Solution: Take Breaks And Live A Healthy Lifestyle
There are reasons why highly successful people are active people. They practice an active lifestyle where most of them choose to exercise in the morning before they start their day.
- Barrack Obama workout and exercise 45 minutes a day, six days a week.
- Billionaire Mark Cuban gets at least an hour of cardio per day.
- Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg works out three times a week.
- Respected entrepreneur Richard Branson exercise, play tennis, and surf almost every morning.
You can check out the exercise habits of highly successful people from this list.
So, make exercise part of your routine. Furthermore, eat healthily and consume nutritious foods.
More importantly, keep your willpower strong by taking regular breaks throughout your workday. And get enough sleep.
When your energy level is strong, you will find that you are more motivated to do things.
Read: The Importance of Taking a Short Break According to Research
Spreading Yourself Too Thin
Burnout is real. When you have too many things on your to-do list, it doesnt encourage you to get them done. Your procrastination can stem from feeling overwhelmed with your daily tasks. It doesnt matter if youre working from home and think you have plenty of time to hustle your energy and level of motivation can be exhausted from your couch, just like the office.
Coping With Depression & Laziness
You may feel so physically and mentally exhausted that doing the slightest task can feel too daunting. This absence of vitality will only deepen your depression and struggles with laziness making it harder and harder to cope with daily life. However, you can gradually break this cycle and supplement treatment by intentionally tweaking a few things in your life.
Below are some ideas for coping with laziness and depression:
- Maintain healthy habits Eat balanced and nutritious meals, develop a bedtime routine,get adequate sleep, engage in regular physical activity, and keep up with your overall personal hygiene
- Focus on your physical health Get your physical exam/health screening, have your eyes checked, and tend to your dental care.
- Develop an optimistic outlook Shift your attention toward pleasant moments throughout the day, use daily positive affirmations to motivate you, and journal about the things you find inspiring.
- Lean on your supports Connect with close friends and relatives, find a supportive community/religious organization, a support group with individuals who share the same struggles as you.
- Manage your stress properly Engage in relaxation practices such as meditation, deep breathing, and yoga to help manage stress.
- Ask for help Keep yourself accountable and ask a close friend/relative to help you with your to do list, remind you of deadlines and do daily check-ins with you.
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Getting Motivated When Youre Depressed
Finding motivation can be difficult for people living with depression. However, youre not alone.
Depression is one of the most common mental health conditions in the world. Effective treatments are available, and many people with depression regain their motivation and live productive, well-balanced lives.
Finding a treatment plan that works best for you to manage depression symptoms can often make all the difference in regaining motivation.
Talking to a mental health professional can be a good starting place in addressing symptoms. They may recommend common treatment options for depression, such as:
You may have to try multiple things or a combination of things before finding a strategy that works best for you.
Still, there are some easy things you can try right now to find motivation when youre depressed.
Is A Lack Of Motivation Habit
Importantly, if youre depressed, you might develop a lack of motivation to take care of yourself and follow good lifestyle habits, such as eating a healthful diet and exercising regularly. You might turn to alcohol, tobacco, or drugs to cope with your depression.
All of these factors may explain, in part, why research supports a link between depression and an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, heart attack, and stroke.
Considering all of these potential ramifications of depression, experts such as the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommend that all adults be screened for depression in a primary care setting equipped to provide follow-up care. Your primary care physician can refer you to more specialized care, if necessary.
So, if you havent already, talk to your doctor about your lack of motivation and loss of interest in the things you enjoy, and ask about screening for depression. Just be open to discussing your mood and the variety of strategies that can help you reclaim your life.
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Go For A Walk In Nature
Fresh air, a change of scenery, and a little exercise can do wonders for your motivation. Walking in natureas opposed to a busy urban streetcan be especially beneficial.
A 2013 study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that walking half a mile through a park reduces brain fatigue. Being in nature offers a calming effect that rejuvenates the brainwhich can help motivate you to tackle a tough task.
So rather than walk down a crowded street, go to the park or a botanical garden instead. Being surrounded by nature can provide the mental escape you need to return to your project feeling more motivated than before.
An Antidote To Languishing
So what can we do about it? A concept called flow may be an antidote to languishing. Flow is that elusive state of absorption in a meaningful challenge or a momentary bond, where your sense of time, place and self melts away. During the early days of the pandemic, the best predictor of well-being wasnt optimism or mindfulness it was flow. People who became more immersed in their projects managed to avoid languishing and maintained their prepandemic happiness.
