Hello! How are you going? Melbourne and Sydney folk, I can take a pretty good guess that you are most likely not on top of the world at the moment. Over the last week my motivation for most things has taken a dive and everything has felt a little bit harder than it should. I did wallow a bit in this for a few days but this honestly didn’t make me feel any better. If anything it made me feel worse. I would look back at the end of the day and see all the things I didn’t complete.
This week I decided to make a concerted effort to behave differently. I know there isn’t an instant switch I can flick to get my motivation back, so I need to work with what I can control which is my behaviour and actions.
Motivation is a useful tool to get you going and make you feel excited about what you are doing at the start but it isn’t a sustainable way to get yourself taking action. These are the actions I have been taking and if you are feeling a lack of motivation, I know they can help you too.
State a postive affirmation
Each morning as soon as I get up, I say a short positive affirmation to set the mood for the day. I make it upbeat and I say it with meaning, smiling as I say it. This may sound a little woo woo but it really does help shape your day and there are empirical studies that suggest that positive self-affirmation practices can be beneficial:
Self-affirmations have been shown to decrease health-deteriorating stress (Sherman et al., 2009; Critcher & Dunning, 2015);
Self-affirmations have been used effectively in interventions that led people to increase their physical behavior (Cooke et al., 2014);
They may help us to perceive otherwise “threatening” messages with less resistance, including interventions (Logel & Cohen, 2012)
They can make us less likely to dismiss harmful health messages, responding instead with the intention to change for the better (Harris et al., 2007) and to eat more fruit and vegetables (Epton & Harris, 2008);
They have been linked positively to academic achievement by mitigating GPA decline in students who feel left out at college (Layous et al., 2017);
Self-affirmation has been demonstrated to lower stress and rumination (Koole et al., 1999; Wiesenfeld et al., 2001).
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Here are some examples of the affirmations I have used:
I am focused and energised
I am patient with myself and my family
I am productive and efficient
Make the task smaller
In times of extended lockdown, when everything is feeling harder than it usually does even if the activity is usually something we enjoy, making the task smaller can help get us across the line to taking action. For example, I have been trying to meditate each day for 20 minutes. At the moment this just feels too hard for me and I was finding it hard to get msyelf to sit down for 20 minutes and even attemt this, hence I wasn’t meditating at all. I decided to pull the time parameter back to 10 minutes for the moment and this has actually got me on the mat and meditating. Meditating for 10 minutes is better than not meditating at all. At times like now, aiming for perfection is not the answer, getting it done even in a smaller capacity can help us keep our good habits going until things change.
Make the task easier
Over the last week or so, I have been spending more time making sure the family is doing okay and reading the energy of the house to keep the harmony levels as high as possible. This takes both time and energy. Time and energy are limited each day so while I am diverting my time and energy to these activities, I am making some other tasks easier for myself. For example:
Instead of making homemade hamburgers, I am buying the burgers for dinner.
I am using the clothes dryer more (we have solar energy) to save time on washing.
Last week I dropped a workout from my running plan and did an easy run instead.
None of these activities are a magic want that will get your motivation back to 100% but they are practical steps that you can take to get you going and taking action.
If you try these steps and they work, I would love to hear about your experience - please leave me a comment!
Take care,
Nic
Father’s day is not too far away now, so I have curated a list of online gift ideas for dad for 2021. You will find gift ideas for dad from the outdoor, clothes, health and body, food and drink and books categories.
Hello Nicole,
From the Netherlands I want to sent you and your family some support. It’s hard being in lock down again. I admire your positive attitude. I hope normal life will come back for you all soon. Here in the Netherlands we have (had) our summer holidays and figures of covid are still low.
I wish you a lot of inspiration and creativity to get through these restricted times.
Marianne