There lived a girl who really loved her goals.
Every day, she worked on them with ruthless determination. However, one day after a year of relentless hard work, she realized that she was not getting the results she expected. And because of that, she lost the motivation to work on her goals.
Does this sound familiar?
Or maybe your story sounds like this:
You have a list of goals you want to achieve – written in bright colors – you even summoned the motivation to work on them at the beginning. But soon, the honeymoon phase wore off, and now you can’t muster the courage or inspiration to get started.
Whichever story you relate to, know that facing waning motivation, overthinking your goals, and letting self-doubt creep in is a normal feeling.
We all fall overwhelmingly in love with our goals at first, but sustaining that love is a deep, gut-wrenching struggle that can sometimes take everything from you.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. In this article, I’ll discuss 5 ways to achieve your goals when you have zero motivation that will pump you up to start where you left off.
Table of Contents
5 Ways to Achieve Your Goals When You Are Not Motivated
1. Overcome shiny object syndrome
Like a kid learning things for the first time and getting distracted by newer, shinier objects, so do we with goals – especially when we’ve lost motivation for our current one.
Our defenses are already low, so we’re easily tempted.
Your temptation to give in to shiny object syndrome is exactly why you’re unable to achieve your goals – you don’t make progress toward anything because you’re ALWAYS starting something new.
A writer working on a book might get distracted by other projects and leave her novel unfinished. But once she starts the new project, it becomes boring, and another distraction takes over. And before she knows it, she’s left a trail of unfinished projects behind her.
Until you stop letting shiny object syndrome infect you, you’ll never make progress on anything. All you’ll have is a never-ending pile of half-finished projects.
Here are a few ways to overcome shiny object syndrome:
1. Think of your goal as a long-term relationship
Motivation is always at its highest at the start of working on a goal. But soon, that goal becomes routine – we work on it every day until the novelty wears off, and we’re onto the next big thing.
The internet is a significant cause of this suffocating need to conquer everything. Every influencer/YouTuber/cool person online has the power to steer us off the path we’re on and put us on the path they’re on.
So, we start something new until we’re quivering with excitement – and then…nothing. We lose enthusiasm for that new project/goal too.
Leaving us back to square one.
But you need to think of your goals as a long-term relationship. There will always be more attractive people than your partner, with laughter that sounds like music and eyes the shade of forest green. But does that mean you should cheat on your partner?
Uhm, no.
Commit to your goal for the long haul.
2. Filter your internet usage
Most of the “objects” that fascinate us come from the internet. There are gurus, content creators, influencers, and business owners who are killing it on various social media platforms, and they can make us feel bad about ourselves.
Therefore, you should do a digital detox and remove anyone who constantly distracts you and makes you feel bad about yourself. Don’t be afraid to unsubscribe from email lists, unfollow people on social media, and be annoyingly choosy about whom you associate with online.
I’ve been tempted many times to change my goals because of a success story someone posted online – and I’ve done it too – only to give up on their goal and return to my original one.
This leads me to my next point.
3. Ask yourself if this new “object” aligns with your purpose
Most of the things you’ll see online don’t align with you, but they sound good – for example, how to make money by selling XXX without using your brain.
But if the goal isn’t aligned with your vision or purpose, you’ll never sustain motivation in the long run. This is why I’ve given up on so many goals – I realized they’re someone else’s dream, not mine.
Therefore, to properly overcome shiny object syndrome, you must distinguish between what fits you and what doesn’t.
In this new, modern world, with so many ways of doing things and business opportunities – there are shiny objects everywhere. We’ll never escape them, which is why you must hone your purpose and values to make smarter decisions for yourself.
4. Know that the grass is not greener on the other side
Just because someone else had success in something doesn’t mean you will too. There could be a million plausible reasons why something might work for person A and not B – such as, A has a genuine love for the project, while B wants to make a quick buck, or maybe A had waited tirelessly for 10 years before his dream was achieved, while B doesn’t have the patience to wait 10 days.
Also, the grass may look greener on the other side because maybe you’re wearing sunglasses when looking at your own grass. A lack of appreciation for your life and goals can lower your resistance to fighting off tempting distractions. You need to feel love and gratitude for your dreams to inspire delight in yourself and keep going.
The new temptation will not be your saving grace – you’ll end up with dashed expectations and a broken heart.
2. Use your competition as motivation
We lose motivation to achieve our goals because we compare ourselves to others. We see our competition thriving and think, “Why am I not there?”
