Lacking Motivation And Getting Bogged Down

Have you ever had the feeling that you’re just not making progress? You’ve lots to do, but you can’t seem to find the motivation or the energy to do anything. Unless it’s absolutely critical or there’s a date or deadline on it, that you don’t get around to actually doing it.

When you feel bogged down in these circumstances, you end up filling your day with tasks that are easy or don’t require much brainpower. For example, you might find yourself cleaning a space repeatedly or sorting through clutter in your drawer or on your shelf. Or there are times when 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 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, 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 fulfillment 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 are 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 to 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 a 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.

If we don’t eat healthy food, it will directly impact our energy levels and what 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 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 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 that people can do in order to clear their minds. 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 have to do is you got to find the activity that suits you and works for you in how you clear your mind, and how you clear your head. For me many, many years ago, I discovered and researched a huge amount. I tried many different activities to find a way to clear my mind of all thoughts and focus on just 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, and its movements, and equally to the horse be 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 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 that is literally giving you the ability to clear your mind, to clear your head. The reason I’m encouraged to do this is that clearing your mind of all those thoughts opens the gateway to your unconscious. And you’re now allowing the inspired thoughts to come from your unconscious mind, into your conscious mind, into the executive center part of your brain.

That’s ultimately what you want to try and achieve. If you want to set a goal or objective, you’re clearing your mind, as I encourage you to do.

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 have to look at is that people get bogged down because they feel a lot of stress or a lot of fear.

If you feel bogged down, looking at life without the energy, encouragement, or inspiration needed to achieve your goals, ask yourself: What are you fearful of? What are you anxious about? 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?

In 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. What situations or moments in your life are causing you to feel fearful, anxious, or stressed? It’s important to identify these triggers. Reflect on what’s showing up in your life to understand these emotions.

We can feel bogged down and stuck, wondering if we’re making progress. This can lead to questioning the purpose of what we’re doing. At times, it may even feel like we’re just bored with our tasks. So start to look at it from that perspective.

The next thing is to start to analyze the tasks that you’re doing. Ask yourself if the tasks you’re working on are truly valuable. Review what you’re spending your time on throughout the day, week, and month. Are these tasks adding value to your goals? Do they bring you closer to what it is your dream is?

Or bring you closer to fulfilling your purpose? Do you need to do the task, or could you learn to delegate it 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, 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 the skill, knowledge, and experience to actually do that particular task. We can have this feeling of being bogged down. 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?

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? Are the tasks you’re doing each day helping you get closer to your purpose? Are they moving you toward fulfilling your dreams? If you’re not focusing on what you truly want, your day will be filled with tasks you don’t enjoy. The key is prioritizing activities that align with your goals.

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. Nor could I 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. What I found over the first two days was that my actual energies completely dropped.

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 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 who 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 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 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 the radio, is it draining your energy or is it bringing you energy?

So your environment goes much further than just the 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? 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.

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.

And I didn’t realize that during my career, others handled the actual work for me. I was simply reporting on the management accounts, not doing them myself. When I discovered this for myself, I immediately removed that aspect from the service I was offering. It was a clear decision to streamline my approach. I focused solely on reporting the management accounts. My main goal was to assist and guide the business owners in growing and scaling their businesses.

Consider if there are aspects of your client relationships that you don’t truly enjoy. Reflect on these areas and evaluate whether they align with your strengths. If you can’t manage a task, consider delegating, outsourcing, or removing it from your service offering. Alternatively, have others take care of 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 clients and customers. I heard a phrase many, many years ago, and the phrase was your “network is your net worth”. The people you surround yourself with influence your financial success. If you calculate the average earnings of those around you, your net worth will likely reflect that average.

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. Your financial net worth is influenced by the people you surround yourself with.

The value of your network often determines your financial success. That’s from a financial perspective. Your energetic net worth is determined by the energy levels of the people you surround yourself with. The average energy of those around you influences your own. 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 surround yourself with? Either friends or acquaintances or clients or customers or other people that you meet with on a regular basis?

So when you think about the people that you’re around, 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. When you’re sitting on the couch, flipping through TV channels, and thinking, “I should go to the gym,” that’s when your mindset kicks in. You can act on it or let it pass.

It’s about deciding whether to follow through. 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. Once you pick up your gym bag and put on your runners, motivation starts to build. It’s that first action that sparks the energy to follow through with your workout. The physical effort becomes easier once you’ve taken the initial step.

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. When it’s time to write that report, simply start. Motivation often follows action, not the other way around. 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?

So that’s where, when I say, I want to go deeper, that’s what I mean by going deeper. Understand your purpose and inspired vision clearly. Define the impact you want to make on the lives of your clients or customers. Be precise about the difference you aim to create and how you will serve others.

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? Take a look at your daily life. Assess your environment, the people around you, your diet, and your exercise habits. Reflect on what you’re doing to support your well-being and growth. 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. 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 center part of the brain. You’ve got to move and shift into the executive center part of the brain. If you’re not engaging in activities that align with your highest priorities, you’ll fill your day with meaningless tasks. These activities won’t move you closer to your purpose or inspired vision. 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 have to find out. That’s what you have to work on. It’s your purpose. It leads to your purpose. It leads to what it is that you want to bring about. If your business or career isn’t aligned with your internal priorities, it’s no surprise you’ll feel bogged down. That misalignment creates stress and drains your energy.

If you don’t know your internal priorities, it’s crucial to identify them. These priorities are the foundation of what brings meaning and fulfillment to your life. They help you define your purpose and inspire the vision that motivates you to pursue your mission.

Are you striving to be your best? Not in terms of physical shape or fitness accomplishments. Are you striving to be your best and make a meaningful impact in the world? Do you want to leave a lasting legacy and align with your true 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 fulfill?

Or are you settling for less? Settling for less than your true potential, doing things that don’t serve you, and not moving closer to your greater purpose hold you back. Deep down, you know you’re meant for much more. 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 on 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 doing activities that are bringing you closer to your purpose, bringing you closer to having that fulfillment. 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 a lack of direction, a lack of clarity. You’re not going to have that higher sense of meaning and fulfillment and purpose in your life. Nor are you going to be jumping out of bed every morning to fulfill what it is your purpose or 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 it 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 are no 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 focused on your purpose, you’re driven to achieve it. You see each step as progress, not 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.