THE WAVE of MOTIVATION
I have heard this statement mentioned in quite a few Podcasts recently and it really intrigued me.
So what does it mean?
It was explained that your levels of motivation come in ‘WAVES’.
Visualize the shape of a wave, it has a high point (crest) and then comes crashing down (trough). But the other thing about waves is that they are continuous, they never end and are always moving.
Whichever point the wave is at, the top or the bottom, the other will come and there are levels in between.
This was an absolute ‘light bulb’ moment for me!
I wasn’t going mad, and it wasn’t just me!
It is apparently FACT that we experience this and in fact they are looking at how they can present this within the education system too.
I don’t know about you, but I have days where I could conquer the world with how I am feeling and can tick so much of my list, face things I have been dreading doing and just have a really productive day, which makes me feel great! (crest of my motivation wave)
On the other hand, I have days where everything just seems an effort, I can’t concentrate, everything takes ages to do and I just don’t be able to get what I do right. (the trough of my wave).
This apparently is how our motivation works, which makes massive sense to me, now it has been pointz`ed out! And makes me feel a whole lot happier about myself, and now allows me to be a lot kinder to myself about it all.
The podcasts both recommended therefore that you ride the wave at the top and get as much done as effectively as you can on these motivated days when you can conquer the world…. Batch cook so you don’t have to worry about it on your trough days. Get the paperwork or filing done that has been staring at you on the days you just could not face it (trough days) or just crack on with your ‘to do’ list.
And on your trough days, be kind to yourself, don’t beat yourself up, acknowledge it is one of those days and move on. Don’t tell yourself you are useless, no good at anything, get frustrated or annoyed at yourself……. Just let it be, because as the waves are continuous so are our motivation levels, and you crest will come back.
When I thought about it like this, I realized that this is the case in most things in my life, exercise, my course I am doing, cooking teas, work, jobs at home…… just everything.
This has given me a completely different perspective and has REALLY HELPED me to believe, that actually I am not so hopeless and that I am definitely going to apply this physically and emotionally to myself in the future…… IT IS A WIN/WIN for me.
Hope it helps you too.