What lights the fire inside your soul? If there's a long term goal that you've set, and some days it seems like an impossible journey, how do you get out of this rut and continue on?
For example, work, athletic training, reading, homework, going out and socializing (for those who are introverted), or even just something as mundane as folding that big pile of clothes you've put off doing for three weeks (that'd be me), or sitting down to write a shortstory.
Hi Elisza. There's nothing wrong with rephrasing a question and putting it out there, especially for the community of new people that find us. As you can see from these two posts on a similar topic, the original posters put some background to their question. The background helps responders know what you are looking for.
Motivation is a huge topic. Are we talking about simply getting up in the morning or are we talking about finding our most fulfilling creative zone, shutting out the world, and getting down to it?
Short and sweet. Well put rd95. I like your style.
I don't. There is no need to be either motivated or unmotivated.
If there is something that enjoy then I do it. If there is something that I don't like then I simply not do it. Thats a 'philosophy' that i made as a kid and i follow it since. There is really no need to go the motivated/unmotivated way. When it comes to the bed question, when I'm feeling that I'm refreshed enough then I get out of my bed. Still no need to go to the motivated/unmotivated thoughts way.
I don't know what kind of job you have, but that won't fly in an actual career. You have to do things you don't want to do; that's just part of life. It's simply impossible not to be motivated. Your body will force you to breathe, drink, eat, and sleep. If you're doing other tasks, you're motivated to do them by some force. That doesn't mean that you're out there writing inspirational thoughts about doing them, but something is causing you to desire to complete that action. Let's say you want something to eat. You need food. For food, you need either money or a farm. You choose money, so you need a job. You're motivated to have a job, because you want money to pay for food. Let's say you collect stamps. You can't point out the exact reason you like collecting stamps. Maybe you inherited the collection and felt the need to continue it. Maybe you want to have the biggest stamp collection in the world. Maybe you want to preserve little pieces of history. Maybe you just like stamps, which ties in with what you said. You just enjoy doing whatever activity it is. That's motivation. You want to feel a sense of enjoyment, so you do said activity.
I'm still technically a kid still in school. But why would I want an actual career? Do you think that it is gonna make me happier or more complete as a person? It won't, so there is really no need for me to go that way. You don't have to do things you don't want to, I don't. And it really made me enjoy my life more. For example I don't like cleaning my house. That's fine then I won't do it. -But it is gonna stay dirty that way. Then I will hire someone else to do it instead of me. And meanwhile I will do something that I enjoy such as making art and then I'm gonna sell it to make the money to pay that someone who did the thing I don't like. That's how I live my life. This is correct but I didn't talk about that. What I meant was that there is really no need to find a specific motivation or unmotivation and simply doing what you enjoy is gonna lead you to happiness.I don't know what kind of job you have, but that won't fly in an actual career. You have to do things you don't want to do; that's just part of life.
It's simply impossible not to be motivated. Your body will force you to breathe, drink, eat, and sleep. If you're doing other tasks, you're motivated to do them by some force. That doesn't mean that you're out there writing inspirational thoughts about doing them, but something is causing you to desire to complete that action.
A career in "X" field has a couple things going for it that making (edit: freelance) art, for instance, doesn't: 1) Stability - You can wake up and know that today, you're going to make about "Y" dollars. Tomorrow will probably be the same. 2) Upward mobility - You can reasonably expect pay increases and promotions and you gain proficiency in your field. If not, you can try moving to a different company that values your skill set more. If those things don't matter to you and you think that you have the skills required to stand out as an artist, more power to you. You'll enjoy setting your own hours, not having to deal with shitty office politics, and you can do your work just about anywhere. You might have to clean your own house until you get famous, though. Best of luck to you!
Not exactly, I do stuff that I enjoy, I don't do stuff because of the enjoyment that I get.That enjoyment is intrinsically motivation though?
My tip: don't beat yourself up for what you didn't do. Think about whatever you did do (however small) and congratulate yourself for it. Second tip: If you feel completely unmotivated, make yourself a small task that you can do in 5-10minutes. After you're done, keep working if you can and if you can't congratulate yourself for at least doing something. It may take a few years, but I found this technique to work far better than trying to summon non existent energy to complete a task.
I usually set a really general goal, and then set smaller markers of recognition. For example with my lifting: my general goal is to get stronger, but my numbers on each of my lifts serve as smaller marks of recognition. My motivation becomes to get higher numbers on each lift every time. My idea is that I am working towards a greater goal, but also feeding myself the small bits to keep me moving forward.
I feel like people forget the second part though. Most people set these really large goals, and then get upset when they don't complete them. I think the biggest reason for loss of motivation is just not seeing any short-term gains that's why it is important to keep reminding yourself that progress is being made.
