How to Find and Keep Motivation

How many times have you typed into Google, “How to find motivation?” How many times have you found yourself saying things like, “I’m not motivated to do that today,” or “How do I find the motivation to finally start doing that thing that I’m passionate about?”

You’ve heard people say that you need to find your why, that your why is what is going to keep you going when times get tough.

And I’m here to say that that’s absolutely true. But for most of my life, I couldn’t find my why. I was too busy trying to find it outside of me. I wasn’t accepting the fact that my why, at that moment, was very selfish.

I kept reading books that told me to find a why bigger than myself. They kept saying it needs to find a cure for cancer, it needs to bring clean water to the world, it needs to build schools in Africa. My why never measured up. I kept myself small, I felt discouraged and I kept searching.

All the while I always knew that my why was freedom. It’s selfish and that’s 100000% okay.

I never wanted to answer to anyone. I remember telling everyone I knew that I want to be able to wake up one day and fly out to Paris for lunch and come back home. That was my way of expressing that I wanted freedom. But that was so selfish. That couldn’t be my why. That didn’t solve any huge world problem.

If you’re sitting there and telling yourself that you don’t know what your why is, I call bullshit. Why? Because I was there, I was that person that kept saying “I have no why.” The fact that I wanted freedom for myself was too selfish, none of the books told me that it’s ok to be selfish. I was supposed to think about service and about making the world a better place. And that kept me stuck for years.  

You do know your why, you just don’t want to accept it.

When you have a basic need that isn’t fulfilled, you can never fully give to the world. You know this. You cannot pour from an empty cup. So, this is your permission to be as selfish as you want with your why. Don’t worry about what your husband will think, about how selfish your kids will think you are, or about how insignificant it is. It’s YOUR why, it needs to keep you going. Don’t ever feel like you need to explain it to anyone or say it out loud. Write it down, keep it all to yourself but for God’s sake embrace it! And remember, your why can and will change throughout the years. That’s okay and totally normal.

Motivation comes and goes but the reason why you had the spark to start will never fade if you totally embrace it.