Lacking Motivation And Getting Bogged Down

Have you ever had the feeling that you’re just not making progress? That you’ve lots to do, but you can’t seem to find the motivation or the energy to do anything. That unless it’s absolutely critical or there’s a date deadline on it, that you don’t get around to actually doing it. So what you end up doing in these circumstances when you’re feeling that you’re just getting bogged down is that you end up filling your day with tasks that are easy or that you don’t need much brainpower, such as you may find that space that needs to be cleaned again and again, or you end up sorting out some clutter that’s in your drawer or on your shelf. Or there are times where you might find yourself browsing endless and mindless things on social media, or perhaps even having another cup of coffee in the hope that it will give you that much-needed stimulation.

Ultimately you end up procrastinating and putting more important things on the long finger. You end up getting and feeling bogged down with things and with life. Why is that? Well, you could have a fear or anxiety about something, or the work at hand that you have to do isn’t exciting enough. Or you’re unsure if you’re going in the right direction with your business or your career or your life, or perhaps you’re unsure as to how the best way of doing things is. Whatever it is that you are to do, whatever the task is at hand, that you might not have the skills or the experience of doing what it is. Or you’re doing things that just don’t feel right. You’re just not getting the same enjoyment or fulfilment from that you once had before. Where before you loved what you were doing, but now it’s like, “What’s the point?” You’re not on your purpose.

So what can you do about it, this feeling of being bogged down? Well, first of all, there’s a couple of things that we need to look at. First of all, you’ve got to check your energy levels. And what’s going to lead into your energy levels is look at your sleep, look at your diet and look at your exercise. Now, I’m not going to talk at length about your diet and your exercise because the vast majority of people and the vast majority of us know what we need to do when it comes to our diet and our exercise, and equally when it comes to our sleep. If we’re not getting the decent number of hours of sleep, well, then we’re not going to have that energy for the next day to do what it is that we need to do.

Equally, if we’re not eating healthy food, well, then that’s going to have a direct impact on our energy levels and what it is that we need to get done. And equally, if we’re not getting a level of exercise that’s getting our blood flowing really around our body, well then we’re not going to have, again, those energy levels of what we actually need. So first of all, we got to check those pieces and see whether we’re ticking the boxes from that perspective, whether we are getting enough sleep, or whether we are actually eating healthily, or whether we get enough exercise. But then we’ve also got to check what I call the energy vampires versus the energy chargers. Now, the energy vampires is what are the things, or even the people that take your energy away? And equally, what are the things or the activities, the experiences or the people that bring you energy.

Now, for some people, they need to be around other people and they feed off the energy from those other people. And by them working with other people, that’s what brings them energy. But equally, you can be around other people and they can literally suck every ounce of energy from you. So when you start to look at going through each day in each of your weeks, and you start to become more aware and be more sensitive of what are the moments and the things and the people that are energy vampires versus energy chargers, meaning what are the things that give you more energy? When you become more sensitive, more aware of those, well then it’s making the decision for yourself as regards well, how do you start to eliminate the energy vampires, and how do you bring into your life more energy chargers, things that bring you more energy?

The next question you want to ask yourself is, “Are you getting to clear your head? There are lots of different ways of how you can get to the point of clearing your head. But let me explain what clearing your head is in the first place. Clearing your head is clearing your mind of all the thoughts that are going on. So if you’re in a situation whereby you’re trying to just settle your mind, but yet all these thoughts are coming into your mind and you start to think about all those thoughts, well then ultimately what you’re doing is you’re not clearing your head. There are just loads of different activities of what people can do in order to clear their mind. So that can be either going for a walk, it could be meditation, it could be mindfulness, it could be yoga, it could be Pilates, it could be just doing something different or something creative.

What you got to do is you got to find the activity for you that suits you and works for you in how you clear your mind, how you clear your head. For me many, many years ago, I discovered and researched a huge amount. I tried a lot of different activities to try and find this way of how I could clear my mind of all my thoughts, and just be absolutely focused just on one thing. And the only thing that I could find at that time was horse riding. Because when you’re horse riding, you absolutely have to focus on the horse. You need to be completely in tune with the horse, its movements, and equally to horse is in tune with yourself. And you have this intuitive flow going between you and the horse. You can only focus on one thing, and that’s the horse riding. You can’t focus on anything else.

