What to do if you lose your motivation? There are days when we feel like there’s not a shred of motivation left in us. We don’t feel like doing anything, and we don’t have the strength to do anything either. Yet motivation is necessary to do what makes us happy, what’s important. That’s why I’m sharing with you 5 tips to regain motivation.

1 – Loss of motivation: understanding that motivation doesn’t just fall from the sky

Many of us believe that motivation is a quality. In other words, it’s more or less innate. Some of us are therefore more motivated than others. Such is life.

In fact, believing this is a limiting belief. Saying to ourselves: Gee, I don’t seem to be a motivated person, gives us an excuse not to do what we know we need to do to get ahead in life.

This is a very serious mistake. When we say to ourselves: I don’t have the energy, I’m tired, I don’t feel like doing anything… we’re putting off our life, our happiness, until later.

So, no, motivation is not a quality. Motivation is a flow of vitality. I’d even say a geyser of vitality to which we all have access. We just need to know how.

When we’re motivated, we’re actually thirsty for life. In other words, to be motivated, you have to make yourself want to live!

I invite you to ask yourself these questions:

What’s important to me?
Why is my life worth living?
What can I do today that would make me proud tomorrow?
What would I like to do that would make me want to live?
What should I do if I lose my motivation? Understand that it’s the expression of our desire to live, and that we need to take care of it by asking the right questions.

2 – Detach yourself from the result

When we work towards a goal, we have a more or less precise result in mind: this is what I’m doing today, to achieve this.

Unfortunately, as you’ve probably noticed, life is very strange. We are both masters of our own destiny and subject to fate. In other words, finding motivation is up to us, but the results we achieve are subject to fate.

Having expectations is human. In fact, it’s a good idea to visualize our results. Yes, it keeps us motivated, because we know why we’re putting in the effort.

Unfortunately, things don’t always go according to plan. In fact, nothing ever goes according to plan.

So the real question is how do we find motivation when our expectations aren’t met? What to do when results are slow in coming?

Yes, when things don’t go according to plan, we have every right to feel sad, angry or scared. But these emotions often wear us down, and we find it hard to motivate ourselves.

First of all, I invite you to live your emotions to the full and express them. Feel your anger, sadness or fear. Accept it and express it, either to someone you trust, or in writing in a journal. Put into words what you’re feeling, describe the situation, describe your anger, fear or sadness.

Then reassure yourself! Yes, results are slow in coming. Yes, there’s nothing we can do about it. But, ultimately, what’s important to you? To sit on your couch and dwell on your emotions, or to get on with life and do the things that are important to you?

How do you get motivated again? By understanding that it’s doing things, not getting results, that makes us truly happy. Keep moving. Don’t stop!

3 – Loss of motivation: write down your goal

Finding motivation means finding what makes us want to live. And what could be more powerful than a written objective?

But it’s not easy to write down your goal. You have to follow a series of steps.

First, list on a piece of paper all the things you’d like to do before you die. Yes, write down your famous bucket list. Write down at least 50 dreams.

Then choose one. The one that moves you the most, the one that means the most to you today.

Now it’s time to formulate your goal. Let’s imagine that your goal is to lose weight. And any vague goal is a goal that will never be reached.

A good goal is clear, precise and dated. In other words, when you read your goal, you need to know exactly what you have to do and how much time you have to do it.

Let’s take the goal of losing weight. Ask yourself: at what point will you know you’ve lost weight and that your goal has been reached?

The goal is something like this: I’ve decided to lose 5 kilos within 6 months. To do this, I’m going to stop eating nutella and go for a run once a week.

If we lose motivation, it’s essential to know exactly what we have to do and write it down somewhere we can read it over and over again.

4 – Back to the why

We often do things because we think we have to. For example, many of us say throughout the year: I’ve got to lose weight, I’ve got to go on a diet, I’ve got to exercise…

So we go on a diet or join a gym and we’re motivated for 1, 2 or even 3 weeks. And then nothing. But why?

Because we know what we have to do, but we don’t know why we’re doing it.

We repeat: I have to do this or that. It’s important to understand that when it comes to finding motivation, the word “must” doesn’t work. On the contrary, it scares us, it stresses us, in fact, it quenches our thirst for life.

We don’t have to do things. Yes, when we do things, we do them because they’re important to us, quite simply.

So, when you need to find motivation for an action or a project, ask yourself why you want to do this thing? Why is it important to you? What’s in it for you? How can it improve your life?

I strongly advise you to write down all your answers on an index card and keep it close to you. That way, as soon as you feel your motivation wavering, you can find it again by reading your whys.

What to do if you lose motivation? Remember why you do things.

5 – Loss of motivation: don’t overdo it

When we have a goal that’s close to our hearts, all too often, in the beginning, we overdo it, even if it means shortening my nights and doing nothing else all day.

Unfortunately, we don’t keep up this kind of pace, and worse, we jeopardize the entire balance of our lives.

Of course, to be happy, we need to have a sense of progress. So having and achieving goals is essential. But we also need other things to be happy: good relationships with others, good health, time to take care of ourselves…

So it’s a big mistake to ask too much of ourselves.

What is too much? Let’s take the example of losing 5 kilos (11 pounds) in 6 months. That’s an ambitious goal.

To do too much would be to start the first week by eliminating all caloric foods from your diet, and then go for a run every day. You realize that this is TOO much, much too much.

To regain motivation, we need to move slowly but surely. To do too much is to run the risk of becoming exhausted and disgusted by the effort.

Life is meant to be gentle. So let’s respect ourselves and our lives.

If you lose your motivation, go slowly but surely. Yes, it’s not a question of doing too much, but of doing enough: one step at a time.

Find out more:

I invite you to read these 2 complementary articles:

Discover How to motivate yourself: 3 powerful steps to regain control of your life
Discover The secret of motivation: How to motivate yourself to achieve your goals

I recommend this inspiring book:

Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig
This memoir deals with the battle against depression and anxiety. While it focuses more on mental health, it does address the difficulty of finding motivation in difficult times.
This author is extraordinary. For those wondering if this book is a bit of a downer, it’s quite the opposite; the journey to recovery is invigorating and encouraging. Honestly, READ THIS BOOK! You’ll be glad you did!

Thank you very much for reading this article.

If you liked it, let me know in the comments.

Take care of yourself