I'm having one of those days that I'm sure you all have and some of you probably have more than most and that is you have no motivation to do anything. You wake up, you stare at the wall for a few minutes, you lie back down again. Thank god that it's a public holiday you think. So I was thinking, what do you do when you have no motivation to do anything? What do you do to get yourself going so that you can get the things done that need to be done?
Here are my seven suggestions. Some of these are probably generic and you find them everywhere but that's life and we don't want to overcomplicate things, right?
1. Get out of bed and have a shower.
Just this simple act of getting out of the clothes that you slept in and washing your hair and cleaning yourself and then putting on fresh clothes can motivate you to do something else, even if it is just to go down to the nearest 7/11 to buy something. The fact that you are up and moving can have a flow-on effect across the day and just by making that first step can really supercharge your day. What is that Chinese proverb? A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. There you have it, a few steps to the shower.
2. Think of the bigger picture.
Why are you doing all of this? What is the focus? You need to think about your goals and think about why you are putting yourself through this. I admit sometimes it is going to be very difficult but think about the joy and the celebration when you accomplish your goal or you get what you want, it will all be worth it. This is what helped me this morning. I thought about what I wanted and bang I was up and at 'em.
3. Have an accountability partner.
I have a friend who I text at 5am to say that I am up and ready to go. The motivation here is for me anyway, that I don't want get a text asking where am I or a text asking why am I being lazy again. I assure you it works and to avoid these things is the primary motivator for me when I forget about the big picture. Also it pisses me off when I get a text asking where I am. I don't like being pissed off. I'm sure you don't either.
4. Weigh yourself everyday
If one of your goals is to lose weight then I suggest weighing yourself everyday. If you see that after a particular heavy night on the booze you have gone up a kilo or two then it is very easy to get your ass out of that chair and go to the gym. Also I find that if the numbers on the scales are going down on a daily basis then it is actually easier to get yourself to the gym because you want to keep that downward trajectory. I must admit that if it is going up it is difficult for me to motivate myself as I think oh well what difference does it make if I have another Big Mac? This morning I got a fantastic surprise when I stepped on the scales and found that even though I had a huge lunch yesterday and curry at dinner time and also had a couple of beers, I was still lower than the day before. So, originally I wasn't going to go to the gym today but as soon as I saw that I got a great burst of motivation and put my gym clothes into the bag and I was off. I will be working out after I post this article today.
5. Competition
I have a little competition going with my friend about a couple of things and I want to kick his butt. So the thought of winning the competition helps me to get a move on and get things done. This is like the accountability partner in that you have someone to answer to but it is also a bit fun. You could put a wager on it if you like although I'm not a gambling man ... sometimes. At the moment I see that in the current competition I am behind on points which annoyed me a great deal. I can make a comeback though.
6. Pay a fine
My friend told me that he used to have a deal with his friend that if one of them lost then they had to pay money, not to each other mind you, but to the stingiest, Scroogeiest (is that a word? I don't think it is.) miserly person you can imagine. Just the idea of giving money away to someone that you know would never, ever, ever, ever give you money or even worse never shout you a beer at the bar would motivate the heck out of me. I'm not giving my money away to that guy.
7. Accomplish something
I think another reason that I was motivated to write this is that I am building something. I have posted about 30 articles and it is building and it is quite motivating to keep this going to see what I can make out of it and see how far I can take it. I don't want to see any gaps in my blog so I am motivated to write something even though it can seem like pulling teeth coming up with ideas but that us how you grow when you push yourself. You push yourself in the gym and you see results. You push yourself in your mind and you see results.
There you have it, seven ways to motivate yourself to get things done. I hope you can use one of them or all of them to get yourself out of bed in the morning and to build something that you really want. Good luck!
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