The Greatest Hack to Get Moving Again When You're Not Really Feelin' It

Whether you’re the GSD type, (you Get. Stuff. Done.) you're the type who gets after and accomplishes your goals, or you're just working on it -- most of us have been struggling internally to get motivated lately.

When life switches things up on you -- many of us are home and struggling with balancing priories and time, trying to set new schedules, and/or dealing with job and income losses -- it seems almost impossible to get motivated some days.

Maybe you're wanting to:

• Get that project started
• Start on that big to-do list
• Apply for some temp jobs
• Start that hobby you always wanted to do
• Stick with new habit goals or routines
• Reach out to your network for opportunities
• Pick up a new skill
• Start working out regularly

Whatever it is, doing the things we know we need to or want to do seems insurmountable some times. So how can we overcome this and get moving?

Maybe, like me this week: You love your habits, but man, life gets in the way, and you fell off the wagon for what feels like the 10,000th time. You don’t have a huge procrastination problem, but

What can you do in those times (like me this morning), when you need to get stuff going and aren’t feelin' it!?

Through years of experience, trying to problem solve this life-long dilemma -- I have found the greatest hack:

VISUALIZATION

Visualization tricks your brain into going from avoidance to excitement.

Um…

Ok, Einstein.

Sounds lofty and fluffy.

Like one of those great non-answers so many sites give me…

::eye roll::

Let's explain...

Why Visualization Works

Explained simply: people (you!) procrastinate because you are avoiding displeasure.

It's that simple.

If you can change that displeasure into a feeling of pleasure, you can use a trigger to breakthrough the avoidance and into accomplishment every.single.time.

You just need the tools and the practice to form the habit.

Moreover, when you attach emotions, feelings of pleasure, and excitement to things you experience, they stick in your brain and change your wiring.

And when you see pleasure at the end of the tunnel, you are more likely to get moving!

Get moving for just 5 minutes and you've circumvented avoidance, and you’ll likely keep going!

Boom.

You now know more than 90% of your competition.

Let's get into how to use that knowledge and you're in the top 2%!!

Sound exciting?! 

(all the competitive people say 'yes!')

Read, on...

The Visualization Hack

The greatest thing I ever learned was that procrastination is not laziness.

[ref]

It is your brain's avoidance of something that seems hard, stressful, or likely both.

What does that mean exactly?

For example:

This morning: I was out of the office for the last two days. I was already feeling like I was behind in my work before I left (“behind” is the relative pressure I’ve put on myself with my own, self-imposed schedule of course). And now, the morning I’m going back, I have a lot of anxiety thinking about all I’ll have to accomplish to catch up.

The normal, unstressed me, would plan it out, accomplish the biggest piece and get moving.

This mornings’ me is trying to avoid work I have to do and work on some other goals.

I usually find a lot of happiness/fulfillment in being productive and getting stuff done, but my brain is trying to find pleasure and avoid the stress of the office work I have to do [ref].

I have two options:

OPTION 1:

I could do the other stuff, which will undoubtedly cause me to feel the immediate pleasure of avoidance and get some stuff done on my list (often, totally unimportant stuff). But, the flip side is this will only compound the stress of the work I still have left to do, swirling in my subconscious and raising my autonomic response a bit. Over time this will lead me to my bad coping habits like unhealthy eating and stress.

OR

OPTION 2:

I could get over it and force myself to do the work I need to do. This will bring me a lot of pleasure in the long run and relieve the burdening stress I feel in the background, about my work.

But I don’t want to!!!

:::whiny face:::

I know what I NEED to do (or need to stop doing) and I’m not feeling it. 

So, to the meat of the issue -- how do you do this?

What are some techniques I could use to just overcome my resistance to starting this project and get to it?

Using this example (or any example of a single-instance of procrastination):

How to Hack Your Procrastination and Get Stuff Done

1. Think about your 'why'

Right at the realization that I'm making excuses or procrastinating, I think about WHY I need to get this stuff done -- it’s going to make me feel SOOO much better to get that weight lifted off my shoulders.

Really think about it, visualize that end piece, and feel those feelings of accomplishment in your chest. That's it! Now count to 5, fake excited and jump into it! [ref]

2. Picture how it will feel to accomplish this

Or, I take that line of thought and really start thinking (meditating, visualizing, whatever you want to call it and in whatever way you can really reach out and touch your emotional response here is what you are looking for) about exactly how great it will feel once I have accomplished this (or even started to accomplish this!) thing I’m avoiding.

Take a minute and see it clearly in your head.

Put yourself there. What does it look like? How do you feel? What's your response? You are awesome!

I use that feeling of happiness/motivation and start to dig in.

3. Visualize your future, accomplished self

Not working yet? You want to visualize yourself in the future -- put yourself in that moment.

Once you have started the work, or finished the project early, or get your workout in.

Here you're just taking it a step further -- what does that future you, who has accomplished this end goal, see? What is the response (from your colleagues, bosses, friends, family)? What do you feel after you have accomplished this? Picture yourself knowing you did it.

You overcame this, accomplished it, and feel amazing now!

4. Keep your goals in front of you

In the long run, to avoid this problem more often, you can write out your goals or (even better) use photos and images to describe your goals, and post them in your workspace(s) so you can really SEE where you want to go, every day.

Keeping your goals in front of you in words and photos will really help you visualize and feel the awesome places you want to go by getting your work done (and just more effective because our brains are designed to process images, rather than words)

The idea here is to get a really wonderful, exciting and happy picture in your mind of where you want to go, and then ride those coattails.

Use any visualization technique that works for you to just move you into a little action (even if it's just 15 minutes of work) and I promise you, you'll get there. 

That’s all.

Do it!

Better than nothing and then you get the serotonin hit from checking that off your to-do list.

Bonus!

What is the #1 thing you need to get started on today to further your goals?

Share here in the comments, get to it for 5 minutes and share your results!

We'd love to help cheer you on!!