How to take action when your motivation is low

I often work with clients who find themselves apparently stuck between a rock and a hard place. They have identified actions which they realize would be beneficial to take but their motivation to act is so lacking that they feel unable to act. The result is that they often do not take action.

Failing to take action typically has a negative snowball effect because the actions the person does not take are usually of two kinds. One type of action involves acting to solve a problem or accomplish a task in different areas of life such as work or school, relationships, finances and health. A second type of action is in the pursuit of activities which, if taken, can have a beneficial effect on the person’s physical, mental and emotional well-being. This type of action includes activities such as exercise, social interaction, relaxing and enjoyable activities along with hobbies and interests.

Fortunately, there are ways to deal with this apparent Catch-22. In the following sections, I will discuss several strategies which you can use to help you take desired actions when you are low in motivation.

Make and apply an action plan

Efforts to take action when you lack motivation should start with an action plan. This simple but effective tool entails first listing a goal you want to accomplish such as, ‘Become fit through exercise,’ ‘Complete my taxes for this year’, ‘Build my social life’, ‘Study for my exam’ and ‘Get into an exciting new career’. Being aware of the goal itself makes it more likely you will take action because you are thinking of the benefits of your action in terms of attaining a desirable outcome.

The action plan also makes taking action more likely by having you list specific actions which will move you toward your desirable goal and assigning specific days (and in some instances specific times of day) to take those actions. You are more likely to take action toward a goal if you’ve specified which actions to take and if you have assigned times to take those actions.

Finally, an action plan facilitates taking action by having you identify any obstacles you can foresee which would interfere with your taking the specified actions at the assigned times and identifying ways you can overcome those obstacles so that you are able to complete the actions despite them.

Break each action into small steps

It is harder to take action when you’re lacking in motivation if the action you’re wanting to take at a particular time is too big. So break your actions down into small steps and schedule those steps for action.

Even taking small steps will move you toward your goal. Once you’ve demonstrated your ability to take small actions, you can experiment with gradually increasing the size of the actions which you schedule.

Manipulate activation energy

Activation energy refers to how much time, effort and energy is required to begin an activity. You can take steps to reduce the activation energy for the actions you want to take and raise the activation energy for actions you find yourself taking instead of your desired actions.

For example, if your goal is to practice playing the guitar, you can lower the activation energy for this activity by having your guitar already set up and ready to play at the assigned time rather than having to get it out of its storage place and set it up. If you’ve found yourself watching television instead of playing the guitar at these times, you can raise the activation energy for this non-desired activity by making sure the TV is off at your guitar-playing times as well as by removing the batteries from your TV remote control and placing them in another room.

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Use the five-minute rule

When your motivation is low, use the five-minute rule to increase your motivation by engaging in a small amount of activity. In using the rule, you agree to do the activity for at least five minutes. At that point, you can choose to discontinue or continue the activity.

Most people find that they wish to continue the activity after five minutes. The reason is that even a small amount of activity is usually enough to improve your motivation, energy and mood to the point that you are ready to engage in additional activity. This rule is a great tool for getting going on an activity when your motivation is low because most people are able to do an activity for five minutes even when their motivation is lacking.

Make the benefits of taking action more cognitively accessible

When you don’t take action, it’s often because you’re thinking in the moment about the downsides of taking action such as the amount of effort involved. At these times, it’s important to make the benefits of taking action more ‘cognitively accessible’ or ‘top of mind’.

You can do this by first writing down the benefits of taking action and the downsides of not taking action. For example, the benefits of doing an exercise workout might include, ‘It will relax me’, ‘I’ll feel good about myself’ and ‘I’ll be more productive the rest of the day’.

Once you’ve listed these benefits of taking action, you can make them more cognitively accessible by reading over them twice a day and day by reviewing them at times when you don’t feel like taking action. Doing so will make it more likely that you will overcome your resistance to taking action by focusing on the rewards you will enjoy by doing so.

Collect data which demonstrate the benefits of action and which challenge the obstacles to action

As I mentioned, being aware of the benefits of taking action will help you to take action despite the presence of obstacles such as the amount of effort involved. You can increase this awareness of the benefits of taking action by collecting data which help you to recognize these benefits when you realize them.

For example, if you do an exercise workout by reminding yourself of its benefits, once you’ve done the workout you can ‘track’ these benefits such as feeling more relaxed, feeling good about yourself and being more productive the rest of the day. If you then find that you are lacking in motivation before your next workout, reminding yourself that you achieved these benefits as a result of your last series of workouts will help you to start exercising.

You can also collect data to challenge the validity of assumptions you have made regarding obstacles to taking action. For example, recently you might have avoided exercising because of your assumption that you would not be able to tolerate the discomfort of the workout.

When you have completed a workout, you can assess the validity of this assumption from the ‘data’ you’ve collected. This might lead you to change your view to, ‘Although I felt some discomfort during the workout, it wasn’t too bad and I was able to complete the workout while experiencing it’. Reminding yourself of this data regarding the assumed obstacle should make it less likely that it will deter you from taking action going forward.

A psychologist can help you to implement the strategies discussed in this article.

May you use strategies to take desired actions when your motivation is low,

Dr. Pat