5 Proven Tricks to Hack Your Motivation (When You’re Feeling Lazy)
lacking motivation?
If you are here, then you more than likely are lacking motivation and you are hoping I will give you the magic key. Okay fair enough, I do write about self-development so I do know a bit on the subject of motivation.
Today I will show you what tricks I use to hack my motivation and how I move when I don’t feel like it. My goal for you is to learn how to get your groove back thew motivation hacking.
You see, I know a thing or two about slow motivation, I have ADHD. I got my diagnosis when I went to get my daughter diagnosed (by the way that is the way most adults find out they have it). With ADHD you tend to lack drive 80% of the time. We have energy but we use it for things that please us and not for the things we must do.
I have racked my brain for years in my search for an activation key for self-motivation. Well I hate to tell you but here it goes, there isn’t one. It’s just you and that beautiful brain of yours. So how do I conquer my day by hacking my motivation?
My method is to implement a few tricks that get my mind quiet, and my body moving. I have learned to listen to what my brain is saying, learned to replace a certain feeling I get when I am avoiding, to use small steps, and plan a little. In short, I use a few simple tricks to get moving. In fact, I have learned to use my laziness as a benefit instead of a drag.
Recognize Your Feelings
First, recognize your feelings. Are you giving yourself a nagging emotion when you are thinking about what you must get done? If you are I want you to stop! Instead, pretend that feeling is a bubble, and now poke a hole in that bubble, feel the relief as that bubble releases that angst of dread. Every time you feel that dread, make your bubble and deflate it. Half of your battle with yourself is the way you talk inside your own mind. Once you learn to recognize that feeling, you learn how to quickly get rid of it so it doesn’t stand in your way (it’s a form of self-love).
Change Your Feelings
Second, now that you learned to recognize those feelings, I want you to replace them with a good feeling (I am not fooling you here, this is what science says is the cause of our negative self-talk). After bursting that ugly bubble, take a relief breath (that’s a deep breath in and slow release). Now picture yourself completing the task you are avoiding. Congratulate yourself on how well you did, how it looks, the compliments, all of it. Try to do it quickly, but use complete belief, feel that joy of completing your task.
Now get going on that task, don’t feel anything but joy as you begin it. One of the factors that stop our productivity is how we feel about it, our brains will do everything it can to stop us from doing something we don’t want to do. Change the way you feel about it, and help your brain move forward to completing tasks.
Become familiar with emotional self-regulation, check out my post.
Go Small
Third, if you still can’t jump-start yourself even after bursting the bubble and replacing it with a new feeling, its time to go small. Pick a very small thing about your task that you can do. For example, if you want to clean the refrigerator break that task into smaller bits like taking out the rotten food, cleaning one side of the refrigerator door.
I can guarantee you, you will not stop there. Often times I find myself accomplishing larger projects just by getting one small part going.
Work the Couch
Fourth, make use of your low disposition. Get phone calls done, shop for things online (set a timer so you don’t get lost), do things while sitting down. Those are important too and you should feel proud of doing them. Have a list of things to do when you sit down and keep it in with your to-dos.
Bring On the Calm
Five, being inactive is a sign of anxiety. To ease that anxiety put on some sleep music (it’s called this, but don’t lay down), run your oil diffuser, sit next to a salt lamp, or do a breathing exercise. Calming the mind first will allow you to decrease that anxiety and begin your day.
If I find that my inactivity is due to feelings of overwhelmed I like to do a quick day audit. Take out a piece of paper and write what you need to get done. Make it realistic and detailed. Write the things that you can’t avoid and the ones that you can push a little later. Set a timer and get moving on the first one on your list. Its surprising what creating an attack plan can do.
In Conclusion
Finally, let’s not forget we all experience low energy days, being kind to yourself relaxing about that can do wonders. Learn to recognize “dread”, and to disarm it. Start small, you are not running a race, it’s just you against your list. Sit down and tackle things from the couch. And if that doesn’t cut it, relax first and see if you need to do a day audit.
These are my motivation hacks, get up and do the things!
I hope you get up and finish your day, don’t let your mind rule you, you got this. What things do you need to get done today? Write them down below and tackle them and come back and see how many actually got done, I want you to be proud of every little accomplishment. The mind feeds of failure or success, feed it success.
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