Tired of slumps? Tired of losing interest in life? Tired of being tired? Read on to learn effective strategies for getting motivated and back on track!
Last week I got into a major slump. Didn’t want to do anything. Had a lot of trouble waking up. Wasn’t motivated to go workout. Lost all interest in everything(including gaming). And previously I’ve gone through slumps like this that have lasted months or even years(… all of High School!)
What causes massive demotivation?
At the root of it I think “slumps” and periods of massive demotivation are caused when we lose sight of goals and more importantly lose sight of a purpose in life. Losing sight of goals/losing sight of purpose can be brought on by many factors. Here I’ll list a few that I think are relevant:
- Transitional periods – accomplishing one goal(like High School, or College) and not knowing where to focus. This can also be applied to games, do you find that once you kind of play out a game(say Diablo 3) you will often spend days feeling aimless/listeless/and restless until you find another game to focus on?
- Accomplishing goals can very easily lead to slumps as you lose that laser focus
- Trying to take on too much at once and losing your focus of the goals that truly matter to you
- Not wanting to make difficult decisions so you stay in a state of limbo and inaction
So as you can see… a lack of focus on important goals and a lack of purpose in life is the primary driving factor behind demotivation and “slumps.”
For me, my slump was caused by trying to do too much and losing focus of my purpose. I think life gives us these times of demotivation to force us to slow down and re-evaluate things. If we constantly run at 100mph we could very easily go down paths that are not optimal for growth and miss a lot of the really important things. So in hindsight I’m really grateful for this most recent slump, as it taught me to slow down, cut out all the crap that I’d been filling my life with that weren’t in line with my purpose, and to re-focus my energy on those few tasks that will truly lead me to the person that I want to be in five years time.
How to get out of your slump and get re-motivated
So if you look at slumps as life’s little way of making you slow down and refocus your energy then the path to getting out of a slump becomes clear.
Take time to yourself to be quiet and figure out what life’s trying to tell you. Were you focusing on the wrong things? Are you not living the life that you want? Is your job in alignment with your life’s purpose? Are there things you know you should be doing but aren’t? Meditation is wonderful for quieting your mind and really figuring out the deep truths inside. Figure out what your inner self is trying to tell you, why it caused this slump. What lessons is life trying to give you by making you slow down?
Re-focus on goals. Maybe you’ve achieved some major goals and are now feeling listless. Take this time to again quiet your mind, sit down, and just start writing. What do you want to really get out of life? What is your purpose? What kind of person do you want to be in five, ten years? Once you have that figured out set some very concrete goals. Set goals that are in complete alignment with your purpose. Set goals that get you excited. This will instantly reinvigorate you.
Read an inspirational book! Biographies of great people are wonderful reads. As are self-development books. Reading is one of the few things that doesn’t seem so “difficult” when you’re in a slump, so take advantage of all this extra time and read!
Watch inspirational videos. Youtube is full of them. As is Ted.com. Like reading, watching videos is something you can muster up the energy to do even in a depressed state, and watching inspiring people speak can give you new inspiration for goals.
So in short:
- Meditate, quiet your mind, and figure out why life has forced you to slow down
- Re-focus and set new goals that are exciting and in-line with your life’s purpose
- Read inspirational books
- Watch inspirational videos
- Exercise! If you do nothing else that day, exercise.
It is very important that you don’t fight the slump. Also it is vital that you don’t beat yourself up for not being motivated.
Don’t look at slumps as complete wastes of time. They are actually very valuable times in which life gives you the opportunity to see and plan your future with perfect clarity, without distractions, without the urge to do a million other things. Look at slumps as a blessing from life. Life has completely removed all distractions from your life. Now you are truly free to focus on finding your purpose, setting new goals, and coming out a more inspired individual.