A lack of motivation to tackle your most important goals can seem like an endlessly irritating problem to fix. Is today just one of “those days” where you can’t seem to get anything done? Are you genuinely apathetic towards the goal you’re trying to achieve? Do you feel sick; are you starting to come down with a cold? Or is your problem a little bit deeper than any of those shallower reasons?
In my last article on present and future mindsets, I explained two thought patterns 99% of the population operates on through a daily basis – a present-based, pleasure oriented mindset, and a future-based, goal oriented mindset. The self-help world loves to stress how important future-minded thinking is. One reason for this is that thinking about the future obviously works fantastic when you’re strategically thinking about which goals you want to achieve. And this reason makes sense, too – thinking too short term can severely hamper what we think we can accomplish.
But then something strange happens. We begin to think that if we don’t apply future-minded thinking to everything in our lives, we’ll never achieve our goals. Somebody else will always be vying to be one step ahead of us, and we can’t have that, can we? This is the mindset that leads to people trying to make incredible self-discipline jumps that they can’t handle: they try to get up every single day at 4:30am without any practice; they try to eat purely healthy foods; they cut out every single “bad” time wasting activity they can think of. The future-based mindset thinks of “fun” activities as unneeded time wasters. Enjoying yourself leads to not getting any work done on your goals, and that’s not acceptable.
It’s just too bad – human beings don’t work like that. 
We aren’t wired to have a future-based lifestyle. People need balance; we want to work hard and achieve our dreams, but we also want to have a little fun (or a lot of fun!) along the way. If I’m feeling emotionally drained, I’m going to feel apathetic. And if I feel apathetic, I’m surely going to encounter decreased motivation. We need to have fun! We need to enjoy ourselves and not become too wrapped up in the future.
Self help guru Steve Pavlina often talks about how he picks goals that are intrinsically fun and worthwhile to go after – goals that excite him in the present. To me, this is the epitome of perfect goal setting. When your goals are incredibly fun and motivating to work on every step of the way, you’re killing two birds with one stone: the present-based mindset is being satisfied because you’re immensely enjoying yourself, and the future-based mindset is happy because you know you’re working to create the life you dream of.
If you’re having trouble finding motivation, quit working on your goals and enjoy yourself! Most of the time, probably 98%, a clear lack of motivation is a hint that we aren’t giving ourselves permission to have fun in the present. While our minds might be saying “all work, no play!” our emotions are screaming out “We need some play, some of the time!”
When you’re feeling unmotivated and apathetic, do something that makes you feel happy and content. It’s as simple as that. Play an old video game that you love. Take a long walk outside and enjoy nature. Watch your favorite sitcoms. Have a deep conversation with a close friend. When you feel happier and fulfilled, return to working on your goals. You’ll have increased motivation and a drive to accomplish work that only happiness can bring.
