Pre and post pandemic has hit our lives hard, and it has been extremely hard to increase or keep up with the motivation in various aspects of our lives. This includes personal and professional life. There are various means to keep yourself motivated and one shoe does not fill all.
Identify Life Changes
What are some recent changes in your life and might have led to a change in motivation? This could be a recent breakup, new job, divorce, marriage, new relationship, school stress and even stress related to finding employment.
Practice Self-Care
Sometimes, we are so hard on ourselves that we forget how to practice self-care in order to keep our motivation going. Sometimes, all we need is to stop, reflect, breathe and do an activity or listen to something that brings us peace. This could be just sipping a cup of coffee on your patio or even just going for a walk. When you take a break for yourself and come back you will notice a change in your mood or overall feelings and there will be a spark of motivation to keep going on.
Simplify Your Life
This could be decluttering your closet, choosing an easier yet effective path for yourself, cooking during weekends to ease out the stress for the week and so on. These are creative cures you can use to simplify your life. Taking steps to ease your daily routine will result in less distraction, and will aid in creating an environment where motivation can grow.
Celebrate Your Smallest Achievements
You don’t need to earn a degree, get a high paying job or have a big life celebration to celebrate your accomplishments. You can celebrate something as small as perfecting your cookie recipe or even having a conversation that has been pending for months with your partner. You need to focus on how you want to celebrate this. A glass of wine or some nice mocktails?
Incorporate Fitness To Your Life
With the pandemic nearing its end, remember that life is going back to normal and there are tons of ways to practice fitness in order to keep up the motivation as well. Sometimes, you are feeling lazy because you hardly went out and tried to motivate yourself to do something. Why not try some movements, basic stretching, a quick run or hit the gym? All you need to do is incorporate something you like at the end of your task. For example, I’m going to practice my favourite activity after a 1-hour cardio.
Stick To Your Hobbies
It is also crucial to create and repeat a positive hobby that you like. It could be journaling, reading, cooking, painting, drawing, music and the list would go on. Creating a routine with an activity you enjoy is a good way to create structure in your life, which breeds productivity and motivation.
Increasing motivation comes from within and if one day you are not feeling motivated it’s okay. There is always a new day. A fresh new start. A new beginning when you can come back with some more reflection and energy. It’s not every day you have the motivation to do things and it is completely normal since we are human. We need time to hear our inner feelings, make sure that we are not following into the trap of always being perfect and or always following the right path.
Fatima Noorali is our Short-Term Therapist (Intern) and is completing her Masters’s in Counselling Psychology at Yorkville University. One of Fatima’s areas of interest includes motivation. Fatima uses evidence-based modalities and an integrative approach in order to help her clients receive treatment that is personalized to their unique needs.
