Do you feel that your motivation levels are just not strong enough? It is often the case that people with high levels of motivation label people that have lower levels of motivation as lazy or even stupid. The truth is that there are a number of factors that can affect the levels of motivation that a person has.
Having a low level of motivation rarely has anything to do with laziness or intelligence. If you find yourself with a low level of motivation then the good news is that you can usually always fix this. By practising the techniques you will find in this book you will see your motivation levels rise steadily.
There are four main factors that can cause low levels of motivation. These are habitual behaviours, habitual beliefs, health problems and quirks in personality. Some people will fall into more than one of these categories and that’s ok. If you think that you fall into more than one category please don’t be alarmed because you can fix this.
Habitual Behaviours and Motivation
A habitual behaviour does not have to be based on a specific belief; in fact, most of the time habitual behaviours have no real foundation at all. They can be just something that you have done for a long, long, time and you may feel that these behaviours are impossible to break. This is not the case.
Let’s take a look at a habitual behaviour example. As a child growing up, you were encouraged by your parents to eat a lot of sugar-based foods because they believed that these were essential for your energy levels. Your parents didn’t believe in healthy eating at all and felt that these kinds of foods would leave you lacking the energy that you needed.
When you become an adult you realized that healthy eating was the right thing to do. Even with the strongest motivation you found it difficult to break the habitual behaviour of eating sugar-based foods.
It took a great deal of practice and persistence for you to finally break the habit after a few weeks.
We all have habitual behaviours that we are slaves to and are difficult to break. The only real way to break these habits is through determination and persistence. So if you had the habit of continuously eating sugar-based foods and wanted to lose weight, you would have to break this habitual behaviour first before you were able to achieve your weight loss goals.
Habitual Beliefs and Motivation
A habitual belief is something that you have held onto for a very long time and you believe it to be completely true. You could have developed this belief as a child and over the years you have made it stronger. Not all habitual beliefs that you hold will be true or support your motivation levels.
If you want to increase your motivation levels it is important that you take a look at your beliefs to see if any of them are holding you back. If this is the case then you need to look carefully at these beliefs and critically analyze whether they are true or not. In a number of cases, these won’t be true and will just stifle your motivation.
Let’s assume that you believe you are not a good-looking person and are just average. You also are a few pounds overweight. How likely are you to be motivated to lose the extra weight if you hold the belief that you are just average looking? It is not very likely, is it?
After all, it doesn’t matter how thin you are you have the belief that you are not good-looking. So why bother losing weight? From this example, you can see why habitual beliefs can really stop you from driving up your motivation levels. Usually, these beliefs are not true and sometimes they are not even logical.
If we take the example above it is pretty obvious that anybody that is overweight is going to look better if they lose a few pounds. But this person believes that they are average looking so they have no motivation to do this.
Health Problems and Motivation
There are actually a few health problems that can cause low motivation levels. In a lot of cases people that are suffering from low motivation do not think about checking out their health and do not realize that these are contributing to their lower motivation levels.
If you suffer from depression this is very likely to have a negative impact on your motivation levels.
Depressed people would often stay in bed rather than get up and do something to achieve their goals. It doesn’t matter how much of a burning desire they have to achieve their goals the depression just gets in the way.
If you feel that depression is stopping you from being highly motivated then go to your doctor and get a proper diagnosis. There are many medications and other treatments available that can help you to overcome your depression.
Some people suffer from brain fog which can be due to brain inflammation. When this happens, the neurons in the brain fire more slowly than they should. If you constantly suffer from brain fog then go and see your doctor or a specialist for a proper diagnosis. There are things that can be done to help you to overcome this problem.
Do you suffer from low blood sugar? If you do then this can definitely affect your motivation levels. Having a diet that consists largely of carbohydrates can cause you to experience spikes in your blood sugar and then crashes. Over a period of time, this can cause you to become easily fatigued.
A common cause of fatigue and even depression can be gluten intolerance. This can be so severe in some cases that people just don’t want to do anything. If you believe that you may have gluten intolerance then ask your doctor for a correct diagnosis so that you can take the right action.
Another health issue which can cause depression and fatigue is hypothyroidism. This happens when the thyroid gland becomes continuously damaged by the immune system. Again you need to visit your doctor and get a correct diagnosis if you feel that you are suffering from hyperthyroidism.
Personality Quirks and Motivation
If you have a personality quick then this can definitely affect your motivation levels. A personality quirk is not something you can easily change like you can with habitual beliefs or behaviours. A good example of this is if you have a poor memory. These days you can usually find help to overcome almost any personality quirks like this
