Feeling motivated isn’t instantaneous. It requires momentum. Emmy and AACTA Award-winning producer turned screen sector executive coach Ellenor Cox explains four key elements to creating momentum if you’re feeling stuck.
We all lose motivation at various points in our lives. Some of the common reasons creative people readily identify with are job dissatisfaction, project development inertia, lack of team cohesion or social isolation. Feelings of being demotivated and ‘stuck’ often sit alongside periods of self-doubt and lack of confidence. These uncomfortable bedfellows can create an exaggerated sense of despondency.
If you’re asking, “How do I get my mojo and motivation back?”, a key thing to realise is that our lack of motivation is rarely about motivation itself. Rather, it’s about fatigue, burnout, overwhelm and stress that are directly linked to our motivation levels. If any of these are prevalent in your life right now, then chances are that your motivation might be waning.
Our brains are built to focus on the real and perceived dangers around us to keep us safe. When we experience challenging times, it takes more work to remain motivated as our minds are preoccupied with these potential threats. Therefore, we don’t ‘lose’ motivation, it just requires more effort to maintain it. Think of it like this: when it’s warm and wonderful outside you only need to throw one log on the fire, but when it’s wild and wintery you’ll need a few more logs to keep you warm.
As we approach the end of the year we often struggle with motivation as the exhaustion of working all year has well and truly set in, or the desire to finish things off before the Xmas break piles the stress onto us.
So what are those extra logs needed to stoke your fire of motivation when you’re feeling stuck?
Motivation isn’t something that you access instantly. It’s something that you pick up via momentum.
First, you need to summon the will to act. Then you need to do something. Then you pick up momentum, and only then do you start to build the fire of your motivation.
Here are four things you need in place to create momentum in order to move from feeling stuck to feeling motivated.
Ambition
Ambition is one of two proven triggers for motivation. In this regard, ambition is about having the desire, hunger and purpose in place to begin with. Without a will to do something more, change, or to shift and take action, then there can be no motivation.
It’s important to have a positive relationship with ambition and not see it as a dirty word. Ambition in this context means a desire for more: more connection, more joy, more depth, more abundance, or more success. Unchecked ambition, the spectre of perfectionism, or the attachment to an exacting end result is where ambition causes suffering, but the desire for greater, better, or new is the resourceful way to view ambition.
To fire up your ambition, you need to first get super clear on what it is that you really want and then set yourself some very realisable and specific short-term goals to achieve this desired outcome. Get close to these goals every day! Write your goals down, visualise their outcomes and set specific actions for how you can work towards achieving them.
The key time to connect with your ambition is within the first 30 minutes of your morning routine, when your hope and willpower are at their highest. By looking at your written goals first thing every day and having both these and your ambitions front of mind, you’re setting yourself up to effectively stoke your fire of motivation.
Expectancy
It’s all well and good to have ambitions and goals, but without an expectancy and belief that you can really make them happen then you’ll never feel motivated to work towards them.
You have to have more than just faith or hope in your ambitions. You have to genuinely believe that you’re worthy and capable of them, and they have to be aligned with your values and purpose. Dive deeply into your ‘why’ behind your goals and be gentle with yourself about what’s realistic within a given timeframe. Remember that ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’ and that lofty and unrealistic goals become nothing more than anchors to your motivation.
Creating a solid expectation that your goals are possible can only come about via a solid dose of being realistic with yourself.
Once you expect a goal or ambition to come true then you visualise it, think about it, make a plan, get your brain primed, and then you take action!
Effort
Effort or action is the other proven trigger for motivation. There’s no momentum when nothing is happening. An object at rest, stays at rest, until acted upon by another force: in this case, willpower.
The hard work and effort needed to take small steps every day is what starts the momentum, which in turn fuels the feeling of motivation. When you see the small progress that you’ve made, you feel pulled towards doing more of that and get even more motivated.
A key factor that separates humans from animals is the concept of our connection to our future. This is innately tied to our sense of motivation. For instance, if you find yourself constantly scanning your news feeds, then your thoughts are mainly residing in situations outside of your control and probably focused on potentially negative threats. Instead of time spent here you could be thinking about your visioned future where all your goals have been realised. If you’ve found yourself lacking in motivation, then ask yourself “How is my ratio of now versus future thinking going?”
A great strategy to creating momentum in your present life is to force yourself daily to do three things that are outside of your current needs for self-care and survival. If your mind only feels like it’s doing the things necessary to survive, then it will lose motivation. Ask yourself “What three things could I do daily that go beyond survival and self-care to create connection to my ideal future self?”
Service to others
This final element is a crucial one, especially for the days when you feel like you can’t even get out of bed. Humans are hardwired to do more for others than for ourselves, as this is essential for our survival. Tap into this and be of service to others. When you’re feeling stuck and demotivated, instead of retreating into comfort and distraction, choose to show up and be a positive presence in the lives of those around you.
Actions we take to be of service to others don’t have to be massive: Send an appreciative message to friends and family or listen to someone else’s challenges. Watch how this changes your attitude and energy. By acknowledging and appreciating others, we turn the focus away from ourselves for a moment and become focused on others. When we do this, we are meeting our needs for connection and appreciation, and these are great drivers to move us forward.
The key take-away is to start small but with a big dose of self-compassion. The kindling for your motivation fire can be the smallest of actions but each of these will build on one another and before you know it, you’ll have a raging fire in front of you!
Ellenor has a range of free resources available to the screen sector at www.ellenorcox.com and is available for individual and team coaching and workshop facilitation.
This article originally appeared in IF Magazine #208. Subscribe to the magazine here.