Staying Motivated When You’ve Lost Your Drive

By Suad Othman on December 17, 2018

Let’s say you’re majoring in what you love, participating as much as you can, doing everything right, but somehow something is missing. That drive you had to get to the place you wanted to be has somehow diminished. You find yourself, not questioning what you are doing, but just not trying as hard. It could be that you’re just burnt out and exhausted from the daily grind and you’re completely valid in your feelings.

It’s easy to lose your drive for the passion you’re pursuing when you’re working hard and have been for a while, maybe even years. This article is intended for those people.

Image via unsplash.com

Remember Why You’re Doing What You’re Doing

Think about what your daily struggles are and why you’re choosing to endure them. You made a choice to pursue what you are doing (hopefully), no one has forced you to pursue your passion. When you make a choice to do something, there is power in that choice. There was a moment in time when you weren’t happy doing something else. Take some time to sit and remember whatever that was and place yourself in that moment.

Remember the Past and How Far You’ve Come

Whatever you’re doing now to pursue your passion, you’re doing great! Kudos to you, seriously. It takes a strong person to put other people’s opinions aside and truly pursue what YOU love and care about. Now, remember that, remember how far you’ve come. Don’t let yourself slip back into old habits, procrastinating, missing deadlines or waking up late.

You’ve come so far and if you can’t easily see that, then think back to the past and how you got to the place you’re at now. Maybe that moment you’ve placed yourself in is something you’ve overcome, a past struggle perhaps. It even may be that your life has changed drastically based on the decisions you’ve made. This is all okay. You trusted in yourself that you made the right choice, so follow through with that decision. That breakthrough you are hoping for is closer than you might believe, I promise. Just make yourself the promise to not give up your drive just yet.

Remember This is Only Temporary

Resilience doesn’t appear instantaneously, it manifests itself after you’ve endured your struggle. That struggle is the drive you try to maintain while going through the motions of daily life and trust me I know how hard this can get. Something interesting that helps me maintain my own drive is realizing that the days go by slow, the months go back faster, and the years just fly by.

I’ve noticed that maintaining my drive is harder when I think only about the present days I’ve lived. Try to develop the mentality of living life as a painting where the colors are slightly blended together, instead of living life as a bar graph with limitations and expectations you’ve set for yourself. Remember to live freely in your days while pursuing your passion. Your passion doesn’t have to equate to the imprisonment of your happiness. Remember that this is only temporary and when you feel like you just want to give up, don’t! Don’t let your past and future self down because of your present state.

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