It’s no doubt that motivation can be a big driving force for positive change. When motivation is high, getting stuff done doesn’t seem so hard. Your goals seem achievable and you feel like your making real progress. You ride the high wave of productivity until…

It just stops. You don’t feel motivated and everything that was once so much easier becomes a struggle. You forget to take your vitamins, your stay in bed too late to workout before your job, and you just overall feel drained.

So where does your motivation go? And most importantly how do you get it back?

Why Motivation isn't Real

When you're feeling the spike of energy that motivation creates, it's almost all-consuming. You feel like nothing can stop you from reaching your goals. Then you wake up one morning and instead of jumping out of bed to start your day, you pause. In your head, you start to justify not getting to the things you had once been really motivated to do.

All the energy you once had to get shit done is just gone now.

This happens all the time. You probably cannot even begin to imagine how many new years resolutions go unresolved or just how many people will never lose those last 5-10 pounds.

Motivation is weird and tricky because, as the definition implies...

Motivation - The general desire or willingness of someone to do something.

It’s all up to you and how your feeling in a specific moment. Let’s say you just finished an Instagram binge and all you can think about is how you want to get fit like the photos you saw. Maybe you’re feeling really motivated and ready to crush your workout. But maybe you’re not, instead, you feel self-loathing and beat yourself up about not sticking to your workout routine.

There’s a number of different factors that play into your motivation, the biggest one being your mindset. Motivation has less to do with outside factors and more to do with you.

The following tips you can use to help bring more motivation or power on when you can’t seem to get motivated.

1. Define your Why

Why do you NEED to accomplish your goals? Why do you feel drawn to them? What makes stopping not worth it? What happens if you stop making progress? Will you still be satisfied if you don’t continue?

Writing down your answers are going to force you to further analyze your drive behind your goals. These questions might not light the fire under your ass but they can help you see the value in pushing forwards. When you can look at your goal and know that it is a need, it will be a lot harder to ignore.

2. Use Awareness/Mindfulness

By checking in with your emotions you can work to release any tensions you have towards your work or lack of. Bring awareness to the action and steps you must take to achieve your goal. You can do this through meditation or the simple act of being aware.

How do you feel when you’re making progress? How do you feel when you’re not? Are you trying to attain your goal at the sacrifice of something else? Are you ready to let go of that?

Are you feeling motivated and ready to get shit done yet? Are you looking for an easy way to track your successes? Habit trackers are perfect for that. By signing up to join my email list you get access to my personal habit tracker. It can help to keep you motivated and on track! It’s printer friendly and customizable to fit your specific goals!

3. Daily Check-Ins

Using a habit tracker or some form of accountability tracker will allow you to see your day to day progress. By making a habit of working towards your goals every day, you are more likely to stick with it.

Journaling can also be a great way to make sure you stay accountable and mindful of your progress. This way you can not only record when you work on your goal but also the successes and failures you encounter along the way. Having a way or multiple ways to record your progress can bring extra awareness and help to make you accountable.

4. Learn about your Goal

In your free time(or maybe when you’re supposed to be working on your goals. Are you procrastinating right now?) research or learn about what you want to achieve. Look at people who are living the life you want to, learn about different tools that you can use to assist you, and read news or articles pertaining to your area of interest.

By discovering information about your goals you can spark new interest in them.

5. Break it Down

Looking at the big picture is always intimidating and can make your goals seem impossibly far away. By working towards mini goals you can feel a lot more accomplished and are able to see yourself making progress towards the ultimate goal.

Instead of trying to tackle everything all at once, take a moment to break your big goal into a number of small ones. That way you don’t try to take on more than you can while still making visible progress.

Although motivation can definitely be powerful in achieving your goals, it never sticks around long enough. By experimenting with different ways to view your goals you can teach yourself to harness motivation but also begin to master discipline. Being motivated is up to you.

It’s time to start crushing your goals. Comment what you’re working towards!