Motivational Tools For When You’re Not Feeling It

Perhaps you thought that 2021 was going to be the light at the end of a very long tunnel? But, it’s become everything that isn’t that. The situation that we’re in right now is pretty rubbish but there is no other word for it. We’re in the midst of a global pandemic and it doesn’t seem to end, our emotions are high and maybe your motivation is low.

I’m fed up of the situation myself and I’m sure you are too. Everything feels full-on, we’re at full capacity mentally and physically we’re being pushed close to the edge and it can feel like a struggle to fit everything in.

First things first, it’s OK to feel this way. It’s totally normal. What we are going through right now is abnormal.

Feel those feelings and process them. It’s OK not to be OK with the current situation. And, perhaps this new lockdown has washed away your motivation and you simply can’t be bothered because you’re tired, exhausted and it all feels too much.

I want to share with you some powerful motivational tools to help you refind your mojo and get back on track with a heavy dose of mindset goodness too.

Lower your expectations of yourself

When you’re feeling low you do lose focus, you lose interest, and you’re probably low on energy too. The last thing you want to be doing is going in all guns blazing and then when it comes to it you’re not really feeling it. This will only demotivate you further because you’ll end up in a guilt-and-procrastination cycle feeling like a failure because you’re not crossing things off your to-do list.

In this instance, it’s one of the best ways to combat this is to be meeting your energy levels where they are now.

When you were feeling on top of the world your energy levels were probably at 80-90% but now you’re feeling stretched and pulled in 1000 different directions, they’re probably at 30%. So, set small specific goals that are more achievable instead to lessen the feeling of overwhelm. When you complete the task you will still get that same sense of achievement that you always get when you tick something off the to-do list. This in turn will get those happy chemicals in the brain flowing and spur you on and keep up that momentum, which you can later build on.

Give yourself some grace

If you’re constantly beating yourself up for being unproductive and lazy, these are the messages that you are filling your mind with. And as we know, when we keep repeating these negative stories to ourselves we take those on and start to believe them.

The brain is like a sponge and holds on to anything that it hears over and over again. If you’re telling yourself that you’re unproductive constantly, that will become your norm and the life that you live. Practice some self-compassion by telling yourself some kind and encouraging words instead that you might use with a friend or those that you love.

Write a Ta-da list

If you are feeling unproductive or that you’re not doing or achieving enough what I suggest my 1:1 clients try is to write something called a reverse to-do list or a ta-da list, if you feel like the phrase to-do is too much right now.

When we’re feeling unproductive and demotivated we often focus on the things that we haven’t achieved rather than the things that we have actually achieved and this is all down to the brain’s negativity bias. Yes, your brain is actually wired to focus on the negatives, but you don’t have to be a victim to it.

Instead what you can do is focus on everything that you have achieved down to the very little seemingly insignificant things in your day like, getting the tomato stains out of your kid’s top, which is always a highlight for me. So, write down every little thing that you’ve accomplished at the end of the day from start to finish to highlight the fact that even though you’re feeling unproductive, actually you got a hell of a lot done that day.

Celebrate your wins

Celebrating your wins can be such a simple tool to implement when you’re lacking motivation because it inspires positivity, pride, and appreciation, but we don’t do it enough. Think about how often you celebrate your partners, children, or friend’s achievements compared to your own. The scales are probably tipping in the latter direction, right? I know, it can feel weird to celebrate yourself, but because you’re pretty special, you deserve to be celebrated

Rewarding yourself when you’ve accomplished something is great as it helps to cement in that bold behaviour and reinforces that feeling of real achievement and satisfaction.

Envision how you’ll feel after the task

When we don’t feel motivated to do a task, we put it off and put it off, which gets us stuck in a procrastination cycle.

When you’re feeling low, you often focus on the amount of effort that something is going to require of you more than the task itself. To get over this block focus on how you’re going to feel after the task is done rather than during it and keep that at the forefront of your mind. Think about how amazing it’s going to feel when you eat that frog and get it out of the way. Usually, you will find that you’ve built it to be much bigger in your head, when you’re actually doing it, it’s not actually that bad.