New Mom Chronicles: The Lack of Motivation Struggle

Believe it or not, I’ve struggled with motivation multiple, multiple times in my life…but I’ve never known it to fluctuate as much as it has since I’ve become a mom! I’m sure it’s tied in with the lack of energy struggle, but at the same time, energy and motivation are two different things.

Tell me if this isn’t you as well: I currently work full-time, plus teaching group exercise classes, so when I’m home with my son, I want to be as present as possible and spend that time focused on him. I might try to sneak in doing the dishes or learning new choreography or getting a playlist ready for DJ-ing an upcoming wedding, but I don’t want to let myself get too distracted (plus, he’s in his “mom” phase…so I’m not allowed to go far, or use something that he’s not allowed to bang on (like the laptop), or eat something if I’m not sharing! haha).

He tends to fall asleep for the night around the same time, but once I finally agree to stop cuddling and lay him in his crib, I get lost! No matter how much time I have before I’m going to go to bed myself, it hits me that I’m tired and don’t feel like doing anything, even if I was feeling motivated and energized and determined earlier in the day. I find myself watching T.V. or catching up on Snapchat and Facebook happenings. I’ll get the dishes done and make my lunch for the next day, but it’s rare that I get anything productive done.

While I’m clearly struggling with motivation myself, I know what I *should* do. So I offer these tips to you with the intention of hopefully helping you, as well as pushing myself!

• Make a plan. And stick to it.

I know from past experience that when I have a dedicated to-do list, it’s easier to get things done. Personally, I need to write my to-do list on a full sheet of paper that I can keep visible and in my face, not on a post-it note or even in an app on my phone (because all I do is ignore the notifications that try to alert me to check something off my list!). When I do that, it keeps me focused. I don’t forget the important things that I really do need to get done, and I manage to make progress on the less important things.

Find 5 or 10 minutes during the day to write down things you need or want to get done. I’ll then either rewrite it with the most pressing things at the top, visually separated a little bit from the rest of the list, or I might highlight them. Just some way of making them stand out.

And seriously, sometimes I consider the day a success if I just get one thing done, even if it’s just “do the laundry” or “sync my iPod so I have music ready for this week’s PiYo class.” And still seriously, it really is important to acknowledge all of your wins, even the really small ones. We need clean clothes, and my class would stink if I didn’t have my music ready. I mean, I could roll with it, but it wouldn’t be as awesome as it could be!

• “Successful people do what they have to do, whether they feel like it or not.” –Brian Tracy

I’d say I need someone to tattoo that on my forehead, but really it should be tattooed onto my hand or someplace where I’m going to be forced to see it everyday! The quote pretty much speaks for itself, and puts my lamenting about my lack of motivation to shame. As a fitness professional, I know damn well that you can’t wait for motivation to come. You have to just go and get it done.

It’s one thing to KNOW. It’s another thing to *DO.*

Consider writing this at the top of your to-do list, or putting it on a sticky note and placing it somewhere you know you’ll see it on a regular basis.

I sort of recommend the site IFTT.com. It stands for “If this, then that.” You can program it for almost anything. For example, “if Kerri posts a new blog, send me an email alert.” Teehee. Or a more relevant example, “If it is 8:00am, send me a text that says ‘Successful people do what they have to do, whether they feel like it or not.'”

The reason I only sort of recommend it is because it’s GREAT when it works, but a couple weeks into using it, I stopped receiving the messages I had set up. I checked everything and nothing had changed, but I couldn’t even get a test text sent to my phone to make sure the whole setup was working, and at the time, it seemed like the only way to contact “support” was through twitter, and I never got a response.

But perhaps try it out, and if you can get it to work for you, more power to you. I might try it again myself just to see.

• Activate faith, not fear.

I no longer remember where I first saw this quote, but I do have this one posted at my desk on a sticky note. A mentor of mine once told me during a conversation that the greatest killer of fear is ACTION.

This is getting a little more philosophical, but sometimes what stops us from being motivated or simply taking action is fear–fear that we’re not good enough, fear that we’re not qualified, fear that we won’t be successful (sometimes fear that we WILL be successful), fear that we’re too old or too young or not smart enough or that it will just take too long to get to where we want to go.

I fall victim to that ALL THE TIME. But this goes back to why it really is important to celebrate even the small wins every day, and to do what needs to be done, whether we feel like it or not. Action kills fear, and action creates momentum.

And I’ve found that once I take the action I’ve been putting off, it no longer feels as scary. In fact, sometimes I chuckle and wonder why I was so worried about it in the first place.

We need to remember that whatever we’re afraid of doing won’t kill us, so what’s the big deal, right? (Let’s keep conversations about skydiving or bungee jumping or dancing with poisonous snakes out of this lol. I’m talking about starting a conversation with a new person on Facebook, or taking a leap and starting a business or a blog, or making an important phone call that you’ve been putting off, or going back to school to start a new career, etc.)

Have FAITH that you ARE good enough and you CAN be successful (at the risk of sounding like Stuart Smalley). Activate FAITH, not fear.

What do YOU do to keep your motivation going? Feel free to share in the comments below!

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