How Did You Get Your Motivation Mojo Back?

[ilostmypswrd]

If you lost your motivation to generally do stuff and get stuff done, how do you get it back?

I have discussed my lack of motivation in various threads more recently in the dopamine thread. I believe that was just another excuse to blame for my lack of motivation/desire. Previously I have thought it could my low testosterone, diet, poor sleep habits, aging, etc. Those are all excuses that haven't panned out to the problem. I am in a many years long rut of not having the desire or motivation to do much of anything outside of going to work, hanging on the internet, sleeping and eating.

Edit: My wife is a half foot shorter and weighs significantly more than I do, has sleep apnea, eats a terrible diet, has an office job, rarely exercises and probably has a lower level of testosterone than I do. Despite all this she was promoted at work, works overtime, completed a lengthy leadership class (for work) that involved lots of homework, frequently goes out with friends, went on vacation to mexico recently and generally gets stuff done with out procrastinating. She is essentially proving to me that what I have offered up as excuses are not valid reasons for me not getting stuff done.

If you were ever in a similiar situation and snapped out of it (without pharmaceuticals), how did you do it?

My hope is to find a solution that leads me to want to get stuff done, not ways to force myself to get stuff done.

Sounds like a form of PTSD I know that gets way over used now days, did you have some sort of trauma years ago _ ( IE Military etc etc) or you could just be a big fat lazy SOB lolololol, seek some professional mental heath advice, not from a bunch of gun loving swinging dicks in here , lololol.If you need a buddies to go hunting or shooting with just pm me ( no homo) lololo.

 

[arakboss]

Sounds like a form of PTSD I know that gets way over used now days, did you have some sort of trauma years ago _ ( IE Military etc etc) or you could just be a big fat lazy SOB lolololol, seek some professional mental heath advice, not from a bunch of gun loving swinging dicks in here , lololol.If you need a buddies to go hunting or shooting with just pm me ( no homo) lololo.

"Sounds like a form of PTSD I know that gets way over used now days, did you have some sort of trauma years ago _ ( IE Military etc etc) or you could just be a big fat lazy SOB"

As a kid I was hit by a car and ran into a telephone box riding my bike. Both of those incidents required hospital visits but I am pretty sure it's the latter. You know who Cole was talking to when he said Hey Fatty....

 

[CLT65]

The human brain is an amazing thing. We are ever learning and adapting. I've always been interested in these kind of things- why we do what we do, why we believe what we believe and like what we like.

Why do some people collect stamps, others collect dolls. Some like sports and can recite statistics like a computer. Others couldn't care less, and love something else instead. It's not a practical, survival thing. Even our guns, for the most part, are a hobby/interest much more than anything practical. Why?

The brain makes pathways between neurons. An interesting or pleasant experience can establish a pathway, and the more your brain uses that pathway, the more prominent it becomes. These pathways contribute to who we are and why we do what we do, though I do believe that many aspects of personality are inborn. I'm not a type-A overachiever, never have been, never will be. That said, establish some new neural pathways. It will take a while, but it can be done. (yes I realize that's an over-simplification of how the brain works)

Circumstances can take the wind out of your sails. My wife has had a half-dozen surgeries in about as many years, and I had foot surgery twice last year. Tough times, and we're still digging out. Most household being two incomes, a lot of people can't fathom raising a family on a single blue-collar income, plus medical bills. Some days I find it very easy to get feeling pretty down. I look around and realize that though we pinch pennies and don't have a lot of the toys that some people have, we do fine and actually have it pretty good, far better that most of the rest of the world.

When I am able to motivate myself to get out and do something- auto maintenance, cleaning the garage, working on the yard, etc.- I inevitably feel better about myself. I don't know what I'd do without my wife and kids. They're my favorite people to hang out with. It's fun to get the whole family involved in cleaning up the yard or washing the cars.

Speaking of companionship, for most people it is a basic human need, whether family, pets, or friends. When I was young and single, I had a lot of friends. I made good, lifelong friendships because we had common interests and could take off and go do things with little planning: camping, hiking, evenings at the beach. I had a great group of friends from a bible study I attended, and to this day stay in touch with many of them.

Nowadays though, I find it very difficult to make friends. Work and family schedules and responsibilities have us all running, and unless you happen to be running the same direction, it's hard to develop friendships beyond occasional acquaintance. I believe that most of us are lonely on some level and don't even realize it.

No, it's not easy to change, and at some point you really do have to just do it. At least that's what I try to tell myself, pretty much every day.

 

[Ura-Ki]

Will power!
I have a choice, I ether play with the two puppies and the bat sh!t crazy Malinator or I find something that needs done! Seriously, sounds like you need to find your motivation and that takes will power! You roll out at sun up, fix breakfast and the all important Cofveve, walk the land sharks, and then get busy doing what ever you need to do!

 

[L84Cabo]

I'm afraid that I don't have any ideas for you as I struggle with this myself.

In my younger days I was both very active and very social. I worked long hours but the weekends would come and I'd be meeting friends for happy hour, doing fun things on the weekend, etc.

