Often we find ourselves wishing we could get more done, and feeling frustrated that, even though we have this wish, it doesn’t actually lead to more things being accomplished. Clearly, the desire to accomplish more isn’t enough by itself to motivate us—so what’s missing? If it isn’t enough to want to do things, what more do we need to give us motivation?
Limited Resources
To answer this question it’s important to look at the mechanics of how tasks actually get accomplished. The first and most obvious element of this is, when we want to do something, we need to allocate energy to that action—both physical and mental energy. Energy is a finite, limited resource, so we need to have enough of it to spare if we want to allocate some to a particular task.
That’s simple enough, but we also need to take into account that we’re always spending energy on things, even when we aren’t consciously allocating energy to those tasks; just keeping ourselves alive takes energy, because we have to be aware of our surroundings and respond to them, as well as being aware of our internal state and responding to that as well. That may not sound like it should take much energy, but the signals we receive from both of those directions, internal and external, can be complicated to interpret, as well as unpleasant and difficult to tolerate. In short, just being in the world can be stressful, and the more stressful we find it, the more energy it takes to deal with it. The more energy we put into managing the stress of just existing, the less we have for allocating to other tasks—the ones that aren’t necessary for “just existing”.
What happens when we run short on energy? Physically, we feel tired, listless, clumsy, uncoordinated. Mentally, we feel foggy, unfocussed, slow, uncreative. When we feel this way, we naturally gravitate towards activities that require very little energy—typically recreational activities that don’t require much mental input, such as watching TV or scrolling on our phones, or undemanding physical environments such as sitting on a sofa or lying in bed.
Where Does Our Energy Go?
For many of us, there are plenty of things in our lives that demand our energy, and there are consequences if we don’t meet that need: work, education, family, relationships, health. In these cases, we feel that we have no choice but to put energy into these things, whether we have the energy to spare or not; if we don’t, there are negative consequences. Many other things in life aren’t “mandatory” in the same way, and these are often the things we wish we could do more of: exercise, creative activities, socializing, self-improvement. Putting energy into these things is voluntary; there’s no terrible consequence if we don’t, but we don’t get the benefits of having done those things either.
If most of our energy is going into the “mandatory” activities, then whatever is left over is all we have to spare for the voluntary ones, but that may not be much. Furthermore, moving from activities that require little energy into ones that require more also requires a voluntary commitment of energy–and if energy reserves are already low, then making this choice may be the hardest part. Often people find that getting started on an activity is harder than continuing that activity once they’ve started, which could be because getting over the “hump” of moving from inactivity to activity requires more energy than the activity itself does.
Seen this way, there’s a clear reason why we might find ourselves lacking motivation, putting things off, or choosing to stay inactive even when there’s something we want (or need) to do: the energy to do more just isn’t available. We might feel guilt over not getting more done, or anxiety about what could happen if we don’t, or even anger towards ourselves for failing to meet our own goals or standards, but while these emotions might temporarily jolt us out of a sedentary state and get us moving, none of them can actually create more energy where none exists. In fact, guilt and anxiety and anger are emotions that often consume energy, so even when they provide some measure of motivation in the short-term, letting them drive us often leads to us feeling even more exhausted and burnt-out over the long term. This is not a sustainable model for getting things done.
Recharging
So what is? In economic terms, if we want a process to be sustainable, then we need to be replacing resources at the same rate as we’re expending them, or even building up a surplus. If energy is the resource we’re trying to manage, where do we get more of it? The answer will be somewhat different for everyone, because different people feel “energised” by different things, and differences in things like health and physiology can also impact this question–for instance, some people feel rested and recharged after a night of rest, while other people wake up feeling just as tired as they did when they went to bed. But whatever a person draws their energy from, one principle remains constant: if you want to have enough energy to do things, you need to prioritise spending time on activities that generate energy rather than consuming it.
This can be a counter-intuitive approach, because often it’s recreational activities that are the most energising, and it’s hard to justify spending more time on recreation when there are things to do that haven’t been done. It can also be misleading, because people often feel that they’re already spending too much time sitting around not doing anything and that hasn’t helped them feel more energetic or motivated. What’s important to consider here is that there’s a difference between things that generate energy and things that just don’t consume much of it. Watching TV or scrolling on the phone might not consume much energy, but it also doesn’t necessarily help a person generate more. Talking to a friend about a TV show you’ve both seen, and debating what you liked and didn’t like about it, could be much more energising, at least for some people.
The first step to becoming more motivated, then, is figuring out what creates energy for you. When do you feel most alive? What do you feel most motivated to do? Be sure to differentiate between things you do because you enjoy them, and things you do by default because they’re easy. At the end of a long day you may feel unable to do anything other than space out in front of the TV, but that’s not necessarily the same as doing something rewarding to you.
Keep It Going
It may be that the things which feel energising are inaccessible for some reason, perhaps due to finances or health or proximity, or perhaps these also require energy that you just don’t have. In that case, finding a way of engaging with these activities at a distance might provide a bit of a spark–reading a magazine article about painting even if you can’t afford paints right now, for instance, or visiting an online forum for rock climbers even if you don’t live near a rock climbing facility. Just thinking about the things you love doing, and imagining what it would be like to do them, could stimulate that part of yourself that draws motivation from these things, and that’s just as important to prioritise as the activities themselves.
We can encounter all sorts of reasons not to prioritise these things, of course, in particular the feeling that it would be “lazy” to spend time on things we enjoy when there’s so much needing to be done. That way of thinking seems intuitive, but in practice, it doesn’t necessarily produce the results we’re after. As stated above, using guilt or anxiety to push ourselves might work in the short-term, but often this leads to feelings of burnout or paralysis that take time and energy to recover from, which means less ends up getting done. Which in turn means that taking time away from work to do things we enjoy, if it recharges our energy, can actually lead to more getting done, since it leaves us feeling more able to voluntarily transition from inactivity to activity.
The bottom line is, as counter-intuitive as it may seem, we feel more motivated and get more done when we structure our lives in a way that balances work-time and recreation-time. There are plenty of things that can make that difficult, including external pressures (such as the need to earn money, or the demands of being a parent or caregiver) as well as internal pressures (such as thinking of ourselves as “lazy” or feeling anxiety about things that need to get done), but with practice, we can find ways to work around these things (or change how we think about ourselves) and achieve as much balance as we realistically can. The important thing is to shift our thinking from “I need to be doing more” to “I need to take care of myself”. When we recognise our own needs and make them a priority, that’s how we recharge our energy and build our motivation, which leads to more productivity. Just wanting to do things may not be enough by itself, but the desire plus the energy equals results.
If you're looking for help building your own motivation or identifying the things that recharge you, please reach out and make contact. Thank you for reading.
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