Don’t Feel Low – Tips For How to Get Motivated

Throughout high school and my time in college I have met many girls and guys that have had the word unmotivated written across their face in huge letters. Some will even outright share how tired and lazy they feel or how they are just not feeling it. And I am by no means saying that I have never felt unmotivated. Because I have and I’m sure that there are many days to come when I will feel that I am in a rut.

There are times when I don’t want to get out of bed, when I don’t want to go to school, when I want to eat the chocolate cake in the fridge for lunch instead of a salad, and when I have no desire to leave the couch to go do a workout. I have been there just as I’m sure 99.99999% of you have been. Actually, forget that statistic I just made up- we have all been there. Were human- we always face times when we lack motivation in certain areas of our lives.

Because this is something we all face I think it deserves an entire post. So…. how do you get motivated when you’re just not feeling it? Well, here’s how. It sounds pretty simple, but can be extremely hard in practice.

Society teaches us that motivation is something external. Take gym advertisements for example. People who feel unmotivated to exercise usually think that if they spend money on a membership then they will feel motivated to workout.

The problem with using something external (a gym membership in this case) to feel motivated is that the motivation is going to die out pretty fast. One might be super diligent about hitting the gym everyday for a few weeks or maybe even a month or two but the motivation will reach an end pretty quickly.

In order for motivation to really last, it has to be internal. You need to WANT to go to the gym and then you have to have yourself stick to a gym schedule. I love Nike’s famous line “Just Do It” because it kind of explains this whole idea.

Do you want to do good in a class, but feel super tired and lazy when comes time to study? Well, just do it. Just commit to it and get it done because deep down you know that you want to do well and studying is what it will take to get you there.

I want to reiterate that there is absolutely nothing wrong with getting motivated with something external. However, I want to stress that external motivation never lasts. Because that’s all it is- external. For motivation to keep running it must come from within.

That however, is much easier said than done. Keep your goals in mind, know exactly what you want to do, and just do it. The initial step of just doing it is where long term commitment and continuous motivation really begins.