Don't feel motivated? Here's how to fix it

Oftentimes, one feels no motivation to work on important things.

• “I don’t have the motivation.”
• “I feel like I lose the drive to do it.”
• “I sometimes just don’t feel like it.”

If you find yourself saying similar statements, this blog is for you.

This tends to be a serious detriment for anyone who wants to achieve long-term goals or hit a work milestone.

What’s worse is that “motivation” seems like such an out-of-reach, immaterial concept that you feel you’re not in control.

I want to prove to you that it is not so and share actionable advice on how to “feel like it” again.

I have a version of this conversation with someone almost once a month.

So, I decided to write about it to synthesize and share tips that have worked for me.

Let’s dive in 👇

Motivation vs. Discipline: A case for just doing it

First, I think a lot of this comes down to just hunkering and doing it.

“Just do it” is good advice.

You must be disciplined about getting your most impactful work done to achieve anything.

And, more often than not, it sucks to do it.

• Working on a long strategy document is boring.
• Going to the gym is hard.
• Training MMA is brutal (for starters, you willingly get punched in the face).
• Learning different yoga stretches is uniquely tiring.
• Reading an old 500-page book is challenging.

But all these are things that move you forward in life. So sometimes, you have to do it. There is a particular virtue to hard work.

I wanted to write this in the early part of this blog because if there’s nothing else you take from me, take this. More often than not, it comes down to just doing it.

But I’m not David Goggins. So I’ll go beyond the decree of “just get yo ass out there.”

I’ll give you techniques to train your mind to make just doing it easier.

The Science of Motivation

If my recollection of pop-psychology videos is correct, motivation is primarily driven by a part of your brain called the Nucleus Accumbens. It’s the same part that governs addiction.

Motivation is a simple formula.

1. You do some work.
2. It gets you some reward.
3. You do more of that work.
4. You get more reward.

Until an association is built where you link the actual work with the reward and are “motivated” to do it.

Understand this in the same way you get rewarded when you eat chocolate (it tastes good).

When you do this enough times, just the thought of chocolate makes your mouth water. You’ve built the association and are hence motivated to have chocolate.

This is easy for tasks with immediate reward - like eating chocolate. No one has to “feel motivated” to eat chocolate; you just eat it.

But most things you struggle with have long reward cycles (weeks to years!). So, how do you use science to motivate yourself?

Aim for healthy stress

If you read my blog, you probably already know about the flow state, so I won’t go too deep into it. To stay consistently motivated during work, try to pick tasks that are within your “state of flow.”

Flow state is achieved by doing tasks slightly above your skill level, making them challenging enough to be exciting but not too difficult where you feel like you’re hitting a wall.

This isn’t always possible. If you consistently get tasks beyond your reasonable zone of competence, you should speak with your boss about re-evaluating your role and responsibilities.

There is an energy-stress tradeoff. The more stressed you are about something, the less energy (or motivation) you will have to finish it (think, a large project)

Interestingly, the LESS stressed you are about something, the LESS energy you’d have to do it (think, filing paperwork)

You need the optimal amount of stress to be effective and motivated. Aim to manufacture that at work as much as possible.

MRV: Minimum Required Volume

Many times, the rewards that are not immediate don’t come without a minimum level of volume either.

• You can’t go to the gym 1x/week and expect to be strong in a month.
• You can’t post one video and expect a lot of subscribers.
• You can’t write five blogs and expect to rank on page one of Google.

I want to coin a term called MRV: Minimum Required Volume.

What’s the MRV needed even to start measuring your rewards?

When you start a new project, write down the MRV before looking at rewards.

Then 2x that MRV, and don’t measure yourself before that (2x-ing is essential).

Tap into your discipline muscle and hit the MRV before you start measuring success and rewards.

I hope this makes sense.

We’ve been a bit theoretical so far. I wanted to cover the fundamentals before we dive into tactics.

Below, I will share the exact tactics you can use to hack your motivation. I’ve personally used all of them, so I can vouch for them.

1 — Figure out your larger purpose (Dharma)

Hinduism has a concept of Dharma, which doesn’t have a direct translation in English, but it roughly means “duty” or “right way to live.”

You need to find your grander Dharma in life. You can do this by asking a series of “Why” questions. Why do you do what you do? Keep digging deeper into the WHYs behind every answer; you might find it below a few levels of abstraction.

For me, my Dharma levels of abstraction look as follows:

1. I want to make SARAL successful (surface level). Why?
2. So I can take care of the people around me (family, team, society). Why?
3. So I can be a world-class operator (identity). Why?
4. So I can build bigger businesses (and as much wealth as possible). Why?
5. So I can have an impact on the broader world (capital is powerful). Why?
6. So my surname is remembered across generations (legacy)

Depending on the day, I tap into any of these desires to find motivation.

