Whether it be to do your job, get your schoolwork done, clean your house, work on your creative passion, etc.
Bonus points if you’re someone without reasonable self-control so saying something like “I can only have a cookie after I do this/while I do this” doesn’t work for you and you’re just going to eat the cookie and not do it.
For me, it’s mostly retreat, regroup and get back. I accepted that it is okay not to be motivated the whole time. I take a break from everything and curl up in my room. When I feel better, I try to figure out what needs to be done first. And then I go back out.
That’s to be said that constant loss of motivation, could be a sign of Depression or other mental and/or physical Illnesses. If this continues, you should talk to your Doctor about this.
Motivation is a fleeting thing. Adulthood and success are built upon discipline, not motivation. We do what must be done, regardless of our feelings about it. Do what must be done, then enjoy your time spent doing better things once what is necessary is complete. Live by the words of Logan Nine Fingers from The Blade Itself:
It is better to do a thing than to live with the fear of it.
Change your perception of the task, instead of it being a ‘thing that you will be happy to have done’ look at it as a ‘thing that are happy doing’,
for example instead of ‘I will be happy to have learned to play the piano so I should force myself to practice’ think ‘I am happy while practicing the piano’ instead of ‘I have to do the dishes’ think ‘I am cleaning these dishes with perfection, and optimising their placement so that they will dry the quickest’
Basically, don’t do things for the end goal, do it for the action itself, live in the present, not in the future. There’s always enjoyment to get from any chore if you approach it from this mindset.
My partner look at me funny when I put my shirts to dry in ascending color order, and my socks all parrallel, but the truth is, I’m having fun doing it that way, the chore has become a meticulous game that I take pleasure from.
I usually keep an end goal in sight; for example, I sometimes dread going to the gym, but I always remember that my goal is to stay fit, have a healthy body and exercising is an important part of that. By sticking to my goal, I maintain my discipline and go to the gym 3 times per week.
Another example is school homework; in my case, my math homework is something I don’t enjoy, but I remind myself that I need the math certificate in order to enroll for a Computer Science degree at an university. Therefore, I keep pushing myself to study math and get good grades (which so far has worked pretty well)
“I don’t want to get fired and subsequently lose my healthcare and housing” isn’t a good motivator though. It only causes dread.
It’s also different with ADHD because everything in your body actively tells you to stop doing the thing and do something else. If you do the thing, you use up your entire supply of spoons for the day and barely have enough to get home.
In addition to other tips already mentioned, I’ve found it’s easiest for me to muster willpower to do chores/tasks first thing in the morning. That way I get stuff done before I get distracted and/or lose willpower. Also it’s sort of cheating because I’m not fully awake yet.
I don’t wait for motivation. I just tell myself, “You don’t have to want it, you just have to do it,” and then I do it. Usually.
Once I’m already doing something I tend to keep doing it, so it’s the transition that’s hardest. I find that if I start a task when I’m already transitioning from another activity, it’s a lot easier than getting up off the couch or putting down my phone.
It sucks, but you can’t really expect it not to suck.
Another insight that I adopted years ago was to do unpleasant tasks when I’m already unhappy. If I’m gonna be miserable anyway, might as well get something out of it, right?
Quite honestly the biggest game changer for me was understanding that you don’t have to feel like doing something in order to do it.
Force yourself to do it for five minutes, and 99% of the time you get in the groove and realise “Oh, this actually isn’t so bad” and before you know it, you’re done.
Every day I exercise (walking) and every single time it goes like this:
People think motivation comes before action, but it is actually the reverse. You have to decide (not be motivated) to act, and the motivation will follow.
I just think about how much worse I would feel later with this damn thing hanging over me. Alternately, I think back to how good I felt last time I actually got something done.
you dont. you force yourself to do just 15 minutes of solid effort. chances are you'll just keep going. the first step is the hardest. cookies dont work for me because like, I can just go get the cookie now if you get what I mean here
No really, you don’t, you just force yourself to do it because you know it’s got to be done. I know it sucks but it is what it is, sometimes we have to do shit we don’t want to, but once you start it’s usually not so bad as you thought it’d be and then it gets easier with time especially if you make it part of your routine.
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