Dealing with Loss of Motivation

We’re about five or six weeks into the new year now and from my clinical experience over the years, this is about the time when a lot of people who have made plans or resolutions to do some things differently in the New Year start to struggle with fading motivation. When I talk with people about what gets in the way of them achieving the goals they set, one of the most common answers I receive is "I don't know – I just lost my motivation."

One of the most important things to understand about motivation is that it fluctuates. In everybody. All those elite athletes we see; all those seemingly incredibly successful entrepreneurs; the fittest, strongest, healthiest people on the planet all experience fluctuating levels of motivation from time to time.

What I want to look at though he is what you can do about it if you're one of the people who’s struggling with declining motivation at the moment. Quite apart from the normal fluctuation that we all experience, there can be a number of reasons why motivation might decline but I want to concentrate on three of the main culprits: poorly defined goals, underdeveloped skills to achieve the goals and overwork. Let's look at each in turn.

Poorly defined goals

There can be several reasons why a goal is poorly defined. It may be that the goal you started with was too general. Maybe you thought your goal would be "get fit" or "get healthy" or "be a better partner" or something like that. It's great to have the sense that you need to change something but without having some clearer definition to the goal, it's very hard to work towards. If you want to "get fit", think about what specifically you would like to be different. For example do you want to lose weight? If so, how much? Do you want to lose some body fat? If so, how much? Do you want to improve your muscle tone? Do you want to be able to run faster or further? DO you want to sleep better? Improve your mood? Get clear with yourself about what specifically you would like to achieve before you start working towards something.  It may also be the case that the goal you set was too big for the amount of time you allowed or that you weren’t realistic about how much time you would need to devote to it to achieve it. I would love to be able to complete a 100 km running event but to decide to accomplish this by midyear is simply unrealistic for me. The closer we get to mid year and the more obvious it becomes to me that I won't achieve my goal, the less motivated I am likely to be. There are other reasons that goals can be poorly defined for you too. It may be that you saw someone else striving for a particular goal and decided you would like to do that to without necessarily having a strong internalized sense of how that goal would benefit you. Whatever the reason, if you're struggling with motivation, the first thing to do is go back to your original goal and make sure that it's specific to you, clearly articulated and achievable in the time you have available.

Underdeveloped skills

Sometimes we are in the position of setting a goal which is a great goal is to have but we don't yet have the skills to carry it out. For example, you might set a goal of losing a certain amount of weight but have a relatively poor understanding of dietary requirements and nutrition and how changes to your diet may affect you both physically and emotionally. Without having this knowledge and understanding, it's possible that you'll either struggle to put things into practice or you'll experience some unexpected or undesired side-effects of trying to make the change you want. Both of these circumstances can be motivation killers. If you think knowledge or skill development might be the culprit in your own loss of motivation, do some of your own research or make time to talk to someone whose skills and knowledge are credible and whom you feel you can trust to make sure you’re fully equipped with what you need to make the changes you want.

Overwork

This is a big one and in my experience is often linked to the personality of the person trying to make the change. We all know people who are "gung ho" about doing most things in their lives and there is nothing wrong with lots of energy and enthusiasm directed towards a goal. What we all need to be careful of is getting caught in a "boom – bust" cycle of change which looks like very rapid and large changes followed by periods of inactivity or even reverting back to old ways. "Overwork" is often part of this boom bust cycle. We define a goal, have a sense that it's achievable and set about working towards it, sometimes with an unrealistic deadline in mind and it's easy enough to fall into the trap of simply doing too much work too quickly which leads to declining energy, exhaustion and ultimately loss of motivation. Make sure you work towards goals consistently and methodically but not frantically. If you allow yourself the time to rest occasionally, notice small changes along the way and re-energise yourself for the next part of the challenge, you're much more likely to maintain your motivation in the long term than by going all out. Like they say: "It's a marathon, not a sprint".

Whatever the cause of your motivation loss – whether it's something here or another factor that you've been able to identify yourself, if you're struggling to get back on track then take the time to chat with a trusted friend or professional. The sense of achievement from accomplishing a desired change is a great feeling – maximise your chances by putting the right building blocks in place from the start.