I’ve mentioned motivation in one of my previous posts, but then I thought that the issue of lack of motivation is much bigger and doesn’t only concern language learning. Of course, complete and constant absence of motivation isn’t common and, most likely, related to health conditions, but all healthy people experience lack of motivation from time to time.
Majority of people who think they just don’t have enough energy to turn their plans into reality still manage to do their everyday chores without any problems and find time for some fun too. They just lack motivation for completing certain tasks. Did you ever have this feeling when it seems like you are facing a solid wall, a barrier you just can’t remove, and you suddenly just lose any interest in overcoming it?
What is motivation? It’s a desire that turns into action. So obviously, wanting to do something is not enough — you’ll need a complete picture of how, when and why you want to do something.
Power of emotions
I think that motivation has much to do with inspiration. Just like inspiration, motivation needs fuel, and there are lots of various sources this special fuel comes from. What’s interesting is that people can get motivated both by positive and negative emotions. For some, fear is quite a powerful fuel: they will go forward because they are afraid of failure and consequences it brings. And let’s admit it: more often than not, this is the only thing that works when you know you need to do something (write a paper, complete an important task at work etc.) The problem is, it doesn’t always work so well. Quite soon you’ll find that even fear of failure is not enough to make the lack of motivation go away, and if this happens over and over again, you may get visited by another unpleasant companion, which is procrastination. Yeah, somehow I don’t feel like I have to explain what procrastination is: I’m sure many of you people know what it looks like.
So how can you find motivation?
Try to get a precise idea of the difference between what you have now and what you’ll get after completing your task. Think of various kinds of benefits, however small, can the latter bring.
Powerful emotions, either negative or positive, are not all you need. Perspective is what matters too. You need to move towards a better place, to set new, better goals. Think of what rewards, big or small, you will get after your goal is accomplished.
Try not to motivate yourself with negative thinking, if you don’t want your brain avoid all the negativity by refusing to work. And don’t berate yourself for lacking motivation; this won’t do any good either.
Always award yourself for something you’ve done. Seriously — just go and spoil yourself a bit, and treat yourself to something different each time.
Divide a large piece of work into smaller parts. This way you’ll control your progress and make your steps towards the ultimate goal much easier.
Just do it. Really, just start doing something; in many cases, the first step is the hardest one. You’ll see how much easier it will be for you to continue after you actually begin working.
This is something that usually works for me; though I must admit that, in most of cases “Just do it” works better than anything. :)