How to Stay Motivated When You Don’t Feel Like It

Have you ever Felt like You Didn’t Want To?

Do you often lose Motivation or you feel like you’ve hit a slump and you’ve never really Sure Whats Going on?

Here are ten tips for staying motivated when you don’t feel like it.

1. Set Clear, Achievable Goals

In the summer, sometimes it is hard to stay grounded and truly connected to your deeper why.  Figuring out what lights you up and gives you joy will help you when it feels like everyone is crushing it and you find yourself comparing yourself to others.

When you have a clear goal. Let’s say my goal is to make an extra $2k a month from my coaching practice. How would I be able to do that?

Figure out what you’re good at is the first step. You can ask friends and figure out what people are willing to pay for. Ask them what are the best ROI investments they’ve made recently and why.

Once you figure out your why.

Tim Ferris’s gives practical advice here which his figure out where you personally have spent money on yourself.

For instance, I have currently spend a lot of money on coaches and coaching to be able to grow my confidence. That’s one of the reasons why I decided to become a coach because I personally have received so much value from coaches. Start off easy by setting goals that helps you build your confidence.

1. Research Coaching Training Programs

2. Reach out to coaches to learn more about what they enjoyed about their particular coaching training program.

3. Being able to do pro bono coaching sessions to see if you would even like it in the first place.

 These are actionable and will prevent you from overthinking it and remember to just take action.  

2. Break Tasks into Smaller Steps 

The thought of starting your own business seems very out of reach. But If you break it down into the smallest tasks it won’t seem as daunting.

1. Start your own LLC.

2. Talk to different business owners and ask them about the pros and cons. Start off with one a week and then once you get comfortable with that move it up to twice a week until you find something that resonates.

3. Figure out what is your monthly expenses and hire a coach. Figure out what your budget is for hiring or joining support structures.

4. Ask yourself Am I Willing to Invest in myself when starting a business, if so What does that Long Term Vision look like 5 years from now. Write down in detail what that would like it. What are the emotions and feelings that are going through my mind as I reach these goals.  

3. Create a Routine

Having a routine that works for you is important. The key is be in tune with what gives you energy and helps you stay in a consistent head space.

That’s going to be different from everyone.

 What’s worked for me is

1. Journaling

2. Wim Hof Breathing

3. Tony Robbin’s Priming

4. 30 minutes of stretching and Abs

5. Taking a walk around the neighborhood/park during your lunch break or after work hours before I pick up my wife from the train station

6. During the days I am commuting into the city is when I write my LinkedIn Newsletter article

“Give yourself grace. If you have an off week its okay. The key is to acknowledge yourself and not beat yourself up when you have an off day, week, or month.” 

4. Reward Yourself 

• The concept of rewarding yourself is difficult for high achievers. I’ve coached many Go Getters and we often beat ourselves up or we think that if we reward ourselves that means we will slack.

• Let’s say you reached certain goals. For example, I reached out to 100+ different contacts this week. My small reward can be walking around the park on a Friday late afternoon to clear my mind.

• A medium reward could be after I’ve completed 10 sales meetings this week. I can reward myself with going to a new restaurant that I’ve added to my list on Yelp.

• A large reward could be after I’ve scrubbed and adding 35+ new contacts and have done the research on 10+ new accounts and added them to a cadence I can reward myself with a local weekend getaway where you travel with your wife to explore somewhere that’s  2hours away and allocate $120 budget for that.

Be creative, these simple reward systems will help you gamify your goals and ultimately make it a lot more fun. 

5. Stay Connected with Your Why 

For me, the reason why I’m writing LinkedIn Newsletter is because I want to share what I wish I knew and about topics that I’ve been curious about. I always think how many people this can help. So instead of everyone spending $150k on self development reading 600+ books/Audiobooks/1000+ Podcast episodes, they can come here and I’m able to synthesize all of this gold. When you are grounded in your why. It makes writing these newsletter feel less of a chore and just the way you express yourself. 

6. Surround Yourself with Positive Influences 

I recently joined ProVisor which has been an excellent networking group so far meeting a lot of Managing Partners at Law Firms and Accounting Firms. I was inspired by the positivity that we had at 7am in the morning. We become the average of the 5 people we spend the most time with.

7. Visualize Success

Becoming an author, YouTuber, growing the newsletter etc. It all started with a vision. Don’t be afraid of dreaming big. Once you dream of being a New York Times Best Seller then it is possible. But it starts with you having a vision. Close your eyes and let your Imagination Loose. Go ahead. Giving yourself Permission is the the first step.

8. Stay Physically Active

Of course, we are going to have off seasons when we are truly too focused on other things like your career but we all know the consequences on neglecting our health.

It could be as simple as taking phone call meetings instead of Zoom Meetings. I’ve noticed that every day when I walk at least 10,000 steps, I’m noticeably a lot of happier and I become a much more pleasant being to be with.

9. Keep Learning and Growing 

I was Live Streaming yesterday and one of the viewers was talking about politics and I made the counter argument that my energy and time would be better suited by reading a book or learning about history vs being wrapped up in the gross drama of things that ultimately I don’t have much control over. Being mindful of what types of activities bring you joy vs drags you down will be important for self mastery.

 10. Practice Self-compassion 

We aren’t perfect. We humans by nature are going to try our best but instead of being a victim about how the economy is so hard and its been so difficult to land a job. We can take responsibility and do something about it vs just complaining all of the time.

In summary, when you practice these things. You will be able to be productive during the summer or when you are feeling like you are in a bit of a slump.

What activities work for you when aren’t feeling 100% Yourself?