But as I've aged I've really become an introvert. I have no interest in going out and the less I have to see or interact with the general public, the better. Most of the things that brought me happiness and joy simply do not anymore.

I'm reasonably healthy and I stay in shape and also go for an hour long walk six days out of seven. My diet is pretty solid. But I also deal with some chronic pain issues and I'm up at least five or six times a night because of it...and I think it may just be part of getting older. Anyway, my sleep is pretty wonky.

I've often wondered how much of an effect my career has had on me. All my jobs have been long hours, high stress, and the last seven of those years was in an extremely toxic environment with an absolute boss from hell. I'm at the point in my life where I value peace and no stress above just about everything else.

I've been retired for a few years now but that doesn't seem to have changed much on the motivation front. I'm certainly happier and more at peace without all of the work BS. But motivation is still pretty absent and there are few things that bring me joy. I still seem to have my love and interest in firearms so that's a plus.

As I said, I wish I had some wisdom for you but at least know that you're not alone.

 

[ilikegunspdx]

.

If you lost your motivation to generally do stuff and get stuff done, how do you get it back?

I have discussed my lack of motivation in various threads more recently in the dopamine thread. I believe that was just another excuse to blame for my lack of motivation/desire. Previously I have thought it could my low testosterone, diet, poor sleep habits, aging, etc. Those are all excuses that haven't panned out to the problem. I am in a many years long rut of not having the desire or motivation to do much of anything outside of going to work, hanging on the internet, sleeping and eating.

Edit: My wife is a half foot shorter and weighs significantly more than I do, has sleep apnea, eats a terrible diet, has an office job, rarely exercises and probably has a lower level of testosterone than I do. Despite all this she was promoted at work, works overtime, completed a lengthy leadership class (for work) that involved lots of homework, frequently goes out with friends, went on vacation to mexico recently and generally gets stuff done with out procrastinating. She is essentially proving to me that what I have offered up as excuses are not valid reasons for me not getting stuff done.

If you were ever in a similiar situation and snapped out of it (without pharmaceuticals), how did you do it?

My hope is to find a solution that leads me to want to get stuff done, not ways to force myself to get stuff done.

This thread reminds me of a video I saw on a guy trying to rediscover the techniques to make a famous Viking sword. He said "it's not that I have to do it, it's that I HAVE to do it". I wonder if seperating things we are interested in from those we have a deep compulsion (or a cause we deeply believe in) may be a key to motivation? Just thinking out loud...

 

[ilikegunspdx]

Silly example from the other day... toilet was running on and I wasn't motivated to fix it because it was in a seldom used bathroom. So I just turned off the valve. Then houseguest coming over and that little project went from a "have to" to a "HAVE to". So it seems to me that external needs/the environment can create a "HAVE to" also.

Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a useful tool for understanding motivation I think. We cannot move to the next level of the pyramid until the needs on the lower levels are met. For example if we are starving (or don't have shelter, etc) we cant think of anything else until that "deficit need" is met.

Level 1 - physiological needs (shelter food etc)
Level 2 - safety needs
Level 3 - belonging needs such as family, social life etc
Level 4 - esteem needs
Level 5 - "self actualization" needs

So that fits in with what others said above about age possibly? What I mean is when we were younger we had to strive to get those lower level needs, but when we are older we have a lot of those lower levels needs met. They are no longer urgent and putting pressure on us. I.e. they aren't in our "present mind" (for lack of a better term, could also say "urgent" or "gets our attention"). Fe I pushed the need to fix the toilet out of my mind cuz it wasn't urgent. It only was urgent (in my present mind) when we needed it due to houseguest.

The esteem need might be another example. We don't need to prove ourselves to anyone now that we are older, but when we were younger we may have felt this strongly.

So how do we turn "have to" things into "HAVE to" things? I don't know, but it seems to me that if we have met a lot or all of the level 1-4 needs, these things will get our attention enough to be in our "present mind" and create motivation to do it:

1) external urgencies -Fe houseguest coming over. Seems to me that for better or worse they act on us and move into our "present" mind

2) Also a deep compulsion, pursuing a cause we care about, etc. (this is probably the same thing as #3 below I guess?).

3) also the "self actualization" needs level. Seems to me that is the key to long lasting and fulfilling motivation. So picking something on this level and pursuing it with commitment and focus might create akind of "automatic" motivation where we are driven to do it. And that is harder to do if we allow "clutter" to keep us from focusing on it.



All just thoughts and it may be total BS ha ha!

 

[SpudBob]

I get it totally! Sounds kinda like a condition called diysthymia. Its not a full on depression but a lighter degree of it. Its kinda like having the blahs. It's not full blown condition, where you dont get out of bed, but a low grade general disatisfaction with the way things are in your life.You can still get the basics done, most of the time, but things beyond that can be daunting. A lot of the suggestions made here are really good.Start small! Making lists and trying to break things into steps really helps. Exercise, good sleep, and eating right help. Try to steer clear of negatvity. Maybe seek out a group. It can be a PTSD type situation. It is in my caseI have struggled with this condition off and on for most of my life. Friends/family are essential. Helping others, though it can be tough, can really help. Empathy for others, and an awareness of your blessings compared to others, can put life in perspective. Taking the attitude that you GET to do something instead of you HAVE to do something is a good frame of mind to take. We, by and large, are blessed beyond what we can comprehend to many parts of the world. Hope some of this helps!

