How to Motivate Yourself When You're Not Motivated

Visualizing failure and the feeling of not achieving the goal can be an effective strategy to motivate yourself when you are not feeling motivated. Spending one to three minutes meditating and concentrating on the feeling of failure can help in pursuing adaptive goals that are beneficial to mental and physical health.

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In this episode, I describe science-based protocols to set and achieve your goals in a way that maximizes the likelihood of reaching them. I explain how to define a priority and reach a specific goal by systematically assessing the challenge level, measurability, milestones, and action states needed to make progress from start to finish. I also explain research-supported tools to improve your performance during cognitive or physical goal work — including directed visualization, variable reward timing, and optimizing your physical environment. I also dispel common myths about goal setting and achievement. This episode provides a science-supported toolkit of zero-cost strategies for goal-setting, goal-pursuit, and goal-completion that can be applied to any physical or cognitive endeavor.

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