As soon as your mind wanders on all different things, well then the horse intuitively picks it up. And therefore it will do a whole load of other things in order to literally get your attention. See, it’s a great way that I’ve found for myself to focus my attention from that perspective. And it cleared my mind of all the other thoughts that were going on. Now for you, it’s about trying to find what that activity is for you. As I mentioned, it could be mindfulness, it could be meditation, it could be doing art, it could be drama. It could be anything for you, but you’ve got to have an activity which is literally giving you the ability to clear your mind, to clear the head. Now what you’ll find, and the reason why I’m encouraged to do this is that the more you clear your mind or clear your head out of all of those thoughts, ultimately what you’re doing is you’re opening the gateway to your unconscious. And you’re now allowing the inspired thoughts to come from your unconscious mind, into your conscious mind, into your executive centre part of your brain.

That’s ultimately what you want to try and achieve. So if you want to set yourself a goal or objective, that’s why it is that you’re doing what I’m encouraged to do by way of clearing your mind. But ultimately you’ll get a whole load of other benefits literally by just doing those kinds of exercises or those kinds of activities. The other thing that you got to look at is because people get bogged down because they feel a lot of stress or a lot of fear. So if you’ve got that feeling of being just bogged down and looking at life and not feeling the level of energy or encouragement or inspiration of what it is that you want to achieve, well, then ask yourself, what are you fearful of? What are you anxious about, or what are you stressed out about? And therefore what is it that you can do in order to eliminate or dissolve each one of those fears or anxieties?

On a previous blog, I discussed fear and anxiety. So if you haven’t listened to it, I’d encourage you to go back and look at that particular blog in order to actually dissolve the fear and anxiety. But the question you want to look at is for yourself is what are the circumstances or what are the situations or the moments that are showing up in your life that’s allowing you to feel fearful or to feel anxious or to feel stressed? And it’s because of those feelings that we can move into a situation where we just feel that we’re bogged down, that we’re not getting anywhere that we just feel, “Well, what’s the point of what it is that we’re doing?” Or, for want of a better word, we feel that we’re just bored with what it is that we’re doing. So start to look at it from that perspective.

Next thing is to start to analyze the tasks that you’re doing. And when you make a list of all the tasks that you’re doing, and you’re spending your time on, questions that you want to ask yourself is, “Is it of value?” So all the different tasks that you’re doing throughout the day, throughout the week, throughout the month, are the tasks that you’re doing, are they of value? Are they bringing you closer to what it is your dream is? Are they bring you closer to fulfilling your purpose? Do you need to do the task, or could you learn to delegate it or outsource it or even dump it if it doesn’t need to be done? What do you need to learn? What are the things, what are the skills and knowledge and experience that you need to develop in order to actually do what it is that you need to do?

As I said earlier on, we can feel bogged down because we’ve got a task to do, but we actually just don’t know how to do it. We don’t have that skill, the knowledge and experience in actually doing that particular task. So we can have this feeling of being bogged down. So therefore, what is it that you need to learn in order to do the task and to do it more effectively and more efficiently, and therefore just move forward? So if you’re not filling your day with activities that are in line with your purpose, your day is going to be filled with what it is that you don’t want. So just look at all the different tasks that you’re doing and ask yourself and go through each one of them. Do you need to get rid of it, do you need to eliminate it from your life completely? Is it possible to delegate or outsource it?

Do you need to develop your competence within that particular task that needs to be done? Or ultimately the really big question for yourself is the tasks that you’re doing throughout your day or throughout your week, are they helping you and getting you closer to fulfilling your purpose, for fulfilling your dream? And if they’re not, what you’re going to find is your day will be absolutely filled with tasks that you don’t want, if you’re not doing the activities of what it is that you do want. The next thing you got to look at is what’s your environment? I’ll give you an example from my perspective. During this COVID, and as a country we were all locked down, and I had to move from my usual office, and I had to set up a new temporary office in the home in order to operate from my new office environment. When I set up my new office in this temporary environment, I put my computer facing a particular way. So therefore, what was in front of me was my screen.

