Feeling Unmotivated?

Feeling unmotivated?

Remember the Motivation Equation: Motivation = Interest in the Goal x Belief in Your Chances of Success

And then take action to address each element.

Interest in the Goal

I see two big patterns here –

• Curse of the Shoulds: when you are convinced you are interested in the goal because it is something you Should want. An example? A promotion into management, with more responsibility, greater capacity for influence and higher remuneration. But actually you love the doing work and deep down, you really want to stay exactly where you are…
• Competing Goals: when a part of you really is interested in the goal but you’re actually more interested in a competing goal. An easy example? You know you’re interested in getting up early to practice yoga each morning because it centres you, helps you perform better at work and it makes you feel strong. But – you’re actually exhausted and you’re more interested in sleeping in and restoring your sleep deficit…

Spending time making sure your goal is one you’re truly, deeply invested in and committed to will BOOST your motivation!

Belief in your Chances of Success

It is common sense but people forget all the time – in order to be motivated to work towards a desired end result, you need to believe that you can achieve it. If you’re struggling to know that your efforts will be worthwhile, you might like to:

• Design a really effective plan – with sub-goals, chunked down action steps and including dates for completion
• Determine your resources – list all the people, skills, strengths, and opportunities you can leverage to help you get there
• Identify past successes – list all the big things you’ve achieved in the past. Even if they’re unrelated to this goal, focusing positive energy on big hurdles you’ve previously overcome will help boost your self-belief in this instance
• Design a Feedback Mechanism – keeping track of how you’re progressing will help you see that you can effect change, one step at a time.

Tags: career-coaching, life-coaching, Melbourne