Finding Your Motivation Again

In this episode, we're diving into the real reasons you're stuck in neutral – and how to shift back into drive. There is no generic "just do it" advice here, just practical strategies that work.

You'll discover:

• The sneaky thought patterns secretly sabotage your motivation
• Your personal motivation reboot sequence 
• Why chasing motivation might be the wrong game – and what to focus on instead

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey, welcome to the Career Refresh podcast. I'm your host, jill Griffin, and you know what, if you're listening to this episode on the day it drops, not only is it my birthday, it's also my 200th episode, and that means for almost four years I have consistently showed up and produced this podcast and I'm always telling all of you listeners to take victory laps and to acknowledge and know your value and to know your wins and the things that you create in the world. So here's my V-lap. I created a podcast and it's 200 episodes and I've done it all by myself, so I think that's pretty amazing. All right, today let's get into the episode topic.

Speaker 1: 0:42

We are talking about something we all face. It's that moment when your motivation sort of takes a backseat and you don't really want the unplanned vacation. You know this is like when your to-do list is staring you down but your brain is like I can't. I know I need to do that, but I can't. And I'm seeing this especially as we round out the end of a year. I'm seeing this with clients who are looking to work and looking for work. I'm seeing with people who want to be internally elevated, people who are looking to launch that initiative. There's sort of this idea that, well, maybe it can just wait till next year, but I know I need to do something. And you're sort of in that in-between Look, we've all been there. Your brain starts giving you lots of excuses that this is going to be hard, or it's probably not going to go as planned or, like I said, can I push it off until later? And here's the thing If you are feeling unmotivated, it's usually because you're binging on thoughts about what you don't want to happen instead of what you do want to happen.

Speaker 1: 1:54

Think about it when was the last time you dragged yourself to something fun, right? Something you wanted to do, a holiday gathering, tickets to a show or a concert that you really wanted to see? When was the last time you dragged yourself there, even if you were exhausted? You didn't, because you knew that the experience was going to be worth it. So you pulled through because you knew that the experience was going to be good and you wanted to have that experience. So here's the kind of a science part of the philosophy behind motivation.

Speaker 1: 2:39

Psychologists say that 85% of what we worry about never happens. We're basically professional catastrophizers, right? This is sort of that pre-traumatic stress, that pre-worry we are creating almost like mental horror movies about outcomes that actually never happen. So this is when your brain is probably starting the yeah, but how? But how, though?

Speaker 1: 2:58

The first is can I just? It's the, can I just method? This is can I just do something for a few minutes? So instead of thinking I need to rewrite this entire presentation, perhaps you can say to yourself can I just start with one bullet? This is the baby steps.

Speaker 1: 3:17

Even you've heard this around exercise, the idea of you don't really want to exercise, maybe in the morning, and you know you have to, but if you just do it and say I'll do it for five minutes, you usually find that you'll do it for a lot longer. The second is the contrast game. Right, whether it's paradoxical thinking or this cognitive dissidence, when your brain is believing two things at once, your brain might be saying this is a disaster, this isn't going to work. I don't know how to do this, I don't have time for this. I'm going to ask you to be really nice to yourself and challenge it and say okay, but what positive could come out of this? What if this actually turned out better than we thought? What if it all worked out better than we thought and then look at some of the evidence of your past wins. You probably have a lot more that's that victory lap than you think. So that know that you can create and work through this motivational challenge.

Speaker 1: 4:17

The next is finding that why. I know you've heard it in lots of different ways, but why do you want to be elevated? Why do you want to lead this project? Why do you want to get on the board of directors? Why do you want to be in the industry, a speaker on the talk circuit? What's the why you know a speaker on the talk circuit? What's the why? If you tell me it's for money, I'm going to say it's probably what the money can buy you. And if you tell me it's for influence, I'm going to say it's probably what you believe the influence can get you Really taking it down and dig deeper, beyond the well, because I should and really think about your why. What is your why for wanting to get through this?

Speaker 1: 5:01

Jim Rohn, the motivational speaker, talks that motivation is like showering and you need to do it every day and that you need to be thinking about some quick hits and things to keep close to you so that when you are feeling the need for motivation, or you know, let me rephrase that you know you need motivation and you're kind of in that space you want to think about. Are there podcasts? Or are there maybe even some TED Talks? I love Daniel Pink. He's got a really good one on motivation. Watch the man in the Arena with Tom Brady, I think it's on Hulu. Right, even if you're not into sports, trust me, this is an excellent one. And then also find your motivational gurus, whoever speaks your language. I mean, this is where I tell you to go on social or go on LinkedIn and find some of the people who are putting talks out there. You can also go to I use the library app. It's called Libby. You can also do the library app and find, you know, do a search for the top 10 motivational books and see if there are new, some new authors and some new voices that speak to you.

Speaker 1: 6:09

And then let's talk about the fear. Sometimes we're not unmotivated, sometimes we're scared. We're scared of the effort, we're scared of the trade-off, we're scared of the failure, maybe the judgment, maybe there's some sort of awkward moment that you're thinking through, when you are thinking about something in the future with unknown circumstances and unknown events and unknown people and you're letting that rule. Where you are today, it's because you're giving your power into that and you're thinking that where you are today is better and you're only thinking about the fear in the future. I'd offer you, if you thought, just amount of the same, amount of equal time. Instead of fear. Put it into inspiration or positivity of unknown people, unknown events, and turning it into a positive story. You're then creating a future and your future self has something to look forward to. But if you only create it, and through the lens of the negative, I mean, I wouldn't want to get out of bed either.

Speaker 1: 7:15

Don't run from fear. See if you can feel it, process it, which is just letting it sit in your body and letting it bubble up a little bit, knowing that you're safe and you actually are safe. You're not like driving while you're listening to this and you're maybe you're sitting in a chair in your home, really sitting through and saying, like you know, of course I would feel this way when I'm thinking these thoughts. Of course, if I'm thinking this is going to be the worst and I have so much anxiety and this is never going to happen and I'm never going to get it. Of course, if you're thinking those thoughts, having some really lovely compassion for yourself and realizing when you're thinking negative thoughts, you're going to have a negative experience in your body Processing that separate the story from fact, right, that doesn't mean that there aren't real things that you need to think through and strategize how you're getting around. But we put so much time and effort into things going wrong and I wonder what would be possible for you if you put the same amount of effort into things going right. You're going to have to think different thoughts. This is the growth mindset. This is watching your brain. This is noticing that your brain again is telling you that an unknown event in the future with unknown scenarios is going to go a certain way. Great fine, own it, run with it, but then give yourself the opposite. If you're thinking about those things negatively, pause and say, well, what if this was different? And also have some compassion for yourself. If you're thinking all these fearful thoughts, of course you're going to be in fear. Who wouldn't be Just here to remind you? You've been through tough challenges before. There'll be tough challenges in the future, no doubt, but you can get through them.

Speaker 1: 8:50

Last thing I want to talk about is the idea that motivation isn't about pushing through right. It makes me think of like pushing the rock up the hill. It's about being pulled forward because something is exciting. Find that pull. It could be the dream experience, the dream job, financial freedom, making it to that nonprofit board, being of service to your community, finding a way to lead your team or just to be able to prove to yourself that it could be different. Friends, you can do this, I promise you. You can learn how to self-motivate. I promise you you can learn how to self-motivate. Listen, who's helping you with your career strategy? I would love to help you, and motivation is a big part of it. I'll put all my information in the show notes, but let's create a plan, let's create a strategy and your path forward. All right, friends, have a great week and I will see you next time.