I couldn’t see past the screen because literally it was just in front of me, but I was blocking all the light that was coming into the room. I couldn’t see outside the window. I couldn’t see the sunlight. I couldn’t see nature outside my window because it was completely blocked by the screen. And what I’ve found over the first two days was that my actual energies completely dropped. And it wasn’t until I turned my desk purposely because I noticed the energy drop in myself, and all I did was I turned my desk 90 degrees in order to have the sunlight come through, for me to be able to turn my head and be able to see out the window, see nature, see the sunlight coming through. And as soon as I did it, my energy level started to come up. So when you become more sensitive to your environment and look around where it is that you’re working, what are the things that are not giving you energy in your environment, and what are the things that are literally draining your energy?

If you become more and more sensitive to the actual room itself and to your environment, you can actually pick up what’s the energy in the room? And is it is something that’s conducive for you to be actually more productive, or is it actually stressing you out and distracting you? So if there are things that are in your room, for example, clutter, and you’re seeing this constant clutter in the environment that you’re working within, well then that’s going to be distracting, but it’s also going to drain your energy. So the more you ask yourself is the energy in the room, is your environment conducive to what it is that you’re trying to do? For example, there are people that I know that have a very, very creative environment. And that whole creative environment feeds their energy for themselves. There are other people that are very, very organized, and they have to have everything structured in their environment and in the room that they work within.

And that for them feeds their energy because they now have order in their life, they have order in their particular environment. So the question you want to look at is think about it from the perspective of, as I mentioned earlier on the energy vampires versus what’s the energy that’s bringing you energy. So think of it from that perspective, and are there changes that you need to make to your environment. But your environment goes much further than that. It’s not just your physical environment, it’s also, what’s the news and the social media or the conversations that you’re having with other people are. For example, when you’re looking at social media channels, or you’re looking at the news, is your energy draining from you? As you’re having those conversations with people, or you’re reading those particular news feeds on social media or you’re watching TV or listening to on the radio, is it draining your energy or is it bringing you energy?

So your environment goes much further than just your physical environment of your home or your office. So just think about it from that perspective. Then look at okay, so what’s the work that you’re doing with your customers or your clients? Are you enjoying the kind of work that you’re doing? Are you enjoying the kind of customers and clients that you’re working with? And if you’re not enjoying your customers or your clients, well, then that’s going to bring a different level of energy to how you’re engaging with your customers and your clients. And you’re not going to bring your full self to that relationship if you’re not feeling that energy that you have with your customers and clients, if you’re not enjoying the work that you’re doing. And it’s when you have the absolute desire and excitement about the work that it is that you’re doing, obviously you’re going to feel bogged down in what it is that you’re doing. Now think of it from, yes, the customers and clients that you’re working with, but equally the type of work that you’re doing.

Let me give you an example. I originally trained as a management accountant. So when I set up my business in the first place in 2001, I started doing management accounts for a number of different clients. But what I actually noticed was that I was getting very, very stressed out in particular aspects of the work that I was doing with the clients. And what I found was that I absolutely really, really enjoyed the work from the perspective of guiding my clients to where it is that they were supposed to get to, what their purpose is, what their business should be all about and helping them to grow and scale their businesses from that perspective. But the times when I was actually doing the management accounting pieces, meaning I was heavily ingrained in actually doing the accounts, I didn’t enjoy whatsoever. I got hugely stressed out in that kind of work.

What I didn’t realize was that when I was in my career, I had other people doing that work for me, and therefore I was reporting on the actual management accounts, as opposed to doing the management accounts. So when I found that out for myself, I immediately removed all that aspect of the work from the service offering that I was doing. I completely removed it and only just focused on reporting on the management accounts and in helping and guiding the business owners to grow and scale their businesses.

So look at it from your own perspective and sense of, are there aspects of what it is that you do in your client relationships that you don’t really absolutely enjoy doing? And if you don’t, well, then what is it that you can do to either delegate or outsource it, or remove it from your service offering, or have other people do it for you? So look at the kind of work that you’re doing. The next thing you want to look at is, okay, so what is your people? Meaning what are the people that you surround yourself with? And that can take into friends, family, acquaintances, and as I said earlier on clients and customers. I heard a phrase many, many years ago, and the phrase was your “network is your net worth”. Meaning that the people that you surround yourself with, if you were to take the average earnings of the people that you surround yourself with, then your net worth would equate to the average of the same net worth of those individuals.

