What to do when you don't feel motivated

Pray

Ask God for strength. If the Lord has taught me anything in recent years, it is that self sufficiency never wins. When we rely on ourselves we are forgetting God’s power.  Even in seemingly small things like a lack of motivation ask for God’s help. You don’t need to wait for the big things to ask for God’s help. 

This became very real to me recently after struggling with a lot of emotional decisions regarding foster care, my families future, a stressful move all amidst covid19. 

I found myself struggling with being motivated to anything beyond basic care for my family.  I stopped working on the blog which is normally something I love to do. I stopped seeing friends… ok well that was forced but I didn’t really even feel like connecting with people. Things like watching TV and relaxing became my priority… those things are never on my top priority list. I felt like someone I wasn’t. I’m sure some mild depression hit but I always try to be careful with that because I have never struggled with clinical depression or anything like that but I think I was really experiencing situation depression. I knew I needed to snap out off it and get my motivation back so after praying and asking God for help I decided to make an action plan. Today I am feeling way better 100% motivated again and just ready to embrace all of the gifts our creator has to offer. 

So its ok to go through period of no motivation or mild depression but we have the power within us to not stay there. So I wanted to share some helpful tips with you that helped me. 

 

Give yourself Grace

I don’t know if you struggle with this like I do, but I know there are many people out there that will resonate with what I am saying.  We are so hard on ourselves. I struggle with perfectionism and excellence. I don’t understand people that don’t strive for that. I don’t understand why people don’t want to live exceptional lives.  I believe life if a gift and we should live accordingly. Not just toss the gift aside and simply react and coast.

An exceptional life of excellence is going to look different for everyone in the individual callings God has on our lives, but complacency and coasting through life has never attracted me.  But because of these character traits within myself I have a hard time giving myself grace when I am not working towards excellence. 

So I made a list of all the reasons life was hard right now, and the conclusion I came to was no wonder I’m struggling. The second week of March hit me like a hurricane and no wonder it knocked me onto my behind and self protecting by numbing myself with the couch, netflix and chocolate. 

Just making the list of everything that was hard or confusing allowed me to give myself some grace. When a lot of negative things are happening to you our bodies go into self protection mode. Fight, flight or freeze kicks in. Normally I am dealing with fight or flight…. freeze was a new experience for me but there was so much confusion and uncertainty in front of me I didn’t really know how to cope. 

I am the girl who makes plans, my plans have plans and my goals have goals. I love check lists, to do lists, color coordinated calendars etc etc. Having a guide to how I want to live, what I want to do, how I want to serve, how I want to improve are how I live my life intentionally. 

I am a firm believer that God directs my path and even directed me into this because he teaches us and sanctifies us constantly but up until that point my planning and doing was keeping me happy and achieving what I thought God wanted me to achieve. 

Knowing God is so important but knowing yourself is important too. Knowing how you function or your “heart language” if you will is vital to santifiction, self development and living an amazing life. 

So knowing what I know about myself and then making this list of all the hard things allowed me to come to the point of giving myself grace.  (Which is normally super hard for me, I’m always hard on myself internally)

So if this is you, make the list and give yourself some grace..but don’t stay there. 

Write out your options

Take some time to write down your options or any possible solutions to the hard things you are facing. Sometimes when things are hitting us all at once it is hard to get clear. Confusion and chaos kicks in and that fight flight or freeze can paralyze us. So write out each problem or negative thing and then write out solutions/options/ or simply if its something you need to surrender. Which brings me to my next point. 

 

Surrender

God wants to take our worries, anxieties and stresses away from us. The biggest reasons why we have worry and stress is because as humans, we love to control. Now I do not believe God calls us to not take action on things He has called us to. I don’t think God ever calls us to coasting and an attitude of “I have zero control anyways so let’s just life happen.” I believe it’s God’s direction and our action that leads to any sort of achievement or success but we must hold our action loosely – remembering that God can, God will and even if he doesn’t. To surrender any and all means we are having full faith in God’s provision and plans.

So when things seem hard and you are lacking motivation to act on what God has called you to do remeber to surrender you are trying to hold onto your plans and action and control. Surrender and remember He is in control. 

One of the biggest ways I have seen this come to fruition in my life is when we thought we were losing our daughter Rosie to a stranger. 
I wan mad, upset, confused, angry, and incredibly sad. When I surrendered her to him and my control off the situation I felt this overwhelming peace. Like no matter wha happened I was going to be. And it took 5 months but the plan changed back to us adopting her and that period of time was one of the most growth in my spiritual life. SO surrender it to Him and watch what He can do.

1 Peter 5:6-10 

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

Proverbs 23:26 

My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes observe my ways.

Proverbs 3:5-6 

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

Psalm 46:10 

“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!”

2 Timothy 1:7 

For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

Psalm 9:10 

And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you.

Pick Youself Back Up

Make new plans, refocus your goals, and take one tiny step.  Remember what feels good, and how great you feel when you are motivated to living out God’s calling on your life. Read affirmations and declarations over your life. Remind yourself of truth, of who God is and what He can do. Words are so powerful. Little by little and step by step you will find youself motivated, focused and ready to live your life on mission.