Motivation Slipping? 3 Powerful Strategies to Regain Your Momentum
We’ve all been there — we set a goal, feel excited and motivated to achieve it, and even experience some initial success. Yet, in time, for reasons we don’t fully understand, our motivation wanes and our follow through dwindles. We try to use willpower to push our way through, but no matter how much we try, reaching our goal seems more and more elusive.
Eventually, we give up. Often the result is not only disappointment, but also a blow to our self-esteem. We feel like a failure.
It doesn’t have to be like this.
As a clinical psychologist and board-certified coach, I have collaborated with hundreds of clients on their journeys toward achieving their goals. Along the way, I have learned some valuable insights about motivation. We all know that motivation is crucial for success. What we might not realize is that it can be cultivated and shifted in a positive direction.
Here’s the thing. We’re always motivated for something; we just might not be motivated to do what we know we should.
For example, I might need to finish a project for work, but my motivation to relax with Netflix outweighs my motivation to finish the project. So, I watch TV instead of working. I’m motivated, just not in the way that will help me accomplish my work-related goal.
Motivation isn’t an elusive quality that we either have or don’t have. It’s always present. The trick is to know how to shift its direction, so it helps us achieve our goals.
Here are 3 powerful strategies to help redirect your motivation and regain your momentum:
1. Identify and Resolve Your Ambivalence
If you find yourself struggling with motivation, chances are you’re conflicted about your goal or the steps necessary to achieve it. Even when the goal is important, you can still be ambivalent.
Let’s say your doctor recently told you that you have high blood pressure and need to make lifestyle changes. If you don’t lower your salt intake and increase your exercise you will likely need to take medication. You don’t want high blood pressure and you don’t want to take pills, yet, you can’t seem to motivate yourself to put down the salt shaker or spend more time at the gym.
You’re struggling because there are pros and cons to these lifestyle changes. The pros are obvious: you’ll be healthier, reduce your blood pressure, and potentially avoid taking medication. But the cons worry you: food may not taste as good, and you’ll have to find time in your busy schedule to exercise. What’s more, you’ll have to do these things consistently, even on days you don’t feel like it.
You’re ambivalent about making these changes and that’s normal.
To help resolve this ambivalence, list the pros and cons for staying the same, as well as the pros and cons for making the change. Then, study what you listed as the pros of staying the same and the cons of changing. These are the barriers that block progress toward your goal.
Next, problem solve. If, for example, you are concerned that reducing salt will mean food won’t taste as good, look into cooking with spices and fresh herbs to ramp up flavor. You can also consider allowing yourself to occasionally eat a favorite food for which you won’t reduce salt. That way, you won’t feel deprived.
Once you have identified and gotten a handle on your ambivalence, you will feel a surge of motivation propelling you towards your goal.
2. Set a Ridiculously Easy Next Step
Another way to shift your motivation in the right direction is to set an extremely easy next step toward your goal. The principle here is that success begets success.
If you can guarantee success, you will feel motivated to keep taking those steps again and again.
For example, you want to feel more energized during your workday and decide that going to bed at 10:30pm will help with this goal. However, your current pattern is to go to bed at midnight. Instead of trying to go to bed at 10:30pm right away, which you probably won’t succeed at, set a goal you can’t fail to meet: Go to bed one minute earlier every night.
The first night you’ll go to bed at 11:59pm. You won’t notice the change. The next night, go to bed at 11:58pm. Do this for seven days and by the end of the week you’ll be going to bed at 11:53pm. It still won’t feel hard.
Since you probably won’t feel more rested, you may wonder what the point is. The point is that because you are able to reach your goal every single day, it doesn’t feel hard. This ease causes you to feel motivated to take this tiny action step every night.
And so, you’ll keep it up the next week and the week after that. And in 12 weeks, you’ll be going to bed at your desired bedtime of 10:30pm. You will hardly notice making the change, and now will enjoy the benefits of an earlier bedtime.
Ridiculously easy steps set you up for success after success, a sure-fire motivator for our brains.
3. Make Your Future Self Proud
A third way to spur motivation toward your desired goal is to envision making your future self proud. Your current self is doing the work to change and achieve your goal. Your future self will reap the benefits.
In other words, your future self is counting on your current self; she can’t experience her desired future unless you step up now.
Think about how your future self will feel when you reach your desired goal. What is she thinking? What is she doing? What is she saying about herself? How has her trajectory changed because of your actions? Ask yourself: What do I need to do to make my future self proud of me? Then, take the necessary actions.
Your current self doesn’t have to like these actions because feeling good in the present isn’t what we’re after. We’re after the self-respect and confidence our future self will enjoy once the goal is accomplished.
This strategy can be especially helpful for people who tend to find it easier to do things for others, rather than for themselves. By externalizing our future self, we feel as though we are working on behalf of someone else, yet will ultimately reap the benefits ourselves.
Remember, the next time you need motivation, think of your future self and do today what would make her proud tomorrow.
Motivation isn’t an elusive trait that we either have or don’t have, or that we gain or lose. Motivation is simply the capacity to shift in a different direction.
When you want to motivate yourself in order to accomplish a goal, try to identify and resolve your ambivalence around that goal, set a ridiculously easy next step, and work to make your future self proud. Then, watch as your motivation propels you in the right direction, enabling you to accomplish your goals.
Want to learn more strategies to achieve your goals AND have the support to apply them? Join “How to Create Lasting Positive Change,” my 90-day results guaranteed virtual coaching group. It’s time to experience the success you deserve!
Michelle Pearce, PhD is a clinical psychologist, board-certified coach, author, researcher, and university professor.
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