounds bizarre, but believe me, it works.
Don’t Go It Alone (But Choose Your Company Carefully)
One of the best ways to get motivated is to share the goal with someone else. In fact, this can increase your chances of success by up to 95%!
Whatever your goal is, finding a buddy to go along with you is an invaluable way to keep yourselves accountable to each other, which has been proven to be a huge indicator of long-term success.
Hold up, though.
This Harvard study showed that the most significant factors in this equation is who is holding you accountable and what they’re holding you accountable to. To maximize chances of success, you should choose a close friend who can be objective and evaluate your actions and effort (not how great they find you as a person).
But don’t think that you have to have exactly the same goal as your buddy, either – in fact, it can help if you have separate goals. That way, there’s all of the benefits of having a partner, but none of the temptation towards competition that might make you overdo it or unconsciously try to demotivate your partner.
If You’re Still Not Sure How To Regain Motivation
Hopefully, reading this has given you some actionable steps for how to regain motivation and reignite that spark inside.
If you’re still not motivated, or if you need something a little more specific, we have plenty of ways to help! Check out our motivation section for more information.