Break it Down

Optimism and motivation are things that everyone has the ability to harness. With them in your toolbox you can accomplish many great things. But what happens when you are having a tough time finding your optimism and motivation?

There are times in our lives when even the most positive and driven person struggles with depression and can find themselves in a funk that drags them down. This is often caused by some external influence. But here’s the thing, those external influences don’t care about you and you can’t control them… so why let them control you?

I know, I know… it’s often easier said than done when someone says, “don’t worry about things that you can’t control”. But this is the key to unlocking the optimism and motivation that you’ve been needing to get out of your funk.

A tactic that I have found helpful in the past is to break things down to smaller, more manageable tasks. For example, are you obsessed with checking your ex’s social media? Do you find yourself checking it constantly throughout the day? Instead of trying to stop altogether, which can be overwhelming and often not sustainable, try focusing on much smaller chunks of time. So instead of trying to not check their social media for the entire day, try not to check it for the next 30 minutes. When that 30 minutes is up, focus on the next 30 minutes. If even that is too hard, aim for 15 minutes. After a few wins it gets easier. The next thing you know it’s been 5 days (broken down into 240 30 minute blocks).

You can use this tactic for anything you’re having a hard time accomplishing. Let’s say, you’re writing a book… it can be overwhelming (trust me, I know) but instead of sitting down to write an entire book commit to writing one page. At this pace you could write a 300+ page book in one year… one page at a time.

When you start making progress towards your goal and when you start experiencing some wins, it will get easier and easier… before you know it , you’ve recaptured your motivation and your optimism will reappear. Then you’re on your way to climbing out of that funk and getting your life back!

You got this!