EPISODE 012 | APPLE PODCASTS | SPOTIFY

A huge welcome, in today's episode, I share my thoughts and strategies to help you stay motivated and inspired as you are working towards achieving your goals. We'll be discussing a very relatable topic: What to do on days when you have lost your motivation. We've all been there, those days when we just can't seem to find the drive to get going on our to-do list.

We'll be exploring how to recognise that this is completely normal, I share some of my own recent examples and practical strategies for regaining your motivation and pushing forward, even when it feels a little impossible.

So, let's dive in and learn how to overcome those motivation slumps.

We all feel this, some days where we wake up, after a good night’s sleep and we’re eager and excited to get going, we have a to do list ready and after breakfast, taking the children to school, feeding the dogs, after whatever our usual busy morning looks like, we sit down and start on our to list, and it’s one of those days where we are flying through our work, our focus is there and we are feeling pretty good about ourselves.

And then, the very next day, the absolute opposite happens, the morning routine is exhausting, we’re running late, and by the time we sit down, in peace and quiet, ready to get started, it feels like the absolute last thing we want to do. The desire and drive from yesterday has vanished. We pick up our phone, scroll through Instagram for a while, reassuring ourselves that we are doing it for work research, we refresh our emails, to see if there might be an email lurking in the ether that we can encourage into our inbox, anything to distract and avoid starting the to-do list … 15mins or so later and we still can’t quite get into our work, so we look for the ultimate distraction, we check the day’s news … and now we can’t imagine bringing ourselves back to our to do list at any point today.

But, deep down, the desire to achieve our ultimate goal is still there, for which we know the steps on our to do list will nudge us ever closer, even if just a fraction, but we simply can’t muster the motivation today to focus on them.

So, what can we do to help us bring that motivation back?

YOU ARE NORMAL!

For me, the first step is simply recognising feeling unmotivated is completely normal and really, really OK. Every single person feels it. Often though we can believe it is limited to us, and we are letting everyone down, we are failing ourselves if we are not fully motivated and 100% positive everyday. Even the most successful people have pretty dire and tough days, even if there is nothing particularly wrong, you wake up and you are feeling a bit “meh”, it is normal. Accept it and don’t let it become bigger than what it actually is! I think what plays out in our heads is more damaging and counterproductive, than just simply feeling demotivated today. And often, simply accepting it as normal and that it’s completely fine, can be enough to help you refocus and bring your motivation back!

I had exactly this last week, I was flying through the first two days of the week. I was focussed, energetic, merrily ticking off my to-do list at lightening speed, feeling so good and excited about our upcoming project. And I then I woke up on Wednesday, I had slept fine, but for some reason, my motivation was a little lack lustre, I just wasn’t feeling it. My morning routine began to slip a little, and by the time I sat at my desk, I found myself easily distracted.

I accepted it, I stopped that voice in my head berating myself and I smiled. I genuinely sat back, I paused, I became calm again and I smiled, and something then changed in me. I began focussing on the project I was working on, and how I would feel once all the pieces were complete and brought together, all the different tasks that needed several weeks of focus on hundreds of different mini tasks, when all brought together, would lead to the finished project, and another step closer to my bigger dreams.

And that combination of relaxing, accepting how I felt and then smiling, realising it was a perfectly normal feeling, combined with reminding myself how I will feel once the project I was working towards was complete, was enough to help make me feel focussed again.

The day definitely wasn’t as productive as the previous two days, and I never quite got my energy and positive rhythm sorted, but I did still complete a few things, and I was a small step closer to achieving the project.

So, the first step is to recognise you are completely normal, to relax, accept and acknowledge how you feel and to really smile!

KNOW YOUR WHY & FEEL IT

The second step is to imagine how you will feel once the project you are working towards is finished. To really take time, to really feel how the project will impact you positively.

Remind yourself of your purpose, the reason behind the project you are working on. Really think about it and feel it, how you will feel once it is finished, how it might change your life, the positivity that it will bring to you, your customers and others close to you.

Perhaps you might even want to briefly write it down. For me, I have a pretty good imagination, and I find that I can quickly conjure up scenes in my head, so this is plenty for me. If though you love writing, jot your thoughts down. Do whatever is the best way for you to genuinely feel and remind yourself of the reason you are working towards your current goal. It doesn’t matter how big or how small your specific goal is, it is your own and you know it will make a difference and make you feel good, focus on that.

