How to Find the Motivation to Create

Finding the Motivation

You might have a lot of great ideas that you want to manifest, or a lot of projects you want to realise yet find yourself stunned by the lack of motivation. You feel as if you're treading water - getting nowhere. Overcome with apathy and listlessness, your creativity becomes idle and your mind becomes blunt. So how do we find the motivation to do what we want to do? How do triumph over our lethargy? There's several steps we can take to help us on our journey to find motivation - but before we do that let's discuss motivation a little further.

Motivation is a mental state of being driven towards a specific goal. It comes in many shapes and forms - it is the energy that drives us in everything we do. We're however going to turn our focus towards finding the motivation to create. Create what? That's up to you - the reader. There's two types of motivation; intrinsic and external. Explained briefly intrinsic motivation is your inner motivation - it is the motivation to do something for the sake of it and simply because you want to, not because of the external value it adds. It is to achieve a goal because you find it interesting or entertaining and it appeals entirely to you personally. External motivation is the external reward of achieving a goal, e.g making money, recognition from peers and so on. A lot of people are driven by external motivation only but it ultimately is not enough to achieve what you want and in the long run it may even be detrimental to your health. We will focus on the intrinsic part of motivation in this post. Let's be distracted no further and delve deeper into finding motivation.

Reducing Distractions

We are in our everyday lives bombarded with impressions, all of the world's entertainment is readily available at our fingertips. It is of course not only the internet and easily accessible distractions that may discourage our motivation - most of us live busy lives. We have to work 8 hours a day, and then we have to do chores at home, we have to find the time to socialise, and to relax and so much more. So how do we fit in creativity and find the motivation to engage with it in our tight schedules? It may be tempting to cancel our plans and sit on our phones for ours instead, or order takeout and not cook, so how do we find the motivation to do what we want and create what we desire? 

One thing we can do is reduce the distractions around us. Uninstalling apps, and using our phones and computers more mindfully, is a great way to lessen distractions. In fact these devices are some of the easiest distractions in our lives. There's plenty of tips and tricks out there on how to reduce our screen times and instead use our time productively. If you are to engage with a project try focusing entirely on it, or only engage with non-distracting media. When I write I like to listen to instrumental music as I find myself being too distracted by lyrics and words, however if I'm painting I can listen to podcasts and other audio with lyrics as they are not as distracting to me in that type of creation. Figure out what distracts you and when it distracts you and eliminate it from your life. Simply starting to do something will quickly get the ball rolling. If you have a project you want to do, take away your phone and sit down just for 5 minutes and focus on it. You will quickly find yourself in that creative flow and you'll be able to work effortlessly on it, you will be driven by your intrinsic motivation almost as soon as you start, and if you don't take a little break and then sit down for 10 minutes. Forcing yourself even for just a little bit to do the work will increase your motivation substantially. Remember to remind yourself of why you want to do it and keep your eyes on the goal.

Keep your eyes on the goal

Remind yourself of why you want to create, it may be for a plethora of reasons, and try to reconnect with the joy and satisfaction it gives you. Intrinsic motivation is the strongest motivation there is once it's developed. If you're renovating your house remind yourself of how satisfied and happy you will feel and imagine how nice your new home will be. Whatever your goal is remind yourself why you want to achieve it and the rewards that come with it. Intrinsic motivation is largely driven by the internal rewards granted by achieving something. Make an effort to imagine what that reward is and you will find your motivation burning even stronger. Especially in moments when you find yourself feeling apathetic and lacking in motivation; remind yourself of why you're doing what you're doing. In the words of the philosopher Nietzsche:

“He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.”

A lot of people will use external reminders of this, and while motivational texts on the wall might seem cliché and tacky they fill a function. There's a lot of other ways to do external reminders, write down a list of your goals and along with them the rewards you want for achieving it. Remember no reward, no matter how small is insignificant. Maybe you just want to have a clean house, or maybe it's a change of career you want, whatever it is remind yourself of what it is and why you want it. Constantly go back and keep your eyes on the goal and you will find not only your motivation increasing but also your inspiration.

