Getting Motivated When You Don’t Feel Like It
Ever felt like you have lots of things to do but you just can’t seem to bring yourself to make a decision and take action? Or wake up feeling overwhelmed by all kinds of things and not being able to get back to sleep? Yeah, me too.
In fact, I’ve been going through a stage of this. It has happened at other times in my life and I learned a number of ways to combat these feelings. I say feelings because there is always some level of stress when you have a job or in my case, have my own business. Stress itself isn’t the only thing that causes a lack of motivation. How you feel also plays a big role.
I’ve read lots of self help books on this subject, especially ones related to dealing with anxiety and fear. Some have been helpful. However, I believe the number one help for me has been my conversion. I was raised Catholic but it wasn’t until adulthood, after having to leave my first business, that I had a St. Paul moment of clarity and my life was changed forever.
So, back to motivation and overcoming feelings of being overwhelmed and afraid of the future. When I wake up and can’t go back to sleep I usually find myself thinking and worrying about all kinds of things. An example would be the sinus surgery I had last week or the surgery my wife, Cindy, will have tomorrow. Another might be why I have so many people I work with not returning my calls or emails. I think I could make a pretty big list of these.
Many years ago now I realized that perhaps not being able to go back to sleep was a call from my guardian angel that it was time to pray. So, I started saying my rosary. I found out that I usually don’t make it all the way through five decades before I fall asleep! It doesn’t always happen this way but more often than not by a big margin.
So, there is one of my main go-to solutions for a lack of motivation. Prayer. After a time of prayer most of the things leading me to a lack of motivation, feelings of helplessness and more just seem to go away.