Motivation: How to Get Inspired When You’re Feeling Stuck
We have all been there, haven’t we?
We get an idea for a business, or a goal that we want to achieve, or a dream of how we want our lives to be…. but then when the time comes to take action we find ourselves completely stuck.
Suddenly what lit us up last night feels overwhelming and impossible in the morning.
Suddenly that vision we helf for ourselves start to dissolve as we come up with ways to convince ourselves that we can live without our brilliant idea. Life has been okay as it is right? I could just keep doing that.
I know how it feels, but everything shifted when I learned these 5 ways of staying motivated.
Here is a hint: it doesn’t involve motivation at all.
The key here is that I let motivation and inspiration off the hook completely. I invite them along on my journey but I give them permission to come and go as they please.
I used to get really frustrated when I wasn’t motivated. I would take it as a sign from the universe not to take action.
There is a reason why I have relaunched this business 3 times and also a reason why this is the time that made it actually stick.
The first tool of staying motivated:
Self Awareness
Beliefs in yourself, your ability, and life perception can be empowering or disempowering depending on how the external world has influenced you in conditioning. It also depends on how you reinforce that conditioning or not.
This is the part that requires a lot of self-reflection, self-awareness, and honesty.
How does this work?
When moments arise where you see yourself not taking action in the direction of your dreams…get really curious about it. Instead of saying “well there I go again. Not following through. Maybe next time”.
Say to yourself, “hm, that’s interesting. I notice that whenever I get ready to sit down and work on this project/or go for a run (insert action to your goals here) I start cleaning my apartment… or scrolling Instagram… or decide I’m hungry…”
Notice that by having this conversation you are bringing awareness to the behavior rather than unproductively and painfully berating yourself. This is the start of the shift.
Working with Your Beliefs
Look around at your life and you will see what you believe in your subconscious and conscious mind.
Look at your habits and you will see the way your actions carry out your beliefs.
For a better life, create better beliefs.
How?
Observe how you talk to yourself and then practice affirming better beliefs.
If you have a belief that you are not enough say to yourself out loud: I am enough.
Maybe you tell yourself the story that you never follow through. Say to yourself: I take action towards my dream life. Even if it’s in a small way, I choose to show up for myself.
Continue with:
I am deserving of an amazing life.
What I am seeking is seeking me.
I am healthy and thriving.
I take small steps towards my dreams every day.
If you would like more positive affirmations, go to my Instagram and click on the affirmations highlight at the top of my profile here: @layne_alexandra_design
Monitoring and Changing Your Habits
Habits will get your further than motivation ever will.
Without habits and repetition to practice the previous 2 steps, they won’t help.
It takes consistency in these efforts to create lasting change.
These are the moments of truth where will either follow through and do it even when we don’t feel like it, or we justify ourselves in going back to our comfortable ways.
This is the challenging part, but let’s do our best to make it easier. Here are a few things you can do.
In a book called Atomic Habits by James Clear, he talks about making it as easier as possible to follow through on your intended habit. Remove the obstacles that make a good habit hard, and increase obstacles that make a bad habit easy.
If you are aiming to eat healthy for example, remove the foods that are keeping you from achieving that, and increase the amount of healthy foods in your fridge and pantry.
If you are aiming to start up a business and are having trouble being consistent in your blogging or social media posting, set aside dedicated and focused time every single day that you want to post to get your work done.
If you want to exercise every day, set work workout clothes aside the night before and make the unbreakable agreement that you will put your workout clothes on. Maybe it’s right after you wake up, and maybe it’s right after you get home from work.
Make the habit bite sized:
In the first example, the habit is simply just keeping healthy food around.
In the second, the habit is sitting down at your desk or computer at the time you set for yourself.
In the third, the habit is putting on your workout clothes. Not the workout itself.
You will find that after a while, these small habits easily lead to the action you were craving all along.
Much more on habits to come for future blogs because it’s a game-changer.
Appreciating what you already have.
This one may be a little unexpected. To be honest it wasn’t until I started understanding my energy better where I ever thought gratitude would inspire motivation.
I used to believe that I would always need to be striving to be motivated. Like if I was too grateful I would stay forever where I am.
Turns out, it’s the opposite.
The more I began appreciating the energy I have, the motivation I have, the inspiration, the creativity, the money…
Instead of wishing for more, I took pause to love what was already there for me.
After that, everything began expanding.
It was like the universe saw my appreciation and how much better I was managing what was given to me, that it decided to graciously provide me with more.
Taking messy action
Staying in conversation with yourself and doing the absolute best you can with these practices will make a difference. It is inevitable. After all, what you desire is already yours.
After you have introduced your habits and practices slowly to yourself over time, then action becomes easier.
You become more willing to the things that you have always wanted to do. You can rest your mind and your resistance because it’s been decided that what you shall do is a non-negotiable.
If you could see the magic I see in you, you would take action right away. So do the practices so you can see how amazing you are, and know that there is someone out there totally cheering you on.
You’ve got this.
