In our culture, motivation is considered a major factor for positive change. In fact, people place such a high value on “having” motivation as a precursor for change, that “not having” or “lacking” motivation is seen as an obstacle to taking action toward living a more fulfilling life. As I’m writing this blog post, Google search engine gives “about 541,000,000 results” to the phrase “how to find motivation.” Think about it: that is half a billion results on the topic of lost motivation.
Disclaimer: reading this post won’t help you find your motivation, because you never lost it in the first place. My hope is to help you understand what motivation is and how it works so that you can conduct motivational trouble-shooting on your own and can choose to intervene accordingly.
What is motivation?
Motivation is often understood as a reason, a cause, or a driver of one’s actions. Motivation is treated as if it is a concrete thing that comes and goes as it pleases — or, worse, a thing that can be lost. It is as if no motivation means no action, and no action brings no satisfaction.
How does motivation emerge?
If we look into how motivation emerges, we’ll see a process that consists of three components. The first (and primary) component is the presence of a need that asks to be satisfied. The second and third components are equally important and stem from the need in question. The second component is a degree of charge, or energy, in the body evoked by the presence of the need. The third component is the willingness to make that need into a priority. What people usually refer to as lack or loss of motivation is actually the presence of a need without sufficient charge and/or difficulty making that need into a priority.
What factors can lead to loss of motivation?
There are a number of factors that can dampen our energy, thus leading to a “lack of motivation.” Experiences of depression and anxiety certainly contribute to a difficulty taking actions toward achieving goals. Symptomatically, depression comes with a loss of vitality that results in fatigue and difficulty experiencing pleasure. Anxiety sends the nervous system into a state of hyperarousal, which depletes our emotional and physiological resources.
Watch: Fight, Flight, & Freeze: A Different Way to Look at Anxiety & Depression
Even when we know exactly what we want, and we feel sufficiently energized and ready to act, we can run into difficulty making it into a priority. Oftentimes beliefs we carry about ourselves and the world around us can stand in the way of realizing our potential and living our lives up to our own satisfaction. For example, if a person carries a belief that their needs are less important than the needs of others, they will have difficulty making self-care into a priority in a long run. Energy flows where attention goes, and our attention goes to what we prioritize.
Simply put, people get stuck in two ways. One is a difficulty mobilizing and sourcing energy to take action toward satisfying a need and achieving goals associated with that need. Another way is not making what is important to us into a priority.
Read more: 10 Ways to Manage your Time more Efficiently
What are your ways of “losing” motivation? Leave a reply in the comments below!
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7 comments
This is a great reframe of motivation, Elena! I know that so many people, including myself, struggle with motivation and this post provides a great way to help understand the root of the problem.
Great blog! I personally lose motivation by getting distracted and not prioritizing what needs to be done, which is something you touched upon in your blog.
Great blog! Understanding that motivation can shift from time to time allows me to forgive myself on the days when I lack motivation. Understanding the shift offers a relief in that knowing the lack of motivation is not permanent.
I love the way you break down a lack of motivation into two likely causes. I think understanding this could help a lot of people to beat themselves up less for feeling unmotivated. I also think its important to understand when something is going on in your life that needs attention. Many people can divert their attention away from loss, conflict, etc. toward their work, but sometimes these other issues could be the reason we are feeling unmotivated. Thanks for this insightful post, Elena!
This is thoughtful way of reframing how motivation works. I know that I sometimes struggle to give energy and attention on the things I want to do. Anxiety (getting caught up in “what-ifs”) can consume the energy I might otherwise place on what I want to do.
What a great post to start the new year! I love the reminder that motivation is never something that is “lost”; instead, it’s merely blocked. I notice that motivation can often become blocked when effective boundaries are not set, which leads to feeling overwhelmed and burned out.
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