6 Reasons It's Not Your Fault If You Struggle to Stay Motivated

Motivation, quite simply, is the reason for doing something. You may be motivated because you want a specific outcome or reward. Or you may be motivated by your desire to avoid something unpleasant.

So why do people sometimes think they want something but don’t do what it takes to get it? What happened to their “motivation”?

Here are some reasons why people fail to achieve their goals:

Partitioning
Denial
Inattention due to ADD/ADHD
Fear
Not being clear about what they really want

Why is it so difficult to stay motivated?

Partitioning

If you have a habit of compartmentalizing, you may draw arbitrary lines in your life or in your mind. Therefore, while focusing on one area of your life, you may lose focus entirely on another.

If this is an issue for you, it’s important to do things to bridge the gap. This might look like keeping your goals in one place where you can see them, creating ways to work, and thinking about it. benefit multiple areas changing your life all at once or using a coach to help you keep what’s important in focus.

Denial

They look at the camera with their hands on their chins andreonegin via Shutterstock

Compartmentalization is quickly followed by denial. We may deny how inaction affects us, or we may deny that we achieved the goal in the first place. One way to deal with denial is to unmute the emotions associated with not doing what we say we want to do. We can ask ourselves: Is it true that I’m okay with not achieving this goal?

ADHD and other distractions

Many people with ADHD also have motivation problems, as shown in the following example: study conducted by
Mira Elise Glaser Holthe and Eva Langvik. They get distracted. One thing leads to another and before you know it you’re off track. You often have trouble figuring out which foot to put first. Maybe you’ve gotten so used to going off track that you’ve given up on starting. If that’s the case, ADHD self-help books can be a great resource to help jump-start your motivation.

Fear

If you’ve ever stopped yourself from doing or dreaming about something because of fear, you know how crippling that feeling can be. Many of the other factors that cause you to lose motivation are related to fear. Researched by psychologist René Misslin. The best thing you can do when you feel like your fear is holding you back is to figure out what you’re afraid of and then support yourself through the fear.

Realizing that this isn’t what you actually want

Sometimes the reason you don’t have the motivation to do something is because of what you think you want. not what you actually want. It can be difficult to know if this is the case, but one of the surest ways to find out is to first work on other causes of motivation loss. So, if you still don’t feel motivated, it’s time to ask yourself if you want what you’ve set as your goal.

How to motivate yourself

Confirm your progress
Accept that unintended consequences may be part of the process
Give yourself rewards
Evaluate your goals regularly to keep them up to date
Delegate the things that demotivate you
Take care of your emotional state

It’s easy to lose motivation on big projects, especially ones that don’t produce immediate results. It’s important to mark your progress along the way and acknowledge your small successes To feel motivated towards the next stage of your goal.

While I often encounter negative consequences that should be avoided, they sometimes work to keep some people on track. If there is something you want to avoid, remind yourself that your current actions are distracting you from it.

Giving yourself rewards when you reach your goals will help keep your motivation high, as will recognizing your progress every step of the way. A study on self-reward and personal motivation European Economic Review.

smiling at camera blvdone via Shutterstock

If you allow your goals to become stale, your focus and motivation may suffer. What seemed like an exciting goal 10 years ago may not be so interesting anymore. Often a target’s lifespan is much shorter. Take the time to create and evaluate your goals regularly.

If achieving your goal means you’ll have to do a lot of things you don’t like, it may make more sense to delegate your tasks to people who want to do them, rather than trying to gain power on your own.

And finally, it’s really important to make sure you follow up. personal development. By doing this, you clear away the piles of emotional debris that are holding you back from moving forward with ease.

Kate Siner is a teacher, mentor, spiritual guide and author who appears on NBC, ABC, Fox and other major networks to talk about spiritual and personal growth. He has spoken on WPRO, MX Talk of the Town, Consciousness Network and TalkStream Radio.