Now you can take it from that perspective, but I want to go one step further. Because if your energy levels… If you’re taking the average energy levels of the people that you surround yourself with, well then that’s the energy that you’re going to have. So just as much in financial terms, your net worth from a financial perspective will be the average of your network, the people that you surround yourself with. That’s from a financial perspective. If you take it from an energy perspective, your energetic net worth will be the average of the energetic or the energy levels of the people that you surround yourself with. So what you want to look at is that is there not a group that you want to form part of? Are there other people that you want to be surrounding yourself with? Either friends or acquaintances or clients or customers or other people that you meet with on a regular basis?

And the more you get involved in those other people, really what it’s doing is it’s bringing up your energy levels, but it’s also helping you to stretch even further for what it is that you can actually achieve. You don’t want to be surrounded with people that are going to throw water on your plans and your dreams, and what it is that you actually want to achieve. You want those around you to be your champions, to be your cheerleaders, to be your mentors, your advisors. You want people to support and stretch you and encourage you to go after what it is. It’s okay to be challenged, to challenge your thoughts and to challenge your plans of what it is that you’re going to achieve. But you want people there to literally support you and say, “Yes, go after it.” That’s the kind of people that you want to be around.

So when you think about the people that you’re around with, well then think of it from that perspective. It’s not just from a financial perspective, it’s from an energy perspective as well. But I want to go deeper. The question I have for you is what’s driving you, what’s motivating you? Now motivation follows action. So let me explain that. If you can think about it, so if you’re sitting on the couch and you’re watching TV and you’re flicking through the channels and you have it in your mindset, “Oh, I must go to the gym.” And you still constantly go through this thought process, “I must go to the gym. I must go to the gym. I must go to the gym.” But an hour later, you’re still sitting on the couch and flicking through the channels. It’s not until such time as you actually pick up the bag and put your runners on perhaps, that you literally start to get the motivation to actually go to the gym and do all the physical exercises that you want to do in the gym.

Motivation follows action. As soon as you start taking action, that’s when the motivation starts to follow. That can be applied to anything in your personal life or in your business life. So when it comes to writing the report that you need to get done, when you start writing that report, that’s when the motivation will start to follow. When it comes to doing physical exercise, as soon as you put those runners on, well then that’s when the motivation is going to follow. So just think of it from that perspective. Now, ultimately what you want to have and understand for yourself is what is actually driving you forward? What is it that’s motivating you in going forward or wanting to achieve what it is that you want to achieve? The next question is, do you know what your purpose is, what your mission is. If you don’t know what your purpose is and what your mission is, what it is you’re absolutely here to do, you’re not going to be jumping out of bed in the morning in order to fulfil your purpose, because it’s just not there. It’s just you don’t have it.

So the question you had got to have for yourself is have you got that mission that you’re absolutely trying to fulfil in life, that purpose of what it is that you want to achieve, what you’re going after to achieve. When you have that absolute sense of purpose and that clarity, that’s when you’re jumping out of bed in order to actually achieve that dream, achieve that mission in life. Now, the next question is that if you don’t have that purpose, you may have a sense of what your purpose is, or you may have a sense of what it is that you want to achieve, but perhaps it’s not big enough for you. Meaning it’s not an inspired vision, you’re only seeing a small glimpse of what it is that you want to do. When you have an absolute inspired vision of what it is that you want to achieve, what you’re seeking to achieve, if your vision is big enough, you will literally be driven in order to achieve your vision.

So that’s where, when I say, I want to go deeper, that’s what I mean by going deeper. Understanding what your purpose is, what your inspired vision is, the difference, the absolute clarity on the difference that you’re going to make for the other people, the other people that you’re going to serve in terms of your customers, your clients, the impact, the difference you want to make in other people’s lives, in whatever shape or form that may look like. If your vision is not inspired enough, it’s not big enough, well then you’re going to feel bogged down. You’re not going to feel that energy level. You’re not going to feel what it is that you want to go after. So these are some of the questions you want to start asking yourself, have you got your purpose? Have you got your inspired vision?

And then start to look at, okay, so who’s helping you to actually achieve your vision, to achieve that mission, that purpose, what it is that you want to achieve. But then there’s also the day-to-day side of things of what I said earlier on by way of looking at your environment, looking at people that you’re surrounding yourself with, looking at your diet, your exercise, and what it is that you’re doing in your life. Your routines, your habits, all of those things come together in order for you to achieve what it is that you want to achieve.

