Podcast E064: What If You Wake Up Not Motivated?

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Episode Notes

In today’s episode, host Julie Hood shares some ideas if you wake up and you’re not motivated to work on your business today. 

First, please, please get medical assistance if you are feeling depressed. Depression is a medical condition and the best thing you can do is get help from your doctor (here’s a link to symptoms). 

This episode isn’t meant as medical advice… these are just a few of the ideas I’ve gathered through the years when I’m having a bad day and want to shift out of it. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

“We don’t want to think happy thoughts all the time because we live in a world that has a 50-50 experience provided for us.” ~ Brooke Castillo

1. Eat something healthy.
2. Write and write and write (in a black notebook!)
3. Stop trying to figure out why you feel this way today. 
4. Clear the decks… what is the bare minimum you need to do?
5. Do something for yourself (self-care). 
6. Listen to what you’re thinking about.
7. Get exercise (especially a short walk outside).
8. Go to bed early. 
9. Make future plans. 
10. Check with doctor on vitamins, minerals, etc.
11. Call a friend.
12. Have a good cry. 
13. Do something for someone else. 
14. Get near water. 
15. Change your routine. 
16. Watch funny videos or TV shows. 
17. Remember who you are helping… get back to your mission. 

I hope one of these ideas helps you feel better!

 

LINKS MENTIONED

The Life Coach School Podcast with Brooke Castillo

COME VISIT!

 

 

Automated Transcript

Hey, there today’s episode is a little bit different. Most of the time, the gurus and the experts talk about being in the flow and when everything is coming together for you. But today I want to talk about what if it’s not, what if you wake up one morning and you’re in a hole, what can you do about it? Let’s get to it.

Welcome to the course creators, HQ podcast, helping you navigate the latest techniques for creating and marketing online courses. And now here’s your host Julie Hood. Well, hello and welcome to episode 64. I thought it was time that we actually talked about something that I think that happens a lot, especially for experts who are trying to help other people, and that’s when you’ll wake up one morning and you realize, you know, I’m just not really feeling it today. I’m not excited.

I’m not motivated and I need to figure out what to do about it. So first off though, I want to distinguish this is very different from if you’re feeling depressed. And if you are, please, please, please get ahold of some help. Talk to some doctors. That’s not what I’m talking about today. This is more of a temporary situation. Depression can, can become a really negative spiral hole. So be sure to get some help and, and to get yourself out of that sort of situation.

Introduction Quote

Today, though, I want to talk about something that I think happens a lot, but we don’t give it nearly the attention that it deserves. And let me start with sharing a quote from one of the coaches that I listened to a lot, her podcast, it’s The Life Coach School Podcast. And Brooke Castillo said once on there, she said, your life is going to be 50% happy and 50% unhappy. So rather than striving all of the time to try to be 100% happy all of the time, once you just recognize that it gets so much easier.

And I realized when she said that I was like, you know what she is right when I just can recognize the fact that life is a lot like riding a rollercoaster and you’re going to have those highs and there’s going to be the lows. And it would be a really boring roller coaster. Is there, if everything was nice and flat all the time.

So that’s sort of the baseline for this episode, but I wanted to give you a big list of things to where if you’re having a rough day, if you’re just not feeling excited about what you’re working on right now, here’s some things that you can try. And obviously, I don’t expect you to do all of these. I just tried to get the biggest list I could come up with so that maybe one or two of them will resonate and help get you back on track and back where you want to be.

Tips

So the first one is to eat a little better, go get something healthy and see if your body feels better because you’ve put really good food into it. The second one is to sit down and just write and write and write almost journaling, but just trying to dump out whatever is in your mind and in your thoughts and in your head, and actually got a black notebook for this one time when I was in a really negative space.

And I was like, I am just going to write all the junk out in big black letters. If I need to. The third thing I would recommend is to stop trying to figure out why you’re feeling this way, because it can just be an exhausting sort of exercise. And it kind of doesn’t hope, you know, okay. So we’re on the downside of the rollercoaster today.

So what are we going to do about it and figuring out why we’re on the downhill, doesn’t really get you going uphill any faster. The next one is to think about clearing the decks and really what is the bare minimum that you need to do. For example, I want to make sure I always get a podcast episode out for you guys every week.

So that’s on my bare minimum. I try to get some kind of email out at least once a week. Sometimes they’re better than others. So clear the decks, do the bare minimum to keep things going. The next one is to do something for yourself, a sort of a self care kind of take care of you, sort of thing, whatever that is.

