Staying motivated when life gets too much

We all have those days when we’re not feeling our best, various issues in our lives can affect our mood, things can crop up that have a negative influence on our self-confidence or we might just be going through a period of feeling a little low.

 

When you’re feeling like this it can be hard to stay motivated, incentives to eat healthily and exercise are dampened by negative thoughts telling you to order a takeaway because that’ll make you feel better. Here are a few things to think about the next time you might be feeling like you can’t face getting out of bed.

Don't beat yourself up 

 

Most importantly, don’t beat yourself up, it’s perfectly normal to have days when you’re not feeling yourself. We’re human beings, we’re all different, we’re all complicated and we all feel worn down now and then. A bit of self-compassion goes a long way, give yourself a break, the more you beat yourself up about being unproductive the worse you’ll feel. Don’t be your own hater, more often than not, you are your own worst critic, if others spoke to us the way we can speak to ourselves on our worst days, we’d want to remove them from our lives for our own sake. So, be nice to yourself and go easy on yourself, we promise it’ll help.

Do what normally makes you happy

 

Secondly, think of how something makes you feel when you’re not having a bad day. What makes you feel good when you already feel pretty good? Whatever the answer is, it’s still likely to, at the very least, make you feel a bit better even when you’re feeling low. If a brisk walk and some fresh air is something you normally do to relax or refresh, give it a go anyway or if benching some heavy weights gets you hyped, then do that. Maybe you won’t feel like walking as far or as fast or lifting as hard or as heavy but just give it a try. Always try to keep in mind that even if it might not help, it can’t hurt to try.

You don't have to enjoy it to do it

 

Thirdly, change your mindset when it comes to why you’re doing something. On some days it can feel like nothing will cheer you up, but if you can accept that and be aware of it then you can change your attitude as to why you need to do what you need to do. Don’t expect to enjoy something if your lows are all-encompassing, make your goal to do it rather than enjoy it. If you’re having a bad one and you know your morning workout is going to be a pretty joyless experience, don’t make enjoying it a priority, just make getting it done the priority! Whatever it is you need to do, whether it be taking the bins out, cooking your tea, doing a round of pull-ups or anything else, focus on getting it done, rather than making it fun.

 

Give yourself a pat on the back 

 

Lastly don’t be averse to being self-congratulatory. Giving yourself a pat on the back for achieving something, however small the achievement might seem, will help to encourage similar behaviour in future. Instead of being your own worst enemy, become your biggest advocate. If you’re honest with yourself, despite a handful of regrets and misjudged decisions, we can pretty much guarantee you’re doing all right, all things considered. Always keep that in mind.

 

Life can be hard, we all have bad days, but the challenge lies in getting through those days as well as we possibly can. If you can encourage yourself to boss any day, even at your worst, it’ll be a walk in the park when you’re at your best. For more on how to stay on track on days when your heart might not be in it, my silver and gold packages all come with helpful advice from myself and other experts on how to stay on top of everything when life gets a little overwhelming. With help and advice on time management, self-compassion, staying motivated and loads more. 

Open up & talk to someone 

If it all gets a bit much, talk to someone, a friend or a relative, or, there are numbers you can call if you’re not comfortable bringing these things up around those closest to you. Samaritans do an amazing job of helping people through their rougher days so it’s always worth giving them a call if you’re feeling low or lonely. First and foremost though, work on opening up to others, a lot of people, men especially, struggle with being open about their mental struggles because of the historic stigma attached but that’s changing now. Anyone who cares about you would much rather you were honest with them than keep it bottled up. And Factory Weights are a DM away if all else fails!