An early-morning word game catapults me into flow. A late-night Netflix binge sometimes does the trick too it transports you into a story where you feel attached to the characters and concerned for their welfare.
While finding new challenges, enjoyable experiences and meaningful work are all possible remedies to languishing, its hard to find flow when you cant focus. This was a problem long before the pandemic, when people were habitually checking email 74 times a day and switching tasks every 10 minutes. In the past year, many of us also have been struggling with interruptions from kids around the house, colleagues around the world, and bosses around the clock. Meh.
Fragmented attention is an enemy of engagement and excellence. In a group of 100 people, only two or three will even be capable of driving and memorizing information at the same time without their performance suffering on one or both tasks. Computers may be made for parallel processing, but humans are better off serial processing.
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Feeling Stressed And Overwhelmed
When things become overwhelming, they block your mind and prevent you from moving forward. Youre stuck because there are so many things to do, to discover, and you have totally no idea where to start.
It may be good to feel overwhelmed once in a while because you want to push yourself out of your comfort zone, but if this feeling persists, it may cause paralysis and immobilize you.
Picture this:
Your day is full. You wake up at 5 am, work on your website for an hour, get your kids up, take bath, prepare breakfast, send them to school, go to work at 830 am, and you have to work until late at night and by the time youre home, it is already 9 pm. The story continues You need to take your kids to bed and there are still many things that need to get done, but you realize that it is already 11 pm. And you have to repeat the same thing all over again the next day.
How does this make you feel? Overwhelming?
If this is just happening for a day or two, it will be fine.
However, if this situation continues for years, you will definitely feel overwhelmed and the thought of it will make you lose motivation instantly.
Solution: Rediscover Your Passion And Purpose
If you want to find your purpose of why you want to achieve your goals, just ask yourself questions such as:
- Why do I want to achieve this?
- Is this why Im passionate about?
- Am I willing to sacrifice my leisure time to do this?
- If I win the lottery and have $100 million in the bank, will I continue to do this?
If you need more thought-provoking questions to help you rediscover your purpose and reignite your passion, read this article.
Make your goals as exciting as possible. Make what you do so exciting to you that you will want to jump out of bed early in the morning to do it.
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Listen To This Article
At first, I didnt recognize the symptoms that we all had in common. Friends mentioned that they were having trouble concentrating. Colleagues reported that even with vaccines on the horizon, they werent excited about 2021. A family member was staying up late to watch National Treasure again even though she knows the movie by heart. And instead of bouncing out of bed at 6 a.m., I was lying there until 7, playing Words with Friends.
It wasnt burnout we still had energy. It wasnt depression we didnt feel hopeless. We just felt somewhat joyless and aimless. It turns out theres a name for that: languishing.
Languishing is a sense of stagnation and emptiness. It feels as if youre muddling through your days, looking at your life through a foggy windshield. And it might be the dominant emotion of 2021.
As scientists and physicians work to treat and cure the physical symptoms of long-haul Covid, many people are struggling with the emotional long-haul of the pandemic. It hit some of us unprepared as the intense fear and grief of last year faded.
In the early, uncertain days of the pandemic, its likely that your brains threat detection system called the amygdala was on high alert for fight-or-flight. As you learned that masks helped protect us but package-scrubbing didnt you probably developed routines that eased your sense of dread. But the pandemic has dragged on, and the acute state of anguish has given way to a chronic condition of languish.
Remember Why You Want To Do It
If you have no motivation when you want to type an article, try to think about why you want to do it in the first place. The reasons you do something are the driving force behind everything you do. It is only when your reason is strong and emotional enough that you will do whatever it takes to accomplish the task.
When you feel no motivation at all, it is because the reason behind what youre doing is not strong enough. Motivation can easily be defined as the process that initiates, guides, and maintains goal-oriented behaviors. Think about it: Why do people stop smoking? Most of the time, people stop smoking because they have a strong reason if they continue to smoke, they may suffer serious health problems or lose their loved ones.
So why do you do what you do? Do you know why you want to achieve your goals and your targets? Make sure your reasons are strong and emotional. When you have no motivation, think about the purpose why you want to do it.
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The Difference Between Laziness Lack Of Motivation And Depression
Laziness, lack of motivation, and depression are all completely different from one another, but often look quite the same. Each can potentially trigger and support one another. You can be feeling a combination of these behaviors at the same time, but how do you figure out which is which?
What’s the difference between all three? First, figure out what exactly you are feeling and categorize it. Below are some symptoms that might help you determine if it’s laziness, lack of motivation, depression, or possibly a combination.