You should do this for yourself and tap into your sense of purpose when you’re not motivated.

A Dharma for work helps you grind through the hard days. It reminds you why you do what you do and keeps you going.

Don’t skip this.

2 — Do an Energy Audit

Keep a notepad on your desk for a week. Write down what you do every 15 minutes.

And for the love of God, don’t lie to yourself. If you scrolled Twitter for 10 minutes, write it down.

After a week, you will understand how you spend your time across the week.

Next to every activity, note if that activity gives you energy or takes energy.

This is a solid way to determine what work gets you going. For work that takes energy:

• Stop doing it
• Delegate it
• Do it in a way that gives you energy (or at least sucks less)

Your goal should be to eliminate as many energy-taking tasks from your day as possible. Obviously, you won’t eliminate all the things that take energy. But this exercise will help you audit your energy spectrum throughout the week and do something about tasks you don’t enjoy.

3 — Avoid dopaminergic activities (especially in the morning)

Our brains are simple machines. They only need a “+1” dopamine hit and will find the path of least resistance to achieve that.

• If you have to choose between eating a bowl of ice cream vs. eating a bowl of salad, your brain would want to go for the ice cream. It’s the maximum reward for the least effort.
• If you have to choose between watching reels vs. watching a keynote, your brain would want to watch reels.

It’s natural.

But that doesn’t mean you have to give in. If you abuse your brain’s dopamine center by getting too much dopamine early in the morning - you will not have the motivation to do any long-term work.

If you find yourself scrolling social media in bed when you wake up or eating junky snacks purely for taste, it will be near impossible to feel motivated at work.

Work is boring. So you don’t want to abuse your dopamine centers with modern dopamine-hacking gimmicks that were engineered to keep you hooked.

Avoid dopaminergic activities as much as possible to feel motivated at work.

Reward yourself with 15 minutes of dopamine after your main work for the day is done, not before.

In a world that lives on a Hedonic treadmill, go for a Eudaimonic walk.

4 — Change the rewards

If you’re still working on your discipline or for days that are harder than usual, change the rewards.

You can look at other things as progress markers and program your brain to feel happy about achieving smaller wins.

For instance, if you want to build muscle, don’t wait until you have visible abs or biceps.

Going to the gym every day should be your reward. Measure yourself on just showing up—measure and reward inputs before outputs.

Break larger projects at work down into smaller tasks. Checking those tasks off should be your reward. Tell your brain it’s good, and it will pull you through until you do the MRV (Minimum Required Volume), which gets you a better chance at the final reward.

5 — Embrace Routine & Planning

Creating a routine around your day and week is simple but powerful. I plan my entire week on Saturdays.

I know exactly what I will work on when, which meetings I have, who I am meeting, etc.

I usually avoid disruptions mid-week unless critical.

I have designated time slots where I go to the gym or work on the most important stuff for the week. These are blocked on my calendar as they are non-negotiables.

Routine seems boring, but it is effective.

Once you do it, you will realize that motivation doesn’t even become a question. You just get into a routine… you know what you will do when, and how you will measure yourself.

Embracing routine also helps create time for healthy habits like working out or reading. This, in turn, helps rewire your reward circuits and prepare you for long-term reward cycles.

6 — Incorporate Fasting (more than food)

This might seem misplaced, but hear me out.

Incorporate a 24-hour no-food fast into your routine. I typically fast once a week.

On your fasting days, drink nothing but water. If you’ve never done this before, start with an 18-hour fast; it’s easier than you think.

The mental clarity that it will bring would unlock a level of creativity and productivity you’ve never seen before.

Along similar lines, I also recommend doing a Long Dopamine Fast. Get off social media for a week. Incorporate reading as a habit. Stop eating junk food and only focus on healthy meals.

Once you cut out some of this dopaminergic junk, you will realize how unnecessary (and toxic) it truly is, and you will never want to go back.

I don’t keep Instagram on my phone, eat (pretty much) the same meals daily, and don’t engage in other activities that give quick rewards. Being aware of your brain’s pleasure-seeking behavior will lead you to make more conscious decisions.

I’ve wired every aspect of my life towards feeling “motivated” using all these methods.

Conclusion

This blog may be too deep into systemic changes you must make to feel motivated again. But it’s genuinely just what it takes. There isn’t one secret hack or recipe.

Feeling motivated is not about having the most fun thing to work on or being super pumped all the time. It’s about making profound changes in your mindset and routine, so you understand what drives motivation and live a life that supports making healthy decisions (which leads to feeling more motivated).

I hope this was useful. Please share it with someone who might benefit from any one of these tips!