Motivation is an elusive thing. Sometimes, even when you’ve been sleeping enough, eating well, exercising, taking time out for yourself and your friends and family, you might not feel motivated to work. You’re doing all the right things that people say you should do. You’re leading a rounded life. You should, technically, have plenty of energy to get up in the morning and get to work. But you’re missing that feeling of enthusiasm. Here are some things you could do to resolve the issue:
Brainstorm About What’s Bothering You
At any one point of time, there might be a number of things that are bothering you. Maybe there’s some work issue. Maybe you’re upset about a conversation that you had with a friend who is close to you. Maybe you’re feeling some pressure to change things around in your personal life.
Write down all the possible reasons why you might be feeling blocked. Does anything jump out at you? Sometimes, you may think that one issue is bigger than the other, but it might be the smaller issue that is niggling away at you. Either way, a certain amount of introspection is necessary to find out what’s on your mind. This is because people are often in denial about their true feelings.
What’s the Worst That Can Happen?
This is a method that Dale Carnegie came up with while he was writing How to Stop Worrying and Start Living. If you’re worried about something and you know exactly what you’re worried about, ask yourself: what’s the worst that can happen? Will you get fired from your job? Will your partner leave you? Will you lose your house?
These are pretty big eventualities and every little problem may not lead into something big like this. But when you’re anxious about something, the problem usually multiplies in your mind until you start thinking in black and white terms.
Accept the Worst That Can Happen
Maybe you’re worried that you are going to lose your job. In this case, just assume that it is going to happen. So what? Will you be destitute? Probably not, since you’ve managed to get and keep jobs before. Once you’ve accepted that the worst is going to happen, you’ll see that the worst isn’t as bad as you imagined it was.
But the advantage of accepting the worst is that it makes you feel calmer so that you can come up with a plan to solve the immediate issue. You’ll find that once your mind has stopped going around in circles, you’ll be able to effectively solve the problem at hand.
