The last week has been interesting. I had all kinds of things I needed to do, but I didn’t want to do any of them. I was frustrated as I sat in my favorite graveyard wondering “why am I so lazy and unmotivated?”
Instantly the answer came to me, as well as how to fix it.
Don’t Stereotype Me
I get it. I’m a zombie. Aren’t I supposed to be lazy? It’s the typical thought process of every non-zombie.
Sure, some zombies are part of a post-apocalyptic mindless horde, but the rest of us are busy updating our hovels, avoiding lumbering mutants and scorses (scorpion-tailed horses), building fences to keep away mutated gophers, and still finding time to write about building great habits for a trans-dimensional blog.
I even find time to cook, not that I can eat any of it. So if anything, judge me for being wasteful, not lazy.
Still, I get those moments where I feel no desire to do anything. Then, in that graveyard when I asked myself “why am I so lazy and unmotivated?” I found the answer.
Why We’re Unmotivated
Now what I’m about to tell you isn’t rocket science and that’s good. The closest we come to science in this reality is the mad scientists that roam around creating mutant clones and instagators (That’s not a misspelling. Imagine if someone carried around a bottle full of Florida. That’s what we’re talking about.)
If you want to know how we’re motivated look no farther than zombies. Why do we do what we do? Because we want something. Usually it’s brains, but it is what it is.
If we don’t want to do something, there’s a reason. The next time you ask yourself “why am I so lazy and unmotivated?” think like a zombie. Use these three simple questions to get past it.
Why Do I Feel This Way?
When you find yourself asking “why am I so lazy and unmotivated?” the first thing you need to do is ask why you feel this way. There’s a reason. Just like my friend Burb’lan said in Overcoming Procrastination, often procrastination tells us that we’re doing the wrong thing.
If you find yourself procrastinating, it’s either because you’re doing something you don’t want to do, have other things you want to do more, or are dealing with something else that’s pulling your attention. Let’s look at them one by one.
- Doing Something You Don’t Want to Do: If you are doing something you don’t want to do, then you need to decide if it’s something you really should do. After all, sometimes procrastination shows us we’re doing the wrong thing. If it’s something we need to do, there are solutions we can use in the next section.
- Something Else We’d Rather Do: If we do want to do this, but there’s something else we want to do more, we need to make sure we’re doing the right thing. We can also use the thing we want to do more as a personal reward when we do some of the thing that we need to get done.
- Something Else: If there is something else stopping us, like depression, a lack of purpose, or personal issues, that’s something that needs to be addressed. Connect with someone who can help you deal with these issues so you can be where you need to be. Then you can focus on doing what you need to do.
How Can I Change My Approach?
When you’ve asked yourself “why am I so lazy and unmotivated?” then you start to solve that by asking “why do I feel this way?”, the next question to ask yourself is “how can I change my approach?”
If you are doing something you don’t want to do, you can either stop doing it, change how you do it, or find ways to motivate yourself. I know when I’m not in the mood to run away from frost monsters I remember what happened to Okl’n and motivate myself with my desire to not become a corpsicle.
It makes me run as fast as I can, which is pretty much why frost monsters find zombies easy prey. We’re not known for speed.
If there is something else you would rather do, use that as a tool to motivate yourself. Do 30 minutes of what you need to do and reward yourself with 10 minutes of what you want to do. It’s the same way I run for my life for 30 minutes, and then I spend ten minutes trying to remember why I was running.
How Can I Motivate Myself?
In the end it all comes down to motivation. You may start by asking “why am I so lazy and unmotivated?” but you will end by finding out how to motivate yourself.
Is it by changing your approach? Perhaps it’s by finding rewards for doing the things that need to get done? Maybe it’s by breaking your tasks down to bite-sized chunks?
Often making your tasks small enough so they seem easy (doing less to do more), is a great way to make progress. For instance, don’t try to write a page, try to write a sentence. It feels so much easier and too easy. You find you will do it without even thinking, often writing a paragraph before you’ve blinked.
Why Am I So Lazy and Unmotivated?
If short, if you’re wondering why you’re lazy and unmotivated, it boils down to finding out what drives you and using that to your advantage.
Creating good personal habits starts with simply finding what motivates you and what doesn’t. Keep tasks simple and easy. Build good habits that you enjoy. You will find you will be easily motivated and the motivation will build, not unlike some of the creations the mad scientists make.
- Determine the Cause: Discover why you are feeling this way.
- Change Your Approach: Change what you’re doing.
- Bolster Motivation: Find the best ways to improve your motivation.
Take it from a zombie: when you make it simple, you can simply stumble around and still get to where you want to go.
