This is a question that has baffled me for years. Truth be told since becoming a work at home mom 5 1/2 years ago, I don’t seem to have much motivation at all.
Sure there are the normal things that everyone gathers motivation from like taking care of my kids and house, being a successful business person, making money to help support our family. Unfortunately these very important things don’t feel like enough. Maybe that’s not the right word. I am surely grateful for these things and feel extremely lucky to have and do them, but none of these things feel like the “one”.
I know a big problem of mine is that I am a heavy duty procrastinator. I put everything off until the last minute. I do laundry at 7pm when the kids have come out of the bath to no clean underwear. I put off work until the due date instead of working on projects over time. Every year presents are wrapped in the hours before they are needed, usually purchased the day before (at the earliest). I have thought about ordering our photo Christmas cards for the past month and just finally actually ordered them yesterday.
I am going to try something new. There is only one thing that I really want, badly enough to maybe do the trick. Right now we rent our home. I really want to buy a house so that we can decorate the way we want, plant what plants we want and really make it ours. I know it might sound materialistic, but really it’s not. I want to make a home for our family that is reflective of us, that we can truly make our own. That we can feel safe that will always be there (especially when it is paid off) and D and I can retire in and our kids can visit with their kids. So I am going to find pictures of houses that I like, and of rooms that I like and post them everywhere. Next to my computer, on the refrigerator, on the front of my Household Organizer, in the car, even over the dirty laundry. I want our goal of buying a house to be the first thing on my mind in the morning, the last thing I think of at night and every moment in between. It’s not that I want to be obsessed with the house itself, but the idea of making it our own. I want to figure out how everything I do ties in to that goal. Some of those things might be hard, like how does doing laundry fit?, but I will find it!
Do you know what your motivation is? How did you find it?
I think an important thing about motivation is whether you are moving AWAY from someting or TOWARDS something – this is a key for many people
So if you’re employed and your boss offers you more money to stay in a crappy job, you might not be that bothered if moving TOWARDS more money doesn’t motivate you.
But if moving AWAY from something – losing your home / job / income is your motivator, then you need to use that as your motivator to work well.
I don’t think I’m explaining this very well, and I’ve probably l got the example wrong, but if something resonates in there, perhaps try googling it
Like you, I am a heavy procrastinator and I guess on my 101 list, I would set moving away from that as a goal – perhaps with some NLP or hypnotherapy techniques