However, it’s unfair to compare ourselves to these people for the following reasons:
- They might’ve started before us.
- We are using a different approach from them to achieve the same goal – which might not necessarily be wrong.
- They don’t show you the whole picture. People only show you what they want you to see – not what actually happened. They aren’t showing you their failures and struggles.
Instead of using your competition to deter your success, use them as inspiration.
When I see people who have accomplished the things I want, I’m filled with hope because that means it’s a doable goal.
Also, if you’re easily deterred by competition, you should review your goals. Because when you’re clear about your goals and genuinely love them, self-belief is not hard to develop. When you’re unsure of your dreams, you start feeling shaky.
Just because bamboo grows faster than an orchid doesn’t make an orchid less beautiful. No, it’s just clear about its goals. To compare the two would be a mistake.
The people who have what you want are the first people you should follow. Because aren’t they the best people to learn from?
3. Focus on one goal
This has been incredibly hard for me to do. I can’t remember the last time I narrowed my focus to one goal only. I never give myself or my poor goals a break.
So, I speak from personal experience when I say that when you focus on too many things at once, you lose motivation because you will feel overwhelmed.
And this leads to unfinished tasks.
An excellent way to narrow your focus is to write down everything you want to achieve. And ask yourself, “What is the one thing I would regret not doing a year from today?”
Work on that goal for the next three months. You will make greater progress than if you tried to work on 10 things in one month.
4. Break down each task into unthinkable simpleness
Overwhelm is a significant cause of demotivation. Instead of gearing us into action, we become overly stressed and feel like giving up.
Therefore, make each of your tasks as simple as possible. The simpler you make your tasks, the easier they are to fulfill.
For example, if you have a yoga goal – instead of setting your daily task to do yoga for 50 minutes, set a goal to do yoga for 10 minutes a day. And keep your yoga mat next to your desk to make it easy to perform.
If my yoga mat is still rolled up, there’s no way I will gain enough motivation to do it.
Once you’ve made those 10 minutes of yoga per day a habit, you can increase the time.
Another way to achieve your goals is through batching tasks. Batching involves working on similar tasks/topics together. For example, if you’re a student, studying one topic thoroughly at a time is always easier and less mentally taxing than jumping between different topics.
Additionally, if you’re a busy person, set aside 20 minutes daily to progress towards your goal. Is 20 minutes too little time if you’re planning to start a business? Probably, but it’s a surefire way to start and keep going.
And you’re more likely to continue working after those 20 minutes. The mind procrastinates starting – not so much once you actually begin.
5. Have the chops to wait for the good stuff
Without patience and perseverance, you aren’t going anywhere. Not even slowly.
Having patience is an act of bravery. It means you have faith in yourself.
The ability to “wait things out” is not a quality everyone has today. People don’t believe in themselves enough, so they’re onto the next big thing, the next, and the next…
But if a goal is too important to you – don’t give it up because it didn’t work out after one year.
If JK Rowling gave up in the first, second, or even fifth year of writing Harry Potter, Hogwarts wouldn’t exist.
If Oprah gave up in her first year of aspiring to be one of the greatest tv show hosts, they’d be no Oprah.
If Mahatma Gandhi had given up on his goal of freeing India after the first few times nobody listened to him, it might’ve taken a few more decades for India to get independence.
And you get my drift…
Be a JK Rowling, Oprah, and Gandhi. Wait for the good stuff, and it will come.
When Is It Okay to Give Up on a Goal?
I’ve practically read you the rules of not giving up in this post. However, there are times when it’s necessary and even better for your mental health to let go of a goal.
You should only quit a goal if it doesn’t bring you happiness and it’s sucking the energy out of you.
Giving up has negative connotations – but it’s better to let go of something that isn’t serving you so you can open yourself up to what does.
However, it would help if you didn’t give things up in haste. Wait for three months before you throw in the towel. Maybe you were just burnt out and needed a little break.
But you should move on to something else if you’re still feeling morose about it, even after three months.
Final Thoughts
These were my 5 ways to achieve your goals when you’re demotivated. These golden tips have saved my neck more times than I can count.
Remember, everyone suffers from demotivation. Nobody can sustain motivation forever. But when you genuinely love what you’re trying to achieve, you don’t have a choice but to keep going. And these tips will keep you going.
A brief reminder of the 5 ways to achieve your goals:
- Overcome shiny object syndrome
- Use your competition as motivation
- Focus on one goal
- Break down each task into unthinkable simpleness
- Have the chops to wait for the good stuff