I’m going to break some news to you.
The reason you feel tired is because you haven’t done anything.
Okay, hear me out.
You haven’t done anything that is in line with a vision of an idealistic future you want for yourself. An activity that moves you one step closer to that dream that sets your soul on fire — the goal you would unabashedly pursue if you were guaranteed to succeed at anything in life!
I’d be willing to bet that even though it feels a helluva lot like fatigue in your body, what you’re experiencing is actually just a lack of motivation.
One of my favorite motivational speakers, Brendan Burchard, has this saying: “If the mind doesn’t touch the rim of the future every day, motivation will wane.”
What’s happened is you’ve lost touch with a future in which you have the thing you most want.
Okay, but who can blame you? I mean, take a look at the world right now. With all that’s going on, it’s enough to make anybody want to just lie in bed all day, glutting yourself with Netflix shows until the wee hours of the morning when, finally, the chirping of birds reluctantly induces you to sleep. And here’s the thing — it’s an excuse that is totally valid. I know I’ve had my fair share of lazy days over the past eight months when I felt too weighed down by the craziness of current events to do much of anything.
But I believe we have an innate, internal compass of sorts that knows when we’re achieving less than we’re capable of. Isn’t that why we subconsciously feel so discontented with ourselves when we waste time? When we don’t do something we had said we’d do?
Something deep inside of us knows when we let ourselves down. We lose self-integrity. And the real sinister thing about it is, the longer we stay in that vacuum of inactivity, the easier it gets to stay there. It seems like the more we remain idle, the more activation energy it takes to get up and actually commit to a task.
So we feel more and more unmotivated, languid, and yes, tired without having done a single thing. Now on top of the weight of all that may already be wrong with our external circumstances, we’re also carrying the burden of our own self-reproach.
The solution? Simple: Push yourself to do the hard shit.
Notice I said it was simple, not easy. No doubt, it’s going to be unpleasant. It’s going to go against the comfort that the lizard brain craves. It requires discipline.
But it’s easy to be disciplined when you’re afflicted with a burning love of something and when you believe that your efforts are going to be rewarded.
So work on reconnecting with the image of a bright future. Fan the flames of your innermost desires. And most importantly, TAKE ACTION!
A good hack to trick your brain into being productive is to say to yourself that you’re going to spend just five minutes working on a task that is of value to you. Oftentimes, those five minutes build enough momentum to carry you through for much longer, if not all the way to its completion. The important thing is to work on something you’re passionate about because if you enter a flow state, what happens is the activity actually generates energy instead of taking it from you.
Our lives are ultimately determined by the habits we develop, the things we do day in and day out. Destiny is nothing more than the result of our disciplined actions.
So when you feel sluggish, unmotivated, or just lazy, remember: Don’t sacrifice what you want most for what you want right now.