Getting Motivated: 3 Ways to Get Moving

Did you ever feel like you have no motivation?  You may be sitting down to write a blog post, work on a client project, clean the house or organize your home office.  But…. *nothing*….  You’d rather be doing, well, whatever.  Know that feeling?  So, what do you do if you have something that you really must do, but just don’t wanna?  Where do you find the motivation?

Do it anyway.

Dave Taylor had a great post about getting thru writer’s block.  One of the things he recommends is to just do “insert your task or chore here“ anyway, no matter how you may feel.  I use Morning Pages to get my creative and business juices flowing in the morning, and I always feel better when I do them.  Even when I feel like I have nothing worthwhile to write about (and then I write about how I don’t feel like doing Morning Pages). 

Get advice and a plan.

So maybe you want to organize your file drawer or your email inbox and you aren’t sure where to start.  Besides hiring a professional organizer to help you (I happen to know one *grin*), there are lots of resources out there.  Read a book by Julie Morgenstern, take a class or Google “organize my home office”.  Get advice from someone you know or admire who has a great spin on organizing email or productivity.  You don’t have to duplicate their systems, but you just might be inspired and find a better way to work with your own tasks.

Distract yourself for a while.

Sometimes lack of motivation is an indicator that you need a break.  Take the off for a day, week or an hour.  Do something you like – Julia Cameron calls these “artist dates”.  A friend of mine asked me how I have so much time to read (I’m a voracious bookworm).  I told her that I don’t, I make time.  It gets me out of my head and lets someone else “drive” for a while.  It’s like a mini-vacation or self-improvement retreat.

If you’re an entreprenuer or career-minded, it’s easy to be a workaholic – especially when you work from home (I get it, I really do!).  It’s also important to take a break so you can pour yourself into whatever it is you are doing.  “Doing more” doesn’t always mean quality or productivity.  Sometimes it means you’ve just got to much going on, so take a break now and then.  Remember to take care of you, or you won’t have much to give!

(photo by Mostafa Saeednejad on Flickr)