Doing Things When You Lack Motivation

You ever sat there like an eager beaver, ready to attack whatever it is you’re about to undertake? That feeling of motivation is intoxicating – you really feel like nothing can stop you in the moment. You’re ready to start barking orders like a drill sergeant at whoever crosses your path, including your own mother. This ain’t no Sunday stroll, it’s head-down crunch time.

But then you ever sat there, staring at the wall, checking your phone, checking it again, and having absolutely no sense of urgency or desire to do whatever it is you know you need to do?

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the more usual scenario. You lack the motivation.

We always have a bunch of crap we know we need to take care of but don’t, and then we always have a bunch of crap we know we want to take care of but don’t. You know, the stuff that gets us ahead in life and all that crap. Oh, that. Instagram is more important, give me 15 minutes. One hour later, you’re back to staring at the blank screen.

Nah, Instagram actually ain’t more important; but tell that to your brain.

Here’s what you can tell your brain, though. You want to know what separates the most successful people from the rest? They’ve trained themselves to finish things when they don’t feel like it and lack motivation. And it feels oh-so-good when you do. And the more you do it, the more you get used to it, and the less you let your mind get in the way.

Pursuing hobbies and things we’re passionate about is great. But unfortunately, a reality of life is that a good chunk of it is spent time doing mundane stuff we don’t care to lift a finger for. Hopefully that doesn’t include your job, but for a lot of people, it does. Exercise is a perfect example of a necessary habit that even those who enjoy it, find a lack of motivation here and there. But guess what? The fittest people go anyway; the ones who are determined to get the best results see it through to the end. And it’s no different in other areas of life.

Procrastination will slowly eat you alive and then ask for dessert. It’s caused the end of marriages, careers, friendships, opportunities, and sadly, even life. We procrastinate because we don’t feel like doing X, Y, and Z. But the faster you can knock it out, two things will happen. One, you’ll obviously be done with whatever it was you had to do, but more importantly, you’ll feel really freakin’ good about it. This is when you grow the most.

Training yourself to push forward and do things when you lack motivation is a quality that can’t be taught by anyone but yourself.