You know, a lot of times, for me, I’ve love to go get my hair done or just, just whatever, something that makes yourself feel better and can be something you’re doing for yourself. The next one is to listen to what you’re thinking about. And this one is a little bit more challenging, but if you can pause and just try to catch your thoughts.

I bet a lot of them are super negative and, and you’re kind of on this path for finding all the things that are wrong, and it’s just your brain getting in your way. So if you can catch those thoughts and try to shift them or distract them or change them up, that’ll help you get more on an upward spiral.

The next one is to go get some exercise, even if it’s just a five minute walk outside, there’s something about getting your body moving. And especially if you can be outside, I think that can really help you feel a little bit more, a little bit better and a little bit more motivated. And this was one from my mom that she would just tell me, you know what, Julie, just go to bed, go to bed early. Things will look brighter and better in the morning after you’ve had some sleep. So just go to bed.

The next one was also a Brooke Castillo suggestion from one of her episodes. And she said to make future plans. So be planning things out that are interesting or fun or things that you want to do tomorrow next week, start scheduling some things that will help make you feel better.

Also check in with your doctor and see if you’re missing any vitamins or minerals. Or if there, if you need to be taking a multivitamin or something like that, check with your doctor on that one, because that can really affect your mood and how you’re feeling. The next one is to call a friend and decide, you know, are we, are we going to have a, a session to just dump everything and vent with each other? Or are we going to try to focus on some solutions? You know, just talking to someone else can be super, super helpful to make you feel better. The next one is this one was a lot when I was a teenager, you know what? Just have a good cry.

Sometimes getting some of those chemicals out of your system can just really, really help you and make you feel better going forward. Then think about what is something that you could do for someone else. And I’m not sure why this one works, but as soon as you step into the power of helping someone else, it can boost your mood and help you feel better.

Also, I really like to get in your some kind of water. So whether that’s the ocean for all of you, lucky folks who live near the ocean, or we have a lot of rivers and lakes, or sometimes even just getting near a fountain where the water is running can be super, super helpful. And I’m not exactly sure why, but I noticed that it boosts my mood and can make me feel better if I’m having a hard day and then change up your routine.

So whatever it is that you’re doing every single day, especially if things are starting to feel monotonous, what can you change up? Can you take a different route? Can you get up earlier, stay up later? What can you swap out for something new so that the difference causes your brain to jump in and go, oh, this is different. This is kind of fun. This is, I like this.

The next one is to look for those funny videos or hilarious TV shows that just make you laugh. So whether it’s the dog and cat videos of crazy animals or Seinfeld or friends or whatever TV show I know for my son, he loves impractical jokers. If you haven’t seen that one, I got to say, it’s pretty funny.

So whatever funny things that you could find something about laughter boosts your mood overall. And then the last one I will end you with is to remember who it is that you’re helping. So remember your audience and how you are working to move them forward and get them to a new place in their life. That that’s part of what your course and what your whole goal is.

So something about getting back to your original mission and your goal can be super helpful to shift your current mental state and where you’re at at the moment. So I hope this gives you a few ideas of some things that you can do to feel better. And I think we would do really well for each other to just acknowledge, you know, what there’s going to be the 50% of the unhappy days.

And it’s okay that there are things that are going to occur and things that don’t even there may not even be a reason that you’re, you’re on the downhill swing of the roller coaster today, but hopefully at least one of these ideas will give you some inspiration for what you can do next. And then also please be sure to get some medical assistance if you’re feeling really,

really down and it doesn’t seem to be shifting so want to make sure that you can take care of yourself and get the, any kind of help or medical assistance that you could use to feel better. So through the years I’ve done a lot of these up and down cycles. And one of the great things about getting older is you have so much more experience to work from and to build off of.

And so I think one of the things that has been most helpful for me is to remember that it’s a 50/50 situation and that the concept of trying to strive for a hundred percent happy all of the time, isn’t realistic and isn’t helpful and probably isn’t even possible.

Wrap Up

So once I recognize that this got a whole lot easier to say, yep, okay, this is the same place where I’ve been before and where’s my list of all the things that I can try to feel better. So please use this list.

I hope it’s helpful for you. And let me know if there’s anything on here that you find helpful. I’d love to hear it. So I hope you have a fantastic week and that you are doing well with your online course business and we will catch you on the next episode next week.

Take care, everybody.