Motivational Meltdowns!

Hey guys!

 

I'm sure we all have those days where you wake up feeling drained and have literally no motivation at all to do anything, other than curl up on the sofa with a blanket and watch trashy TV shows/play games/read a book/nap all day.

I woke up the other day and knew instantly it was one of those days for me - I woke up later than I wanted to, in a bad mood and with a pile of things I needed to do, and just didn't want to do anything at all because I simply wasn't feeling it at all. I barely even wanted to get out of bed because I was annoyed at myself for waking up later than I planned, on top of being annoyed that I'd had a terrible night's sleep (I find it hard to sleep a lot of the time, I'm very restless lately) and everything just felt like a chore - even making a cup of tea, which is what I usually do when I wake up, felt like it was taking longer than usual and felt like it was using more effort too.

Lately, I've started going for walks in the morning, too - sometimes it's just a quick ten minute walk around a field (I live really close to a field, haha, so it's nice and easy for me) and sometimes I take my iPod and listen to music while I take a leisurely stroll for at least half an hour or so. That day, however, I didn't want to even get dressed, let alone go for a walk. Somehow, I managed to eventually muster the energy to get myself ready and go out, even though it was the last thing I wanted to do, and afterwards I felt even more tired, but was happy that I'd pushed myself to do it, even though I was in a horrible mood with zero motivation.

After that, I actually managed to get rid of my bad mood enough to get everything done that I had planned for that day, and even recovered enough to cook dinner for everyone! The sense of accomplishment I felt after forcing myself to stick to my routine (even if I was running behind with everything) managed to shake my mood and give me enough motivation back to complete the tasks I'd set for myself.

The thing is, if you stick to goals you set yourself - even if it's something small like going for a walk every day, making sure you drink enough water in a day, smiling at someone when you're on your way to work even if you're in a bad mood - it makes you feel a sense of accomplishment when you complete them, and it will lift your mood and make you feel amazing, even if at the time you feel like you're doing it wrong, or that it's pointless to even do it.

A good way to motivate yourself is to promise yourself a treat - for example, "If I go for a 15 minute walk today, I'll reward myself by having a long bubble bath" or "If I get all this paperwork done today, I'll watch the new episode of *insert your favourite TV show here* tonight". I do things like this a lot, and it does really help! For example, I promised myself that if I went for the walk and got everything else done, I'd buy myself some frozen yogurt as a reward - last time I had a day like this, I promised myself I'd do a day of pampering over the weekend, and I did!

What do you do on days when you're lacking motivation and feeling drained?