How can someone get out of a slump and become motivated to improve their life during the pandemic?
To help you get out of a slump and motivate yourself, we asked CEOs and wellness coaches this question for their best insights. From building momentum to setting small goals, there are several tips that may help you find the motivation to improve your life.
Here are 10 ways to become motivated to improve your life during the pandemic:
- Build Momentum
- Identify the Root Cause
- Create a Routine With Positivity
- Surround Yourself With Likeminded People
- Keep a Gratitude Journal
- Learn a New Skill
- Connect With Others on Zoom
- Create a Motivational Vision Board
- Go to a Coffee Shop
- Set Small Goals
Build Momentum
One of the best tips for overcoming pandemic slump is to favor momentum over motivation. Many folks wait for inspiration to strike to take action, yet staying stagnant can prevent that jolt of energy from ever occurring. Action begets action, and the simple act of starting is often the anecdote to the obstacles that hold most folks back from self-improvement.
While it can be challenging to begin when you feel low-energy, hopeless, or out-of-practice, once flow sets in you often continue down the road of growth automatically. Work on your goals consistently for a short time every day even when you do not feel like it can be the push you need to break out of the rut and get back on track to achieve your dreams.
Tasia Duske, Museum Hack
Identify the Root Cause
Before you can even begin moving your way out of the mental slump, you need to identify what’s causing you to feel demotivated in the first place. It could be that you’re experiencing symptoms of burnout or are unhappy with the projects you’re involved in. By evaluating what’s causing you to feel unsatisfied, you can develop new strategies that tackle each of these problems individually and get back to feeling more in control of the situation at hand.
Riley Beam, Douglas R. Beam, P.A.
Create a Routine With Positivity
You’re much more motivated to get up and do something, whether exercising or daily house maintenance when that task has become part of your routine. For most of us, the pandemic derailed our structured daily routine and created many obstacles to living a fulfilling life. Now that we’re two+ years past the start of COVID, it’s time to recreate and reimagine your daily routine.
In doing so, be sure to include time to enjoy yourself, to have moments of positivity. Creating time throughout your day that is dedicated to cultivating positivity can make a strong impact on both your productivity and motivation for the day. The past few years made it easy for negative emotions, keeping you in your comfort zone while narrowing your focus, keeping you from seeing the bigger picture.
Therefore it’s crucial to allow yourself to experience positive emotions each and every day such as Facetiming a friend or loved one, watching a silly YouTube video, or jamming out to one of your favorite bands.
Jason Brandt, Podopolo
Surround Yourself With Likeminded People
The pandemic has given us a unique opportunity to completely cut ourselves off from people we shouldn’t necessarily have contact with. Choosing a companion has never been so easy. If you want to change something in your life, one of the best things you can do is to get into the right environment that encourages motivation.
The pandemic has given us many opportunities to make new contacts online, so why not do it? Follow people with similar goals on social media, join Facebook or Discord groups and meet people to go on that journey of change together.
Natalia Brzezinska, PhotoAiD
Keep a Gratitude Journal
Keeping a gratitude journal is one way to acknowledge what is going well and start to feel motivated about improving your life coming out of the pandemic. When we fixate on the past or worry about the future, we lose sight of the good happening right now and feel unsettled without the perspective of how far we have already come.
A gratitude journal can be as simple as a few bullet points or a reflection at the end of the day noting all you are thankful for, such as your home, job, family, bed, enough to eat, intelligence, caring heart, friends, etc. Taking inventory of the things we appreciate is one simple way to get out of a slump and begin to recognize that we will be alright.
Benjamin Meskin, Cabrella
Learn a New Skill
I’ve found that a great way to help pull yourself out of a slump and improve your life, no matter where you are, is to learn a new skill and turn this practice into a habit over time. Even if you have to begin small, the simple act of learning something new ignites something in our brains—something that makes us yearn for a bit more, believe in ourselves, and keep pursuing our greatness. For example, maybe for you, this looks like reading a few pages of a fascinating book you’ve been meaning to get into.
Maybe this entails setting aside some time to listen to a podcast on personal finance, relational skills, or history. Choose something you’re truly interested in or a topic that will add almost immediate value to your life; this helps immensely in creating the habit, which ultimately leads to greater and more valuable habits throughout our lives. This seemingly small and simple adjustment may seem too minor to have an impact, but many great things start out as very small.
Reece Kresser, Zizi
Connect With Others on Zoom
Connecting with other human beings is a great way to break out of a pandemic rut. The lack of socialization has taken a heavier toll than most folks realize. Sometimes the first step to coming out of a slump is to connect with others. You can schedule a Zoom hangout with colleagues, friends, family members, or peers in your field. The call can be a simple catch-up or a brainstorming session. Or, you can commiserate about current struggles.
Sometimes, feeling seen and heard can be the boost you need to start creating. Other people can serve as a reminder of the reasons behind your goals and can provide you with the energy, support, reassurance, inspiration, and new ideas needed to get moving.
Carly Hill, Virtual Holiday Party
Create a Motivational Vision Board
Consider creating a motivational vision board. Fill it with pictures and quotes that resonate with you. To get out of the slump, turn to the vision board for some inspiration. For example, if one of your goals is to build a self care routine, ensure the board creates tips and tricks or products you’re excited to try. We all need some help sometimes, and a vision board is a self-motivated strategy to get out of that slump.
Natália Sadowski, Nourishing Biologicals
Go to a Coffee Shop
Grab your laptop and go to Starbucks. Whether you’re in a slump because you lost your job during the pandemic, or you work from home and are in a different kind of slump, distractions loom large. Everything, from the TV to the refrigerator to our beds, seems to call our names and can encourage us to be lazy. If you’re out of work, scroll and apply via online employment sites like Indeed and start a new career.
If you work from home, working from a coffee shop instead can be just the jolt of energy you need to get motivated and improve your life. Unless you order the Venti, triple shot espresso this jolt will be devoid of caffeine jitters!
Michael Van, Furnishr
Set Small Goals
Baby steps. The main reason why people find it hard to come out of a slump is that they want to tackle everything at once when they don’t have the energy to do so. That is why setting goals that excite you is important, but you have to take it slow. For example, if you want to set a fitness goal, don’t expect to do a two-hour high-impact workout on the first day.
Do a low-impact 10 minutes workout and sense how you feel. Increase the intensity every couple of days. But how to ensure you keep it going? Celebrate your improvements, no matter how small. Get yourself excited about the goal. You can buy gym clothes, get a gym buddy or do a video blog of your improvements. All of this applies to every goal you set for yourself. The pandemic has affected our motivation, and a lot of things may seem too big to tackle. The secret is to take it small and celebrate our wins. Challenges get easier one day at a time.
Corey Lewis, 1AND1 Life
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