7 THINGS THAT CAUSES YOU TO LACK MOTIVATION AND SOLUTIONS TO THEM

Last Updated on July 2, 2024 by Joshua Isibor

We have all suffered from a lack of motivation at one point in our lives or the other.
Motivation is the fire of our lives; to make fire, you need wood, matches, and heat from the fire. Without motivation, it is impossible to accomplish set goals and achieve those goals.

If you are suffering from a lack of motivation or you are struggling with finding motivation lately, check your fire. You could be having problems with your wood, matches, or kerosene, or even using wet wood or, even worse, pouring water on your fire.

Luckily for you, today we will be discussing the things that could be possibly wrong with your fire (things that are causing you to lack motivation) and how to rekindle your fire (fix these problems that cause you to lack motivation).

Seven major reasons that cause you to lack motivation and their possible solutions are:

1. Your mindset:

mindset

Talking about mindset, your mindset is one of the biggest reasons that make you lack motivation. There are two types of mindset: the fixed mindset and the growth mindset.

People with a growth mindset are open to new things and ready to learn. However, people with a fixed mindset are a major concern as they lack motivation. You have a fixed mindset if you are not open to learning new things. People with a fixed mindset are set in their ways and beliefs.

They lack motivation because they believe that things are what they are, so there is no need to strive to learn new things.
If, as a person, you have already concluded in your mind that doing a particular thing is impossible or a waste of time and resources, then there is no way you can be motivated to do it.

Solution:

To overcome the problem of mindset as a tool that causes a lack of motivation, you have to learn to control your mindset. Work towards developing your fixed mindset to a growth mindset. Be open to learning positive new things. Learn to control and direct your line of thought. Avoid thinking negative thoughts.

2. You don’t know what you want and why you want it:

Another reason why many people lack motivation or are unmotivated is that they don’t know what they want out of life.
A lot of people can tell you everything and anything about their favorite actors, musicians, and football stars, but when asked what they want, especially out of life, they don’t know.
You will agree with me that a man with no goal will not be motivated to do anything.

A perfect example is a college student from a rich family that already guarantees them a job upon graduation. You will agree with me that most students from such backgrounds lack the motivation to do anything other than keep average grades and party. The same applies to a person without ambition, they will do nothing except Netflix and chill.

Now, it is also not enough that you know what you want. Knowing what you want without knowing why you want those things can also make you lack the motivation to carry out those things you want.

Solution
Write down your goals (what you want) and why you want them. This will serve as a fuel (motivation) that will propel you to achieve your goals. Writing down your goals isn’t just enough; you should also envision yourself (imagine what your life will look like) when you achieve those goals. This will also help you garner the motivation you need to succeed.

ALSO, READ HOW TO BE DETERMINED AND ACHIEVE YOUR GOALS

3. Fear:

Another reason why many of us lack motivation is fear. Especially fear of failure. We begin to lose motivation the moment we start living in fear. Fear comes when you don’t believe in yourself (self-doubt).

You begin to imagine how people will look at you as a failure if, eventually, you don’t achieve those goals you set. The moment you start doubting yourself, you begin to invite all the elements of fear, like procrastination, anxiety, resistance, and excessive worrying. Immediately you start experiencing this, you start losing motivation and focus.

Solution

Make sure you expel every atom of fear in you. Positive daily declarations can greatly help boost your motivation. Believe in yourself; it is the first step to boosting your self-esteem and motivating yourself.

4. You feel overwhelmed:

Most of the time, you might have a lot of other things on your plate that are taking up a lot of your time and energy. Making you weak, tired, and stressed out. It mostly makes you lack motivation to carry out other activities or goals you set for yourself. A very good example of this type of issue that might zap your energy includes (relationship stress, family issues, etc)

Other times, you might have set many goals for a short or short time frame. The thought of achieving those many goals makes you start feeling fear, and from there, procrastination enters; you lose motivation to carry even one single goal out of the numerous goals you set for yourself.

Solution:

Make time to rest and regroup. Schedule time for yourself (make out a timetable or a to-do list for each day). Planning for the day is easier and more achievable than planning for a long period (say weekly or monthly).

Set long-term goals, but also learn to break those long-term goals into daily short-term goals. So as not to be overwhelmed whenever you think of the future.
A good example of how to break a large goal is planning a vacation with your family,
First off, you will need to think of a good location suitable for families; you then decide how long you are going to spend there, the estimated amount for rooms and board, clothes befitting the climates of where you are visiting, and the kinds of stuff related to it.

Now, when you break down the vacation planning like this and decide to accomplish 2 out of it every day, you will discover that it isn’t as overwhelming as trying to do it all in a day.

5. You are not doing enough:

when you are not aiming high enough or planning big for yourself, you tend to lose or lack motivation. Most people lack motivation because they are hiding under the disguise of under-promising and over-delivering, forgetting that their mind controls them. That is why you are always advised to think big always. Also, many people see envisioning extremely big things for themselves as greed, so they downsize their dreams and aspirations.

They settle for less. They often end up doing less than they envisioned because they consider their dreams small and doable, and they lose the motivation to do it at all.

Solution:
To avoid losing motivation due to not doing enough, it is advisable to use the “10X rule”, which says that you should dream 10X of what you want to achieve and work 10X more than you initially planned to work towards that goal. The bigger your dream, the more motivated you get to achieve that dream.
Learn not to settle for less but rather reach for more. Encourage yourself. The more you do that, the more driven and motivated you become.

6. Unhealthy Lifestyle and Psychology:

living an unhealthy lifestyle and not being in charge of your psychology is also a great drainer of motivation. Imagine the chances that someone who is a couch potato (one who does nothing but sit on the couch all day long and mostly eats unhealthy foods) becomes a quarterback.

It’s highly impossible because he is not motivated to leave the couch, not to talk, or even to join the school football team and go to practice.

Your psychology is how you look outwardly (your posture). You will agree that a determined and motivated man does not stand, sit, or walk the same way as a man who lacks motivation and focus.

Solution:
To get back motivation, in the case of the couch potato person, they must be ready to change their habits. Most of the time, we lack motivation because of our habits and ways of living. Therefore, we must make a conscious decision to change our unhealthy lifestyle ( by eating healthy foods, working out, etc) and remember that a physically ill man cannot carry out any mental activity.

Now, to take control of your physiology, look around, find a highly motivated person, and study the physiology of that determined and motivated person around you. Try copying them and see if you won’t start acting like a motivated person already.

7. Impatience:

The reason why most of us are greatly unmotivated is impatience. A lot of times, we compare our success rate to that of others. We lose the zeal to continue immediately if we don’t attain the height we want at the exact time we want to get there. We forget that good things take time to be achieved.

At times, we look at those friends who started at the same time as us and are making huge progress as us, and we become depressed. Forgetting that we can only run as fast as we pace ourselves, Instead of being motivated by their success stories and becoming motivated to do more, we quit.

Solution:

To overcome impatience, be patient, and celebrate small successes and victories.
Learn to be motivated by the success stories of others rather than being depressed by them. Always remember that you compete with no one; don’t be a people pleaser.

Apart from solutions to these problems, you can also talk to a therapist about the issues plaguing you if you can’t work on them by yourself.

Remember to always declare positivity upon yourself daily, as it is the highest builder of motivation.
See you at the top.

ALSO, READ 400+ Motivational Quotes about success and Life by Reno Omokri

Originally posted 2021-01-20 17:39:34.