What do you do when your motivation fades?
It can happen with anything. Decluttering, exercising, a project or hobby, cooking dinner, anything you want to or have to do can become less appealing and you find yourself unmotivated.
Usually, I tend to wait until I get motivated again. This works sometimes, and sometimes things just get so out of hand that I HAVE to deal with it, so I drink 4 cups of coffee (liquid motivation) and get to work. But recently I was having a harder time snapping out of it. I told my husband, "I need to motivate myself to be motivated." As ironic as it sounds it was true. Simply waiting for the feeling to strike isn't enough.
Besides motivation, you need consistency and discipline. As with any good thing there are ups and downs, good days and hard days. So on the days when you aren't feeling motivated, consistency and discipline are what will carry you over.
Discipline was the decision that if I'm not feeling motivated, I need to motivate myself to be motivated. I ordered some books at the library that I knew would help to inspire me. I made the choice to get up the next morning and get to work even though I wasn't feeling super motivated. Each small thing I accomplished I knew would add up and help me to be more motivated to keep going.
Consistency is what kept me going. I made the decision, and then I kept going. I made a daily routine of sticking with my decision, continuing to work, and looking for ways to keep myself inspired. For example, it's easy for me to fall behind on the dishes. Some days I'm excited to get the kitchen cleaned and sparkling and it's no problem at all for me to stay caught up with the dishes. But other days I look at the pile and don't even want to start. Discipline is deciding, I'm going to do a load of dishes every day at this specific time even when I don't want to. Discipline is setting an alarm on my phone to remind me every day. And consistency is sticking with it, not deleting or ignoring that alarm, but making it a part of my daily routine until it becomes a habit and no longer feels so insurmountable that I need as much motivation to get it done.
I need more consistency in my life. Often I think that I need more motivation when it's actually the consistency that I need. I'm taking a look at my routines and my schedule to see how I'm doing and the areas that I want to improve, and instead of waiting for inspiration to strike to begin, I'm going to begin to apply consistency.
What are some things you like to do to motivate and inspire yourself?
Comentários