As you grow older, with more responsibilities, it’s easy to lose the joys of things you once loved. This can be hobbies like reading, schoolwork, fitness, or even your career. Motivation ebbs and flows and this is it’s recommended that you don’t rely on it to complete projects or work. Recent trends like quiet quitting also show that there is a global trend that people are losing motivation for jobs they used to enjoy.
Reasons why you lose motivation
To know how to re-ignite your passion, you need to pinpoint why you’re losing your motivation. Feeling passionate about your day-to-day life helps you feel fulfilled at the end of each day. Taking stock of your feelings can help you craft a way to regain your motivation.
1. Burnout
If you’re mentally tired from your routine, losing your motivation is easy. Feeling exhausted makes it more challenging to complete your work and can also lead to depression, anxiety, and stress. Unchecked burnout can also lead to chronic fatigue and illness.
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2. Monotony
Having a similar routine each day can lead to boredom or feeling like you’re in a rut. It’s not necessary to have each day be exciting but sometimes doing the same thing over and over again can be demoralising. It can be especially demotivating if you’ve been doing the same thing but never see any reward or positive change from your consistency. Avoid Monotony In Your Daily Life Using These 6 Simple Steps
3. Mental health issues
Feeling depressed or anxious can reduce motivation to do anything. Studies show that depression causes a hormonal imbalance in the brain. Neurotransmitters such as serotonin are the hormones released when you get satisfaction from an activity. Depression reduces the production of these hormones which makes it feel like all the joy is sucked from everything. Other mental conditions such as Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) can also reduce motivation.
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4. Idiopathic motivation loss
Sometimes you lose motivation without any provocation. You may not be tired or weighed down by other problems but the passion just dissipates. Trying to force it to come back doesn’t help. In addition, this frequently occurs if you have been doing the job or hobby for a long time. This could be because of continuous failures, a combination of all the reasons above, or a sudden lack of passion.
How to reignite your passion
Losing the love for something that used to give you great joy or satisfaction can be demoralising. Depending on what field you’ve lost your motivation for, there are multiple strategies you can apply to regain it.
1. Students
Schoolwork can be difficult and overwhelming especially as you advance. There is also often a sense of competition within academia. Students who get the best grades are always the ones who get recognition and it’s easy to get caught up in comparing yourself to them. It’s important to remember that you should only compare yourself to your past. Keep track of your own progress in your schoolwork and if you’ve been improving, that can help motivate you.
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You can also remember the relevance of what you’re studying. Whether it is for your own curiosity or because you’re studying something as important as medicine, remember why it mattered to you. In addition, you can try to cover more information relevant to your coursework but not necessarily within your syllabus. This can ignite your passion by triggering your curiosity.
Finding mentorship can also help students, and workers who are new to their industry, navigate careers within their specialisation. Mentors also provide valuable real-world knowledge that isn’t provided by studying.
2. Workers
Losing your motivation for work makes you question why your job is so important. When you wake up and start wondering whether you really need to show up to work, this is a sign you’re losing motivation. This happens even when you love your job.
Sometimes it can be a sign that you need to scale back. If you’re taking on too many responsibilities or your job is preventing you from having a work-life balance, it can erode your motivation. American actress Gaby Hoffman said in a 2021 Guardian interview that she loves her job but she doesn’t want to do it that often. You can take a holiday or sabbatical to avoid or recuperate from burnout.
If your job constantly undermines your ideas or cuts funding for any developments you need in your department, this can change your passion. If you can’t change upper management’s decision-making, you can take stock of your work and see where it’s been rewarding. You can also regain your motivation by transitioning to another job where you can help workers with less interference.
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3. General
Life can lose its lustre because of boredom. Using goals to set your motivation can easily lead to boredom. For example, if you have a goal to lose 10kg within a certain period and have the same exercise and diet, this can become boring. Adding some stimulation to your routine can increase your motivation. Instead of focusing on reaching a certain weight number, focus more on achieving fitness. You can add a stimulating challenge, such as finishing a marathon to increase your motivation.
Focusing on how much you’re not reaching targets can also deplete motivation. You can also try to understand what’s leading to the failures. This could be because you’re compromising your work ethic to focus on going out or just focusing on meeting a rigid standard. Take a step back and revisit your roots, and why you wanted to do this activity in the first place.
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Research finds that you can make your own motivation. If the work is overwhelming and the goal seems too distant, you can easily lose motivation. Split your work into small tasks and reward yourself for every bite-sized achievement. Ultimately, remembering the benefits of what you’re trying to accomplish can be the easiest way to regain your enthusiasm.
Check out:
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Why You May Not Be Learning From Failure And How To Weaponise It For Your Success
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