6 Ways to Motivate Yourself When You're Just Not Feelin' It

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Susan Nelson career coach and leadership advisor

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There are going to be days you don’t feel like doing much of anything, especially when you're drained physically, mentally, or emotionally. The occasional "mental health" day off is fine and oftentimes necessary, but when inaction becomes a regular occurrence, something needs to shift. 

Just as I have realized that being anti-racist is not only not enough, and my lack of action has contributed to the ongoing, systemic problems we face, it's important that we take deliberate, consistent action each day (no matter how small) to make real progress in achieving social justice as well as our personal endeavors.

Successful people do a good job of motivating or inspiring themselves to take action each day, even when they may not be feelin' it!  Try these techniques to motivate yourself and increase the odds of success in your favor:

  1. Be more willing to fail. Often we blame our inaction on laziness or lack of motivation, but maybe you’re procrastinating because you’re afraid of failing.  Fear of failure will take the wind out of your sails and begins the process of rationalizing reasons for not doing anything at all.  Embrace failure as a necessary part of life and push yourself to do things out of your comfort zone and learn from the experience.  It's all research!

  2. Remember that life is short. Life is short, but it’s long enough, as long as you don’t waste it. You can get a lot accomplished between now and the end of your life, but only if you respect your time and make the most of it. It’s easy to put things off until tomorrow, but there are only so many tomorrows left.  Seize the day and don't look back wishing you had done more meaningful things.

  3. Consider the long-term cost. What is the cost of waiting or not taking advantage of the opportunity before you? It’s easy to do nothing. It’s not as intuitive to think about the consequences of your inaction and what that will mean a year or more from now.

  4. Consider the benefit of getting something accomplished. What will you get from doing 30 minutes of exercise every day for the next year? What will happen if you don’t do it? What do you get from taking action right now? Focus on that instead of the short-term pleasure of avoiding it.

  5. Ask yourself what you could accomplish today. What could you get done today? How would you feel about yourself and your day if you did get a few meaningful things accomplished? Make a list of things you’d like to get done, prioritize them, and then follow your list.  Focus on the one or two most important items each day and make a point to get those done. 

  6. Use a timer. Spending four hours working on a project (i.e., writing a paper or cleaning out the garage) can be downright overwhelming, but seeing how much you can accomplish in 15 minutes is intriguing. A timer will give you a specific endpoint and focus your attention. Who knows, you might decide to reset the timer and give it another go after the first round once you've seen how much progress you made. 

One thing that separates successful folks from mere mortals is the ability to get things done on a consistent basis. It’s important to know how to motivate yourself each day, especially on those days when you're just not feelin' it.

There’s nothing to be gained by inaction. Make the most of each day and watch the compounding effects over time! 

 

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Susan Nelson

I’m an HR expert and integrative leadership coach.  I help emerging HR Leaders who are new to (or aspire to get to) the C-Suite, stay in the game and thrive! Through individual and group coaching, I help them increase their impact in their role, as a leader, AND thrive at home, as a mom with a career.

https://hrleaderscoach.com
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