 

[Longwalkhome]

Change is right at your fingertips. The net is both the problem and the cure. People become addicted to socializing on the net and it changes both them and the culture. It's going to take changing from socializing to useing the net to grow for folks to get a better life.

Example, learning how to do something you always wanted to do. Too many waste time on the net that could be used to improve the human condition. Motivation comes from self esteem you get from progress in your life. Socializing won't give you the kind of self esteem doing and creating does.

Use the net to learn, if you have a fakebook account or Twitter then you are looking to be liked with means nothing.

MOJO comes from study and improvement on yourself, you won't have that talking bs on the net. You don't win anything fighting on the net, you lose valuable time.

Or do what makes you happy, you only live once and nobody expects you to be good at anything.

 

[arakboss]

I am taking some advice I pulled from this thread and I'm going to focus on a smaller number of goals at a time. Caulking cabinets is getting done today, maintaining walking/resistance training and focusing on high protein diet are immediate priorities.

Spending freeze didn't make the cut for immediate goals so I can continue doing what I am good at, spending money Decluttering is also going to have to wait but next goal I add to list is going to be getting some stuff up for sale. Credit card balance is pretty big right now Need to get it paid off before recession hits. Hopefully I can get to a point where I am selling more than I am buying.

 

[oremike]

For me, to do lists don't work. I just do the next silly thing whatever it might be. The one thing I do, do is to do the task until I get to the dot at the end of the sentence. Then I can mentally check it off and move on. That getting to the dot at the end was a tough one for me, when I can see the end of the task, mentally I move on to the next and don't finish the task at hand. I've taught myself to do a mental inventory at the end of the day of tasks completed so I can regester the progress I make in my life.

 

[Mikej]

There are a lot of truly, high caliber people here. On a firearms forum. Go figure.

 

[arakboss]

I am taking some advice I pulled from this thread and I'm going to focus on a smaller number of goals at a time. Caulking cabinets is getting done today, maintaining walking/resistance training and focusing on high protein diet are immediate priorities.

Spending freeze didn't make the cut for immediate goals so I can continue doing what I am good at, spending money Decluttering is also going to have to wait but next goal I add to list is going to be getting some stuff up for sale. Credit card balance is pretty big right now Need to get it paid off before recession hits. Hopefully I can get to a point where I am selling more than I am buying.

Caulking of cabinets is done. Took about 30mins start to finish, including cleanup. Panda express buffet at home tonight.

 

[arakboss]

Dryer vent got cleaned today. We started from the outside but the vent hose came loose from dryer so we had to pull dryer out to reinstall hose which lead to vacuuming the inside of the dryer vent connection, etc. Took about 30mins total. Wife is already dreaming up new jobs but I have lots of old stuff to get done, so I told her not to get to excited about adding new stuff.

 

[Ura-Ki]

Dryer vent got cleaned today. We started from the outside but the vent hose came loose from dryer so we had to pull dryer out to reinstall hose which lead to vacuuming the inside of the dryer vent connection, etc. Took about 30mins total. Wife is already dreaming up new jobs but I have lots of old stuff to get done, so I told her not to get to excited about adding new stuff.

Two words: Leaf Blower!

 

[Longwalkhome]

Some guys just turn their world completely around. An amazing restoration video of a man who runs an old time shop. 17 minutes long but worthwhile to see where others take themselves.

 

[made in china]

Dryer vent got cleaned today. We started from the outside but the vent hose came loose from dryer so we had to pull dryer out to reinstall hose which lead to vacuuming the inside of the dryer vent connection, etc. Took about 30mins total. Wife is already dreaming up new jobs but I have lots of old stuff to get done, so I told her not to get to excited about adding new stuff.

I need to put that job on my list.
My buddy's house suffered $400k in fire damage from a backed-up dryer vent.

 

[SpudBob]

I need to put that job on my list.
My buddy's house suffered $400k in fire damage from a backed-up dryer vent.

I JUST went out and checked mine!!!!

 

[Ura-Ki]

We do ours at least once a year, you wouldn't believe how much schmutz we get outta it!
Also, should really open up the front of the dryer where the screen is and vacuum it out now and then, again, I was amazed at how much schmutz gets collected in there!

 

[arakboss]

I have ADHD. I had to go through a bunch of testing that took all day before I got prescribed any medication for it. Your issues sound a lot like those that stem from having ADHD and are basically a self-perpetuating spiral. I would recommend reading the book below, which is geared toward results and is formatted for people who have trouble focusing on 'study material' for long periods of time. I might actually be able to loan it to you if you have an amazon account.

Amazon.com

I watched part of this video and it was scary how much I fit the phenotype of somebody with ADHD. I am pretty sure that is my problem.

I love the pile system even though it doesn't work for me. I have NWFA classified piles spread around everywhere and I'm picking up another 2000rnd pile this morning I don't know how the wife can stand it.