“Don’t know what to do…..I have not gained any motivation…”

“I want something more to get motivated. This is not practically acceptable to me”.

Ouch. Clearly my blog post didn’t do it for them.

I found these comments really interesting and I think they illustrate quite nicely how many of us are looking for quick fix solutions in a world where there are none. The comments also highlighted the false idea that you need to feel motivated before you start your work.

It usually takes years of consistent work and practice to become successful in your chosen field. The Beatles are a perfect example of this – they played over 1200 shows before they became a hit. The Colonel Sanders was also rejected over 1000 times before someone finally invested in his chicken recipe.

To achieve big things in life, it takes hard work. It also requires taking action despite the way you feel.

How can you stay motivated to keep taking action, especially when the task is painfully boring and you feel in a flat mood?

In this blog post I expand on my original list of strategies and explore some new ways in which you can motivate yourself and lift your mood to help you get started with projects.

1) Force yourself to start – The motivation will come

Many people tend to wait for the right moment (when they feel inspired and/or motivated) to start their work. But the reality is they may never feel inspired to do the work that needs to be done.

The most successful people don’t wait around until they’re in the right mood. They just get started and what they notice is after awhile they realise “wow, what I’ve done so far is pretty good” and this results in them feeling motivated and wanting to take more action.

If you just start doing something small (writing one sentence, getting the book out of your bag, etc.), it won’t take long before you’re on a roll and deeply immersed in your project.

2) Imagine the end

If you’re really struggling with a project it can help to imagine the end result and how you’ll feel once you accomplish it. Athletes use this strategy frequently to help them stay focused on their goals and to keep motivated.

You may want to consider putting a picture of the end result up on your wall or on your project file as this can be a great way to keep motivated when dealing with obstacles and setbacks.

3) Imagine taking the next action step

If you find imagining the end result too overwhelming, then imagine yourself just taking the next step on whatever it is you need to do. This could involve imagining yourself getting up and turning on your computer, putting on your jogging shoes or picking up a book. The simple act of visualising yourself executing a particular action can help you to take the first step (which is often the hardest part).

4) See the big picture

Often we lack motivation when we can’t see the point in what we are doing. Before you engage in your work ask yourself “Why am I doing this?”, “Where am I heading?” and “Where do I want to be in 3 years time?” Answering these questions can help you to gain clarity, focus your energy and propel you into action.

5) Trick yourself into getting started

Next time you have a piece of work you need to do, ask yourself this question -

“What’s the smallest, simplest action that I can take to start this task?”

If it’s a book you need to read, the simplest action may be getting the book from the shelf or your bag. You want to say to yourself “All I need to do is get my book from my bag”.

Once you’ve done this, ask yourself the question -

“What’s the next smallest and simplest action step I can take?”

This time it may be opening up the book or reading the first sentence on the page. It may not seem like much, but the act of taking the first action step is often the hardest part and once you’ve done that, it’s highly likely that you will keep going.

6) Gain Clarity

Get clear on what you need to do. What will the finished product/project look like? Spend some time thinking about this. You may want to even sketch out onto some paper what it is that you’re setting out to achieve.

Once you’re clear on this, set a goal with a deadline of when you want to have this completed by (e.g. “I will have completed my report by Friday the 10th of June by 4pm”

7) Power nap it up

If you’re feeling tired, don’t force yourself to start your work. Take a power nap instead. Power naps (aka nanna naps and power snoozes) are short intense naps between 10 and 24 minutes in duration.

Taking a power nap before 5pm can be a great way to re-energise and clear your mind before starting work on an important project that requires a fresh state of mind.

8 ) Watch an uplifting video on YouTube or put on some upbeat music

If you’re feeling in a flat mood, you can set a short period of time aside (e.g. 5 or 10 minutes) to watch an inspirational video on YouTube or listen to some uplifting music. As long as this doesn’t lead to you spending hours of your day watching random videos instead of doing your work, it can be a great way to get in the right mindset for a productive session of work. An inspirational video to get you started is Team Hoyt – The Journey of Life Together.

9) Move your body

Studies have found that intense physical activity can enhance creativity, decrease stress levels and sharpen your ability to think. If you want to feel motivated and be more productive, then hit the gym, go for a run, participate in a zumba class or just dance in your bedroom!

In order to experience the full benefits of physical activity you need to engage in exercise that gets you working up a sweat and puffing. There is however a fine line. Whilst you want to work up a sweat, you also don’t want to exercise to the point where you feel completely exhausted and need to spend the rest of the day on the couch. You need to find the right level of intensity that works for you.

10) Work in 8 minute Power Bursts

Invest in a timer and work in 8 minute power bursts. 8 minutes doesn’t sound like a very long period of time but it’s long enough to allow you to get into the swing of a particular activity. When you need to start work on a particular project, set the alarm for 8 minutes and tell yourself “I’m going to focus on doing this for 8 minutes – no distractions!”.

When the timer goes off after 8 minutes, you have two choices – if you’re struggling with the task you can take a break but if you’re on a roll, keep going. The beauty of this strategy is that after 8 minutes you’ll most likely have eased into the project, realised “This isn’t so bad!” and want to keep going.

There you have it – 10 more ways to boost your motivation and lift your mood to start your projects. Chances are that even after reading this, you’re still not feeling particularly motivated to start your work. But don’t despair – the solution is to try out one of the strategies and see how you go.

How to get motivated

Doing all of those things are great, but I’m sorry to say that I missed the obvious when I wrote that blog post.

