Can’t think, brain numb? Motivation won’t come?

Believe it or not, we all have times when we just can’t get motivated to “get up and go”.

Whether that “go” is to go to work or to write an article or to clean house or to tackle a huge project for a client.

How many times have you taken the time to sit in on this or that teleseminar or to even read this or that motivational book to learn hundreds of ways to improve your life? But then all that learning just set up camp in your brain because you didn’t do anything with it.

Instead, you got side-tracked watching that crazy Aflac duck in his latest predicament (I love that duck!). Perhaps you didn’t feel like doing what you ought to have been doing and so you did nothing!

Aflac duck or not, sometimes even the highly motivated of us may sometimes find ourselves in the throes of lazy and more readily disregard the nagging pull to start on an important task.

So what’s a body to do?

Actually, there are probably dozens of solutions. We’ll just focus on six of some of the best techniques we’ve found. Of course, “best” is really subjective but these will be a springboard to get you thinking along these or similar lines.

Try them all or do a mix-and-match. With six, there ought to be at least one or two that will motivate you to get your motivation jumping.

1. Talk to get motivated. It’s the New Year, so now’s the time to tell everyone you know you’re going on a diet. Really! Or you’re going to work out at the gym three times a week.  Sound familiar? Many years ago, one or two of the young women I worked with would begin each new year with resolutions like these. And they would talk about it and talk about it and talk about it.

And all of the talk (mostly) worked because once you “make it public” by telling someone, it not only boosts your motivation it does hold you accountable to yourself. Well, it’s supposed to be a means to hold you accountable!

What you do is create energy and motivation as well as a desire to lose weight or to stick to an exercise regimen.

2. Stimulate your desire. I am a “knock on your door” salesman’s dream, and a full shopping cart’s my nightmare!

Over the years, I have managed to amass a cupboard-full of dishes and pots and pans and drawers and closets of jewelry and snazzy make-up, and whatever, from a multitude of sales people hocking their wares on the neighborhood streets or, in latter years, on the airwaves.

You name, it I think I have to have it.

That’s motivation; someone’s message was a significant call to action to motivate me to sign up for or to buy whatever they were selling.  Oy!

So, if we watch them we can learn how to be our own sales people. Minus the “you can’t live without this’ push, that is.

3. Stimulate your pain. In this instance, the pain does not refer to the pain you experience with a broken leg or with having eaten something that upset your stomach or that which gave you that famous Excedrin headache number 59.

But rather, it’s the emotional distress to which you might be subjected if you didn’t go to work. Or to avoid a math test you took a snow day from school without the benefit of snow. The consequence maybe resulted in a loss of pay or a lower grade on the test. Or worse.

4. Find a true interest. If everyone around you is thrilled to stand in line at midnight for the latest Harry Potter book or to line up for tickets to the opera and you would rather skip three meals than do either, then figure out something that motivates you to action. Like maybe you don’t like to clean house but if you somehow got word Jon Bon Jovi is stopping by  soon, how fast do you suppose your motivation would motivate a clean house?  The neighbors alone would probably take care of that for you!

5. Boost your energy. Perhaps you’ve noticed how the desire to lose weight sometimes leads some of us to drink coffee, to use diet pills or to drink diet pop. This is because the energy-inducing ingredients in these products boost our systems and act as an impetus to motivate us. Actually, exercising and getting a good night’s sleep will as well.

Since the “moody blues” can sometimes be brought on by too many sugary foods, and the “sugar blues”, in turn, can quickly put you to sleep in your chair or at best kill your motivation, a wise caution is to limit the use of sugar products.

6. Take any small step. Neil Armstrong said, “That’s one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind”. He probably didn’t mean it quite like this. But, if you commit to doing just one task for one day toward your goal, perhaps like writing a paragraph in a sales letter, it won’t be long before you get motivated enough to finish the sales letter because you just know when it’s finished you’ll be able to finish uploading your e-book to your Web site and you can then start selling it and earning money. Money speaks pretty loud.

Bottom line, motivation techniques really do work.

Some of the foregoing examples attest to the fact that motivation techniques really do work. However, the “how” is up to you since what stirs your colleagues or neighbors may not stir your soul.

In any case, a good laugh can overcome a lot of things so whatever the path you choose to use to rev up your motivator, let humor be your guide.

About the Author
Want something to read? Click to Konceptuality to get your copy of our weekly ezine, “On the Bright Side”. Karen McGreevey, Virtual Assistant and Expert Author, at Konceptuality specializes in editing/proofreading and general administrative support services to small business consultants, coaches. Contact Karen at kmcgreevey @ konceptuality.com for details.