1. Simultaneous Achievement
Everyone thinks they can multitask. You want to accomplish all your goals simultaneously. You want to achieve everything you’ve ever wanted, all at once. But here’s something you didn’t know. Multitasking hurts your motivation. Let’s talk about multitasking on a smaller scale. Maybe you’re multitasking at work. You’re sending emails, creating a presentation, and filling out forms at the same time. You think you’re being productive, but you’re doing more damage than you realize. Multitasking is a short-term solution that creates long-term problems. Every time you multitask, you’re splitting your attention between three different jobs. So, you’re more likely to make clumsy mistakes and experience lapses in judgment. Splitting your attention also worsens your performance. Even though you’re increasing the quantity of your work, the quality of work is significantly worse.
Now let’s look at the big picture.
This is where multitasking really damages your motivation. To accomplish any long-term goal, you need to make deep, emotional investments. You need to discover why that goal is meaningful to you. That way, you can motivate yourself to work hard and persevere through failure. But if you’re trying to accomplish three goals simultaneously, you lose track of why each goal matters to you. Instead of building strong, internal motivators, you may be motivated by shallow, external goals. You want to look good in front of others. You want to be liked or envied. These motivators may inspire you to work, but they’re not strong enough to maintain your motivation in the long term. Don’t try to accomplish all your goals at the same time. Pick one long-term goal and give that goal 100% of your attention. That way, you can make deeper investments in the goals you care about most.
2. Lack of Inspiration
How often do you gather new ideas? Do you expose yourself to differing opinions and perspectives? To create motivation, you need to find something or someone that inspires you. You can build enough motivation to accomplish any goal, but you need to find a source of inspiration in your life. For example, let’s say there’s a personal goal you’ve always wanted to achieve. Everyone has personal, private goals, but only a few people have the motivation to accomplish them.
Why? Because most people don’t know how to inspire themselves. You want motivation. You want to achieve a goal.
But you’re never going to rise to the occasion unless you expose yourself to meaningful experiences. A meaningful experience could be almost anything. Sometimes, it’s a good conversation with a stranger. Other times, it’s an arduous climb to the top of a mountain or a road trip across the country. Every new experience can be meaningful because each experience encourages you to see the world differently. To stop killing your motivation, don’t settle for the experiences you’ve already had and the information you already know. Seek inspiration in your life. Read books that challenge your thinking with powerful, emotional stories. Talk to people whose opinions clash with your own and figure out why they think the way they do.
Infuse novelty, creation, and passion into your life, and try to connect with the world around you. Not only will you expand your understanding of the world, but you’ll encounter all kinds of inspiration. When you’re inspired, day after day, you can accomplish almost anything.
3. Unproductive Decisions
Everyone has one bad habit they can’t ignore. For some people, it’s video games or social media. For others, it’s jealousy or negativity. You know it’s a bad habit. You’ve told yourself a thousand times that you’re going to change, yet this bad habit continues to eat up hours of your day. The most destructive habits begin with a single bad decision. Imagine you’re planning on starting a productive day. You wake up in the morning and think about everything you want to accomplish.
All the chores you’re going to do. All the personal projects you’re going to start. You’ve got a long list of things you want to do, but you don’t know where to begin. Even though you want to accomplish all these goals, you can’t find the motivation to get started. So, what do you do? You distract yourself. You spend a few minutes enjoying your favorite vice. You watch TV. You play a game. You waste time on your phone. Suddenly, you’ve lost an important battle with yourself. Your motivation fades. Your willpower disappears, and your productive day slips through your fingers—all because of one bad decision.
How often do you get a good night’s sleep? Many people prioritize work over their physical and mental health. If there’s a goal you want to accomplish or a deadline you need to meet, you may sacrifice your sleep. You may consider sleep debt a badge of honor. If you’re working at odd hours, it means you’re dedicated to your goals, right? Your lack of sleep may show your dedication, but it’s taking a toll on your productivity. And it’s destroying your motivation. Sleep deprivation makes it more difficult to concentrate on tasks, memorize new information, and generate new ideas.
As little as one all-nighter can damage your performance for days to come. You’ll feel cloudy, lazy, and tired; and your brain won’t perform like it normally does. More importantly, you lose track of your greatest motivators. The more sleep-deprived you become, the more susceptible you are to bad habits and impulsive decisions. Once you build this negative momentum, sleep deprivation can become a slippery slope. So don’t sacrifice your sleep, even if you have a deadline you need to meet. You can always plan ahead. There are many strategies you can use to more effectively manage your time. That way, you can accomplish your goals, reach greater heights, and sleep soundly every night.
5. Secretive Goals
Are you ashamed of your goals? Do you tell other people what you want in life? Many people hide their goals from their friends and family. They want to put their best foot forward, so they work in secret until everything is perfect. But it’s never perfect, is it? Hiding your goals can damage your motivation. You may think you’re a lone wolf, but it’s difficult to stay motivated on your own. You, like every other successful people, need the people in yourself for support, inspiration, and motivation. Share your passions with your friends and family. Show them the goals you want to accomplish. Because you need people who believe in you. With their support, you can persevere through rough patches, face intimidating obstacles, and achieve your lifelong dreams.
6. Building Walls
How often do you procrastinate? Do you ignore your goals until they become impossible to achieve? Procrastination can be detrimental to your motivation. At the moment, procrastination distracts you from the task at hand, raining your momentum and stealing your attention. But it has an even greater effect on your long-term goals. Procrastination is like building a wall around your goals. Every time you procrastinate that wall gets a little larger. Over time, it takes more and more effort to overcome the same obstacle and achieve what you want to achieve. In other words, the longer you wait… the more arduous your work becomes. Most people don’t realize the damage they’re doing each time they procrastinate. So, what techniques can you use to stop yourself from building insurmountable walls around your goals?
Luckily, there are several tools you can use to curb your procrastination. Start by removing all distractions from your environment. Often, we fail to overcome the obstacles in our lives because our brain seeks easier activities. For example, let’s say your brain is forced to choose between work and watching TV. If you’ve procrastinated your work, that obstacle is going to feel especially difficult to accomplish. So, your brain is going to seek the easier option. You’re going to watch TV instead of buckling down, and your work will get that much harder to achieve. You can also stop yourself from procrastinating by changing your environment. If you’re having trouble working in one space, try working in a completely different environment. Working in a new, unfamiliar space gives your brain a burst of energy. Sometimes, that burst of energy is all you need to overcome a difficult obstacle or achieve a long-term goal.
7. Monotonous Practice
You have a goal you want to accomplish. Maybe it’s personal. Maybe it’s creative. Whatever that goal is, you know there’s the only way to achieve it. You need to practice. Every single day, you need to taker small steps toward your goal. But here’s the problem. Many people practice achieving their goals, but they run out of motivation before they accomplish anything substantial. They get tired of practicing. Their self-discipline slips away, and they lose sight of the goal they wanted to achieve. So how do you maintain your motivation as you pursue long-term goals? The key is variety. Just because you’re honing your skills, doesn’t mean you have to perform the same boring activities every day. You can use a wide variety of exercises to learn and create. You can use games, rewards, and competitions to stimulate your mind in different ways. The more variety you infuse into your work, the more exciting it becomes. And when you’re excited, your motivation soars. But that’s not all.
Variety also accesses different parts of your brain. By mixing up your activities, you’re learning more effectively. You’re challenging yourself to solve new problems. You’re changing your perspective and expanding your understanding of your subject. So don’t settle for the same, boring routines. If you want to build motivation, stimulate your mind with fun and diverse activities. Create some variety in your life, and you’ll fly further than ever before.
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