Motivation: Lost Or Just Misplaced
Some Reflections by a Therapist
When a Brown student comes to my office with the complaint “I don’t know what’s wrong. I just don’t seem to have any motivation”, the wheels in my head start turning in a certain pattern. I begin to sort through a list of questions I might ask that which could aid us in figuring out together, WHY this has happened, WHY NOW, and WHAT MIGHT HELP. These are not “secret” questions taught only to therapists in advanced training so I thought it might be helpful to share them in such a way that students could begin to explore these issues on their own before coming to see me or one of my colleagues.
First of all, we want to know if this motivation problem is a recent change or one that has been going on for a long time? The answer to this question begins to narrow down the list of causes.
Long standing problem?
If you’ve always had problems with motivation perhaps there is an attention deficit disorder or learning disability which has made academics, organization of time and belongings, or getting started harder for you than for others. This may not have been diagnosed before now because your above average intelligence has allowed you to compensate and perform at a high level until college. Almost without exception, a person with such difficulties believes him/herself to be “lazier” and less motivated than others.
Recent Problem?
Multiple Causes
Hesitations of Motivation
Questions to Ask Yourself
Parting Thoughts
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You Are Not Doing Things You Are Good At
We usually enjoy things that we are good at, or that catch our interests. If you never wanted to be a pilot instead of a software engineer, there are quite great chances that you may start to lose interest in everything slowly. You need to start doing things that you are good at. Find your strengths or things that you are good at and pursue them. It is never too late to start from scratch.
How Can You Get Back On Track
Now that you know what can cause a lack of motivation, you need to learn techniques to start finding your motivation again. Repeating positive affirmations will only take you so far.
Each tip may not be for you, but try and find at least one that you can start practicing:
- Listen to podcasts that share positive, encouraging stories.
- Surround yourself with people in your life who are also working on goals and share progress and challenges.
- Give yourself incentives or rewards for accomplishing tasks.
- For every task you do that you dont like, do something that makes you happy.
- Break your to-do list into manageable sections.
- Make your tasks into habits in your daily routine.
- Get outside for a walk to center your focus.
- Be kind and compassionate to yourself.
- Argue the opposite when you think negative thoughts.
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Why You Have No Motivation And What Should You Do
Why do you have no motivation? I believe we all want to feel motivated and driven all the time. Nobody wants to feel down, exhausted, tired, inferior, and have no motivation to do things.
The truth is that motivation comes and goes, we cant stay motivated all the time, but we can learn to take control of it and manage it wisely.
And this is exactly what youre about to learn in this guide. Youll discover the 10 common reasons why people have no motivation and what you can do to overcome them.
But most importantly, you want to identify the root causes for your lack of motivation.
Lifestyle Changes For Depression
When you seek treatment for depression, dont expect to be given a medication and then sent on your way. Many mental health professionals emphasize non-drug approachesnamely lifestyle changes such as staying physically, socially, and intellectually activeas the foundation of treatment.
If you have a lack of motivation to get out and get moving, invite a friend or loved one to exercise with you. You can help each other adhere to a regular exercise routine, even on those days when you dont feel like it.
Involving someone in your physical activity regimen also keeps you socially engaged and, in the right circumstances, can challenge you intellectually as well.
Furthermore, consider counseling strategies like cognitive behavioral therapy , in which youre asked about your emotions, thoughts, beliefs, and behavioral choices in an attempt to identify negative thoughts or behaviors and replace them with positive ones.
As part of CBT, you might take part in meditative approaches, such as prayer, yoga, tai chi, and mindfulness training, in which you sit quietly, focus on your breath, and stay aware of the present moment. With the help of CBT, many people acquire the skills to combat depression over time.
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Break Up Large Tasks Into Smaller Easier Ones
Okay, so the kitchen needs cleaning. There are dirty dishes everywhere. But its such a huge job when were depressed that we let it go and it becomes much worse. And this just serves to make our depression worse because we feel lazy and no good. So instead of telling ourselves, Ive got to get this whole kitchen cleaned up, we should break it down and say, the first thing is to unload the dishwasher full of clean dishes. But this is even too much, so we tell ourselves, okay, the only thing I have to do right now is unload the silverware.” This is a job we can usually get ourselves to do because its short and easy and requires only a bit of our valuable energy. Once we’re done with the silverware, we can leave the kitchen and collapse on the couch until the next time we go to the kitchen for something and break off another small chunk by unloading just the bottom portion of the dishwasher.