When you lack motivation to take the action that can provide you with a better life, you have two choices. You can either give up, or you can use whatever you find that passes for motivation, no matter how paltry it seems.
Only one of these choices has a guaranteed outcome. If you quit trying and continue procrastinating, you will certainly end your days with nothing.
As easy as these choices are to speak about though, they are difficult to see, and even harder to take action on.
The emotional drama
Your mood, whether influenced by depression, addiction, or some event that has sent you reeling, obscures these opportunities from your vision. They are not part of the persona your psyche is having you play.
The saddest part is that, forward drive and motivated passion are just behind the curtain of this drama. And make no mistake — any major lack of motivation and enthusiasm is an emotional drama. The real world is the one where you are doing, and moving, and where you feel excited about your life. That productive world is just inches away, and yet, it is made to seem unreal.
Drama consumes and excludes. It overpowers you and blinds you to any reality other than itself. We should all receive Oscars. God knows that we have played our parts well. We have played them far too well for our own good.
The motivating power of small things
So what do you do when the usual cures for procrastination and low motivation don’t work for you? For starters, it helps to forget about expecting your motivation to magically return full-force. It hardly ever does. Remember, your drama is blinding you to all of your usual motivators.
At times like this you are far better off looking to the obscure and the obtuse for the answer.
Small, indistinct sources of inspiration and motivation, go unfiltered by your psyche. They are missed in its attempt to keep you immersed in your drama. And you can use them to bring yourself back into your reality, your passion, and your motivation.
How do you identify these opportunities? Well, they could be anything other than what you might expect. Look for the small things. Grab onto whatever comes your way. If it makes you feel better somehow, then seize it and use it to fuel positive action. Once you begin taking action, you will fuel further action.
Use every small motivation to your advantage
Unlike the major motivators in your life, the list of small motivators is endless. Some examples are:
- A positive development in the life of someone you care about.
- Your Alexa rank just dropped a notch (for my fellow bloggers).
- The sun is shinning and there is a gentle breeze.
- You receive a positive comment or compliment from an unexpected source.
- The smell in the air after a good rain.
- A bird’s song drifts through the window and into your heart.
- The smell of a wildflower reminds you of happy times.
- A familiar song triggers your inspiration.
You clear the major hurdle once you act on these seemingly insignificant motivations. As Goethe said:
“Engage, and the mind grows heated. Begin, and the work will be completed.”
All you need is an exit from your drama. Once behind the stage curtain, you are again solidly in reality. You are empowered and motivated to create. But you must begin. Use these small motivators to encourage action. Then further action will be easier.
Develop a habit of noticing these events, and acting on the feeling they bring to you, and you will surely regain your motivation.
The old saying is true: “life can turn on a dime.” It can be that simple.
Over to you now…
Stumble it!
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10 comments ↓
“All you need is an exit from your drama.”
I cannot overstate the importance of that statement. You can be down or in some rut but as long as you stay focussed on that rut you can’t hope to get out.
This is why you hear the advice to do something else for awhile, which is general advice. I think what you have talked about here makes taking those breaks a whole lot more effective.
Being able to break away from any emotional state or thought pattern is really core to change.
Jarrod
Hi Jarrod,
Thank you for commenting.
I agree with you that being able to break away from an emotional state is key to change. There are many intellectual approaches to these problems, but unless you understand and alter the emotional state, you can’t use them.
Our emotions are fundamental to everything we do, and yet so many people are afraid to deal with them. Instead they take cover in their intellect.
I like your site. I’ll read more. I’ve bookmarked it.
You’ve hit it bang on, my friend. It’s the wallowing in it that gets ya!
As you say “Once you begin taking action, you will fuel further action.”
Thanks for the link.
Loraleigh,
Oh, but that wallowing is so…
While walking through a forest in England after dark one night, I came across a group of wild ponies that were wallowing in mud that was almost belly deep for them. They were stuck in it, but yet not stuck. They could get out, but all they did was kneed it like a cat on a blanket. They were entranced by the sticky thickness, and the pull of it on their legs.
I think we humans have a similar strange attraction for emotional drama. It could trap us, but we like the substantial feel of it; the sticky pull of it on our psyche. It contrasts sharply with the shallowness of daily life as we perceive it to be when we are under its sway.
This is a good article and you are absolutely right that life can turn on a dime.
It took some time for me to realize that the drama was getting in the way of my happiness - but I realized it and life has not been the same since!
One thing that was huge breakthrough for me was understanding how “resistance” creates disharmony and acceptance is Peace.
Thanks for your article
Monica,
You said: “resistance” creates disharmony and acceptance is Peace.”
That is so true. To create positive change, we have to first merge with or accept the situation.
It’s like wanting to communicate with someone quickly walking right by you. Our best chance is to first merge with them by matching their pace and walking beside them. Then we have an opportunity to forge understanding and change things.
Acceptance and understanding is peaceful power.
Thanks for for your thoughts Monica.
I loved this article, and it’s really unique. I am in full agreement to your sentiments. For starters, the sheer force of resistance to us achieving our goals whatever they may be is tremendous. I’m just the messenger — I didn’t make the rules — that’s the way life is. We constantly go up against resistance, whether it be getting up when our alarm clock goes off, or getting ourselves to write that blog entry we’re scheduled to do, constant resistance is there. Since it is there, we need to employ every tool under the sun. And the tool you have spoken of in this entry is a damn good one! One that I employ all of the time.
Bamboo Forest,
I totally agree that life offers constant challenges to our desires. We either accept them and use them to further develop our path, or we resist them and have to cope with the results of our resistance.
It’s a funny ole world isn’t it? Either way we look at it, we benefit from knowing simple everyday ways of accessing our core strengths and motivation. As you say — “constant resistance is there. Since it is there, we need to employ every tool under the sun.”
Yep, sometimes it takes something completely unrelated to your problems to be the perfect solution. I remember getting pink-slipped and sulking with a beer while sitting in a wheelbarrow. I couldn’t help but think, “Hey, if a wheelbarrow can be this comfortable, then pretty much anything is possible,” and feeling oddly optimistic. Silly example, but I really enjoyed your point here.
Sara,
I love your personal example. Far from silly, it perfectly illustrates that opportunities to feel better about life are everywhere; in your case, in a wheelbarrow
Sara, You’ve created a nice site. I have bookmarked it for further reading.
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