The obvious being – Just get started.

That’s right, just take action. Pick up a pen. Start typing words on that blank screen. Get your book out of your bag. Write your name on the page. It doesn’t matter what you do, just as long as you begin.

You see, many us live with the mistaken idea that we need to feel motivated before we start something. You know what I’m talking about, you are waiting for that moment when you feel motivated, pumped, excited and ready to begin your work!

Now ask yourself this, how often do you wake up feeling this way?

And if you don’t, do you say to yourself “Oh well, I’ll do it tomorrow. I should feel different tomorrow!” and proceed to log into Facebook or your email?

To be perfectly honest, most of the time I don’t wake up feeling super motivated to work on my PhD, to write my next book or to go to the gym. But I don’t let that feeling stop me. I just get started. I pick up an article and highlighter. I turn on my laptop. I put on my gym shoes.

For many years I lived with the mistaken belief that I had to feel motivated before I started my work. Naturally, this thought resulted in a lot of procrastination and stress!

Until I came across a quote by famous artist Chuck Close. He said –

“I always thought that inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get to work. If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightning to strike you in the brain, you aren”t going to make an awful lot of work. But if you just to get to work, something will occur to you and something else will occur and something else that you reject will push you in another direction”

What I took from this quote is that it’s OK to not know exactly what you’re doing and how you’re going to do it. But just by getting started, ideas will start to come to you and whatever you’re working on will evolve and start to take shape.

In addition, you’ll probably notice that after a little while, the work doesn’t seem as bad or hard as you thought it would be. Subsequently, you’ll start to feel motivated which will lead to more action being taken.

In short: Action > Motivation > More Action

The reality is most of us will never feel completely ready to start a significant project or to go for the things we’ve always wanted in life. So why waste any more time? Just get started!

Having just completed my honours thesis (which turned out to be the hardest, most stressful and rewarding project I have ever done) I am happy to say that there are many ways to motivate yourself, but it may involve some pain, frustration and overcoming mental barriers to begin with (at least this was the case for me!).

Unfortunately, there are no quick and easy solutions to have you feeling totally inspired and energised about studying a subject or completing a project that may not be all that inspiring/interesting at times.

Here are some of the things you can do to motivate yourself to get on with the work and study that needs doing.

1. Make every thought serve you and move you forward

During the initial phase of my honours project I spent a lot of time in my head but it wasn’t time well spent. I would worry constantly about whether I’d be able to pull this project off, whether I’d get the response rate I needed, how I’d start writing it, etc.

In hindsight, this was a complete waste of time. It was only towards the end of my project that I started to be more effective with my thinking. I heard Dr Sharon Melnick state that we have 60,000 conscious thoughts a day. Now for those of you who just thought ‘What’s a conscious thought?’ that’s exactly what a conscious thought is, you just had one! Dr Sharon Melnick states that each of these thoughts are going to either be bringing you closer towards achieving your goals or further away from your goals.

After hearing this I decided to carefully watch what I was telling myself. I replaced thoughts such as ‘I can’t do this’ and ‘My writing sucks’ with ‘I’m making progress’ and ‘I’m doing the best I can and my writing will evolve and get better. This is a work in progress!’.

2. Visualise yourself taking action

Studies have found that visualisation makes a difference to professional athletes’ performance, so why don’t we as students practice doing it as well?

Practice visualising yourself taking the actions that need to be taken (e.g. see yourself typing up your work on your laptop, organising your files and being able to access articles/materials with ease).

This simple strategy helps you to stay focus on what needs to be done. As Jesse Jackson said

“If my mind can conceive it, and my heart can believe it, I know I can achieve it”.

3. Small actions add up

My mum recently said to me ‘Jane, every action is a cause which has an effect! If you put in the action, you’ll get the results!’. What great advice mum!

Often we can get bogged down and feel overwhelmed/stressed by the enormity of the things we need to do (e.g. writing an 11,000 word thesis). I had to regularly remind myself that even if I wrote only one sentence each day, eventually all those sentences were going to add up to my 11,000 word limit.

But I was really committed to finishing my thesis on time and doing a good job, so in February I set myself a goal to write 500 words a day. This meant that if I stuck to my goal then my draft thesis would be written in 22 days. I said to myself ‘It doesn’t matter how bad the writing is, just type up 500 words’. This was a very empowering activity as it forced me to be in action.

I read somewhere recently that worry disappears in the face of action. So next time you start worrying about an assignment or exams, force yourself to do something, however small it might be.

4. Get some comrades and spend time with them

There’s something really comforting and energising about spending time with others who are going through or have gone through the same painful experience as you.

I found that it made a huge difference to be able to talk to other students who were doing their honours projects or had completed an honours project in previous years. A lot of these people gave me motivating pieces of advice such as ‘You’re going to feel so good once you finish this project! We know it’s tough but just stick at it!’ as well as practical advice/tips (e.g. “Make sure you don’t leave your referencing until the last minute!”)

I was told by one of my lecturers about this idea of getting together with other honours students and having regular writing sessions each week (where you would all sit around at a table and write for an hour or so). Whilst I never did this for my honours project, I have done this in previous years with friends when preparing for really difficult exams. Getting together with others can turn boring, stressful tasks into a fun, playful ones.

5. Remind yourself that this won’t go on forever

I see a lot of students that are really overwhelmed and want to throw in the towel at this point in the year in regards to their studies. If you’re a student, remind yourself that this won’t go on forever, that everything changes and all you need to do is just keep taking action.