It is 6 am and your alarm goes off; you have school in an hour. You are beyond dreading it and feel miserable at the thought. Your mom keeps yelling at you to get up, but the motivation just is not there. How do you fix it?

Lots of people deal with having no motivation. It does not just stress you out but puts you behind. Once you begin to fall behind you may continue to just spiral down. Lack of motivation is mostly seen in teens. This could be from boredom, depression, anxiety, or even laziness. There are many ways to get yourself out of this. 

STAYING POSITIVE

Staying positive is a key to having good motivation. Often you see people lose motivation when going through hard times. For example, we have seen so many people lose motivation during the time of quarantine. I saw myself, my friends, my family, and spiral down. I saw my step-dad struggle with keeping motivated as he was still working at the time. He was dreading work almost every day, but one thing my mom always told him during these hard times was, “Just keep staying positive.” My stepdad is not the most positive, but when it came to this; he listened to my mom. It is hard to even have the mindset to stay positive when feeling so negative and sometimes you just need someone to glue it into you. This is a good method for motivation.

SETTING GOALS 

Who does not love accomplishing a goal they have set? I know that I enjoy it when I finally finish something I have started and I bet you do too. Take this great feeling of being accomplished and put it towards your motivation. Setting goals is the main key to success and motivation. Obviously, you may set some goals that are not appealing to you but doesn’t that make the end feeling even better? Accomplishing something that was hard for you to finish gives you an incredibly satisfying experience. I always try to think of it like that, and it certainly helps! If you need to get something done; stick it in your mind that it is a goal you need to finish. Keep reminding yourself of the end feeling and hopefully you can complete it. For example, you have a huge test coming up, you have no motivation to study and you are beyond stressed. Tell yourself that if you do a study that you will get a good grade and no longer be stressed. Write it down, keep telling yourself this is a goal and I am going to complete it. You may think this is going to do nothing, but in the end, you will be so thankful that you set the goal. 

USE REWARDS 

Using rewards is a great way to keep motivated. Everyone loves getting something at the end. This may not work in all motivation situations, but it definitely works for some. I would say you would mainly use this for kids. As an older sibling of two toddlers, I can agree that this works great. They are crazy, never listening, and never following through with anything. but giving them just a small reward keeps them going. My siblings are messy and my mom is always upset when she comes home to a messy house. When no one else gets the job done she goes to the kids and asks them to clean. Most of the time they are cooperative but for the times they aren’t, she offers them a reward. For example, one time she told them if they cleaned that playroom the best they could, she would give them a small treat after dinner. Every time she does this their faces light up and they then get the job done. Although this is a different view on motivation, rewarding yourself can be a great method for gaining motivation.

GET ORGANIZED 

Getting organized is a huge game-changer for motivation. When I was a remote student, I was more unorganized than most. This made my motivation lack greatly. I never knew where anything was or what I had to get done. This slowly made me procrastinate even more. Every day I would tell myself to organize, yet I would never get to it. It was a constant struggle every day to find out what I had to do, and I never wanted to face it. Eventually, when we all gathered back at school, I realized that I really needed to get organized. I made sure I did, with help from my family and friends I finally got back on track. I can say ever since I have got organized; my motivation has really increased. I know what I need to do and when it needs to be done. I have organized papers and notebooks for my classes. It helped my overall motivation and got me going again. 

DO NOT MULTITASK

This one is hard, not multitasking. Everyone multitasks constantly, but did you know it could be lowering your motivation? I never thought this way until one morning when I was drowning in homework and had my math assignment out next to me, my essay pulled up on my computer, and my reading book open. My mom told me, “you know if you just sat down and got one thing done first this may be a lot easier” You would never think that multitasking slows you down, as it is supposed to speed the process up. You become overwhelmed when you are multitasking on so many things. When you give your full attention to one thing at a time, it does not just make the end product better but makes you less stressed and more motivated to get another thing done. The end product will be better and that will make you feel better. 

VISUALIZE YOURSELF SUCCEEDING

When someone tells you to visualize yourself, you probably think “what is that going to do”. I can say I have definitely thought that myself. When you think of yourself succeeding it actually helps you succeed. I think a great example of this is when someone wants to go to a certain school or college. You put your all into that one place. You lose motivation in these things when others tear you down, or you look at your grade and it is not that great. It is the small things that tear us down, But you have to look at the bigger picture. You have to believe that you can do it and visualize yourself doing it to keep going. As many students may not get into their dream school, they most likely lost motivation and stopped trying so hard. The key is to keep trying until the end. You cannot give up or all come to fail. You have to see yourself doing it and make it your goal to make that visualization real. 

MINDFULNESS

Mindfulness is a very helpful thing in life.  I know for myself, it helps me get motivated. Say you have had a hard day at school, and you are now piled with loads of homework. You are beyond stress and have no motivation to get it done. What do you do? Take a few seconds, take a few deep breaths, and just breathe. There are different ways to obtain mindfulness. You can get apps to help you meditate, put on your favorite song, sit in silence, or just do anything that helps you clear your mind. Whatever it is you do, I promise that you will feel relieved afterward and will want to get your work done. 

APPROACH TASKS IN NEW WAYS 

Being bored is something that may drain your energy and motivation. I think this is seen a lot in school. Kids are bored which leaves them less motivated. Going into school every day, and doing the same classes and similar activities makes it no fun. The only way to change this is to look at things differently and approach things in new and different ways. 

Overall keeping motivation is had, it is hard for everyone, not just you and not just me. Although it is hard there are ways to try and get it back and keep it up, and hopefully, I gave you some good ways to do so.