the psychology behind not being motivated

Do we really lack motivation?

-feeling unmotivated is normal and extremely common, caused by different people’s fundamental brain design and personality. It is essential to recognize that it’s not a problem and to not treat it as a problem.

-The main objective to understand is that motivation is actually highly present in almost everyone, and the problem isn’t that we lack it, but that it is misdirected.

ex: “I have no motivation to work; I just want to play video games.”

-means that you have a stronger motivation to play video games than doing work, and it’s not that you lack motivation, but that it’s prioritizing the wrong objectives.

-This demonstrates that to be strongly motivated about something, you have to redirect your motivation instead of manifesting more motivation.

How does motivation work?

-besides the standard definition of motivation being a drive for action, it also means acting based on the likelihood of success

-motivation isn’t something that can be turned on or off; it is based on a scale regarding the likelihood of a task being successful and efficient to complete.

Ex: when the likelihood of success/efficiency is high (ex: going to bed because it is efficient and will successfully resolve your sleepiness), You’re more likely to do it.

Ex: when it's (ex: wanting to put the effort in a project but it being more complicated and not knowing if it will successfully improve your grade) you’re less likely to do it.

-As stated earlier, someone’s motivation is closely tied with their personality as well. And as your work ethic is connected to your personality, it is better to adapt your motivational habits in coordination with your personality.

What should we do?

FYI: personalities obviously aren’t black or white, so this should be taken as advice and not as a diagnosis

If your personality tends to be flexible, meaning your motivation comes and goes quickly. (bursts of energy and switching attention constantly). Try rotating through bits of what you’re trying to complete and take breaks. And what you’ll find is that you will likely regain motivation to complete the first tasks again.

(work on subject A until you get bored/uninterested, then move to subject B. When you lose interest, then rotate back to subject A)

If your personality is more determined, meaning your motivation is steady, constant, and undistracted in completing tasks. It is best to set up/follow a stable work routine and take breaks to prevent burnout and to sustain the work ethic.

If your personality gravitates to being resilient, which means your motivation and attention increase over time the more you work on something. It is best to be patient as your ethic will steadily improve as you continue working and have a good work routine to have more time to improve and speed up that motivation.

Some other advice

-Part of not being able to be motivated stems from a task being unclear or too vague, which blurs the likelihood of success scale and leads to unmotivating feelings.

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Try categorizing the task into smaller segments and work on those if it’s too broad. Or understanding the task’s objective more, you likely can be motivated/focus more.

-setting more grounded expectations or even having no expectations can also help with motivation. If the expectations are too abstract, it may seem harder than it seems and your motivation will redirect to something more achievable and pleasing, like procrastinating.

-Working and focusing on the right actions instead of the results can also help, as it can promote a better work ethic and prevent demotivation if the results aren’t up to expectations