I’m writing this blog post drawing from my own experience. The lack of motivation is a problem I’m facing occasionally like many of us. No matter what you want—becoming a photographer, making a radical change to your life, pursuing a dream—you need motivation. I’m explaining to you why you may not be motivated and how to deal with that. Read on.
Why it’s harmful to not be motivated
The lack of motivation will slow, if not pause your life. The world will advance and change, and other folks’ ambitions and projects will blossom. But unmotivated people like us may stay prisoners of an unsatisfactory life. Simply put: life doesn’t change by itself for the better. You need the motivation to initiate action to initiate change.
Why you may not be motivated
But first, you need to understand why you may not be motivated. One of the main reasons, from my experience, is the lack of clarity. Do you have clear and realistic goals to reach? Have you defined all the action steps necessary to reach these goals? Have you evaluated the financial and material needs? How do you want to be motivated if what you want and what you have to do isn’t crystal clear?
A path to clarity: goals
A goal is a result you want to achieve. It’s what you want. It’s very important cause your goal will be your guiding light. Instead of losing your time, energy, and money on useless moves. It’ll keep your actions focused on a desirable outcome. For a goal to be meaningful, it has to be clear and realistic.
For example, making money isn’t a goal. What matters is the change you expect to make with the cash (buying a house, taking a trip to an exotic place, you name it). You also have to be realistic, don’t put short deadlines if you know you won’t make it. You can also have intermediate, short-term, goals. Especially for these objectives that’ll take a long time.
A path to focused efforts: actions
Once you know what you want, you need to know how to get there. For that, you’ll use action steps. As the name implies, it’s something that you do. Each step gets you closer to your desired outcome. Basic example: to become a street photographer I had to study street photography, select a camera, buy a camera, learn to use my camera, and so on. See, it’s easy.
Brainstorm while thinking about your goal. Ask yourself what you need to do to get there and list all the actions that come to your mind. Order them from start to finish. Evaluate also the financial and material needs of your project. It’s also something that you’ve to clarify. Now you should have a detailed project starting with actions and ending with your objective. It’s important that you commit to yourself about doing these action steps. And start doing them rather sooner than never.
Stay focused and clear
Once a week, review your goals and actions. For that, you can use an app like Todoist to store everything. You can simply add your goals to a list and add action steps as subtasks. Check off the actions you’ve done. Schedule the next steps in your calendar. Alternatively, you can just use a pen, paper, and lists.
Close the gap between you and the outcomes you desire
I’ve kept things simple but you’ve some good basics to deal with your lack of motivation. If you would like to dive deeper into personal productivity, I recommend you to read Getting Things Done by David Allen. When you’ll feel discouraged or uninspired remember your goals. Move forward and step by step close the gap between you and the outcomes you desire.
