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How Can You Regain Lost Motivation?

What strategies or advice do you offer for regaining motivation and finding your enthusiasm when it wanes? How do you personally tackle periods of low motivation and rekindle your drive?

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Top comments (16)

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adaptive-shield-matrix profile image
Adaptive Shield Matrix • Edited

Motivation comes naturally if you are in good health.
Only if you lack the energy / sleep / rest does you productivity and your natural drive to do something suffers. If you are full of energy you motivation to do something will come naturally.

Tier 1 - General health advice

  • enough quality sleep (go to sleep around 10 pm)
  • regular workout (people are not made to sit all day in the same place)
  • reduce stimuli by mindless entertainment / social media consumption (avoid TikTok, twitter, facebook, instagram, etc)

Tier 2 - Health advice geared toward people doing creative/mental work

  • regularly and more often taking a walk in nature, or any other activity in nature like climbing, cycling, camping, etc
  • no psychedelic substance use, including tea/coffee (because they hurt sleep, especially last 6-8h before going to bed)
  • do not eat anything within 6h before going to sleep
  • eat more veggies and fruits (sitting around and thinking does not consume much raw energy but more micro-elements/vitamins instead)
  • meditation

Tier 3 - Stoicism / Asceticism
If you have the drive, ambition and willpower there are more drastic measures one can take

  • fasting
  • semen retention
  • segmented sleep
  • all have shown to increase energy level, motivation and clarity of mind
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piotre6 profile image
Piotr Albertin

Would you also classify LinkedIn and online forums as social media platforms that should be avoided?

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adaptive-shield-matrix profile image
Adaptive Shield Matrix

Depends if you get value out of it.

Linkedin is very much an echo chamber / a way to impress hr with corporate speak and being a obedient employee and accepting any and all corporate bullshit without any complains. If you work in HR then Linkedin is a valuable tool for recruiting and filtering how much people are malleable to your corporate thinking.

I found this tweet pretty funny and I think it captures the spirit of corporate culture very well
twitter.com/roshanpateI/status/171...

Same with online forum - it depends.
After you spend 1-2h browsing it through, have you found a different perspective new way of thinking or knowing about something ? Do you find this new findings valuable? Does it give you satisfaction and fulfillment? The hard thing is being conscious enough to be able to answer this questions and doing things consciously and not mindlessly.

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fyodorio profile image
Fyodor

The best way is to back off from the main focus area a little bit and switch gears. It really helps. Just don’t go too far away. In my experience, reading helps (fiction especially), arts (like playing music instruments, singing, drawing) does great job, physical activity (not boring fitness but rather traveling, walking, hiking β€” that is changing perspective at least a little bit) is one of the best, healthy time with your family and friends, or even rewatching a favorite flick or series. Rinse and repeat.

When you’re back, you’ll either gain the lost energy to do your thing, or will get a power to say the last goodbye to the project that doesn’t spark joy for you anymore.

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slobodan4nista profile image
Slobi

When low on motivation, sit and give yourself a micro task regardin problem that is in quetion. Then you can have positive feedback feel when it is done. Another one will be easier. In time you can tackle bigger and bigger problems like that, motivation is for week, learn to become master.

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jodoesgit profile image
Jo

Yes, I've heard of this. In a different way, but this is a good one. What I've heard is - if you have a larger project you're working on - also work on a smaller side project. Because if you cannot find the motivation to work on the larger project, you can switch to the smaller one and by the time you switch back you'll probably be more motivated.

It's a good idealism =)

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peterwitham profile image
Peter Witham

A few thoughts that I hope help.

  • Reframe the situation, ask yourself 'What made me loose motivation and how can I turn that to a positive.'
  • Consider walking away for a while to get everything out of your head ready to come back with fresh feelings.
  • Tell yourself that you have probably been thru this before and come out the otherside and that will happen this time as well.
  • Reach out to communities for support, I hear Dev.to is rather good :)
  • Accept that this will probably happen again and it's not as bad as you might think. It just takes time.
  • Lastly, look at what is demotivating you, do you even need to be doing it? Can you walk away.
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lucasrafaldini profile image
Lucas Rafaldini

I try to motivate myself studying another areas, like literature or history, and frequently end up finding some intersection between what I am studying and software. Those insights make me think there's a lot to be done yet and it makes me regain drive.

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jodoesgit profile image
Jo

Does prayer work? Cause I wanna say prayer.

But probably more so finding a way to re-cultivate hope. Right? You can use this idea in any situation. As long as people can sustain hope in something, they can place effort into it. So just finding personal habits to establish this, however one finds it, would probably be the best answer. And of course, that answer is personal. Some people like to be alone, some people like to be with others. Some people like to mountain climb, and some people like to help food pantries.

But equally, some people find motivation in tenacity and will lean into a problem until something clicks and that motivates them. If relationships have waxing and waning aspects, it can be assumed that this trait repeats itself in all things. So some times you'll be more motivated to do something, and other times you'll not be. I guess it's just important to note when things start to drag too often. Because that usually is the sign of something needing to be changed.

So there's my relatively abstract answer, enjoy!

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prsaya profile image
Prasad Saya

Simple things like books and movies can help find your motivation. Chariots of Fire (movie), Seabiscuit (movie), and Zen Pencils - Cartoon Quotes from Inspirational Folks by Aung Than (book) are useful.

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edith342 profile image
Bristol Edith

Motivation is not a constant thing that is always there for you. It comes and goes, and comes and goes again, like the tide. But realize that while it may go away, it doesn’t do so permanently. It will come back. Just stick it list of phobias out and wait for that motivation to come back. In the meantime, read about your goal (see below), ask for help (see below), and do some of the other things listed here until your motivation comes back.

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akashdev23 profile image
Akash Dev

when I loose motivation I just tell myself that I have to do this task for 5 minutes. just five minutes and that's how everything gets in the flow.

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piotre6 profile image
Piotr Albertin

Do you consider this a regular rule or only when you have a deadline?

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akashdev23 profile image
Akash Dev

Usually when I have deadlines because that time I have no other optionπŸ˜…

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dsaga profile image
Dusan Petkovic

This is a good one, start small, focus on making small progress, its better then no progress.

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_ndeyefatoudiop profile image
Ndeye Fatou Diop

Sleep enough 😌. I find it the best remedy to stay positive and motivated