Seek and act upon inspiration

Inspiration is a tricky thing; at times it seems to have a life of its own and it comes and goes however it likes. Therefore it is of importance to act immediately upon inspiration when it arrives. Inspiration is a powerful driving force when it comes to motivation and finding it and acting upon it is a great way to increase your motivation. Find out what inspires you - if you're going to cook a meal find a recipe and get ingredients which inspire you, if you're painting paint something which inspires you, if you're decorating you can look at other people's decoration for inspiration. There's no one thing solution for inspiration as we are all inspired by different things, find out what inspires you and use it to fuel your motivation. Inspiration can be found anywhere, it can be in the mundane and in our everyday. Paint a still-life painting of the fruit on your counter, write a poem to your home and so on. There is no limit to what can inspire you if you let it.

Once inspired act immediately, and if you can't do the thing you want to do but you're inspired - write it down, sketch it or do something which will remind you of it later when you can finally act upon it. Make it a habit to jot down any idea that comes to you, if you don't it will get lost. Our phones are fantastic for note taking, but if you prefer less distractions always having a small notepad at hand is also useful. Once you have a habit of acting upon your inspiration when it comes and writing down fragments that come to you, so that you may recall them later - you're well on your way on developing your motivation.

Discipline and consistency

It is a well known fact that humans are creatures of habit, and there's a sea of books and texts out there in the world about the power of habits. A good habit of cultivating motivation will not only propel you towards your goals at an accelerated speed but it is also a pillar stone of a healthy and happy life. Habits are the most powerful way for us to strengthen our inner motivation and to achieve what we want in this life. Developing good habits is done with discipline and consistency. Discipline is your ability to do something despite lacking motivation and energy to do, and consistency is doing something so frequently it becomes habitual. This may look different to different people, mostly depending on their schedules. Whatever motivation you want to develop, discipline and consistency will ensure you have the mental willpower to do it.

Let's say you want to be more motivated when it comes to an active lifestyle, developing the discipline and consistency for that could be taking a walk everyday or going to the gym a certain amount of times throughout the week. It is your discipline that will make you go even on days when you initially don't. Discipline is so important to get you started on things, and as previously stated as soon as you start something you will soon find it easier and easier. With consistently doing small steps towards your goal you will not only progress constantly but you will also come to enjoy it more and it will become easier. Take a couple minutes out of your day everyday and put it towards something you want to do. One fact to life I have found is that what you're doing you will keep doing, so make sure you're doing things that better you and help you achieve your goals. If you want to work within a certain career spend a certain amount of time everyday working towards that, and you will find yourself doing. With this discipline and consistency forming new habits you will also find yourself spending more energy and you will need to rest, to optimise your physical and mental health.

Rest and Recovery

Rest and recovery is a thing that is often overlooked; in our productivity driven society we often deem it to be a waste of time. Time spent sleeping are hours that could have been used for something more productive. But in order to stay on top and really be able to give it your all you need to have the mental and physical energy to do it. An essential part to staying motivated is being energised as sleepiness and sleep deprivation are gateways to lethargy and listlessness. Make sure you get adequate amounts of sleep and make sure when you can't work or you lack motivation that you take the time to fully rest. Depression and lethargy are often signs of stress and our bodies' way of telling us we need to relax. Learn how to actually rest and not try to get an easy cop out by pretending that you're relaxing when you're actually procrastinating.

So what does real rest look like? It is taking it easy and putting your mind at ease, contrary to popular belief binge-watching Netflix and eating ice cream may not be a proper way to rest. If you want to lay down and mindlessly scroll on your phone take a nap instead. Put an alarm for 45 minutes on your phone and lay down, free from distractions. Let your mind and body rest. When you consume media it occupies your mental facilities and your brain doesn't get to recover, it might feel easy because you don't have to actively think, but subconsciously your mind is still working. Take the time to sit down and just observe the things around you, go for a walk or do something which lets your body and mind take the tempo down a few notches. Practice being present and do not let your imagination run too wild.

Conclusions

In conclusion: we can find the motivation to create by reducing the distractions around us and focusing at the task at hand by reminding ourselves of the goal and the rewards that come with it. We actively seek inspiration and we act upon it when it comes to us. By developing our discipline and consistency we cultivate motivation that helps us achieve our goals and complete our tasks. We remind ourselves not only of the ideas that come to us but also why we want to do what we are doing. By ensuring that our body and mind are properly rested we have the energy to stay motivated. We make an effort to rest fully and avoid distractions. Through focus and intent our motivation grows, and with our motivation we move steadily towards achieving our goals and dreams.