Motivation When Motivation Gets Tough

Have you ever been there? That place when all of the personal development, self help, and motivational ideas don’t seem to be enough to get you past that hump in the road. Too many tasks have piled up and you are lost in the shadow of the mountain, but not just any mountain, it is the mountain that you are expected to move. And move it you will. One item at a time, just not today.

Face it there are just times when the energy and motivation is just beyond your reach. Here are a couple of great ideas you can try.

The wrestling move

A tactic that wrestlers will sometimes use  is to flow with the opposition until they find an opportunity. As the force of the attack comes against you don’t try to absorb it, or stop it, or even deflect it. Just let it come and flow with it. The trick is, when the attacker is fully committed you strike back using their own momentum and force against them.

Sometimes that’s what I do with something that just feels too big for me. I stop fighting it. I stop worrying about. I take my mind to a happy place and relax. Being overwhelmed is a mental state often caused because you have too much going on. Roll with it. Relax your mind until it gains its stability. Don’t try to force yourself out of the mental state that is overwhelmed. Treat it like a warning sign, which I believe it is. You have too much going on in your head and life. Meditate on the good peaceful stuff. This is when I stop everything.

Sometimes I pick up my bass guitar and play some music. Sometimes I listen to some music. You can go for a walk, read poetry, cook a pie, or whatever maybe relaxing for you. Remember, for a mentally healthy person that overwhelmed feeling is just a feeling that can be changed by proper mental adjustments.

Phone a Friend

Sometimes I just call a friend and share my problem. Tell this person what is going on, how I feel, and get it off my chest. Sometimes just talking about takes the pressure away and gives me the energy to plow through it.

I own a project management consulting business. Sometimes the pressure of the work, the complexity of multi-million dollar software projects, and the difficulties of working with customers who don’t know what they want obscures my project management goggles. I have a couple of colleagues who are in the same line of work. I give them a call and tell them my struggles. I trust them and they understand my issues. A few minutes on the phone with them and they can see the issue without looking through that fog I currently feeling – the fog of the overwhelmed.

Two great easy methods to use when the motivation gets tough. Here is another method by a fellow motivational writer Banji Sustaining Motivation with the Burning Rock Method

Author: Jeff Harris

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