Struggling with motivation? Try this.
Motivation is something I have difficulty with every single day with almost everything I do. My previous blog post describes how I experience this and how it hinders me, but this post is a little different.
You know what happens to me? I'll think about my website all day long at work and what I could do with it, but the minute I get home, all of that inspiration disappears into thin air. I can't bring myself to do any work! My thoughts are scrambled and my ideas just won't come to me. I feel pressured, and then stressed, then defeated, and finally guilty.
The pressure and guilt are what got to me the most. I felt I NEEDED to work on my website. I NEEDED to practice drawing. I NEEDED to do [insert something I'm always putting off]. Then when I do none of these things, the guilt seeps in and I only feel worse and even more demotivated.
I overcame this by decreasing the pressure I've been putting on myself by limiting how much I required myself to do in a single day.
I decided that every day I would dedicate at least one hour to something I felt I should be working on. The day before yesterday it was a post for my website, a topic that got a few shares by strangers on Facebook! That was an easy one. Yesterday it was drawing.
I wanted nothing to do with the picture I was working on. I kept looking at the clock and sighing, but you know what? I did it, and that little hour forced me to make progress that I would otherwise not have made.
You know the best part? Giving yourself a minimum time limit like that is a great way to get started because you don't feel overwhelmed. It gets you started, and sometimes that's all it takes. Sometimes you'll look at the clock to find that three hours have passed and you have made a ton of progress!
Other times you'll feel like a kid in school staring at the clock just waiting for that last bell to ring, but during that hour(or whatever time you set for yourself) you did something. Maybe it was just a paragraph, or a simple outline of a drawing, or whatever you may be working on, but it is a start. That start is so much better than having nothing.
Maybe this seems obvious to everyone else, but I am so happy that I have finally figured out a way to help me get through this hurdle I always encounter.
I hope this wordy post is able to help out someone else as well!
Recent Comments
4
You are right on with this! This is how I manage to do spring clean-out with 6 kids and so many other things... So happy you have been able to find something that helps you too. Shine on, girl ¡
This is something I've struggled with most of my life - when it comes to working for myself or creating a life I really want - there's this sabotage mechanism that somehow seems to take over. Although this is becoming less and less. I like what you say about committing to something small everyday and building on that. This can be a good way to build up momentum. Keep going, keep sharing
Good motivation! For my case, I usually set 2 hours daily before sleep to work on whatever here in WA for this and that, but for the past 1 month, I ended up maybe 4 or 6 hours working on it until midnight... Well, I might just get addicted with all these new knowledge and I'm very happy to continue work hard on it! Let's work hard together and we can! See you around in WA!