Lost the spark? How to get that fire back when you’re feeling unmotivated
Photo by Mege Presec on Unsplash
Let’s be honest. Even if you’ve mastered your time management, identified your meaningful long-term goals, and done everything else on the list to ‘thrive’ in academia, you are probably still going to have some moments when you’re staring at a blank computer screen feeling like an unmotivated slug.
I get it. That’s happening to me right now as I write this. I don’t feel particularly motivated. I just want to put some golf on the TV as background noise and take a nap.
This feeling of low motivation can be stressful; after all, your work doesn’t stop piling up. And you have a strategic plan that you should be excited about. So why aren’t you excited?
Some days are just like that.
Seriously, this is a normal feeling. It’s impossible to be ‘on’ and excited 24/7. Even the most brilliant and motivated academics I know—the ones who have seventyleven projects and collaborations on the go, working evenings and weekends just because work is fun for them—sometimes have moments (or days) where they don’t feel like doing a damn thing.
Feeling unmotivated isn’t a sign of laziness—but it is a signal to pause and check whether you’re drifting off track. For instance, are you feeling unmotivated because your commitments—even important ones that move your strategic vision forward—are eating into your self-care time? Maybe the workouts have gone from 1-hour to 30 minutes, and the healthy, homecooked meals have given way to UberEats. It may look like you’re managing just fine, but under the surface, you could be sliding towards burnout. Are you encountering other barriers that are taking away from your usual joy in exploring new ideas? Maybe some of your current activities are simply no longer serving you. In such cases, it may be time to either pivot or walk away. Or maybe your health hasn’t been great, or your kids have been struggling in school, or the perimenopausal hormone swings were a little rough this week and you just need more rest than usual.
Taking time to reflect and/or rest can help you see what is perhaps not fully in alignment. Remember that your strategic plan, your long-term goals, and your time management are all dynamic. The activities and the schedule that worked for you in the fall may not work for you in the summer. What you thought was part of your strategic vision last year may no longer be serving you this year. It’s important to check in with yourself to see what needs tweaking, or how life can be scheduled to run a little smoother. You might find that this is just a particularly busy season: grades are due, every student seems to be defending, and multiple manuscripts need revisions. If that’s the case, recognize that you may have to grind it out for a few weeks, but plan something nice for yourself as a reward when you make it out to the other side, whether that’s a dinner out at a restaurant you’ve been meaning to try, taking in a baseball game, or even just proactively scheduling a day of no plans so you can recharge how you want.
Motivation is not a constant—it ebbs and flows. If you’re feeling unmotivated, don’t get down on yourself, but do take a moment to consider what, if anything, your lack of motivation might be trying to tell you. Then, make a plan to address it, and, maybe, go take a nap while watching golf. Once you’re ready to get the fire burning again, let’s set up a call.
Next week: Progress, not perfection: Getting comfortable with ‘good enough’
