Why Can't We Stay Motivated?

Why Do We Lose Motivation?
Everyone has those times when we dread getting out of bed and going to school. You have nothing to look forward to, so you don’t have the motivation to do anything except lie around and well… do nothing. During this pandemic, it’s been hard for many to keep up with all their homework and virtual Zoom or Google Meet classes. Or maybe sometimes you swear to yourself you’re going to work out and eat healthily, but soon enough, you end up going back to eating junk food because you don’t have the strength to keep doing it. Why exactly do we lose motivation?

WHY?
One of the main reasons we lose motivation definitely has to do with your goals. What I mean by that is that sometimes, you might be setting unrealistic goals for yourself. Yes, of course, you should always aim high and reach for the stars, but you can’t reach the stars if you’re not even off the ground. You have to start small and steadily and then slowly progress to bigger and bigger goals. If you don’t, like every human, you might get impatient and feel that it’s too difficult to get to your goal. Imagine you make a plan to work out every day for 2 hours but you have never worked out before. You’re not going to be able to keep doing 2 hours of that and not feel unmotivated. It’s simply too big of a goal to start off with. What would be better is if you spent 10 minutes every three days working out, and then progressed to 30 minutes every four days, and then soon enough, you’ll be able to reach 2 hours every day. Or maybe… it’s the opposite. Maybe you don’t have any goals. Whenever you don’t have any goals, you’re just wandering around pointlessly. You don’t know exactly why you’re doing something, so you just tell yourself there’s no point in doing it. For example, if you’re studying but you have no idea what exact topic you’re trying to study, you’re not going to feel interested nor motivated to keep doing so.

Another possible contribution to your loss of motivation is that you compare yourself to others. You tell yourself that other people are so much better and more successful than you, so you ask yourself “why would I need to try if I might never be able to be as good as others?” You convince yourself that your efforts will amount to nothing and that no matter how hard you try, you will never be good enough. If you keep telling yourself that, you will have no good reason to be doing anything and you will stay unmotivated.

LET’S FIX THAT!
How can we gain back that motivation, though? This is easy! Do the opposite of all the reasons I have mentioned above. So… start small and start from the bottom. Set realistic and doable goals that will keep you engaged. You will then be able to build yourself up slowly and reach up high to where you want to be. And if you don’t have any goals, make some. If you have something you want to accomplish, you will be able to put your mind to it and keep working for it. Lastly, don’t compare yourself to others! Just because someone else is more “successful” does not mean you cannot be like that as well. If you put your mind to it and stay motivated, you will be able to achieve that. Also, just being motivated and working hard is a success in itself, so focus on yourself rather than others!