Staying motivated is problem that is both simple and complicated at the same time. It’s simple because the key to staying motivated is to find what drives you and connect that to whatever you do. It’s complicated because if that advice worked all the time, you wouldn’t ever fall into a slump.

Anyone who’s started a project longer than three weeks can tell you that motivation isn’t the problem. Finding something that drives you to get started isn’t hard. The difficulty comes when, several months later, you need to keep going. Where does motivation come from, and how can you make it last?

Static and Dynamic Motivation

The reason staying motivated is hard, I believe, is because we make the mistake that all motivation is the same. The motivation to get started and the motivation to get finished are actually quite different. Trying to pursue one when you need the other pushes you into a slump.

As a quick aside, I arrived at these ideas after reading Robert Pirsig’s book, Lila. It’s the intellectual sequel to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and it’s definitely worth reading. In this book, Pirsig discusses the idea that reality is based on Dynamic and Static Quality. I’d like to extend his idea into the realm of what drives people.

The two types of motivation I’m referring to are dynamic and static motivation.
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Sometimes life is traveling along quite nicely, then - BANG - for some reason you fall into a slump. You know the signs: low energy, lack of motivation, a don’t-give-a-f attitude and maybe even depression. What is harder to know, however, is how to pull yourself out of such a slump.

Of course one option is to roll with it and hope it wears off. A better option, however, is to implement some strategies that will boost your mood and hopefully get you back on track. I am all too familiar with such slumps, so I would like to share with you the following 5 strategies that I have personally found to be most effective in counteracting them:

1. Ditch the Routine

I enjoy my daily routine, but every so often I need to throw it out the window for the sake of my sanity. Instead of waking at my normal time of 5am, I will turn off my alarm and wake up at my leisure. Or, I might leave my ipod at home and just enjoy the sounds of everyday life as I travel to and from work. Sometimes I even find that acts that are seemingly against best practice - eg getting drunk, eating greasy takeout or lying on the couch watching mindless television - are for some reason psychologically beneficial. Click here to continue »

I write a lot about productivity. But productivity only matters if you have a reason to be productive. If you don’t have the motivation, then waking up early, setting up to-do lists and changing habits seems silly. When you feel apathetic, you might have a lot of extra time, and still end up procrastinating.

Recently, a reader asked me what to do about this problem. He wasn’t depressed, he was just bored. There was no motivation to do anything more than the bare minimum.

Apathy is a common problem. I’ve had certainly had motivational dry spells. While I don’t think there is an instant cure to this problem, I’ve noticed that apathy is usually caused by one of two problems:

1. You don’t have any goals.
2. You’re working on the wrong goals

Setting Goals to Combat Apathy

Apathy sets in when you forget what you want. Finding motivation needs to start by focusing on your desires. Not the goals other people have pushed on you. Not the goals you think are reasonable or practical. Not the goals you feel you should have. But the goals that fill you with enthusiasm.

If I find myself starting to slip into apathy, I try to reconnect with what I want. I get out a piece of paper and write out all the things I’d like to do, be or accomplish. These can be little goals or huge, unrealistic dreams that might never be finished. The point of this exercise isn’t to be reasonable. It’s to focus you back on the things that drive you.

If you write down ideas on a piece of paper, but you don’t feel inspired, you’re doing it wrong. Sometimes it takes a few minutes of writing out mild interests before you break into your true desires.

When you’re finished the brainstorm, you might not have a lot of usable ideas. Many of your dreams might seem completely out of reach or highly improbable. That’s okay. But at least you have a starting point. You now have a roadmap of the things that fill you with motivation.

Usually, at this point, it’s a good idea to pick one or two of the idea you’ve written down and set a goal around it. The next step is to write it down, make a plan and set a deadline. Those last steps are helpful, but they aren’t as important as having a goal that motivates you. The motivation and working on a goal are far more valuable than actually reaching it. Click here to continue »

The greatest challenge in developing a permanent exercise habit is finding motivation that lasts. It’s easy to get to the gym when you’re preparing for that big beach vacation or want to look great for your high school reunion. But what about the rest of the time?

For much of my life I followed a pretty consistent pattern:

• Get a bit fat.
• Start to hate the way I look.
• Hit the gym with a vengeance for a few weeks.
• Start to look noticeably better.
• Smugly enjoy my new found vanity.
• Lose motivation and stop working out for a few weeks.
• Repeat from beginning.

Vanity, it turns out, isn’t a great longterm motivator for most people. It wasn’t until I associated exercise with rewards beyond physical appearance that I was able to get myself to the gym 5-6 times a week without any lapses.

To help you bring consistency and enthusiasm to your exercise schedule, here are some powerful reasons to work out that have nothing to do with looking good. Click here to continue »