Lack of Motivation, Depression, and What to Do About It
Adding mental health counseling from a therapist, social worker, or psychologist can provide techniques and skills tailored to your unique needs and strengths.
Understandably, not everyone will feel comfortable using professional treatment as a first line of defense. Many will want to explore at-home solutions to improve their motivation before heading to the professionals. This strategy is worthwhile. Here’s how:
Don’t Go Direct
Motivation is so hard to improve because it is nearly impossible to target motivation directly. You cannot say to someone (or yourself), “Get motivated” and expect any progress to be made.
If you could will yourself into motivation, none of this would be necessary. Motivation cannot be targeted directly because it is not a problem, it is a symptom of a problem. To make improvements, you must focus on the problem: depression.
Acknowledge Depression
By committing time and energy towards improving your overall depression, you will see enhancements to many aspects of your life. Your mood, sleep, appetite, irritability, self-esteem, and levels of guilt will be more desirable.
Think about what helps people with depression. Exercise, change your diet, improve your sleep, and seek out the positives that life has to offer. Anything you can do to alleviate depression will alleviate your lack of motivation.
Change Your Thinking
For someone with low motivation, one of the best depression busters is changed thinking. Every day, your thoughts are constantly swirling. People who are depressed think depressed thoughts, and people who think depressed thoughts are more likely to be depressed.
Gaining awareness and control of your negative thoughts will be crucial. Rather than feeling guilty about your lack of motivation, think about what you can do when your motivation returns.
Repeat positive affirmations and words of encouragement to yourself. In time, your changed thinking will lead to changed feelings and behaviors.
Boost Supports
Before you can run, you must walk. Before you can do the things you enjoy independently, you must rely on the assistance of your friends and loved ones. Tell them about your lack of motivation and what they can do to aid your recovery.
Along the way, tell them how you are likely to resist, so they can be prepared to intervene. You are in charge of your motivation, but they can help.
Start With Fun
If your motivation is lacking, don’t make your first goal to clean the house. The event must be small, simple, short, and fun.
Plan a trip to the local shop for a new comic or to the store for a coffee with your friend. Socializing when depressed can seem a daunting task, but once you have regular success with pleasant activities, you can begin adding in other tasks slowly. This is your path to balanced success.
Motivation is one of the most common complaints people have. Though it is common, the notion of motivation is quite complex. It represents the interaction of your energy and interest levels and the influence of depression.
Don’t be fooled into setting your aims at motivation directly. Target depression for the quality of life you desire. Seek the treatment of professionals and experiment with self-help, at-home techniques.
It’s true that some people are lazy, but more people are actually depressed.