I've been struggling with motivation a lot over the last few years. I started teaching myself to program about 5 years ago, and I've gone about it in a very scattershot way. This is overall not a bad approach when you're starting out, because you don't know what you don't know, so diving in and just exploring the terrain is going to show you what you need to know to make a reasonable judgement about where you want to go, but I think I stayed in the scattershot mode longer than I should have and wasted a lot of time doing trivial things in various domains. Most of the difficulties in programming exist in the higher layers of complexity, not in the low-level logic or syntax, so retracing low level logic in different areas is pretty much spinning your wheels. I think that asking yourself to be efficient when you don't know what you're doing is kind of absurd, though, and my grasp of "the greater universe of programming" is stronger than it would have been if I just dug in deep in one particular domain. I had the same experience with philosophy when I devoted myself to "learning philosophy" for about 7-8 years. Philosophy is too big to "learn" in a lifetime, so you have to winnow in at some point, but when you're starting out the scattershot approach is actually going to save you time; you learn the rough geography of philosophy and then find a valley to build your homestead. I've had many of the same problems with learning programming as I had with philosophy. I've moved in fits and starts with programming and some months over the course of those years I haven't gotten anything done; with philosophy I had the same "static months." With philosophy it was easier, though, because there was never an objective within learning philosophy that wasn't me-centric; I wanted to learn how to think about the world and it had nothing to do with finding a job, paying my rent, etc. With programming my intention has always been to find a job and get paid to get better at it. I'm getting to the end of my exploratory phase, and I probably should have been able to find a job by now, but I keep putting off building things that I can show people and say, "look, I get this. I can talk you through it, I've used best practices where applicable and I have a good grasp of the technologies that I'm leveraging." For me this is where motivation gets really confusing. I like learning, I frequently like doing, but as soon as I cast things in the light of a "portfolio project" or something I can hand over to a recruiter my motivation evaporates. I think I'm just very averse to going into an interview where my chances are slim, trying to prove myself despite my lack of credentials, and this is really frustrating. I feel like I'm pacing back and forth in front of a gate, and I refuse to knock and see if they'll let me in: You could just knock and see what they say. It's not the end of the world if you don't get through on the first try. But I just can't summon the... courage, I guess? ... to be told "you're not good enough." I know that I'm good enough, but I don't want to try to show it, and I'm struggling to either figure out why or just blast through and make a run at it. The reasonable thing to do would be build a portfolio project and plaster the world with my CV, and I've been trying to do this. I've built a website, and all that's left is to string all the pieces together, but it's an ambitious project and in order to finish it in a timely manner I have to give up on some things that feel "right." (Faking backend data, letting the design be "ok" rather than ideal, truncating the features to something manageable, but sub-deal.) When I treat it like a start-up my motivation is there to be utilized, when I think of it as a portfolio project I have to give myself a schedule, dig in my heels and push like hell. This hasn't been efficient and I feel like I should have been done with this months ago. ... and here I am on the hubskies dragging my feet. Anyway, the only thing that really worries me is the idea that I'll stop, I'll start a different project, and I'll not ever have something to show for all the time and effort. As long as I keep making some progress I'm still moving forward, and this is how I try to treat things when I can't force myself to open my terminal and whack some code together. Anyway, I'm afraid of that gate. I'm not afraid of what's on the other side, it's just the gate that mind fucks me. I don't want to be told I can't take part in the reindeer games, but I'm pretty sure I'd be great at them. It's stupid and frustrating, but that's how things are sometimes. I'm going to a pair-programming meet-up in August as a way to break into the programming community, and I think this will help take away some of the fear I have about being judged, or feeling inadequate (as well as introduce me to collaboration and what that means for a programming project; something I haven't approached yet that is also undoubtedly important.) As a socially apt person it's really weird to go through this self-doubt and anxiety, but I think I'm learning things about myself that I've avoided learning because they're uncomfortable to work through. Why does that damn gate intimidate me so much? Just finish the project and knock on the gate. It's that easy. Anyway, writing it all out has made me look the problem right in the face. At the end of the day I'm making slow progress, and slow progress will get me there eventually. I just wish I'd gotten there yesterday. :)
I only ever feel motivated if I am doing something I enjoy. Things like work or school are ordeals for the most part, but occasionally something comes along that I really care about and suddenly I find a huge amount of energy to follow through and do my best work. I wish I could have that energy for everything I do, but most of the time it feels way out of my control.
I've been in a rut for this past little bit, and this is a question I'll be watching to see if I can get new ideas from it! For me, the only thing that keeps me going is productivity. I need to have plans, a schedule, map out goals and steps and to do lists. I'm the kind of person who even needs to schedule rest day, because if it's not an intentional rest day, I'll feel lost and useless. It's a little weird, but I feel like I bring meaning to my life by always trying to keep going and enjoy life.