What drives you to wake up every morning and pursue your goals? When you know your why, you'll have a clear understanding of what you're working towards, and this will help you stay motivated, even during difficult days.

Write down your goals and the reasons why they are important to you. This will help you to keep focused on what truly matters.

SET REALISTIC WEEKLY TASKS & REMAIN FLEXIBLE

And the next step, is to set realistic tasks for your week ahead. It might be that you have enthusiastically created a weekly to do list, that is possible to complete if you are firing from all cylinders every day, but, realistically, that is not going to be the case. It’s so important to know that the tasks have some moveability to them, that they can be transferred over to the following day, and that you have to be willing and know that you will need to put in a little extra work when you are feeling a little more fiery and feisty, and that it might mean you may have to work late a few nights that week or a little over the weekend.

I feel so strongly that we all should set proper time aside to rest and to spend time with our family and friends, but there are definitely times where we will have to make compromises, when we know that we have work to catch up on. As much as I prefer not to work on weekends, I do know how great I will feel at the end of the weekend, once the week’s to-do list is completed, and writing my notes for this episode is one of those tasks that fell over the weekend. It was last Saturday morning, and I woke a little earlier than everyone else, I sat in the quiet of the kitchen, glass of water and espresso beside me and wrote the notes for this episode, knowing that I wouldn’t have been alone, that there will be so many people around the world, who work weekends and for others, their week day work has also overflowed into the weekend. I embraced the time and was happy that was pouring a different perspective into this episode, a different look at this subject than perhaps I might have had, if I was writing my notes mid-week.

So the third step is to set realistic tasks each week and to remain flexible, knowing some days you will get through more than was planned, and other days, you won’t be feeling quite as motivated, but you can feel confident that the deep down desire will be just enough to help you complete at least one project that day, and you are willing to accept, it will mean you will need to work a little harder later in the week.

To help you set weekly tasks, there are so many different platforms that you can use to help you set plans and individual projects, for me though, I find them all quite distracting and overly complicated, and much prefer something very clean and minimalist. I simply create weekly to do lists in a Word document. I create a table, with the days of the week at the top and I add each task in its own box below.

Sometimes the tasks are big, for example it could be to film a module for one of our Masterclasses, in which case there will only be one task for that day, and for other days, there might be as many as ten boxes, each with much smaller tasks, a small task could be as simple as write an email to someone. They are though all individual entities. I also break days up, so, for me, the filming days always require more of my energy, so either side I will schedule quieter days. And this is one of the most important parts of my to do list, I colour each box, as I complete each task. I find it hugely satisfying to start a week with a completely white table, and by the end of the week, to have coloured in each of the boxes … and after I finished these notes for this episode, I was able to colour that very last box in and then focus on the rest of the weekend.

CELEBRATE YOUR ACHIEVEMENTS

Going back to colouring in the boxes once each task has been complete. In addition to it being a practical method of helping you to keep track of what has been completed and what still needs to be done, it is a mini celebration. Every time you complete a task and actively cross it out (or in my case, colour the box), you get a mini hit of dopamine which makes you feel good and encourages you to start and complete the next task.

I was reading an article in Harvard Business Review, which states “Your brain releases dopamine when you achieve goals. And since dopamine improves attention, memory, and motivation, even achieving a small goal can result in a positive feedback loop that makes you more motivated to work harder going forward.”

I hope this has given you some help, firstly to know that you are not alone, and a few tips to help you on the days when you've lost your motivation.

We've discussed the importance of recognizing that it's normal to feel unmotivated, accepting it, and focusing on your Why to regain your drive.

We've also shared tips on setting realistic weekly tasks, remaining flexible, and celebrating your achievements.

If you gain just one thing from this episode, I so hope it is this – to remember that it's okay to have off days, it simply means you are completely and utterly normal, and it’s so far away from being any form of a disaster, no matter what is going around in your head; what's so so important is how you bounce back and keep moving forward towards your goals, and you can’t do that until you give yourself a break. Relax, smile and then give yourself a gentle nudge forwards again.

Thank you so much for spending your time with me. I hope you found it helpful and if you know of someone in your life that will benefit from this episode, please do forward it them.

And until next time, stay motivated, and keep pushing forward on your journey to success.

Warmest,
Philippa x