So these are some of the questions you want to ponder on. With those questions, you get answers. You see without an inspired vision, you’ll operate from the amygdala. You’ll operate from the lower part of your brain. And if you’re operating from the lower part of your brain, you’re never going to operate from the executive centre part of the brain. You’ve got to move and shift into the executive centre part of the brain. Now, how you’ll know that is that if you’re not doing activities that align with your highest internal priorities, well then you’re going to fill your day with meaningless tasks, meaningless activities that are not going to bring you forward to what it is your purpose is, what it is that your inspired vision is. Over 90% of the people that I come across don’t know, or are absolutely completely unsure of what their internal priorities are.

They think they know what their internal priorities are, but they’re not. Over 90% of the people that I come across don’t know for definite what their internal priorities are. If you don’t know what your internal priorities are, that’s what you got to find out. That’s what you got to work on. It’s your purpose. It leads to your purpose. It leads to what it is that you want to bring about. And if your business or your career isn’t structured around your internal priorities, well then obviously you’re going to have that feeling of just feeling bogged down. Now, as I said in previous blogs, there’s a link within the description of this or this blog, that will bring you to find out what your internal priorities are.

If you don’t know what your internal priorities are, absolutely find out what they are, because it’s the key cornerstone of what it is that you need in your life in order to bring meaning and fulfilment, and it’s what leads to your purpose, what leads to having that inspired vision of what’s going to get you jumping out of bed in the morning in order to actually achieve that mission that you want to have in life.

Are you striving to be your best? Not in terms of physical shape or fitness accomplishments. Are you striving to be your best and to be the difference that you want to make in this world to have the impact that you want to have for other people, to have that legacy that you want to leave behind, to be your best in terms of your purpose? Knowing your purpose and knowing your mission, knowing what it is that you’re going after. Are you striving to be the best in that mission, in that purpose of what it is that you are here to fulfil?

Or are you settling for less? Just settling and spending your days being less than what it is that you can achieve, being less than what your potential is, doing things that you know don’t serve you, doing things that you know just literally won’t bring you closer to what it is that you know deep down within yourself that you’re here for much, much greater. You’re here for absolutely much more to actually achieve. If you’re settling for less, why? Why wouldn’t you go and embrace life to its absolute fullest and bring about what it is that you want to actually achieve. Life is for achieving absolutely everything that you’re here to achieve. It’s for you to make manifest what you’re absolutely here to make manifest. It’s to experience life in a whole level, that most people don’t get to achieve. That’s what you’re here to do, so why would you settle for less?

Spend your days on doing activities that are bringing you closer to your purpose, bring you closer to having that fulfilment. It’s literally wanting to suck every single ounce out of life. If you don’t know what your purpose is, you’re going to have the lack of direction, the lack of clarity. You’re not going to have that higher sense of meaning and fulfilment and purpose in your life. You’re not going to be jumping out of bed every morning to fulfil what it is your purpose of what it is your mission is. You’re just going to feel like you’re on a treadmill on that proverbial hamster wheel. That’s not what life is supposed to be about. Life is exhilarating. It’s literally getting into life and sucking every single ounce out of life. Life is for living. It’s not for playing small.

So the question you have is, what is that it is that you’re doing in order to move you closer to what it is that your purpose is? Are there going to be challenges? Yes, of course there is. Otherwise you don’t get to do, and you don’t get to learn. You don’t get to do what it is that you’re supposed to do, and if there’s not challenges, challenges are to stretch you. Challenges are there for you to learn from. Challenges are there to get you to the higher levels. So yes, of course there are challenges, but you don’t see challenges as a challenge. When you’re working on your purpose and you’re driven in order to achieve the purpose that you’re here to actually achieve, you see it as a way of getting you closer to your purpose, not as a challenge. Because you know at a much, much deeper level why the challenge is there in the first place.

Is there an easier way to get there? Absolutely, of course there is. But here’s the thing, why wait for tomorrow? Why not start now, today, this minute, to live the life you’re meant to live? It’s time to live the life you were absolutely born to make manifest. It’s your decision. That’s it. It absolutely starts with your decision. And with your decision, you take action. Motivation follows action. That’s it for now until the next blog, I wish you absolutely every success.