No Motivation? Start Here!

Wow. It's been two months since I've written here. I wish I could say I've been crazy busy, but no such luck. I have not felt like I had anything to say that someone else needed to read, no new thoughts to share. I was not motivated to write.

I was motivated to cut my lawn and trim my garden, to cut down on the tick habitat. I was motivated to teach my Kangoo Jumps® classes, for the feeling it gives me, and to pay off the dozen pairs of boots, and for the great people who take the classes. I was motivated to take my KJ license to the next level by going through the new process to be listed on the international web site's database of instructors, partly so I would be required to use the ™ and ® with the words "Kangoo Jumps" more often. (Oh, really, that motivates you? Not.) The point is, I accomplished some things because I felt motivated to do them.

I was not very motivated about the following tasks, but kept doing them regularly anyway.

• Taking out the trash
• Taking out the recycling
• Doing the laundry
• Buying groceries for the family
• (Minimally) cleaning the house
• Feeding the cat and cleaning up after his old, incontinent self

In other words, a lot got done without noticeable motivation too. Which leads me to a quote from a personal trainer in Massachusetts, Kelley Coffey. On her Facebook page (Strong Coffey Personal Training), she recently posted this.

          The moment you accept that motivation isn't required to
          take action, the biggest obstacle to making a start falls away.

This is brilliant. It also got absolutely no "likes" on Facebook when I "shared" it to my own page. It's that powerful that no one wants to even admit they saw it. You totally lose "I'm not feeling motivated" as an excuse when you acknowledge that sometimes you have to do what you know will work whether you "feel" motivated or not. Sometimes you want the result but don't "feel" motivated to do what it takes to get there (e.g., I want a house NOT full of trash, so I take out the trash). The emotion of motivation is not required for action to begin. You do not need to wait to "feel" motivated in order to do something. I am guessing you probably can't make a total lifestyle change all at once based on this model, but you can get the incremental steps in gear to eventually get you there.

This model works especially well for people who are depressed, because not feeling motivation for much of anything is one of the hallmarks of depression. You know intellectually that taking a 15 minute walk once or twice a day (outdoors if possible) will improve your mood temporarily, so go do it. After a week of doing it even when you are not motivated, you may begin to look forward to it. Voila! Motivation!

Really, I just needed to write all this so I could say it to myself, because I have been guilty of waiting to "feel" motivated lately on some major projects. If what I've said helps someone else reading this, that's even better. Now let's go start something.